Time to Pay the Piper.(kinda long, lots of questions)

[hoosiermama]

I don't know what I am doing wrong.  He was up every three hours last night wanting to nurse. He slept beautifully for 2 of his naps yesterday (2 hours each).  He has been getting his hands out of his swaddling, but they tend to wake him up, but when we try to re-swaddle he gets really mad (arching his back, screaming, won't take pacifier, won't let us soothe him).  He isn't going back to sleep when we give him the binky back either so I have been nursing him, but he won't always go back to sleep even then.  He also has gotten up at 5:30 the last 3 days in a row, and we can't get him back to sleep. He is all happy and playing when we are over the crib, but as soon as we leave he is whiny and fussy again.  Maybe this is just a growth spurt.  He will be 17 weeks old on Monday and has yet to sleep through the night.  I may be the first case ever of death by sleep deprivation! :

[nursekat]

It could be a growth spurt, 4 months is a common one...

Do you think he is really hungry or are you nursing him in an attempt to get him back to sleep (don't be embarassed if that is the case - I totally do that myself, LOL!).

Perhaps he is telling you he's ready to wean the swaddle?

Don't forget to keep complimenting yourself on how far you've come - you have had a LOT of success in a short period of time!!

In any case, if he is using you as a human paci at night, it might be time to try pu/pd...not a fun way to go but successful if done correctly.

[hoosiermama]

Well!  We took him out of the swaddle and put him in a sleep sack.  He has had 2 great nights so far (he sleptt for a 6 1/2 hour stretch last night!  Longest ever!  We haven't tried it for naps yet as we were at the in-laws yesterday so he slept in his car seat .  i called the lactation consultant and she seems to think growth spurt and/or teething.  he is drooling like crazt and trying to chew on everything.  i don't feel anything, but she said that they can start teething up to 3 months before thry actually cut a tooth.    I am contemplatin the pu/pd, we'll see how things progress this week with the sleep sack!

[nursekat]

Good job with the sleep sack!  Yes, teething can go on for MONTHS before they actually come out - they are growing bones in there and can be quite irritating and painful.

Good luck and let me know how it goes!  I'm really proud of all the progress you have made, btw!! 

[hoosiermama]

Well, we are a total mess again.  He is getting up every 3-4 hours in the middle of the night again.  His naps have deteriorated (sp?) to 30-45 min.  I have pretty much stopped nursing, and he is on formula and solids.  Because of the short naps our schedule is all messed up, absolutely no consistancy, and he has started getting up for the day at 5:00!  Also, we found out the other day that his front soft spot has closed up prematurely and he had to have a ct scan and we have to see the neurosurgeon, so I am a mess.  I don't know how to fix this, and I am afraid to work on it just in case he has to have surgery or somthing.  AHHHH.  At least I can have a beer now that I am not nursing anymore!  

[nursekat]

OOf, I am so sorry.  We have had a rough couple of weeks too, so I can feel your pain, literally.    And we just weaned as well so I had a GIANT margarita last night, LOL! 

Do you want to try to work on it or just looking for support?  Let me know either way, I can do both. 

I'm sorry to hear about the soft spot stress.  I would be beside myself knowing something like that.  You will be in my thoughts and prayers.

[hoosiermama]

At this point  I don't know what I want, probably just permission to backslide a little.  My husbands plan is to wait until after we see the neurosurgeon, then decide what we want our routine to look like (he's an engineer so of course we will have to write it down ) and then work on in stringently until we've got it down pat.  We also want to wean the binkie, but plan to wait on that as well, we don't want to take away his comfort if he has to have surgery etc.   Thanks for listening to me ramble!

[nursekat]

You're the mom, you get to do what you want (within the limits of the law)!! 

We'll still be here when you guys are ready to buckle down...good luck with the doctor stuff and be sure to let us know how it all goes!!!

[hoosiermama]

Okay, so everything is fine with Owen.  He has what is called a Wormian bone that covers his soft spot, but all of his sutures (spaces inbetween the bone plates in his skull) are still open so he has plenty of room for his brain to grow.  So, now we are going to work on his sleep issues. 
He is currently on a 3 1/2 hour loose scheudule and is now completely bottle fed.  He is still getting up 2x during the night to eat (usually around 1 and around 5).  His naps still stink, and we are having a harder and harder time getting him to extend.  To get him to sleep we are bouncing him while holding  him, and then giving him a binky in the crib.  So, do we get rid of everything and do PU/PD?  What do I do if he wakes up from his naps early?  Thanks again for the help.

[nursekat]

Good news on the skull stuff!  Nice to know you won't have to worry about that one.  What a relief. 

Well, you've got (in my mind) two major things to work on:  1) getting him on a more solid routine and 2) getting him to sleep independently.  I think you will find everything falls into place when you acheive these two things. 

1)  He's definitely old enough he's ready to be pushed to a 4hr routine.  You will probably find his naps (and quite possibly the night wakings) improve greatly with this.  Push his A times a few minutes every few days until he can make the 2hrs A time.  It takes a while to get it done, but you will probably see lots of improvements in general once this is done.

2)  He definitely needs to learn to fall asleep in the crib.  Does shh/pat still work for him at all?  PU/PD is the next step to getting him to fall asleep in the crib without the bouncing, etc.  Whether to do the binkie at the same time is up to you and how brave you are feeling.    If you're not feeling brave, start with just getting him to be able to fall asleep on his own in the crib using shh/pat and/or PU/PD and then tackle the binkie next.

HTH. 

[hoosiermama]

Thank you.  I'll start there and let you know how it goes!

[nursekat]

You're welcome!  And I can't remember if I talked about this earlier or not, but definitely check out the pu/pd faq page as it has tons of stuff in there and can be tricky sometimes (especially if you are sleep deprived, lol!).

[hoosiermama]

As part of our winddown we have been bouncing him.  Today I only bounced him for a minute, put him in his crib drowsy, but awake, gave him his binkie, and rubbed his head until his eyes shut. Is this okay, or do I need to stop intervening all together.  Also, he is a 45 min. napper, so when I go to extend is bouncing okay or should I try to get him to go back to sleep independantly? 

[nursekat]

If you ask me, wind-down is your call, as long as he is learning to FALL asleep in his crib, kwim?  And, as long as it fits into Tracy's motto of "start as you mean to go on."

For extending, I would do what you can to avoid the bouncing so that doesn't become a prop and get him to become more independent.  He will be outgrowing the 45min naps relatively soon so the more you can do now to get him independent, the better.

HTH. 

How did today go?

[hoosiermama]

Today went pretty well.  We managed to extend one nap with little intervention to 1 and 1/2 hours.  We are having the most trouble with extending him to only eating every 4 hours.  He generally is only taking between 4-6 oz. for each feed, should he be able to go for 4 hours on that much fourmula?  Last night he went 9 hrs. before needing to be fed (and then only took 5 1/2 ounces), of course he was up from 9:30-10:30, but we got him down without feeding him, then he got up at 3:45 for his only feed, but didn't go back down until 4:30, but slept until 6:30 and woke up happy for the very first time!  Hurray!  So we are getting there.  This is my birthday week, so we aren't hitting it to hard as so much is going on, but we are working on it gradually.  THanks so much for all of your help.  Are things going okay with you?