night sleeping help

Tom's never been the best night sleeper- normally wakes up around 3-6 times during the night, but lately it feels like it is getting worse and I need some ideas/suggestions what to do.

He sleeps well during the day, self settles without a problem and on average probably sleeps 5 hr in total during the day.  He is swaddled and I leave one of his hands near his face so he can suck on them.  At night the room temp is left on 18C and he is a sleeping bag, swaddle and woolen blanket so I am pretty sure he is not too cold.

He goes to bed at 6.30 in the evening and does down without a fuss...but then the fun and games being.

Last night for example

Bed at 6.15

Woke at 9 crying hard out (still had his eyes shut but won't stop crying so I had to pick him up and give him a cuddle, it was only when he opened his eyes that he stopped crying). Once he stoped crying I put him back in his bed awake and he went back to sleep

Woke at 11- fed

Woke at 2.30 (left to grizzle for 10 mins, but wouldn't go back to sleep so I changed his nap, gave him a feed and went back to sleep).

Woke at 4 & 5.15- quick cuddle and then went back to sleep

Woke at 6.20 still tired, but refused to go back to sleep.

 

This is a fairly typical night for him.  Any ideas on why he is waking so often???? I don't mind giving him a couple of feds during the night, as he is still so young but it is the early morning wakings that are doing my head in.

I am going to try tonight not swaddling him at all and am going to get a comfort toy for him, but honestly don't know if that will make a difference.

 

 

yeah I did wonder if it was a nightmare early in the evening as it has happened the past 3 nights- my poor boy what on earth could a 3 month be having a nightmare about

 

I have no problem with him starting the day at 6.20- IF he didn't wake up so often in the early morning. If I could cut out the 4am and 5am wake ups, then it won't be so bad..but it just basically means from 4am every morning I can't get any decent sleep (and I go to bed really early at the moment to try and get in some extra sleep).

 

have tried putting him to bed slightly later but he still wakes up at the same time and it just means he is extra grizzling in the evenings (he wants up his last sleep at around 4.30 after a 45min nap) and falls asleep on me during his bedtime feed.

no its pitch black in the early morning.

 

it's annoying...just as I have gotten back to sleep again, he wakes up again.

 

should also note I have tried leaving him to grizzle for a while, but I can't let him get too loud as Ella is the room next door and is a light sleeper at the time of the morning as well.

Just seen you post about leaving him to grizzle and Ella. Feel free to slap me round the face when I next see you, but maybe it would be worth a couple of days of distrupted sleep for Ella (and obviously you guys) just to try and nip Tom's sleeping pattern in the bud?

Honestly, just ignore me if that sounds stupid. I obviously only have the one bubba and I'm in constant ore of all you fabilicious mammas who have more than one

Maybe Ella could have a wee holiday with Grandma & Grandad for a couple of nights and you could focus on Tom's sleeps?

re: the nightmare in the early evening- do you guys think it is worth me going in and waking him up slighly earlier and seeing if that stops it??? I probably wouldn't need to fully wake him up then would I?

We're going through this too, but always have, Lily has constant growth spurts, every week or 2 she seems to have one and it shows in the weight she puts on too.

Dream feeds work here BUT I have to make sure I go in at the right time other wise it backfires. I can't go in when she is sound asleep, she has to be in the restless sleep if that's what it is called...

Check out thesleepstore.co.nz heaps of really awesome info.

And I feel your pain, our 6 month old is doing the same thing!

I can sympathise too. Esme typically wakes at least twice a night. The last week has been 3-4 times as she has just learnt to crawl and has a cold.

If it was me (and I know it'll mean disrupted sleep for a couple of nights) I wouldn't get up to him if he's just grizzling. He will start to rely on a cuddle or BF to get back to sleep (this is our problem which we are working on slowly). Or if he is grizzling go in but try not to pick him up initially so he falls to sleep in his bed.

For the early morning wake up have you tried to have his first sleep slightly later? That can help stretch the night sleeps out too.

To help Ella sleep through it would she sleep with some white noise to help mask the grizzles?

Thanks for the advice. I don't really want to mess with his day sleeps as I spent quite a bit of time earlier trying to get him to sleep longer than 45mins and personally think 5 hrs sleep during the day is good for him. My 3 year old still sleeps 3 hr during the day (so 15hrs in total). He refused his late afternoon nap today and was an real mess by 5.30.

 

For the past couple of nights I started leaving him to grizzle a bit longer than usual at around 2/3am and last night he went back to sleep by himself and didn't wake up until 5.45 where he had a good feed and staight back to sleep.....so a definite improvement