My daughter has never been a good sleeper other than when she was jaundice and slept all of the time. As soon as she got over her jaundice she developed severe colic, sometimes screaming in excess of 12 hours a day...basically whenever she wasn't sleeping or eating. Nights when she was colic were actually better because she wore herself out so much during the day that she would sleep 10hrs straight at night. Her colic ended two weeks ago...she is now 3.5 months old.
At first her sleep was OK after her colic ended. She was napping 45 mins in the am 3hrs in the afternoon and 45 in the evening. She was happy and pleasant. However this week she dropped the 3hr nap and now refuses to sleep more than 45 minutes at a time. I could set a timer and I guarantee she will be up at the 45 minute mark. She is so overtired from these short naps that at night she won't go down to sleep for up to 3hrs past bed time, which is usually 7-730. She screams her head off and I do up/down. As soon as I pick her up she falls asleep and as soon as I put her down she wakes up. If I apply pressure to her chest she will stay asleep but I can't realistically do that all night. Once she falls asleep she is up frequently during the night. Last night she was up at 12, 3, 5....and now I am trying to get her back to sleep. It seems like she wants to wake at 5-530 for the day but I know she is still tired from only getting 8hrs or so of sleep at night. I basically get no sleep which makes dealing with a fussy baby all day really hard. It was actually easier when she was colic because at least she was STTN!
This am I got desperate and gave her a stuffed animal to squeeze to sleep instead of my hand and it worked and she is sleeping right now but I obviously can't let her have it when I can't monitor her. Is there anything safe I can give her?
I feel like I spend my entire day and night trying to get her to sleep. I don't respond to her waking until it is active screaming. If it is fussing I leave her. Last night she fussed from 3-430 until I finally had to respond because she started screaming. She really struggles to settle herself which I realize might be normal for her age.
I should mention she does use a paci. If it falls out it often wakes her but she will not sleep without it.
Initially I considered that she might be hungry so I tried feeding her if all else failed and she ended up just snacking throughout the entire day so now I am trying to stick to a 3hr feeding schedule. A sleep schedule is impossible because she won't nap longer than 45 minutes no matter what I do.
This is getting old fast so any suggestions would be appreciated. I can hardly leave my house because she has to nap 5x a day due to her short naps. I've tried keeping her up longer to see if she would sleep more but it has the opposite effect. Help. Please!
