What on earth do you do...

[cristeen]

When babe decides that 3 am is play time? Once in a while I can deal, but this is the second night in a row and I have no intention of allowing this to become a habit. Yesterday he was up until 6, but since it was a weekend I was able to get a couple hours after that. Today I won't have that option, since the alarm goes off at 6:30.

I changed him, gave him his bottle, and he was asleep! And then he started thrashing, badly. He'd stop and be asleep, then thrash for 5 seconds, and did that over and over again until he was wide awake. And now he's fully active and I just want to scream. 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night does NOT make for a functional mama. I popped him into his bouncy chair... he's yawning, but refusing to close his eyes, even if I stroke his forehead (I tried swaddling, rocking, covering his eyes, etc.).

HELP!!

[2boyzmama]

Oh you poor thing!!!

My kids have never done that, except Ian when we moved from Japan to Ohio and the time difference was 12 hours, THAT messed him up big time!!

I would skip changing him if you can avoid it, and don't turn on any lights. You should be able to give a bottle in the dark. If you need a bit more light, turn on a light a room away, but turn it on when you go to bed so it's always that light in the room.

Will he comfort nurse? At least then you can doze in and out of sleep even if he's not sleeping.

Do you cosleep? When he thrashes like that, try pulling him really close to you to lessen the thrashing. Gavin was doing that at bedtime last night, kept jerking his head side to side and waking us both up, I tucked him between my arm and my side and held him close and tight, and eventually he was able to go to sleep.

???? I don't know!!! I feel you on the no-sleep thing, I had countless sleepless nights with Connor, it got to the point that I dreaded nighttime, at least during the day other humans were awake and I didn't feel so alone. I would go to work a zombie after having not slept for days or even weeks (he was so sick, the stress and fear prevented me from sleeping).

I've always read that exposing baby to early morning sunlight can help re-set their circadian rhythms, but I don't know where you live and if a morning walk is feasible weather-wise.

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by 2boyzmama

I've always read that exposing baby to early morning sunlight can help re-set their circadian rhythms, but I don't know where you live and if a morning walk is feasible weather-wise.

If he does it again tonight, we'll give this a try tomorrow. THe weather is chilly, but here that's only 50s. He went to sleep finally about 6:15, I laid with him until about 6:30 and then went and snuggled with DH until 6:45 when he MUST get up. He let me snooze in the big bed until he was walking out the door, but as soon as I crawled back into the bed with the baby, he woke up and has been up ever since.

I don't turn a light on in the room - we have a small nightlight, and that's enough for just about everything. And unfortunately I haven't found a way to avoid changing him in the night. Usually he sleeps right through it, but last night he didn't. I can leave him in a night-time dipe for about 5 hours max, and then it's literally sopping when I get it off of him. This is the kid who managed to pee in his own mouth, he's such a super-soaker.

He won't comfort nurse. At this point if I don't have a LA on, he won't nurse more than a few sucks. Although I could hear him swallowing last night when he was nursing, he was also screaming bloody murder. I just got to the point where I was int he bathroom bawling at a quarter to 6 while he laid in bed screaming... i had to walk away so I wouldn't do something I'd regret, I was so frustrated and tired.

[MichelleAnnette]

You didn't mention work....are you working? I'm just wondering why you can't sleep when the baby sleeps? If you just have one and you're a SAHM, SLEEP! It does suck when they don't sleep when you want them to, but it helps a lot if you can nap with them.

I've never been sleep deprived because when I need it, I just take every opportunity to sleep. These days, I'm not napping regularly, but I would if I needed to and my kids cooperated (at the same time).

When my 2 year old was a baby, he did the 3 am play time a few times. He was older, though - maybe 8 months or so. I always left the light off and stayed in bed and let him crawl all over me until he fell back asleep. I sort of ignored him unless he needed something and it only happened a few times. I definitely did NOT get up and play with him. I have a friend who got up with her baby to play at night and it became a hard to break habit. I'm not advocating leaving your baby to cry or anything, just leaving the lights off and staying in bed.

[confustication]

I generally assume it's a brief phase... though, my first was a three-am partier for months. I finally got used to being up then, and since she was my only child, it was easy to nap with her in the day as necessary.

Now, I only have maybe 2 nights a week when I have to get out of bed with Keagan. I keep the lights low though and he falls asleep again fairly well. I do not do middle of the night changes unless I *have* to. A drybees fleece nighttime pocket diaper with an infant prefold and a doubler is enough to keep him comfy without fail. I only change him if it's soiled, and not just wet. I do natural fibers most of the time, but the stay-dry at night is awesome.

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by MichelleAnnette

You didn't mention work....are you working? I'm just wondering why you can't sleep when the baby sleeps? If you just have one and you're a SAHM, SLEEP! It does suck when they don't sleep when you want them to, but it helps a lot if you can nap with them.

I try. But yesterday he didn't get back to sleep until 12:30, and we had to leave for his dentist appt to check his stitches at 1:00.

Last night went much better. Rather than letting him sleep all evening, we forced him to stay awake after he woke from his afternoon nap. He didn't go down until after 10, and he actually woke me this morning cooing and laughing instead of screaming. Makes a nice change.

I do like fleece lined dipes for nighttime, but even stuffed with an infant prefold trifolded and then folded again into his wet zone, the entire dipe and cover are sopping wet after 5 hours. I just have not found anything that can hold him for the 10 or 11 hours he usually sleeps (9-7). 2 prefolds in the pocket do the best, but the cover stands so far away from his body that the bed winds up soaked anyway.

[Lula's Mom]

Originally Posted by cristeen

I do like fleece lined dipes for nighttime, but even stuffed with an infant prefold trifolded and then folded again into his wet zone, the entire dipe and cover are sopping wet after 5 hours. I just have not found anything that can hold him for the 10 or 11 hours he usually sleeps (9-7). 2 prefolds in the pocket do the best, but the cover stands so far away from his body that the bed winds up soaked anyway.

That was my ds#1. Holy cow did that kid soak through everything! I finally gave up and used disposables at night on him. With this baby we have EC'd from the start, so I let him pee in the bedside potty any time he starts wiggling and making noises in his sleep (he sleeps anywhere from 2-5 hours between pees). He pees, we nurse, and often make it through the night with a dry diaper.