Hello there
My 16wk old son is formula fed and weighs 17-18lb (not been weighed for two weeks). Initially we thought he was a grumpy baby but now know my BF was simply not keeping up. He's a hungry little man and eats at 0700 (7oz of
, 1100 (8oz), 1500 (8oz) and 1830 (10oz!) before bed at 1900. He also feeds once at night, usually at about 0300 (5.5oz). He used to do EASAS EASAS with 1hr 30 of A before a 30 min nap (not ideal, but predictable) and then the same again. For a time he could settle himself for the 30 min naps between feeds, but a nasty bout of thrush that went into his throat upended all progress.
He now fights every single nap unless it is in the car/on a walk. He finds external visual stimulation very distracting (less bothered by noise) but is furious if the stimulation is removed before he is completely overtired, when he suddenly realised he needs it gone. Even if I try to follow his cues, he fights sleep getting frustrated and then overtired by the time he goes down. And self soothing during the day is now something he never achieves and I'm having to rely on the dummy and rocking before putting him down asleep - not the idea! What makes matters worse is if we're at home then these battles mean he only had 2hrs 30 total naps all day and then tends to sleep badly at night. I have noticed that he needs more than 3hrs for the night to be bearable. I'm stuck and don't know how to progress. He's too young to manage more than 1hr 30-1hr 45 A, but he is extremely unlikely to sleep (even under perfect conditions!) for 2-2hrs 30 between each feed. So I'm lost. I am happy that he doesn't need food to fall asleep, but that's my only success... Please advise. How to I break the napping bad habits? PD/PU? (Just makes him furious until he falls asleep shattered.) Shhh-pat (too much stimulation - and still cries the moment he's put down.) I could let him cry it out, but he's pretty spirited and reaches coughing and nearly hyperventilating rather than calming, unless in the car. I'm willing to go through a few days to get this sorted, but don't know where to start.
Oh, he's swaddled at night (arms waving wake him constantly - we tried to move to sleeping bag recently and he got progressively worse each night, not better) but don't Swaddle him for naps - seems too drastic and feel he should not require it.
Does anyone have any advice? I could move his feeds to every 3 hours and make them smaller but that seems counterintuitive - he's been having feeds every 4 hours for about a month now.
Thank you in advance.
