Can anyone help me?

[Bobby brown]

My DS is 22 weeks old and has never slept through the night. He is on 3 - 3 and a half hour easy which normally starts at around 6.30am to 7.00am with formula milk then around 8.15am has a small amount of porridge, then has a nap which will last for around 40 Min's. He never sleeps longer that this during the day. (I tried PU/PD but it never worked so I gave in after 3 months of trying). He can normally stay awake for up to 2 hrs at a time but if I think he will nap again because he is getting tired then I will put him down for one regardless of the activity time.

Anyway back to the problem - He has a bath everynight at 6.30pm, then a bottle, then in bed by 7.00pm and needs no assistance to go to sleep from me. He will then wake around 10pm to 11pm and down his normal 7oz. It is from this point on he will wake every 1 and a half to 2 hrs, his next bottle is a round 1.30am to 2.30am then will wake again every 1 - 2 hrs. What I normally have to do when for these wakings is either go in and roll him on his side and gently SHH him back to sleep which takes around 15Min's, if that fails its out of the cot for a few Min's cuddle then back in (the cuddle is not very often).

He will always wake on the dot at 5am, he never wants a bottle but will cry to get up and start his day, for this waking I go in and try with SHH but end up leaving him moaning in his cot where eventually he will fall back to sleep about 1 hour later and nap for 40Min's.

I have tried to ignore these waking but find that he will wake himself up to much, then it takes up to an hours to get him back to sleep.

I am now feeling extremely exhausted by all this and don't know what to do - I would try wake to sleep but it difficult as he wakes to frequently.

Can any one help?

[Katet]

I remember those days with my first ds... It is so exhausting

Firstly the 40min naps are your main problem & the 3 /3.5 hourly routine in the day time, at 5months, your lo should be feeding at 4 hourly & that SHOULD help with the naps.

Until your lo masters at least one day nap of 1 hour or longer, I think given the regular wakeups that is the only solution I can think of, sometime around the 4/5 month mark the longer naps clicked for my ds when I started holding out the feed times longer. sometimes I had to sort of do feed, activity sleep, activity, sleep, but eventually I got there. It may be that your lo has a shorter or longer awake time & so that is causing the short naps, watch for his tired signs rather than the clock & see if you can get an idea of how long his awake cycle is (at 22 weeks I'd be guessing at it being around 2 hours 15 mins) & feed every 4 hours not on waking

[Bobby brown]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I am a bit confused. Although I have been told previously that my DS does not sleep well at night because of his cat naps during the day, can someone please explain this for me.

On the the few occasions I have managed to get my son to sleep for longer that the 40min nap in a day, why does this seem to make the night wakings worse.

For instance, yesterday I got him to sleep in the morning for 1hr 20min, then a 45 min nap around lunch time, then late afternoon I got him to sleep for 1hr 40min - under a normal day he would normally have 4 x 40min naps (If i am lucky).
Last night was terrible. He woke every hour from 1am on wards?

I am so confused

[Bobby brown]

Hi Katet.

Thanks for your advise so for but I have another question.

You advised me to move Charlie onto 4 hour feeds. At the moment he is having some porridge about 2hrs after his first bottle of the day (he loves it as he always gets so excited when having it) this then moves his next feed to around 3.5hrs.

My question is can I use solids to move all feeds on, or do you thinks I should stop with the solid until I have cracked the 4hrs feed.

Thanks again

Paula

[Katet]

Often sleep in the day for one day doesn't change the night immediately, it can take days to flow on.

Re the solids, I would feed it in the same hour as the milk, otherwise it can cause snacking  that can lead to not taking full feeds.
If you feel your lo is ready for more solids then do so, I am quite pro wait until 6months, but that is how I feel & I do think the most important thing is to do what you feel is right for your lo as you are the one who spends all the time with them.

sorry got to go very upset baby...