Hi,
I'm pretty new to the site, have been trying to figure it all out on my own and reading books and posts but really need some help on this one.
I've been sleeptraining my 7 month old with pu/pd for 6 nights and although he now does let me put him down in the crib pretty easily he wakes all the time. The pu/pd seemed to work well - 49 times the first night, 25 the second, and 20 the third, from the fourth night I don't pick up any more, just put my hand on his tummy when he wakes up, but he is still using a paci.
He is waking at least every hour, and goes through spurts of waking every 15 min. He settles easily again with his paci but keeps waking up. I only nurse him once, around 4 am, because he cries a lot more and won't go back to sleep, so I'm pretty sure he is genuinely hungry.
I thought the problem might be the paci but its still in his mouth when he wakes. I've also seen him spit it out when he falls into sleep, and not wake up. I have also seen him put it back into his own mouth, but that's when he was awake.
Maybe it could be digestion issues? he has been a bit constipated since starting solids, although he has a bm every other day or so. Could he somehow be using the pu/pd as a prop?? I try not to hold him too long, but I do hold him until he calms down.
When he wakes I try not to pick him up right away, and try to wait until i'm sure he's crying - ony a minute or so - he starts out by making fussy noises, so I wait to see if he'll settle himself, but it escalates soon to crying, and then I have to do pu/pd again. If I get to him before its real crying, and put a hand on his tummy, he settles quickly. All this seems to say that the sleeptraining is working, except that he just keeps waking up constantly! I can't figure out why. OK, I have allowed him to fall asleep on the breast a couple of times during the sleeptraining- could that be enough to cause this problem? He does settle easily without nursing almost all the time, except around 4 am. I am just so exhausted at 4 am i can' tbear to wake him up when he falls asleep nursing.
I wondered if he is overtired- he is a short napper - 20-30 min. THe last two days I'm trying to make sure he gets more nap time, and he's gotten more day time sleep in last two days - but these have been the worst two nights!
His shedule is irregular because he never wakes at the same time in the am - sometimes he sleeps to 8 am, other times he gets up at 7, or 7:30.
He usually naps sometime between 10 and 11 am and then at 2ish. His pm nap is the one I find easier to extend, in the morning he seems so awake that when i try to do pu/pd it seems impossible. Not that I have tried to do it for longer than about 20 min. I usually give up and bring him down for lunch. I get confused, think he is not really tired enough to go back to sleep, it's different at night when i can tell he's tired and i know he will eventually stay down.
compounding the scheduling issue is a 3 year old who also needs activities and attention so I can't spend my whole day doing pu/pd.
If the issue is OT, which i suspect, then is it possible that the sleeptraining process has exacerbated that? then it's a vicious cycle, how to break it?
I have been drinking some coffee to stay conscious during the day, but I've always had one cup or sometimes two cups, so its not a new thing.
some history: He used to sleep in his crib up to 4 months old, was an angel baby, just went to sleep on his own, slept from 8pm to 3 am, then he started teething and got an ear infection and the accidental parenting started. We rocked, nursed and took him into our bed. His naps also got a lot shorter, and he kind of naps on my chest or in the car, and really cried when we tried to put him in the crib for naps. On nights when he was feeling better I'd put him in his crib again to try to keep the memory of it in his mind. We've never left him to cry, and he seems to be quite independent and even plays in his crib while I'm in the other room upstairs.
Any advice or other ideas would be really appreciated! I'm having a hard time thinking back to the co-sleeping days, when he would wake 3 or 4 times, which I thought was a problem then but it now seems like heaven!
