I'm kind of miserable(ds is too).

[KarlaC]

Ds is 5 months old & up until this week he's gone to sleep for the night fairly well. He & I share a queen sized bed.

This week everything has gone into melt down mode. He's been staying up until midnight & I'm unable to get him to sleep. It's driving me a little out of my mind at this point.

Last night I tried laying with him in the bedroom with the lights off & the heartbeat noise maker going which usually knocks him out...instead he decided flapping his arms & laughing was the way to keep himself awake

Tonight I skipped his last nap & laid down with him at 10 p.m. He fell almost directly asleep(yay). Not 20 minutes later he was wide awake & screaming

Here it is 11:10 p.m. & he's still going strong. Wearing him to sleep doesn't seem to work anymore either. The second I stop moving or try to take him out he springs wide awake. I'm kind of at the end of my rope.

Anyone have any ideas? He doesn't seem to be teething that I can see although he's so full of drool(not out of the norm for him). I really, really don't want to cio but the NCSS is not working for us anymore & I need some alone time to decompress before I lose it.

[LilacMama]

I had to stop co-sleeping around this age because my DD decided that it was play-time at all Ungodly hours. I occasionally had decent success with pretending I was asleep throughout all her playing and clamouring around the bed. Sigh. Good luck to you.

[wombatclay]

Big hugs...

There is often a period of "everything goes to poo" right before and during developmental breakthroughs. Is your babe maybe working on crrawling, or standing, or some other "milestone"? Over in the Nighttime Parenting forum, 6mo and 9mo seem to be common "I can't take it/I don't know what is going on" moments. Not that that makes it easier to handle in the moment, but it may help to know it wont last!

NCSS is more of a shopping list of possible sleep ideas... they certainly don't all work for all kiddos all the time. Have you flipped through the Good Nights book by Dr Gordon or the Sleep Book by Dr Sears? Your library may have copies (there are excerpts of Good Nights on the kellymom breastfeeding site here). CIO, besides being tough on the babe, is tough on parents too... if you feel frazzled now, listening to your babe cry wont help! So maybe see if there are any ideas from NCSS you haven't tried in a while (maybe a new routine is needed?), and check Good Nights or the Sleep Book for other ideas?

With dd1 and dd2 I was working outside the home and losing sleep really hurt. What I eventually did was pick up a few magazines, a few mini chocolate treats, and keeping the electric kettle in the bedroom... when the babe woke at some horrible hour I'd make tea, eat special treats, and read "fun" magazines till they were out again. Sort of making the late night/early morning awakeness a special treat for myself. I was still sleep deprived, but it helped a bit.

Could one of your older children "baby sit" so you can nap? Or can a friend or neighbor baby sit so you can nap, or go out? Recharge time is crucial and maybe if you could get a quiet shower, a nap, a walk, whatever it might be then you'll probably feel better about the whole situation.

Hang in there...

[Kelly1101]

It sounds like a developmental thing, as PP said... when they start doing something new, it throws their sleep out of whack.

We've gone through periods like this with my daughter (nearly 8 months old). Some only last a few days. When she was about four months, we hit a period that lasted about three weeks, that was rough. She hit one at six months that lasted about a week.

I know how tough it is. But it WILL pass.

Just keep trying new things. Have a rocker/glider? A lot of times when we've had problems, she'll rock to sleep. Then I'll get up, lay down on the bed on my back with her still laying on top of me, then gently kind of "roll" over and get her down on the bed. Sometimes it doesn't work, she wakes up in the middle of the process, and we go back to the rocker and try again.

Keep in mind that sleep begets sleep. Don't skip naps in hopes that he'll go down better. Being overtired just makes it worse. The more and better he naps, the more and better he'll sleep at night.

Good luck... things WILL get better, they just hit these phases sometimes. Keep trying and by next week it will be a lot better.