I am pretty new to this forum. I read the "Secrets of the Babywhisperer" mainly for the sleeping advise. I am curious if anyone has dealt with this.
My 4.5 month old DD sleeps very badly at night and I don't mean she wakes to feed constantly. Whether she is in bed with me or in her crib, she can wake every 5 minutes to every 10 minutes and need her pacifier or something but she sleeps so fitfully even with that. Now, she is not a good sleeper during the day, either, but she will sleep 30-45 minutes at a time without needing her paci or anything. The only way I have gotten any sleep is to nurse her in bed and be an all night buffet (once she eats, she will sleep for an hour or a couple of hours). When I try to run into her room everytime she cries, I get exhausted and DH has NO resolve to help me, so she ends up in my bed by 3 am because I am exhausted. During the day the patting and shushing help her go to sleep in her crib and the whole waking every 5-10 minutes thing doesn't happen. She HAS slept through the night before but I don't know what gives her a good night one night and bad nights the rest of the time. I mean, every couple of hours to get up and help her go back to sleep is one thing but when she never gets into a restful sleep, it is a whole other thing. I say it is like being next to "ninja baby" with her arms flailing, and head bobbing looking for something to suck. She doesn't like being swaddled, it makes her mad and she is a bit big for that anyway (the legs break out even if the arms are secure-although they never stay secure for long).
At this point, I am not even worried about getting her past the 30-45 minute nap, I will tackle that later after I figure out what to do to get her to sleep well at night.
Any ideas? I am getting concerned that this is neurological or something. Believe it or not, when we started taking her to the chiropractor about 1.5 months ago for colic, she began sleeping through the night (it also cleared her colic). But, since then, even after an adjustment, she may have a good 2 hour nap once day but the night sleeping and the remaining naps are back to normal. :-( UGH
Sorry so long.
