Everything has gone very wrong

[Tobysmum]

Where do I start?  We are on vacation (for 4.5 weeks), we are in the first part of our trip and our baby is sleeping in a pack n'play which I am convinced he hates but there is no alternative.  He is also sleeping in my room.  He will not nap now at all in the day - I have tried pu/pd, shh pat, white noise but he just will not go to sleep.  He just screams. 
Nighttime sleep is bad too - he's up every 2 hrs and the only way I can get him to sleep is by feeding him.  It's the only thing that will work.  I am at the end of my tether to be honest. 
I don't know what to do.
Everything had started to fall into place before we left for vacation - he had finally started to sleep longer stretches at night and we even had about 4 good nights here but now things are worse than evr.
What can I do?
I am exclusively breastfeeding, he's 5 months old.  I also have a 2.5 year old. 
I am trying to follow easy but obviously, with the naps and nighttimes being so bad, it's getting harder and harder.
We are moving to my in-laws on Saturday for 2 nights, then away in a hotel for 3 nights and then back to in-laws for 9 nights - he'll be in a travel cot there too.
We have been at my parents for 2 weeks so I would have thought he would have got used to things by now.
I am thinking should I just give up until we get back home.

[brenda2]

this sounds exactly like our vacation last february!! Lo was 5 mo and had just gotten over paci addiction and was finally almost sttn and napping well, then we went away and she short napped, and was up every hour all night!!  it was horrible.  good news is that it totally went back to normal when we got home, it just took about a week of pu/pd and strict routine when we got home and she was back on track.

vacations are tough, especially if there's a time change.  i would do the best you can, don't worry about AP if you have to to get him to nap and just deal with it when you get back home.  no point shh patting when you're supposed to be enjoying your vacation 

fwiw, i think our problems on vacation were her being way too OS during the day so she ended up short napping because she just couldn't wind down - way too much excitement with all the cousins etc, and since she was short napping, even though i did try to get more in the day, she was really OT which caused all the NWs.  i also fed to sleep during the night 5 or 6 times some nights, and even that didn't work every time.

hang in there and try to enjoy yourself 

[Tobysmum]

Yes, I've been battling whether to just relax about everything until I get home - but since our vacation is nearly 5 weeks long, I suspect that we'll have some major problems when we get back as that's a long time in a 5 month old's life!  For the past 2 days we've stayed at home and I've tried pu/pd but it basically takes the whole day and our vacation is shot!  I'm just torn as to what do to.  Really don't want to do AP if I can possibly help it - although I must admit that I've been feeding him when he wakes in the night as I'm on my own (husband joins me next week for the last 2 weeks) and it's very tough to do pu/pd on your own - as Tracey says. 
I have the problem that he feeds every 3 hrs - I know he should be on 4 hrs by now, but obviously he's on the A time of a 5 month old so that's pretty tricky.  I am sure the night wakings are due to hunger as he's not taking enough in the day.  He acts sooooo hungry at the 3 - 3.25 hr mark but when I feed him he'll only take 5-10 mins max. 
Am really trying to extend his nap times - I didn't manage it this morning after 35 mins of pu/pd.  I then had to wake him up from his nap this lunchtime.
I am a bit torn as to how I follow a 4 hr EASY if he's only doing 3 hrs between most feeds.  I am trying to extend the feeds 15 mins at a time like the book says.
I'll post today's log tomorrow to see if some of you can give me some pointers.
I'm not enjoying my vacation at all - when I'm up lots at night and battling to get him to nap etc, it's taking up all my time and energy.  I know it's all my fault as we have absolutely no consistency in the day due to just being somewhere different and since we are on vacation we can't stay home all day.

[brenda2]

hugs
it's hard when you're away, i can sympathize and understand your dilemma.  we went away this summer and although things went pretty smoothly (i was very scared after our last holiday) she just didn't go to sleep as well for us there as she does at home.  i mean it was not bad at all, but she had a harder time.  so it is tough on the LOs when they're out of their own environment i think.

i really think you should stretch his feeds to 4 hours.  this may help his naps and his nights.  is it possible you are misreading his cues?  when he acts hungry at 3 hours it may because he is OT instead, or "hungry" out of habit?  stretching that out may help a lot of things.

also, with short naps really try to fit more of them in in the day to avoid OT which can both cause short naps and NWs.  also, let him catch up whenever he can.  he sounds OT so if you finally get him to sleep i wouldn't worry about waking him at the next scheduled feed (especially since you want this to stretch out anyway).  sometimes a good long sleep can do wonders to get them caught up and get over the OT.

at 5 mo A time should be 2 hours, maybe 2 hours 15 min.  but if after a short nap it could be just 1.5 hours or less.

try to relax about it a bit.  the good news is with being away and all the excitement of vacation you should be able to distract him esily to stretch him to that 4 hour feed mark.  you could even go cold turkey for the 4 hours, no need to stretch by 15 min if you cqan distract him well enough.

[Tobysmum]

Well, today has been better - I guess I must have read his cues better!  Last night was a bit strange, after going to bed at 6.30pm he woke up at 8.30 crying but I managed to get him back to sleep with some pu/pd.  He then woke up at 10.05 - hungry I guessed - I fed him as it was close to DF time.  He woke again at 12.30 - he was soaking wet so I guess that's why he woke but I managed to get him back to sleep with pu/pd - about 25 mins worth.  He then woke up at about 3.30 - I did attempt pu/pd briefly but I really got the feeling he was hungry so I fed him.  He then slept until 6.30am and I fed him then as he was acting hungry I thought.  I put him down for his first nap as he was starting to fuss a bit at 8.15 and he went down easily - after a couple of pu/pd.  He then slept until 10.05 - which was TOTALLY AMAZING!  He was a totally different baby because of having the long nap.  The weird thing is that he wouldn't take a proper feed all day. I tried to feed him at 10.45 which was over 4 hrs since his last feed and he wasn't very interested, I kept trying throughout the day but he didn't really take what I call a proper feed until 6.30pm this evening!  Anyway, he seemed happy, so hopefully he won't be starving all night!
Naps for the rest of the day were spent in the stroller as my mother and I went shopping in town for most of the day while my Dad looked after my toddler - my one chance to get out shopping!  Baby won't take a bottle so he had to come with me!
Anyway, we'll see what tonight brings.
I will really try to watch his cues, as I agree, he's obviously overtired quite a bit of the time and that could be a major contributing factor to the difficulty with short naps or no naps.  Shame that the feeding wasn't going well today i.e 4 hrly.
Will check in tomorrow to let you know how the night went.
I am guessing I was right to feed him at 3.30am - I highly doubt if he would have lasted until 6.30 if I hadn't.  Although perhaps I should have waited until 7.30 for the first feed?

[brenda2]

glad yesterday went better for you!   

yes, at 5 mo it's common for Los to need df plus 1 night feed.  so if you thought he was hungry and it had been more than 4 hours since df then you were right to feed him.  it's also good to do pu/pd for all other NWs and naps.  be consistent and he will catch on!

maybe a good plan for you is to try for that first nap at "home" and hopefully he has a good one then which will set you up for a good day of naps even if they have to be out in the stroller.

when we were on holiday i aimed for 1 nap a day at home and if all others were out i just went with that.

glad you got some shopping in!