Can babies have sleep disorders....seriously??

[1stimer]

I have had a well documented struggle with ds and I feel like there's gotta be something causing his sleep issues that I haven't thought of. I mean, by now I think he would have atleast accidentally slept 6 or 7 hrs. We can't seem to get past 3. He's still more consistent at 2 or less though. We were doing/ are still doing sleep training but it's been several weeks and I'm EXHAUSTED. I left work early the other day just so my mom would have ds and I could nap. I feel like my health is starting to suffer as I've been unwell 3 times in the past 9 days and I'm rarely ever sick. Could there be something else going on?

[jessmum46]

Hugs, I don't have the best sleeper either but that does sound really rough

Can you post your routine?

How does LO fall asleep currently? What have you tried sleep-training wise?

Any health issues? Ears? Reflux? Tummy troubles?

Hopefully with a bit more info we can help

[georgeo]

Dd was like this. She woke every 3 hours.... Almost on the dot. Looking back I think she had fluid in her ears all the time and was in pain. We took her off dairy at about 18 months and she slept better. She was a happy little thing when awake but sleep.....

I feel for you. I remember being that exhausted. It makes everything so much more difficult.

[1stimer]

We've gotten him to the 3.5 hr easy. I know he should probably be a little longer but anything longer and he is super ot. He goes down independently for naps (just a kiss and walk out) and at night i nurse him and then put him in his crib....sometimes hes asleep sometimes awake but it makes no difference.He's up at 7 and down for a nap at 1030. That's pretty much all we have set in stone. Sometimes he will take a great 1.5 to 2 hr nap (which is a huge improvement since we were stuck at 30 minutes EXACTLY for the longest time). Other times he will still do 30 minutes so that will throw everything off. I can generally get it back on track and often he will take a better pm nap if his am is bad. So then he's in bed between 730ish and 8. For a df I would wait 3 hrs to feed him. If he woke up before that time I'd settle him until it was time and only df when he was asleep. At night I'd do similar...try and resettle until atleast 3 hrs before I'd feed him. We had a week where we thought we had turned the corner and we got 2 night in a row of 4 hr stretches and even one night he did almost 5!! But then he got an ear infection and everything went out the window. He just had his 9m well baby and everything was fine...ears etc. He was on meds for reflux when he was smaller but hasn't been on the in a while. I may try them again tomorrow before bed (or even tonight when he wakes up next) to see if it makes a difference. He's like your lo georgeo....He's the happiest sweetest most go with the flow baby during the day. At night it's obviously different. I feel like I've tried to make changes to see if anything helps, bed time, bathtime, dinner time, different bath soap, different pjs (socks,  no socks, long sleeve short sleeve etc), different s pound machine setting, different sheets...literally anything and nothing seems to help. Like I said I feel like by 9 months he would have atleast had a night or 2 where he sleeps for 6 or 7 hrs. We play alot, we are outside alot, but then I think maybe he's over stimulated so I'll try and be really calm an hr or more before bedtime, give him a little mini massage when I put his lotion on after his bath...I'm just exhausted. Luckily he's #2 so I'm used to it I guess...if this was my first child I can't imagine how frazzled I'd be!!

[1stimer]

Sorry for the long response. And I should also mention when he does the 2 hr wake ups...it's 2 hrs on the dot. I could literally set a timer and it would go off at the same time.

[georgeo]

Dd did have ear infections but it was the fluid in her ears that I think was the problem. I remember asking the do for about it. She was an angel baby but didn't sleep, it just didn't make sense. He was SO patronizing. He said there is nothing wrong, she's just a baby but he would refer me to get her ears checked for fluid if I liked. Sure enough, she did have fluid in her ears. It's painful when they lie down. Might be worth getting that checked, unless they did at the check up. It was easy to do.

[1stimer]

She checked ds ears...she said they were clear if the way they check for infections is the same...

[ZacsMumme]

Have you ruled out food intolerances? they often cause nighttime digestive discomfort.
How are his poops?
Any airway restrictions that you have noticed that could be possibly causing sleep apnea? http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/apnea.html

[georgeo]

My regular doctor couldn't check for the fluid. He sent us to the health unit where they do the hearing tests for kids to have it checked. She didn't have an ear infection at the time. Does he have a runny nose all of the time?

