I’m posting please for a bit of advice about what’s causing my LO’s NW every hour from about 2am.I am so exhausted from this that I can’t think straight about what it could be.
My LO is 15 weeks. I am exclusively breast feeding, from just one breast at each feed as the second is usually refused. LO does not have a dummy but we do swaddle and use white noise at nap time and through the night. A times usually consist of watching his sisters run around or watching me do housework or playing on the play mat. Wind down for naps and bedtime is swaddle, white noise on and sitting in the rocking chair.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, he was napping fairly well and sleeping from 7pm to 7am with a dreamfeed at 10:30pm and only one NW at about 3 or 4am. I thought I was doing really well. Over the past couple of weeks, it slowly deteriorated and we started to experience resistance for naps,45 min naps, fussing at the breast and NW every hour from about 2am! He was waking and just looking around, eyes open wide. From reading various posts and my BW book, I thought that A time probably needed to be tweaked (A time was 1.5hrs) and that he probably needed to be on 4hr EASY as he seemed to not be hungry enough at 3hrs.We started this and although feeds are better and there is less resistance at nap time, the NWs are still happening. He is now screaming more at the NW rather than looking like he wants to play. I then got thinking that maybe he cannot soothe himself and somehow I have got him reliant on rocking to sleep. I have been rocking in the rocking chair whilst shushing and patting and then putting him down whilst still awake to shush and pat in the crib. I thought this was ok but today I tried just shushing and patting on my shoulder and he screamed for about 20 mins at each nap time. I’m not sure whether it’s because he wants the rocking or due to the change in the EASY hours. My question really is whether my rocking with the shush and pat is ok and if not, whether I should try to just shush and pat or just concentrate on changing the EASY first. Or is it just the rocking and he doesn’t need 4hr EASY?!!
I am on days 8 -11 of Tracys plan to get onto 4hr EASY. My day today looked like this ( I hope you can follow it):
5:45 – Wake and E
6-7:40 – A
8 – 9:15 S (took me 20 mins to settle him with just shush and pat, then he woke at 8:50 , another 10 mins of shush and pat until 9:15 when he woke again)
9:15 – E
9:45 -11 – A
11:30 – 12:15 (initially 20 mins of screaming, 10 mins of shush and pat. Woke screaming at 12, shush pat to 12;15 the n woke after a few minutes screaming again at which point I gave up!)
12:30 –E
1:15 – 3pm – S (fell asleep as I was carrying him upstairs! Woke up after 15 mins, Shush and pat on and off sleep until 3pm)
3:15 – E
3:45 – 5:30 – A
5:30 – E then bed by 6:30 ( he fell asleep at the breast. I tried to wake him but he was really sleepy)
Woke screaming at 7:40 – shush pat back to sleep
Woke screaming at 8:10 – shush pat back to sleep
I really feel like I may be making things worse and I’m scared we’ll never get sleep again! I’m so tired that I can’t really think straight. Please any comments would be greatly appreciated