15 week old completely stopped falling asleep on his own!

[alisonlove]

Hi! I am a FTM to a wonderful little baby boy. We began using EASY about 3 weeks ago. Working very well. Then about 5 days ago...he completely changed. He will not accept being swaddled. What I mean by this is: he screams at the top of his lungs and cries (real tears) and tries to get out of the swaddle and will not stop screaming until he gets himself out or I let him out. We have used regular swaddle blankets and swaddleme's. He even gets out of the swaddle me. If I do the "batwing" double swaddle, he becomes so worked up that it is almost impossible to calm him down.

Then I figured out I could put his paci in and then swaddle him and that worked--for one day. Then BAM! he will no longer take the paci. If it goes in his mouth he chews it for a second then spits it out. If I try to give it to him for longer than 10 seconds...its the same screaming we have with the swaddle.

I'm at a loss. He still startles and his arms wake him up. Plus, poor little guy has eczema and will scratch his head so much he wakes up. The ONLY way he sleeps is ON me. Because when he goes through his sleep cycles, I can hold his arms so he doesn't scratch himself completely awake.

I am EBF...and have no problem waking up 2-3 times a night for feeding...but to go to sleep at 6:30 every night is just not working. And because I am now nursing him to sleep (the only way he will fall asleep other than driving) if I put him down after nursing, he will wake up 30 minutes after I lay him in his cradle.

PLEASE...I am truly desperate. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BTW...there is no schedule now, as we were working on a schedule and then I had to resort to nursing to sleep. So EASY went out the window. Sad face.

A huge thank you in advance to any mommy who can help me and my sweet baby boy out.

[alisonlove]

Here was our crazy schedule today:

wake up: 6:30 AM
EAT: 6:30 AM
Activity: 7:00-8:30
EAT: 8:30 AM
Activity: 9:00-9:45
Sleep: 9:45 for 30 minutes (in car)
Activity: 10:15-11:00 (in stroller on a walk)
EAT: 11:45 nurse to sleep for one hour
Sleep: 12:00-1:00
Activity: 1:00-3:00
Sleep: 3:00 for 40 minutes (in car)
Activity: 3:40-4:45
EAT: 4:45 Nurse to sleep (slept for 30 minutes!) !?!?!?!
Sleep: 5:15-5:45
5:45-6:30 Activity

I want to note that he is definitely OT (BIG TIME) and that he is also nursing like every two hours at night. He went through two diapers last night (and they were both full) and when I woke up my breasts were soft. Normally, I would feel full on at least one side. So, he is eating mostly at night. Also, he is gaining weight like a champ.

Typically, he would have two 45 minute naps before noon, a 2 hour nap in the afternoon and a 30 minute nap later afternoon. This is when he seems the most content. 4 hours in naps during the day. Today, he only had like 2 hours of sleep. Oy! I considered his 5:15 to be his (very early) bedtime since he hadn't gotten much sleep...but apparently that was another nap!

 

[alisonlove]

im bumping this bc i really need some help.

also, baby has sever (at times) eczema on his head, which i think is why he initially did not want to be swaddled. i am now upping his skin care regimen to see if this will help him to accept the swaddle again. 

[*Ali*]

Hugs. It is hard to be sleep deprived for so long and yet feel like you spend your life trying to get your baby to sleep.

We try to get a reply for every post in 24hrs. If you need to amend your posts to add more info it is best to modify the original post (click modify in the top right-hand corner of the post) so it won't appear to others that you already have a reply.

Typical A time for a 4mo is 1hr45-2hrs so I would have him down for that first nap much earlier around 8.15/30am. If he does a short nap of less than an hour then he'll need a shorter A time following that nap before he will be tired enough to sleep again. I would probably knock 20-30mins off an A time after a short nap.

Shh pat is the method we use to teach self-soothing to young babies. Pat/shush for babies under 3 months old

Have you tried a zip up swaddle like the Woombie that would allow him to move his arms but not be able to scratch his head? He won't get out of that. It would also offer resistance against the jolts that he still seems to need as well.

Do you have a consistent wind down? There are some good ideas here. What does a good wind down consist of (Includes 4S ritual)