Hey
Long winded post but here goes
20 week old baby, born 1 week early but low birth weight, emergency c section under general anaestic.
She is still small, 13 pounds but steadily gaining weight I am also small so not concerned about her weight.
She is a very poor sleeper.
Daytime naps are a nightmare! It can take up to an hour and a half to get her to fall asleep, and when we are in the house she sleeps no longer than 15 mins.
She will sleep in the car and whilst I'm out walking with the pram. I've been out walking most days for 2/3 hours at a time, must cheaper than driving! So she gets a good nap during the day, but the more I walk in the pram the worse her napping has got at home, and days where the weather is horrendous are really difficult as she won't nap, gets overtired, very cranky, cries lots, and then feeds badly.
At nighttime I can get her to sleep pretty easily, but can't get her to stay asleep for any length of time. If lucky she will sleep for a couple of hours then wake every 45 mins.
I still feed her at least once, or twice during the night, as these are her best feeds.
For the past 2 nights I have brought her into my bed, just out of sheer exhaustion!
I have a set bedtime routine, same time every night, bath, massage, bottle, quick cuddle and bed between 7pm-7.15pm
Same wakening time on the morning as OH gets up for work at 6.30am
She is fed normally around the same time every day
6.30-7am
10.3-11am
2.30-3pm
After bath bottle around 7pm
Dream feed around 11pm
Night feed around 4.30am
I tried dropping the dream feed as she took a long time to settle afterwards, she got up about 1.30am to feed, then was fed again at 6.30am-7am
However, she continually wakes through the night, crying and can't settle herself.
Last night was as follows:
7.15pm asleep
8.10pm woke up crying
9.00pm woke up crying
Got her back to sleep at 9.20pm
Dream feed at 10.45pm
Got her back to sleep by 11.15pm
She slept until 1.30am then woke up crying, settled her quickly, but woke up crying again at 2.00am
So at 2 am I took her into my bed,
She slept on and off waking frequently, and was up at 5.30am
She has been moved into a bigger cot bed - but no difference
I always put whatever top I have been wearing on top of her as a top blanket
I have constant White noise on
I use Ewan the dream sleep
The temperature of her room is fine, she isn't too hot or too cold.
This has been going on since she was about 7 weeks old.
She was referred to the paed drs at hospital for feeding issues and weight loss at 6/7 weeks am admitted for several days. Drs suspected silent reflux, tried various medication, and dairy free milk, but didn't make a difference.
Fussy feeding seems to be linked to how overtired she is. If I feed her after she has had a good sleep she will take 7oz, if she is overtired I struggle to get 2oz
When she naps I stay beside her to make sure she is in a deep sleep, but she still wakes after 15 mins even though I haven't left.
I can only usually get her to take 2 x 15 min naps a day if I'm not driving or walking.
But she will nap for 2 hours of I'm continually walking.
I don't let her sleep after 4.30pm
I have no idea what else to try? I'm constantly exhausted, never get more than an hour and a half a sleep at a time.
Any suggestions gratefully received as I'm all out of ideas, and so is HV
Xx