[jessmum46]

More hugs, definitely get health issues checked out as everyone has suggested.  I wonder though....if you are trying sleep training but still feeding 3hrly at night, that sounds to me as if there may well be a prop element that hasn't yet been addressed  what do you think?  What I mean is I'd be saying to a mum of a 3 month old not to feed before 3h at night if LO could manage that in the day, maybe 4h at 4-6 months.  So feeding any point from 3h at 9 months seems a bit excessive and I wonder if that's why you've not really seen much in the way of progress??  I would say most babies at this age could get through the night without a feed, or maybe with one feed. 

If you are confident there are no health issues would you be open to trying something slightly different at night to quite rapidly cut down feeds and see if that helps?

[Katet]

DS1's sleep was shocking until he gave up naps, & then it was still a challenge until we discovered Glue Ear at 6yo... that was in a child who we never had an ear infection ever... even when at 5.5yo & he was struggling to hear (picked up when learning to read) the GP couldn't see a problem... the ENT said it was because his ears were totally full of fluid but there was no redness due to infection. Breathing issues were also part of it due to asthma and allergy. He did actually sleep really well for about 2 weeks - the 2 weeks before I went back to work and then when he started going to childcare he kept getting sick and that was when his sleep was shocking.

With hindsight, milk allergy was part of the issue, never quite bad enough for that totally upset child, teething, ears & just a whole host of things on top of each other. 

Even with not feeding him at night from 7.3-pm until 4 or 5am he'd still wake 4-5 times a night.

Just had a thought about this having read a thread about Asthma. DS1's sleep even now is bad when he is just before having a problem. Weirdly him talking in his sleep means that his breathing is struggling & I think that as a baby that was part of the problem a mild apnea problem

[~*Nicole*~]

Just jumping in as I thought of my DS when you mentioned reflux. DS had more of a silent reflux and as he got older, during the day he appeared fine for the most part (after his miserable first three or four months of life). But his nights were awful for a long time and he still needed meds and a restricted diet to control his reflux until he was well over a year old. He also couldn't handle dairy and soy until he was much older so I had to really check what I ate and really check the ingredients in any baby foods I gave him.

[1stimer]

Awesome responses yall thank you!! I will mention the fluid on the ears to his MD next time we see her or call her if it doesn't seem to change sooner (she asked me to check in). I'm off of dairy, soy etc bc it seemed it was upsetting him from the start. We noticed a changed in him after a few weeks with gas and poops once the dairy was out of my system. We have over the last few days tried a little dairy with him. We spread it over a few days and it was only a few yogurt bites but I don't believe that's the problem bc his sleeping has been awful foe much longer (and he seems to be tolerating the dairy pretty well   ) Katherine I'm not 100% confident about his health right now (I know he's got some teeth just about to break through) but what would it entail? We were doing 3 hrs bc we wanted (I can't remember who first helped me when I posted on another thread) to gradually move it at the time. It could very well be a prop issue though. At first we thought it was his paci but he wont resettle with it sometimes so I guess it would be the breast but he doesn't need it to sleep any other time. I meant to try his reflux meds tonight. I might sneak in and give them him but he doesn't seem to be in pain...it's like he just wakes up and wants a snuggle or something. When we discovered his ear infection I could tell something was wrong and his MD said it sounded like silent reflux or an ear infection before she checked him and it was his ear. I should mention it's also hard to do the sleep training bc his crib is in our room and dh gets a little irritated when he is up and fussing for long....which really shouldn't matter but it does...

[jessmum46]

I think until you are 100% confident about his health then I would just manage the best you can.  If you do get to a point where you think it is prop-related though (I can see how this would very easily happen if he is in your room and DH doesn't like being disturbed - men hey?!) then you could at this age go cold-turkey on night feeds, or (slightly more gently) pick one or two times in the night you are willing to feed say 10pm (like a dream feed) then not before 5am and persist with resettling him at all other times.  It would require full commitment though.....do you think DH would support you or at least sleep elsewhere?  Or would DH be willing to deal with NWs of a bit to avoid the possibility of a feed?

[~*Nicole*~]

Yeah, I found with the silent reflux that even teething could cause a flare. Or a cold (the extra mucous maybe??) seemed to make things worse again, even if they had appeared settled prior. I'm not saying that's the answer, but it could be a contributing factor.