Hello I am much need of help. My DS is wonderful but is a little pickle when it comes to sleep. A bit of background on us: He is now 5 months old but was born 2 months prematurely via a very emergency c section. He had a very tricky start and we are lucky he is here at all to be honest. He was tube fed my milk for the first 6 weeks because he couldn’t feed off me directly but is now breast fed (except for one bottle of expressed milk at the dream feed which also contains his meds-just reflux med, vitamins and Iron). He is tiny and is on the lowest centile even accounting for his prematurity.
Anyway to cut to the chase sleep and nap times are exhausting! He settles pretty well with only a few mins of shh pat for a couple of the naps but without fail he is awake 25 mins after he has fallen asleep-and that’s on a good day. I just don’t know what to do. I have tried staying with him for the whole 25mins so I can try and shh pat him before he fully wakes but to no avail. When he wakes he screams and screams until I pick him up to shh pat him on my shoulder. I have tried to get him into a pattern of 1.5 hours of sleep and the only way he does this is if I wear him in my sling. I have 2 other children and I need ds3 to nap so I can spend that time with my other 2.
Night times start off really well with DS settling himself to sleep at 7ish and then my husband gives him a bottle of EBM and meds at 10.30ish. Ds then wakes at 12.30, 2.30, 4, 5 and 6 and then dozes on and off until 7 when it all starts over.
A sample day goes like this-
7am E- he only really feeds for 5 mins and is then content for the whole of the A time but because he’s so tiny I am also feeding him again before he goes to sleep, so in essence he’s feeding every 1.5hours-I make sure he doesn’t sleep on breast and 95% of the time he stays awake
7.15am A
8.15-8.30 E
8.30-10am S if he’s in the sling he sleeps the whole of this S time but otherwise if in crib he sleeps for 25 mins at best then we try and shh pat back to sleep but eventually end up shh pat on shoulder for remaining time-any attempt at putting him back results in immediate waking or 2 mins of sleep followed by waking and screaming
10am E
10.15-11.15 A
11.15-11.30 E
11.30-1pm (as the last sleep above)
1pm E
1.15-2.15 A
2.15-2.30 E
2.30-4 S-this sleep is the worst of all-I have never got even 25 mins out of him at this sleep which means it’s almost never really 4 that we go to-normally I give up by 3.30 Even in sling this sleep is a nightmare
3.30/4 E
4.15-5 A
5-5.15 E
5.15-5.45 S trying to get him to catnap-even on shoulder it doesn’t always happen for more than 10 mins maybe
6pm-bath and bedtime routine. Continuously feed and try and keep awake to ensure a good feed
7-10.30 S and from this point on is anyone’s guess (usually a rough pattern is as I described above wakes at 12.30, 2.30, 4, 5 and 6 and then dozes until near 7
Please help. I am so tired and I feel like a complete failure-I can’t see the wood for the trees on this one. Any Y time I have is spent with my other 2 who are desperate for some mummy time. I have roped my mum in to help over the next few days so I can get this sorted.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this x
