why isn't he sleeping?

[gideonhb]

i need help. my son at 5 months only takes  30-45 minute naps a day   (and usually only after lots of carrying and eating). he jolts awake a lot because the boy does not know how to not move, he is my wonderful, curious ball of energy - rolling over, rolling back, bouncy chair... he has even now mastered rolling over while swaddled in his crib/cot. when i try the put him in his crib/cot, pick him up only when he cries, as soon as he starts to feel himself being lowered into the crib, he wakes up and starts to cry...what to do?

many thanks

[lilisuze]

hi there, and welcome to BW. It sounds to me that you are not catching the right window of time to put him down for a nap. If you try too early after the last nap he wont go down because he is not tired enough and will fight you. If you put him down too late after the last nap he will be overtired and wont settle well.

Can you post your routine so we can see whats going on and what we can do to help?

It will look like this
awake 7am
E milk 7.10
A 7-9.10
S 9.10-10.00

E milk 10.15
A 10-12.15
S 12.15-1.00

etc etc all the way through the day.

Thanks

Lili xx

[gideonhb]

he doesn't wake up at a consistent time each morning. besides not napping well, he wakes up every hour between 8-11 and usually twice between 11-6am. besides his dream feed, I do not feed him until 5:30/6am

what i do is put him down 2 hours after each waking. something like this:
wake: 9:30am
eat: 9:45-9:55am
activity: 9:55-11:15am
sleep: 15-20 minutes to put him to sleep, sometimes feed, wake 12pm

eat:12:15-12:25pm
activity: 12:25-1:45pm
sleep: 15-20 minutes to put him to sleep (this is the harder of the two naps), sometimes feed, wake 2:40pm

I will try to put him to sleep again around 4:45/5 but this is almost impossible. I usually just get him to fall asleep on my shoulder, he wakes right up if I put him into his crib.

eat: 6pm
activity: bath, book, pj's
sleep: 7:50 (into bed), sleep: 8pm

wake: 9pm, 10pm, dream feed at 11pm

many thanks for your thoughts

xx

[lilisuze]

ok, there are a couple of things that jump out at me from your routine

1. day starts about 9.30am and finishes by 8 and then you have NW's at 9, 10 and 11. He is probably catching up with not getting a consistent 12 hour day. We need to give him the chance to get about 14 hours sleep altogether in a 24 hours period, aiming for 12 hrs at night and 2 longer naps in the day.

2. He has a very long A time between his wake at 2.40 and bed at 8. This OT causes wakings early in the evening, and so this will stop if he has enough daytime sleep.

3. Have you missed out some E in your schedule? it very unusual for babies to go from 12.15 to 6 without any food? You could try a milk feed when he wakes from his 2nd nap, and then another before bed about 7.30 which might help the NW's early in the evening too.

My initial thought is that he needs a longer A time to get a good nap. Have you tried charting the time you get a good nap and then use that as a basis for your A time? At this age my DS was doing A time about 2hr15, but each baby is different so you will have to work out what works for yours. You are currently starting WD at 1hr 45 so try and stretch that a bit to 2hrs and see what happens. If uou get a short nap after 2 hours, do 1 hr 45 the next time. If you get a good nap, do the same A time again.

Let me know how it goes.

Lili xx

[anna*]

I think he's overtired. First of all it would definitely be a good idea to wake him to start the day at the same time every day. It will help to give your day a bit more of a structure. 2hrs is a good A time at 5 months older after a good night's sleep or a long nap. After a broken night or a short nap, it is too long. The overtiredness will definitely not be helping with his night wakings either.

Do you have a nap/sleep routine, things you do right before a nap or bed so that he knows sleep is coming? Does he have a paci? How do you get him to sleep? Remember that overstimulation can cause short naps too so keep the activities low-key while you are fighting overtiredness.

I would try something like this:
7.30am awake, milk
9.15am nap - if he wakes before 1.5hrs, use shush-pat and/or PUPD to extend
10.45 awake
11.30 milk
1pm nap - extend as above
2.30pm awake
3.30pm milk
4.45pm nap
5.45pm awake
6.30pm start bath/bed routine, last milk
7.30pm asleep for the night
11pm dreamfeed

[anna*]

Posted at the same time as Lili, great advice.

[gideonhb]

thank you, will try!

xxoo