In need of serious help! For the past week my 4 month old has not been wanting to take his afternoon nap which is usually around 4. Last night he stayed awake from 4 until 830! So when he went to sleep at that time I thought he would last until at least 4 am but nope, he woke up again at 1 then at 5. I know that at 4 after eating he was tired but when I swaddle him and put him to bed all he does is cry. And I have tried to let him cry it out. But he won't stop!
What is the usual schedule for a baby at this age? Isn't it usually nap time after about every 2 hrs?
HELP PLEASE!
I posted almost this exact question earlier today. My daughter is doing almost the same thing.
My son was sleeping 12hrs through the night at this point, and DS seems to be back to waking every 3 hrs. It's killing me.
So I have no solution, I just wanted to let you know you're not alone.
Sleep the first few months is indeed totally rough. To be honest, we continue to have a lot of ups and downs even with our 1 1/2 year old. Sleep training and cry it out are said to work well on a little older kids (5 months, per Wiessbluth). All that ever worked for me with my little one before that, was to try and remember that this was temporary and to do whatever rocking, singing and cozying it took to get her to sleep. Some other Weissbluth advice that helped was to begin soothing at the first signs of tiredness as an overtired baby can become fussy and harder to soothe. Good luck and hope you get some more responses.
If you use cio at this point do it modified, only letting him cry for 5 minutes at at time, and than going in to comfort without food, or even removing him from the crib. Just rub him and sing or talk softly. Once he is calm leave, and if he fusses wait another five minutes to go in. I remember my sons taking 2 real naps at this point, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but sleeping well from 8pm until around 5 or 6 am from about 2 months on. On the occasion they woke at night I would wait 5 minutes to go in, and they almost always self soothed in that time and went back to sleep on thier own. I was no as stricked with naps though. I would put them down at the 2 times they usually napped, but if they did not want to sleep I would rock, or put them in the swing.
My daughter is 14 weeks old and doesn't have a solid pattern. Some days her emerging teeth give her more trouble than normal so she'll sleep less because she's sore and it wakes her up. But at that age, they should only be 'really' (of course, every baby is different) having a morning nap, then an afternoon nap, then a big night sleep (broken of course). My daughter has started being really obvious when she wants to sleep so I put her down and off she goes!
I'm confused, you expected him to sleep from 8:30pm until 4am? Has he done it before? My daughter sometimes does 7 hours in a row, but only if she's happy enough too.
I also co-sleep, I put her into bed with us when she wakes up for her first feed during the night. Works a charm! She sleeps better and so do I!!
Good luck :) Hopefully it was just a 'today' thing
