Please HELLLLLLPPPPPPPPP!!!!!

[Ellibop]

Am really hoping someone can offer some words of advice as we're getting desperate here!

DS (5.5mo) used to wake about 3 times a night but if I popped his dummy in quickly he'd settle straight back to sleep and all was well. However about 2 weeks ago he started making really loud noises during the night - not crying but a weird honking noise. I've started ignoring it as often he stops (eventually - can go on for 30 mins or more though!)) although someimes it turns into a cry in which case I soothe him.

He also seemed to be wriggling round loads and pushing himself to top of carrycot so this week we moved him into a cot. Have now got daytime naps back to normal after a couple of days of him rolling around and not realising he was there to sleep, but nightime is getting worse. E.g. last night he went to bed a bit earlier than normal at 6.30pm as he was tired, had a couple of early honkings which I ignored, but then things kicked off at 2.00am and lasted until 4.30am when I fed him and he eventually went back to sleep at 5am, only to be awake and crying an hour later!

His noise is sooooo loud and sometimes we do put a dummy in to try and settle him down, but often only works for a few mins. I'm not even sure if he's awake to start with, but think he wakes himself up being so loud. We can't move into a different room because we're decorating our bedroom and it won't be ready for a few weeks, and I would also prefer to wait until he's 6 months.

Could someone please advise from their experience:

1. Am I making it worse by sometimes going to him - do you think he would eventually stop over a few nights if I ignored him and left him to it?
2. Could it be anything to do with him being hungrier? At 4.30am he had a full 9.5ozs bottle. For weeks he has been having last bottle around 6.30pm and doesn't need feeding again until 7.30am but obviously their needs change all the time. But then again, he was awake and crying again an hour after feeding so don't honestly feel that his waking is due to hunger.

Any words of wisdom will be gratefully received as it's taking it's toll and I think I'd at least feel better if I felt I was doing something to try and improve things.

PS We have co-slept in the past when he was tiny (as he wouldn't sleep anywhere but on us) but now if I get him out of his bed in the night he wakes up even more and thinks it's morning/playtime so that deffo doesn't work for us.

TIA

Could you try introducing a dream feed around 10.30/11pm and see if that helps?

sorry to say but he is just snoring, bless his little cotton socks, my lily did the same for a period, i used to dream feed for about 10 mins (breast)and as she had to reposition herself to feed the snoring stopped and then completely cut out about 3 weeks later, the wriggling is probably just him realising he can move a bit more now and wants to find the best position to rest in

Thanks Pudding - I have considered a dream feed as he does seem to stir most nights about 11.30pm-ish so might give it a try, anything's worth a go!

Don't think he is snoring Lilysmummy as it's the same noise he makes in the day when he's a bit fed up of something but it isn't bad enough to make him cry (sort of like a pre-cry warning noise). I just don't know why he's suddenly started to do it in the middle of the night several times??! But here's hoping he suddenly stops doing it too...

Should I try to ignore him or am I best to get in quick before he wakes up properly..??

lol was just joking about the snoring silly, dont know what it was but my mum said i my brother did the same and she used to him as soon as he started and dream feed till he went back to sleep, ignoring him will just make it harder to get back to sleep, i hope he stops as lily did, poor thing you must be knackered!

My DS started waking a lot around the same age as your DS... But we don't know if it was just that or jet lag but it went on for several weeks (we were doing DFs then). He also started moving around loads in his cot and when he finally figured out how to flip to his tummy AND stay there, his sleep got much better. Suddenly he wasn't interested in his DFs, we dropped it and he started sleeping through from 7pm-6am! But it was definitely after a few weeks of us tearing our hair out wondering what's gone wrong and how to fix it. If you are sure he is not hungry/dirty, then just grin and bear with it. We never used to leave him to cry, we would pat and shush him (avoided picking him up though as we didn't want him to get used to us picking him up all the time). If it got really bad, DH will go and sleep on the sofa, while I co-slept. Hopefully it will be the storm before the calm for you like it was for us!

P.S. If I were you, I will try and ditch the dummy now. We were in a dilemma about the dummy (he was getting increasingly reliant on it and sleeping worse... DS would suck on it and not sleep for ages!). But we ditched it, took all of 2 days of whinging and now he sleeps when we put him in his cot. He might turn and twist and moan a bit but self-settles now.

My DS is LOUD too so I know what you mean and that was the reason why we introduced a dummy too (had to fly on a plane and needed an effective way to 'shush' him!) but decided it was just not worth the hassle in the end. I learned to shut out the noise he makes pretty well after a while!

At about 5 months our DD also went from a really good sleeper to waking loads and loads each night - drove us crazy! part of it, i'm sure, was solved when she could roll onto her tummy (as angel says). she seemed to sleep so much better straight away. but we also found a df worked well (but apparently you have to keep it going for a good few days to see any change - i didn't realise that). also, if you're really having probs have you tried babysleepanswers website - they're really good with advising you on what to do with non-sleeping babies! they sorted my bub out within a week. and they've got lots of different approaches depending on what your baby responds best to. Good luck and sweet dreams (hopefully!)

Thanks everyone. We had a really good night on Sunday, he woke at 10.30pm and took a while to settle but then not a peep til 6.00am!! Was amazed. However last night he woke up just about every hour as he kept rolling onto his front, then getting stuck and crying. I kept turning him back over, then an hour later it'd happen again! I'm hoping once he learns to turn himself back or to stay put we'll all get nore sleep...

Just to say that our DD makes a really weird noise before she is about to fall to sleep (if she is fighting sleep), its like a very loud humming - I always thought it was her way of shutting out the world? If you make the noise yourself its quite a nice noise inside your head!