i am soooo fed up!!

[sumeet]

Hi,

My DS is almost 7 months old and has been consistently getting up each hour every night if not more for the last 4 months. Earlier i used to nurse him back to sleep since we are co - sleeping, but since the last month i haven't.

He doesnt seem to be hungry and yet he gets up every hour.. almost like an alarm clock!! If he sleeps at 2.30, he will be up at 3.30 and sometimes again in ten min!!! this goes on all night.

He gets up fussing, not crying and is not wide awake. I then have to pick him up and hold him for a few min , shh/ patting and then he sleeps off. I put him down and keep patting him till he is fast alseep!

During the day however, he is a better sleeper, takes 3 naps of 1.5 hrs each and one cat nap of half an hour! So i dont think he could be overtired at bed time, but it may be a possibility since he barely goes down before 10pm. I am trying to bring his bed time to 8.30 - 9 but it's not really working.

We are following a 4 hour EASY. And I am also in the middle of teaching him independent sleep.

Can anyone please tell me a way out.. I havent had ONE night's peaceful sleep in 7 months and it's making me rather irritable .. especially towards him!!

[Corinne's Mommy]

You poor thing! I can see how you would be going crazy from lack of sleep.  I'm not too much help- but from what you wrote it seems like he is getting too much sleep during that day.  5 hours is more than most babies his age get during that day.  We're down to two naps (1-1.5 hours) having just eliminated the cat nap. We put our lo to bed at 7:30.  It sounds like you should try to keep him up for longer stretches during the day (2-3 hours) and put him to bed earlier.  Not much info but HTH! 

[Kimberly®]

is he still in the bed with you? that too may be contributing to the problem. If he is fussing and not crying its ok to leave hime be. Other wise he'll never learn to settle himself.

Sounds like its habitual wakings more then anything else.

[~*~Little Miss Sunshine~*~]

Could you post your routine for us?

[gleek]

i agree with a previous poster that it sounds like your LO is getting WAY too much day sleep. at 7 months you should be at 2 1.5-hour naps and maybe a cat nap. their day should also not be longer than 13 hours. how much A time does he do? he should be able to go about 2.5 hours, i think. i would gradually increase his A time over the course of a week or so so that you're on a schedule that looks sort of like this:

7:00AM - wake and feed
9:30AM - sleep
11:00AM - wake and feed
1:30PM - sleep
3:00PM - wake and feed
5:00PM - cat nap (if he needs it, only about 20 to 30 minutes, no longer!)
7:00PM - bedtime ritual and feed
7:30PM/8:00PM - sleep

HTH!

[Layla]

Hey just want to echo what others have said. He is not going to sleep until 10pm & waking at night because he is sleeping too much during the day. Ideally he should be taking 2-1.5hr naps & maybe a catnap although some at this age start to give up their catnaps.

So I would aim for the schedule posted by pp

Let us know how you go
Layla

[sumeet]

thank u all so much .. will try and change my already askew schedule to the one suggested.. let's hope it works...

I really feel it's a habit that he has formed .. this getting up at night.. last night starting from 1.30am, he was up each hour, with clocklike accuracy!!!

The 10 pm bed time i think is the major problem with him getting really tired by then. The last cat nap that he takes is at about 7 - 8 ish .. and then awake for 2 hrs or so.. thus the late night each day...

shall get back to you after i get the new schedule in..

thanks again!!!

P.S. Yes he is still in bed with me since i am at my parents place and there is quite a lot of traveling involved for mom and son till dec.. so i have to make do with whatever i can till then!!

[sumeet]

do u think i can maybe delay the wake up time from 7 to 8 and similarly the bed time? 7 to bed is way too early for the climate here .. we only manage to take him out of the house at around 6 or well past!!!

[Layla]

I would do a catnap from 5.30-6pm & bedtime around 8pm.

What time does he wake up now?

[sumeet]

he usually is up bet 7.30 - 8.. sometimes later...maybe 8.30, that's if the previous night has been extremely bad...

there has been another development today.. he has just not been sleeping at all. The morning nap which is usually 1.30 hr, was half an hour today, so was the afternoon nap.

And he is suddenly fighting sleeping.. just when he gets sleepy, he starts cribbing big time,and then it gets to screaming. I have been following the same wind down routine which is to walk and sing the same song.. but today there was cribbing and screaming all throughout!and the moment i put him down on the bed, he screamed bloody murder!

I dont know what has led to this suddenly, could it be teething?

I am so dreading tonight!!! He will be even more tired than usual ... I wish i could send him to a training school of sorts!

[gleek]

he's 7 months right? is he teething? i would check his temperature and see if he's running a fever. my LO always sleeps really badly when she's running a low fever which she does on most days nowadays. my doctor tells me that it's because she's teething. if it's above 100 degrees (F) then i usually give her some infant's tylenol and it helps. of course, you should check with your doctor if he is running a fever, but i thought that you should check.

he could also be overtired. can you get him to calm down by taking him on a walk in a stroller? just to get him some sleep to get over the hump?

[sumeet]

he's not showing any other signs of teething.. no fever.. nothing!

i so want him to get into a proper routine and sleep well at nights, i'm willing to do anything...

someone pl tell me what to do!!!!

[gleek]

when i had to change my LOs routine, she was not a happy camper and did her best to buck all of my changes and the nap schedule. so she was overtired which just made things even more difficult. i tried to get her nap schedule in line first before working on night sleep. my advice is to get in as many naps as you can, even off schedule, until he's better rested. then start with the morning nap and move on from there. he won't be able to do anything if he's overtired. this calls for a little accidental parenting like naps in the stroller or the car. get the sleep where you can and start from a clean slate but work towards the revised schedule and shorter day.

[Layla]

If he's waking around 7.30, then you should aim for something like this:

7.30 - wakes & feed
10-11.30 - morning nap
feed
solids
2-3.30 - afternoon nap
feed
6-6.30 - catnap
bath & bedtime routine & feed
8.30 - bedtime

I would start putting him down for the night earlier. If he wakes, thinking its just a nap, continue on to soothe him with pu/pd rather than taking him out the room. Are you familiar with the pu/pd method at all?

[sumeet]

this sound like a better suited routine...

Yes, i am familiar withPU/PD method.. i am using it currently,to teach him independent sleep, however i use it with shh/pat...

Last night was much better.. he slept at 9.30, got up again at 10, cried till 10.30.. slept again at 11, i DF him at 11.30, he got up again fussing at 1.30 and then when i put him to sleep, he slept till 6!!!

I got up several times to pinch myself!!!

I really hope this works...