He STILL wont sleep.

Okay so we've been to plunket / doctors etc to see if anything is wrong with Thomas - there isnt. We've been given techniques on how to settle him at night to go to bed and it's just not working! The plunket nurse thinks that theres something in his room that he doesnt like or he just doesnt like his room. He'll sleep on the spare bed in the office just fine by himself, but he keeps falling off (dont worry, it's only a foot off the floor and theres a foam pad under it for just such occasions) so thats really not an option.

They pretty much said to leave him to it and he'll eventually settle. Night before last he screamed for 2 hours and didnt go to sleep, so I had to get him up and give him a bottle and tried again. Took another hour to go to sleep. Last night he just screamed regardless of where he was and tonight he was put to bed at 6 after much yawning and rubbing of eyes, but he's still awake. another 2 hours of screaming. I'm sorry but thats just too long to let a baby scream (in my opinion of course) He gets so worked up that his poor little lips are dry and his throat is all sore.

So what do I do? Is there something herbal I can use safely to help him sleep? We've tried all the usual methods and i'm going completely mental. Tears every night is not an option.

If he likes the other room, is there any chance of swapping rooms for a while? Anything for a good sleep .

.Mel wrote: Is he wrapped? In a sleeping bag? Does he have a nightly routine is there anything that goes into bed with him that he can associate with sleep time? Is he hungry? How much of a bottle a you giving him?.

Hasnt been wrapped since 2 months old and hates it, he doesnt take anything to bed with him except his dummy - which he has with him all the time, he's not hungry - he has a 200ml bottle AND dinner then if and when he wakes again he gets 250ml.
Its extremely hard to fathom really.

He's just laying there flat on his back screaming. No tears, just screaming. No arching of his back or anything like that.
Moving rooms isnt an option. The spare room is actually Matts office for work. Moving him into Thomas's room would be a logistical nightmare and theres just not enough space.

Edited by MissAngel

I don't have any wisdom I'm afraid, but I hope this phase passes really soon. It must be incredibly hard for all concerned. And even though I don't mind a bit of CC (my limit is 5 minutes!) I certainly agree that 2 hours is too long.

Strangely I can relate to this. When I was 3 to 4 I was petrified of sleeping in my bedroom but my room was fine during the day.. Still to this day I can still remember, which is weird. I dont' know why but there was something about that room, my brothers room was fine so I slept in with him.

Maybe til Thomas is older put just his cot in the spare room & put the spare bed in his room?

gosh this must be so hard and exhausting for you!   do you have a nightlight for him? maybe he's scared of the dark shadows of something in his room..........that's the only thing i can think of, sorry i'm not much help

If it is teething then I would recommend trying ibuprofen, it works so much better for Jack than Pamol

I would suggest nurofen for children too - it lasts a lot longer than pamol - about 8 hours (and you can use them together too as they are different things!).

Maybe take most of the things out of his room (so there is nothing to scare him) or try moving the furniture around if you can't change rooms.

E will cry as well.. when he makes the noise where i know he wont settle i get him up.. (well we try the dummy replacement first) and we just sit with him and he calms down and cuddles in and when he is calm I lay him back down and it usually works...

it's so frustrating though..there's nothing wrong (obviously i mean) but if i left him he would just carry on..I'm not in the leaving to cry camp either(though we will let him for a few mins) and the other nights he will sleep fine..it's so random..anyway we just get him up..cuddle him for a little while and put him back down..sometimes it takes two or three times.. E seems to be way worse when teething or going through a new stage..

checking in to see how things went last night - all good I hope