Baby wakes up constantly

[BabyKain12]

Ok so I'm new on the site looking for help! I've read many posts to see if I can find some advice but no one has my situation, either their baby got sick and stopped sleeping, or they're bottle fed, or they don't nap during the day.

My baby boy is 5.5 months is EBF with solids 2x a day, one at lunch time and one at dinner and has been since he was 4 months so it's not new to him. He has never been sick, not teething, naps great during the day, eats great, overall he's a perfect, healthy normal baby - until night time. We have a night time routine then he goes to sleep for 2 MAYBE 3 hours then wakes up, sleeps for another hour then wakes and so on... He does sleep with me which i don't mind because he sleeps longer at night with me, but I can't nap during the day with him because he wont nap with me, which has me so confused. Here is our typical 24 hour schedule (give or take but its our average day) someone PLEASE help me, I am so tired all the time...

6:00 wakes up, nurse, dad takes over until 7:15
7:15 nap for about 45 min - 1 hr
8:00 nurse, play
10:00 nap
11:30 nurse, play with solids about 12:30
1:00 nap
2:30 nurse, play (or run errands if needed)
4:15 nap
5:30 nurse, play
30 min nap depending on his last nap
Bedtime between 8-9:00
Wakes at 10:30 OR 11:30, if he wakes at 10:30 hell go back to sleep no prob. til 11:30 then wakes again and SCREAMS until I feed him. I try pushing it off until midnight but usually only make it to 11:45. Then he wakes again at 1-1:30 back down no prob wakes at 2:30 feeds, wakes at 4 sometimes back down, then he will sleep until between 5:45 and 6:00.

Now he USED to sleep from about 8:30 to 1-1:30 to eat then until 4:30 and then sleep til between 6 and 7 but not since he was 4 mo. And I've tried putting him to bed earlier but it's the same thing just an hour ahead and he wakes up at 5am. I've tried babywise, baby whisperer, CIO for the worst 3 days of my life, pu/pd, rocking him to sleep and putting him down... Nothing works... I don't even care at this point if he sleeps through the night, I'd give anything just to get him back to only waking twice!!

Oh and he's still swaddled with his legs free or else he punches himself in the face. No reflux, no other problems. Ped recommended CC but I can't. We've tried other crying methods and he cried for hours and I just can't let him cry that long... Any suggestions would be great. Thanks

[amayzie]

Hi hon! You;ve had quite a run of it!! Great plan not to use any more crying methods.

The first thing i think you need to have a bit of a look at is the day routine. I'm thinking he's having too many naps and not enough A time in the day- that's then leading her to have night wakings- and you are probably BOTH ending up tired!! At 5.5 months lots of babies are STARTING to move from 3-2 naps. This transition can be a real pain and cause a number of night wakings. I would suggest to first of all try to stretch out that first A time after the 6am waking to and have the first nap of the day from about 8.30 or so- or 8 to start. 6am is a fine time to wake up (in baby land.. not really for anyone without a baby ) and unless he's looking like he's going to go back down i'd try to stretch that A time out.

If you can get the longer A time then you will hopefully get a long nap there- so 8-10 or 8.30-10.30? Then try to push the second A time also up- so you might be looking at nap 2 at 1.00? This MIGHT then get you through to about 3 if it's a good sized nap. You could at this stage aim for a cat nap around 4.30 or so- possibly a short ne at 5? I would aim to not treat that last nap in your example above as a nap but rather as a night waking- just resettle.

Thoughts on this? The increase in A time and less naps across the day may help the nights...

[BabyKain12]

To be completely honest, his 7:15 nap is more because im not ready to get up yet and he goes down so easy that I dont even try getting up Though I've thought maybe his naps were the issue, I've been sort of letting him lead me on his naps... When he starts getting fussy I put him down and he goes right to sleep, I've tried extending his schedule a little before and he ends up waking after 45 min. to eat. But that was a few weeks back when he was only eating solids every other day... So perhaps I can extend his A time with a little food right before napping instead of in the middle of A time and that will get him full enough to take a longer nap. Now that you mention it he has been napping almost 2 hours sporadically, not fussing at his regular intervals, but then fussing himself to sleep rather than quietly passing out! I guess I've just been too tired to think that maybe he's not as tired anymore lol. Thanks for the suggestion I'll work on extending his schedule and let you know if it helps or not

[Erin M]

To be completely honest, his 7:15 nap is more because im not ready to get up yet and he goes down so easy that I dont even try getting up

I have definitely been there!  When my ds was smaller, I think there was a period of time where he would have gladly napped for 45 minutes about 6 times a day if I let him!  It just seemed like it was a nice time for a nap every 45 minutes or so!  That being said, that's not going to do wonders for his nighttime sleep.  That first nap is also more of an extension of his nighttime sleep as well -- he's probably treating his night as 8-8 with a little time to eat and play in there. 

Let us know how your schedule tweaking goes!

[amayzie]

To be completely honest, his 7:15 nap is more because im not ready to get up yet and he goes down so easy that I dont even try getting up 

Oh- me too!! I actually cringed a little when i suggested you get up!! I was actually thinking though that this would be a lovely opportunity for some daddy baby bonding time But yeah- you might feel like getting up then if the night sleep improves...

[BabyKain12]

Well daddy leaves for work at 7:15 so it's back to mommys turn. Lol. As of today, so far he's doing great with extended A time. He actually goes ALMOST 3 hrs without fussing! So I suppose he was ready for a longer schedule. His last nap was still only 1.5 hrs like clockwork, with this one going on 1.5 as I type this, but it's his last nap of the day so if he wakes I'm going to put him to bed a little early at about 7:30 but I'm working towards 3 hr A times and 1.5 hr naps are ok but if he wants to sleep longer that's fine with me for the next few days until the new schedule is set in stone. So hopefully in the next few days he'll be sleeping at night! If not then I'm at a loss and just have to let him figure things out himself lol

[amayzie]

Sounds AWESOME!! My thoughts are that if you let this schedule settle in for a few days and see how the nights go. If there are still problems pop back on and we can help you brainstorm some ideas for the night time. It could need a combination of approaches. Fingers crossed for you!!

[BabyKain12]

Well after 2 nights I see no change at all... The first night I thought was going to go well, went down at 7:30 stirred about 9:30 but settled back on his own, woke at 11:30, 1:30, 4:00, and finally up at 5:30 wouldn't go back down. Last night he went down at 8, woke at 11:30 wouldn't settle without feeding, woke at 1:30 no feeding, woke at 2:30 feeding, woke at 3:30 no feeding, 4:30 feeding, 5:30 awake. His day schedule has been

Wake 5:30, nurse, play
7:15 nap
8:30 wake, nurse, play, solids 30 min before nap
11:00 nap
12:30 wake, nurse, play solids before nap
3:30 nap
5:00 wake, nurse, short play time, solids, walk, bath, nurse
8:00 bed

I try to not feed him everytime he wakes and I can usually get him back down without about half the time but the 11:30, 2:30, and 4:30 wakings if I don't feed him he screams until I do. I've tried settling him without if anything to just try pushing the waking back the next nights but it never works. If I am able to settle him he's up 5 minutes later crying again and if I let him cry for a few minutes then it takes me longer to calm him to go back to sleep.

I've considered a growth spurt but its been going on for over a month this way... And I noticed in the beginning that his clothes were getting tighter but we got him new clothes and they still fit the way they did a month ago when we got them. I also thought maybe he wasn't getting enough to eat because he was getting distracted but I've made sure he's getting enough, I feed him until he flat out refuses on both milk and solids and he generally empties 1 whole breast and most of the other and eats 1/2 jar of baby food...

[BabyKain12]

And today he's not even napping. He woke after 1 hr from his afternoon nap so now I'm thinking he's overtired and not wanting to sleep at all

[amayzie]

Hi hon-  argh! What a pain! I'd probably feed at that 11.30 feed and not try to hold it off, lots of babies are still doing a dream feed at that time and that age. How are you settling him? Rocking him? shh-pat? is he an independent settler?

If you think he's overtired then try to APOP some more sleep into him. So either at the end of a short nap, or chuck in an extra nap in the car, or the carrier, or have an early bed time to manage it.

[BabyKain12]

I try not to settle him the same each time. Basically I swaddle and hold him and if he's in a good mood hell fall asleep with just that, then if that doesn't work I pat, then move on to sh/pat, then if all else fails I rock. And he doesn't sleep in the car or carrier unless he's way tired.

[BabyKain12]

How can I get him to nap longer? Before changing his schedule he was napping 1.5 hrs at a time and since I extended the A time he only naps 1 he max. I've tried everything that used to put him back to sleep before but now either he refuses all of it or he just sits awake for about 10 min of trying and then starts crying... The more he sleeps during the day the less he sleeps at night and the less he sleeps during the day the less he sleeps period...

[Erin M]

How are you doing now?  What's your A time up to?

[BabyKain12]

His A time is up to about 2.5 hours if he takes a good nap. If he takes a short nap it's about 1.5 hours before he's upset. I try to get him to 2 hours at least. He naps worse since changing his schedule, but he sleeps better at night SOMETIMES. Last night was every hour or two but the night before he only woke twice, night before that was mediocre. It's just been hit or miss.

[Erin M]

Hmm...is it possible he's overstimulated at all during A time?  The way he's waking suggests that he either needs more A time or he's overstimulated before he goes to sleep.  Ugh, I feel like there's something I'm missing.