14 week old is waking at night won't go back to sleep

[madelineowen]

Please Please help,

This is not my first post. I'm always on this site seeking advise and help.To be honest with you if it wasn't for this site i think i would have cracked up a long time ago. It's really helped me and has stopped me from cracking up.

I'm not sure if i should post this here or on the feeding board?

My problem is that i have a grumpy baby and from day one it's been an absult struggle with everything. I completely adore my lo but she really does try ones patients.

She is 14 weeks old and is a terrible sleeper and feeder. She only naps for 30 - 45 Min's at each nap in the day and has now started to wake in the night and refuses to go back to sleep. I'm really at my wits end and I'm lucky if i get four hours sleep a night.

The health visitor came last week to check on her as she has a dairy allergy and is on soya milk. She advised me that i should start to ease her into a four hour routine and this should sort out her problems.

So i am now following a 3.5 easy routine. However she will only sleep 45Min's which is making her activity time quit long.

At night she goes to bed at 7pm and will then wakes at 9-10pm for a feed, she will then sleep until 1.30a.m.feed and then refuses to go back to sleep four the next 2-3 hours. After that she can often wake go back off and then wake again for the rest of the time.

All her nap's and sleeps are done in her crib, in a dark room. I use a water CD to get her off and she has a pacif. Lately she will not go off unless i am holding her hand and laying next to the crib.

I usually cluster feed her before bed and have just started to add a little cereal to her milk because i know that she is not getting enough calories during the day. As she will only take 3oz at each feed and i have tried everything to get her to take more.

It's only recently that her activity time has got longer (usually 2 hours now) as she was only staying awake 1 - 1.5 hours before but we still had this problem.

It's seems like there are so many problems  that need to be addressed. i just don't know what to do why won't she sleep or eat well?

Alicia's Mummy.x

[Jazmyn]

If you could post your schedule it might help.  I dont know if I am going to be much help, I am in a similar situation but my baby does sleep at night between feeds.  He is awake at 5am sometimes playing, and then cries because he wants to be reswaddled so he can go back to sleep.

Take one problem at a time though, and work on it, and I find the others just fall into place.

Again post your babies routine and I am sure plenty will be able to offer their advice. (((hugs)))

[madelineowen]

Thanks for the support sometimes you just don't know what to do and to hear that someone else is going through it makes it a bit easier. All i hear from my friends is my baby wasn't like that and that she must be spoilt. Just let her cry it out but i refuse to do that however it has crossed my mind quite a few times.

Please see my routine it can vary depending on how much awake time she has had.

7-7.30 wake
FROM & TOO
E-7.30-7.40
A-7.40 - 9.00
S-9.00-9.45
A-10.00-11.00
E-11.00-11.10
A-11.10-12.30
S-12.30-1.30 IF LUCKY
A-1.30-2.30
E-2.30-2.40
A-2.40- 3.40
S-3.40-4.20
E-4.30-4.40
A-4.40-6.00 SOMETIMES 17.30 DEPENDING HOW SHE IS
6.00 BATH AND READY FOR BED
E-6.30 AND WIND DOWN
S-7.00 BED TIME SOMETIMES THIS IS AT 6.30 IF SHE IS REALLY TIRED
E-10.00-10.10
S-10.20 - 12.30
E-12.30 STAYS AWAKE UNTILL ABOUT 2 -3
S-2.00 - 4.00
E-4.00- 4.10
S-4.10-6.30/7.00 IF LUCKY

THIS IS A LUCKY DAY SOMETIMES SHE JUST WONT SLEEP OR FALLS ASLEEP IN CAR IF OUT.

i HOPE SOMEONE CAN HELP.

ALICIA'S MUMMY.

[Jakes_mom]

Alicias mummy,

I feel your pain,  i too have a grumpy\touchy dd (she is now 10wks old)  i just wanted to say that there are other mommys out there going through the same thing.  I am getting to the point where i wonder if anything will work or should we just try our hardest to get through these early months.  I have a 23 mo ds and i try to look at him and remind myself that one day dd wil be older and hopefully easier to handle?!

[madelineowen]

Thanks for all your support guy's. Last night was truly amazing, I'm not uncrossing my fingers just yet though.

Yesterday she went down for a nap at 2 p.m. and slept for an hour and half.(yeah!) I tried to get her to have another nap at 5p.m. but she wouldn't go down. She was extremely overtired, i did her usually bed time routine bath and bottle. And tried to settle her at 6p.m. rather than 7p.m. It took me an hour to get her sleep. She then slept until 10.30p.m. feed went back to sleep, woke at 1.30 a.m. feed, went back to sleep, stirred at 4a.m. so put her pacif back in and she went back off until 5.00a.m. when she feed again and sat with dad for an hour and then napped again in her swing until 7.00 a.m.

Can't believe it could it be by pushing her routine to 3.5 hours and adding cereal to her bottles has made a difference or is that she is so tired that she needed the sleep? we will see what happens tonight i shall keep you posted.

Big Hugs and kisses to you all.xx

[Scrapbooker]

HUGS to you.  It sounds difficult.  Anything without good sleep for mommy or baby makes it harder.  I have heard (on this site) to work on the day time naps first and the rest will get sorted out later (either automatically or juts by some tweaking).  I have heard the rice cereal really does fill them up more (hence the better night sleep) although it's usually not used this early I don't think.  Whatever your Ped suggests.  I'm sorry she's not eating very well.  I guess I wouldn't sleep well if I didn't eat well either.  On the EASY board there is a section at the top that had suggestions for when your LO may be ready to change-you can see if your LO fits.  Take Care!!  I wich sleep for you both.

[Missy Lou]

if things get crazy again, IMO 2 hours is too long at 14 weeks.  average A time is about 1.5 hours.  less than that, LO will wake up early from naps because she isn't tired enough.  but if she's up 2 hours at a time, she could be overtired which means waking early from  naps, waking a lot during the night and waking up early to start the day.

my LO is slightly lactose intolerant.  we found a formula that doesn't upset her stomach or make her constipated (which soy formula did).  it's similac alimentum. 

let me know if you think we need to adjust LO's routine.
melissa

[Katet]

I too had/have a "grumpy" one & honestly until he was 6mo he really couldn't last 2 hours A time.
For most babies around 3mo 45min naps usually mean they are going to bed overtired so you might need to cut back on the A time to about 1hour (that was all my ds#1 could cope with for at least 2 of his A times a day, sometimes he could do 1.5 hours but mostly about 1hour.
with my ds#2 (not grumpy) I found that because his routine was disrupted by toddler activities, I did some EASASE & that worked ok... if you think she can last longer between feeds then try that.