Exhausted mummy and baby!!

[Shanders]

I'm new to this site but have just bought the Baby Whisperer book and thought it was fab.  I and hubby are having real problems with our little Josh.  Josh is now just over 4 months old, since he was 6 weeks old he has been sleeping from 7:00pm to between 6-7 in the morning.  At 6:00pm we let him have a kick around, he has a bath, daddy feeds him and I take him up to bed.  He makes some grunting noises sometimes but most of the time he falls asleep, we then don't hear a peep until the morning. 

Now all of this is great as we get our evening together and get a good nights sleep but Josh will not sleep in his cot in the daytime and when we do get him to sleep (either on a bouncy chair, car seat or pushchair) it only lasts 30-45 mins.  He is still fed every 3 hours and will go to sleep after some activity so essentially he's after 5 lots of 45 mins. After reading the book thought I should try getting him to go 4 hours but I don't dream feed him so he would only be getting 4 feeds a day.  He is very very active when he's awake and was polishing off 7oz at each feed but that seems to have stopped and he has 5 - 7oz now depending on his mood.  I can see the problem  that because he's not getting enough food or sleep during the day we get into a vicious circle of not enough food or sleep.  We get lots of comments from friends with babies who tell us to be grateful that he sleeps through the night but they don't know how exhausting it is spending our entire day trying to get him to sleep in his cot, failing miserably and so takig him out in his pushchair. 

he can be fast asleep in his bouncy chair but when I move him into his cot he eyes snap open and he cries for Britain !!!  I hate seeing him so upset but I tell by his eyes that he needs more daytime sleep.  We blame ourselves for letting him fall asleep in his chair/pushchair but I now want to try and get him to sleep for longer and in his cot.  Oh and if I try and get him to sleep in his cot in the daytime I'm worried that this will affect his nighttime!! Is this madness?

Any help would be appreciated.  From a very exhausted mummy and daddy and baby.

[erinsparents]

Hi! I don't have any advice but only to say that I know where you're coming from because I'm in the same boat! My dd sleeps fairly well at night (usually wakes 1-2 times before dream feed if she's overtired and then 1x at night) but it's the naps!! She too only will go down for 30 minutes and that's if I can get her down in the first place! She usually is good for the first sleep but I can never extend the nap and we also end up with 3-4 short naps throughout the day.  As a result she's very tired by 5pm ish and it's all we can do to have her wait til 6pm for bath (then feed then bed by 7...which she is usually settled by 8 at the latest). Ideally I'd like her to go to bed around 7-7:30 but sometimes she even falls asleep eating around 6:15 so it's quite early! I was wondering if we tried to cut back a bit on nighttime sleep (10-11 hrs instead of 11-12) if that would make her more able to go down for naps!

Sorry to add on another question but perhaps this will help your lo as well since they seem to have similar nighttime habits!

Good luck!

Laura

[Shanders]

At least I'm not alone, I've gone through moments of entire panic and frustration that it's just me !!  I've asked dh to read the book so he can understand about winding down as he does tend to play with Josh and getting him all riled up !!  At the mo we can' seem to tell when Josh is starting to get tired, once he's there - eye rubbing, yawning, holding his hands together!! it's a bit late.  I think what I'll try to do is get him to sleep in his cot first, then once I've got that sorted!! I'll try and extend the nap times - perhaps too much at once will be stressful for me and Josh and the moment we are both suffering from a bit of cold. 

I did try the shush pat and pu/pd yesterday but all it did was upset me as Josh just cried and cried which made me cry and cry.  I'm going to spend next week trying so cross fingers for me. 

Josh was fed at 6:30 this morning so I'm trying to get him to 10:00 so starting the 4 hour EASY.

Thanks for the help.

S & J