FTM hoping for some baby sleep wisdom!
3 month old boy has up until this week, been pretty easy to settle to sleep. I’ve followed awake windows in terms of naps, so usually a 1-1.15 hour window between wake up at 7am to first nap, then approx 1.5 hours awake between subsequent naps until bed time of around 7pm. Total daytime sleep varies between 3-5 hours but he definitely needs his sleep.
I feed to sleep on me if we’re at home, otherwise he naps in a sling very well if we’re out, the pram is more hit and miss but he will sleep in it. Overnight we co-sleep - he does a stretch of about 4 hours initially then needs resettling frequently from then, although doesn’t take long to resettle (boob in mouth atm, will adjust this at a later date!) so he’s doing about 12 hours overnight but not unbroken.
However, since last Sunday he’s suddenly rejecting falling asleep at home - he goes to latch, sucks for a few seconds then arches and gets upset. Totally brand new behaviour and he gets really upset very quickly. I do eventually get him off, I’ve started bath-time before bed as part of evening routine which helped last night and he drifted off without a fuss. For naps I’ve resorted to feeding standing up, whilst rocking and singing which again, works eventually, but it’s a battle for a while.
I’ve also increased his wake windows to see if perhaps I’d been forcing sleep too early, but I’m just so mindful of not letting him get overtired and he’s not particularly obvious with the sleep cues! He’s super alert now too and that’s definitely not helping - obviously it’s fabulous, but it’s not conducive to falling asleep!
If this is a regression/developmental then I’m not too concerned and I’ll just ride it out. I’m just worried that it could be some pain he’s having? He seems to want to feed to sleep but can’t seem to stay there and relax into it. However feeding in general doesn’t seem to be an issue and he’s generally a very settled baby in every other way.
He does have a bit of silent reflux I think but it’s never caused him enough bother to medicate etc. Could he have had some pain last weekend that he’s now associating with feeding to sleep?? Or does this just sound like typical baby sleep behaviour at this sort of age? Maybe his sleep needs have just reduced suddenly and I need to relax a bit and wait for more obvious signs of tiredness….?
Help! 😩