Forum home Babies Sleep

Help me get my baby to sleep

Hello I have a 26 week old baby boy, he started sleeping through at 10 weeks old, got a brilliant routine with him. Bath feed then bed all before 8pm, then would wake any time between 5.30 & 6.30 sometimes later, would bring him into bed with us, feed him then he would go back down til at least 8. Put him into his own room in Moses basket at 13 weeks as we disturbed him when coming to bed, went into cot at 19 weeks. Always went to bed fine, then all of a sudden at about 21 weeks he started waking through the night again at 2 ish then 6ish, then he started that he won't go down in his cot. He falls asleep in our arms as soon as you pick him up from the cot, but wakes & cries as soon as you put him down. At 1st we put it down to teething, then he got a cold, his bottom teeth have now cut through but not all the way up & he still won't settle. Sometimes he goes down straight away but is awake again before 11. Other times he just won't settle. I have to admit we have just ended up putting him in bed with us as its the only way he settles & we can get some sleep. I've tried letting him cry it out but he did that for 45 mins tonight & no sign of giving in, other times I've tried the pick up put down technique, worked once after an hour but never again since. I've tried sitting in the room talking to him, holding his hand rubbing his tummy or back but that doesn't work either. Annoyingly he goes down fine through the day for at least 2 hours mid morning. He's on solids & is loving it.

Advise so desperately needed. Putting me off having any more & we don't want him to be an only child. Lost a baby girl at 16 days old to meningitis so he is very precious to us.

Replies

  • Hi Bea, so sorry to hear you lost your little girl, that's heartbreaking.

    Ok so it seems like you know the differnt sleep techniques, but unfortunately you have to commit longetr to them. I know loads of people are really anti controlled crying, but I have to say, it worked for me in the past when my little girl was 7months old. The first night i did it, i went in after 2mins, said shhh shh, sleepytime, then 4mins later, said same thing, then 8mins later etc - we cracked it in 3 days.

    As you say, your little baby boy is super precious to you though, and it might be heartbreaking for you to try controlled crying, have you tried having white noise in the background? 

    Or how about the sleep and retreat mentho? Sit on a chair next to your baby, put him down, sing him a song, minimal eye contact, but stroke or rub his back to sleep. Do this for a few nights and then eventually stroke less and less.

    Good luck, let me know how you get on.

  • you need to try different things do their nite time routine.EVERY BABY IS DIFFERENT. Pantley's book allows for this, and gives practical advice you can start using right away, as well as a long term plan for getting you and your baby sleeping better.You need to keep putting her back in her bed, I went through this with ALL of my kids. If she wakes up pat her back and try to get her to go to sleep.

  • Help! My 16 week old baby girl won't sleep. 

    Ever since birth she has settled best when feeding on me (she is breast fed) and now we're in this awful cycle where the only way I can get her to settle at night is to feed her to sleep but then usually as soon as I put her back down in her cot she (or shortly after) she's awake again.

    She did have a brief period where she slept for 7+ hrs over night when she was about 10/11 weeks old so I know she is capable of it but it's getting worse to the point where I'm spending almost all evening (from 8pm onwards) sat in our bedroom feeding her, then over night she's up every hour or two.

    My other concern is she's feeding less during the day (between7am and 7pm) and only really "snacking" for 5mins or less.

    I can tell she is teething, and have been giving her some calpol about 7pm to help her settle but it's not really made a difference.

    We have a consistent bath, feed, bed routine every night (feeding in our bedroom which she shares with us). I've tried dummies numerous times (she really doesn't want to know). I've tried white noise, which seemed to help in the early days, but not now. I've tried the patting/shushing thing which actually makes her cry more. 

    I'm running out of ideas. My mum and husband have tried settling her but can't stop her crying, and I've got 5 yer old twins to deal with too - I never had such problems with them....I thought having one baby was supposed to be easier (lol). Everywhere says not to try controlled crying until she's 6months, but that's 2.5 months away and this is really starting to get me down.

    Can anyone offer some more advice/tips?

    Thanks in advance.

    Vicky.

Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions