Mommy is going insane

[Naube]

I can't get my almost 5 month old to sleep anymore.  Up to this point ds has been falling asleep on his own, I went through this with his sister and I wasn't going to always help my son go to sleep like I did with his sister, mostly because he isn't breastfed and I just don't have the time or help with a toddler around.

 Up too the 4 month regression ds would fall asleep on his own and sleep through the night for 12+ hours often 15 hours and have two good long naps after 2 hours of being awake.  Now when he's showing signs of sleep I go put him down and all he does is scream and he's awake once or twice a night.  By the time I get him down for his first nap it's time to get up.  He's schedule was.

W:8:00
N: 10:00
W:11:00
N:1:00
W:3:00
N:4:30
Bed:6:30

Sometimes he would nap until 430 and we would skip the last nap.  Now he hardly gets that nap or any decent nap as he's not going down very nicely and it takes me a hour+ to get him to stop crying and go to sleep. I'm at my wits end as I have had to let him cry lots because I have other children and after a half hour I feel defeated and no longer know what to do to get him to go to sleep.  He's not in a saddle as he rolls and he needs to sleep on his stomach as per the doctor.  Please Help.

[deb]

Any chance of wearing him in a sling or carrier? That's what I ended up resorting to w/#2.

[Martini~]

Honey and what routine do you follow now? Do you still keep 2h awake time? After 4mo sleep regression there is a need to cut his sleep and increase A time because it will impact settling and nights.

[Naube]

I do baby wear but he rarely falls asleep, maybe I should try right around nap time to get him to settle. 

I have him on 2h awake, is it normal at 5 months to be longer than that, is it possible that he's needing 2.5 to 3.0 wake time? I know his naps aren't long enough because he wake with bags and screaming.  With my daughter I would just nurse her to keep her asleep longer but it's not an option this time around.

I'm getting up earlier tomorrow going to see what an earlier wake time does because I'm absolutely going insane.  Tonight he got up at 11 ready to party and it was a fight to get him down for both naps. He use to be so simple all I had to do was sing a song but his white noise on and walk out and he would do the fake cry for a minute or so and he was out.

[Martini~]

You definitely may assume that LO needs more than 2h which is more suitable for a 4mo. At 5-6mo many LOs are going towards 2 naps a day so their awake time is increasing once again. If he is doing 2h now, even 2:15 or 2:30 will make a higher difference for him - you don't have to go for full 3h.

Have you seen the link with average A times in FAQ here! I am on my phone so it's difficult to quote but if you don't don't it, I will paste it later.

[Naube]

this mornings routine:

A:7:15 - I pump and Owen plays in his crib
E:7:45
A:8:45 jolly jumper/ play with sister
A:9:05 floor time
Put down : 9:10 he was yawning
9:45: gave remaining bottle to total 10 oz milk.  Can't get him to settle and he wouldn't eat all his bottle this morning
10:15 talking/ whimpering in his crib, slowly settling.

I don't know what time I should wake him, he should be asleep in the next 5 mins.  I want to get rid of this not eating and hour long trying to get to sleep as I hate letting my daughter watch that much tv,

[Martini~]

It would be better Honey if you change A time gradually, like 15min more every 3 days. How today went? He was probably a bit overtired with such long A and maybe that's why couldn't settle.

[Naube]

That was my today.  It took me a hour to get him to settle and I think he's going to go down easy for the next nap.

[Martini~]

Keeping fingers crossed:)!

[Naube]

Well he slept for 40 minutes.  It took him less than 5 mins to settle but it may be my fault as I let him sleep in swing and he sometimes has issues sleeping in his back.  But I think 2:20 mins might be the magic number.

[Martini~]

Will be waiting for your update tomorrow:).

[Naube]

I don't know what's gone wrong, I have finally gotten ds to go to sleep with less crying now instead of taking hours to put to sleep.  He's staying up about 3 hours anything else he just screams until he's been up for about 3 hours.  And he won't sleep for more than 40 minutes most times.  I feel like my 2 year old sleeps more in the day than my little one.  now he's awake every two- three hours a night.  I'm back at a loss again.

Last night I gavehin a bottle at 11before bed, he woke up at 2, I managed to put him back to sleep for him to wake up again at 3 and up again at 4.  I really can't function like this and I'm at a complete loss what to do with this kid.

[deb]

He was up till 11 last night? If so, he's likely very very OT.

Are you giving him a dream feed? Also, have you tried Wake2Sleep?

[becj86]

Can you write out your full day, including the night? Remind me how old he is now?

[Naube]

I did a dream feed in hopes he would sleep longer instead it did the opposite.  What's wake2sleep?

5.5 months
A:8
S:10:30
A: 11:15
S: 1:30
A:300
B:630