Author Topic: Please help me :( 13 week old wont sleep  (Read 4904 times)

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Offline Mumma_of_levi

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Please help me :( 13 week old wont sleep
« on: November 05, 2012, 18:51:50 pm »
Okay I am pretty much at the end of ideas to help my 13 week old baby boy to sleep at night. He's a bottle fed baby who's having around 6 bottles a day. He's a big boy over 13 pounds currently but is a terrible sleeper! We have tried putting him to bed early about 6pm after a warm bath, relaxing massage, then a feed. I've tried changing where I feed him, how we wrap him and nothing is working. We were putting him too bed about 9.30 but he was falling asleep wherever he was earlier. He wakes every 3 hours at best but isn't hungry after one feed through the night! He wakes at 3.30 and then wakes every 30 minutes until hes fully awake at 5.30! I'm only 21 and Levi is my first bubba and I'm just lost! Please help :((
« Last Edit: November 06, 2012, 02:36:25 am by Mumma_of_levi »

Offline Mumma_of_levi

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Re: Please help me :( 13 week old wont sleep
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2012, 19:17:01 pm »
I'm looking for advice on routine, what could possibly be wrong anything really!
Any suggestion is helpful so please! Haven't had more than 3 hours sleep in weeks!

Offline Erin M

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Re: Please help me :( 13 week old wont sleep
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2012, 03:50:00 am »
Hi sweetie, welcome.  :)

What does your day currently look like?  Could you write it out in this form?
E (eat - what time, how much, etc?)
A (activity -- how long is he up for?)
S (how long does he sleep for?)

Also, how does he fall asleep?  Does he fall asleep by himself or do you rock him to sleep or something like that? 
How does he wake up?  Happy and chatty or crying?

Sorry for the questions, but knowing the answers will help us be able to help you sort out your night wakings better.

Offline Mumma_of_levi

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Re: Please help me :( 13 week old wont sleep
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2012, 05:24:48 am »
Okay well his day
Awake between 6-6.30 am
Play until 7.30
Bath 8 am
feed 8.30
Nap 9-11
Play 11.30- 12.45
Bottle 1 pm
Sleep 1.30-3.30
Play 4-5.30
Bottle 6
We then were putting him to bed at after that but he was waking at 11 and being unsettled again.
So now we are lost at what time will suit him. He smashed down his bottle at 6 but then for the rest of the night isn't fussed with feeding. He wakes crying as he's very wriggly. I'm starting to think hes either lactose intolerant because he is still constipated even though we have tried two formulas. He settles for an hour or two but it's like he can't go into a deep sleep. We rock him to sleep usually but we are now trying to put him down awake and soothe in the cot... He has no problem going to sleep its just staying asleep

Offline Mumma_of_levi

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Re: Please help me :( 13 week old wont sleep
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2012, 05:50:08 am »
I also forgot that during the night he sleeps from 6-11 But then after that he goes down only until 1.30am. He wakes but isn't interested in a bottle. After this it's a battle to keep him down for hour intervals until he gets up at 6 am..

I also think he has reflux as he's very spewy again after we changed his formula. He's wriggly and constipated as I said and also has very heavy snuffling breathing like his airways are congested.

Any advice about settling him or if I'm doing something wrong during the day.
I'm suffering from sleep deprivation obviously but now have also been diagnosed with post natal depression.
Any help is much appreciated so please reply anyone with any suggestion! We are desperate!

Offline Erin M

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Re: Please help me :( 13 week old wont sleep
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2012, 18:23:09 pm »
OK, lots going on then.  First off, some ((((hugs)))).  Let's see what we can figure out here.

If you suspect reflux, there's some good info on it here: Reflux 101 - General reflux information as well as the forum here: Colic, Reflux, & Crying .  The ladies there are very knowledgeable about reflux and can be very helpful. 

Next off, his schedule.  At 13 weeks, we'd expect that he'd really only be able to stay awake for about an hour and 20-30 minutes at a time (you can look here: Average A times and "Is my baby ready to increase A time?" for some more info on that).  He's got some really long awake times going there, so I'm wondering if he's just overtired and all that overtiredness is piling on top of each other during the day and causing all of your night wakings.  There are some sample EASYs here that might help you get a better idea of what you might aim for: chronological EASY samples, 0-3 months

It looks like he's on track for a 6-6 day -- so you might want to try something like this:
6 - awake/bottle
7:30 -- winddown, in bed to sleep -- at that point, you would work on trying to get him to settle in his cot by using pat/shush -- Pat/shush for babies under 3 months old and he'll hopefully sleep until somewhere around 9 where you would start the cycle all over again.

I will say that the more I look at your post, the more I think you are right about either a food allergy or reflux -- we've got a food allergy forum as well that might help you out: Food Allergies  -- the stuffiness, constipation, and poor sleep all point to that. 

And finally, take care of yourself as well -- is there someone at home who is helping you get some sleep at night?  Post in the PND forum if you feel like you need some extra support, there are always some hugs and support around here: Post Partum Depression

Offline ENMS

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Re: Please help me :( 13 week old wont sleep
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2012, 20:50:55 pm »
very heavy snuffling breathing like his airways are congested

hun that is usually a sign of reflux as well.

(((hugs))) to you - I agree with Erin, feel free to post on the PND forum for some support. Having a baby is not easy, but having one with reflux is really really hard. Take care of yourself and take all the help you can get from your DH / relatives / friends.
Elise



Offline Mumma_of_levi

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Re: Please help me :( 13 week old wont sleep
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2012, 01:31:23 am »
Thank you for your support ladies. We put the schedule into practice yesterday and tried settling Levi on his side an he stayed sleeping like that for 9 hours with only two wakes for feeds!

I'm off to the doctor today to find out more about reflux because I think that's impacting him in a massive way!

Any other suggestions would be appreciated :-)
He's having More naps now which is helping hugely!
How many naps a day and for how long is best for a 13 week old?

Offline Erin M

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Re: Please help me :( 13 week old wont sleep
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2012, 03:02:39 am »
Yay for progress, I'm so happy for you!  :)

As far as naps go, what you're looking for (and this is an ideal, I don't think I ever got to a point this good with mine!) is several EASY cycles throughout the day -- so you'd feed every 3 hours or so (starting at 6, you'd get 6, 9, 12, 3, 6), have him be awake for about an hour and a half, and nap for an hour and a half.  If he wants to nap longer, that's ok, but you don't want him to go too long between feedings (not more than 4 hours probably) because you want him to get the idea that nighttime is when long stretches of sleep happen.  In that last EASY cycle (when you feed him at 3) that would be more of a cat nap -- 4:30-5 or so -- just to get him to his bed time at 6. 

If you get him in his bed for some of the naps, and not all of them, that's perfectly ok.  It's really hard to get them in bed for all their naps at this age (especially that cat nap) so if he wants to sleep in the car seat, swing, etc for some of them, that's ok too.  It's important to not let take over to the point where you're stressing about if he's falling asleep the "right" way or if he's taking the perfect nap all the time. 

Hope you can get some support from the doc!