Hi guys!
My guy is nearing 4 months and has started fighting all sleep including naps, only wants to sleep in my arms. He’s waking up on every transfer to his bassinet. Last night it took 2 hours to get him down and then he was up again 3 hours later, resettled him every hour after that. I fell asleep for an hour while sitting up feeding him in bed last night and feel terrible, it was unintentional and not at all co-sleep safe 7 situation as I was propped up on a pile of pillows.
I had been nursing him to sleep and contact napping exclusively since birth and his nights were great, 6-8 hour stretches and once even a 9 hour stretch in his bassinet after being transferred fully asleep. He stopped being able to nap in his bassinet at about 8 weeks.
Now he doesn’t want to nurse to sleep, will cry and thrash if I try to get him down that way. He will fall asleep with prolonged rocking but will scream for 20 mins in my arms before he falls asleep, then wakes up on transfer whether I put him down after 5 minutes or 30 minutes of deep sleep.
He’s too young for Ferber or CIO sleep training but I’ve tried some gentle methods to try and settle him in his sleep space. I’ve read PLS like 20 times. I’ve tried SITBACK, shush-patting and paci in the bassinet, pick up put down, rocking the bassinet, fuss it out and all of them just lead to scream crying after 30 minutes. No method has worked twice in a row and drowsy but awake has never worked. He did almost fall asleep with the shush pat and paci but would wake as soon as I stopped holding the pacifier in.
I’m wondering if my schedule is off?
6:30 - 7 wake.
1.5/1.5/1.5/1.75/1.75/2.25 ish
8:30 - 9pm bed.
3.5 hours of day sleep - all contact or car seat or stroller - 20 mins to 2 hours max (capped).
9 hours of night sleep not including wake ups and feeds.
Total sleep in 24h is 12.5 hours so lowish sleep needs.
Help?
Husband can’t do shifts as baby won’t take a bottle and I can’t sleep through the crying when he has him anyways.
Might resort to co-sleeping till we can train but I need to buy a whole new firm mattress as our mattress is soft and pillow top.
Edit:
Not too sure why I’m being downvoted. I’ve very intentionally avoided unsafe accidental co-sleeping situations from birth and never co-slept when he was a newborn. This regression caught me off guard and I think I have more of a sleep debt from this week of crap sleeps than I was aware of. I am trying to find a way to ensure this doesn’t happen again - I was horrified when I woke up still holding him, I woke up my husband crying.
Edit 2 in case someone is going through similar stuff.
Since this post I took some advice and lengthened wake windows and dropped to four naps and things seem better!!
1.75/2/2/2/2.25-2.5 is current schedule.
Naps naturally shortened to 75 mins max. 3-3.5 h total.
Nights 8-7 with 1-2 feeds.
Less fighting at nap and bedtime.
Manageable!
My guy is nearing 4 months and has started fighting all sleep including naps, only wants to sleep in my arms. He’s waking up on every transfer to his bassinet. Last night it took 2 hours to get him down and then he was up again 3 hours later, resettled him every hour after that. I fell asleep for an hour while sitting up feeding him in bed last night and feel terrible, it was unintentional and not at all co-sleep safe 7 situation as I was propped up on a pile of pillows.
I had been nursing him to sleep and contact napping exclusively since birth and his nights were great, 6-8 hour stretches and once even a 9 hour stretch in his bassinet after being transferred fully asleep. He stopped being able to nap in his bassinet at about 8 weeks.
Now he doesn’t want to nurse to sleep, will cry and thrash if I try to get him down that way. He will fall asleep with prolonged rocking but will scream for 20 mins in my arms before he falls asleep, then wakes up on transfer whether I put him down after 5 minutes or 30 minutes of deep sleep.
He’s too young for Ferber or CIO sleep training but I’ve tried some gentle methods to try and settle him in his sleep space. I’ve read PLS like 20 times. I’ve tried SITBACK, shush-patting and paci in the bassinet, pick up put down, rocking the bassinet, fuss it out and all of them just lead to scream crying after 30 minutes. No method has worked twice in a row and drowsy but awake has never worked. He did almost fall asleep with the shush pat and paci but would wake as soon as I stopped holding the pacifier in.
I’m wondering if my schedule is off?
6:30 - 7 wake.
1.5/1.5/1.5/1.75/1.75/2.25 ish
8:30 - 9pm bed.
3.5 hours of day sleep - all contact or car seat or stroller - 20 mins to 2 hours max (capped).
9 hours of night sleep not including wake ups and feeds.
Total sleep in 24h is 12.5 hours so lowish sleep needs.
Help?
Husband can’t do shifts as baby won’t take a bottle and I can’t sleep through the crying when he has him anyways.
Might resort to co-sleeping till we can train but I need to buy a whole new firm mattress as our mattress is soft and pillow top.
Edit:
Not too sure why I’m being downvoted. I’ve very intentionally avoided unsafe accidental co-sleeping situations from birth and never co-slept when he was a newborn. This regression caught me off guard and I think I have more of a sleep debt from this week of crap sleeps than I was aware of. I am trying to find a way to ensure this doesn’t happen again - I was horrified when I woke up still holding him, I woke up my husband crying.
Edit 2 in case someone is going through similar stuff.
Since this post I took some advice and lengthened wake windows and dropped to four naps and things seem better!!
1.75/2/2/2/2.25-2.5 is current schedule.
Naps naturally shortened to 75 mins max. 3-3.5 h total.
Nights 8-7 with 1-2 feeds.
Less fighting at nap and bedtime.
Manageable!
