Stay asleep already.

[mrs.t]

I can't figure out what to do here. DS falls asleep and then wakes up about 10 minutes later, and usually starts crying. He used to nurse to sleep, which was awesome. Now he will occasionally do that but for the majority of the time I have to shhh, sing, bounce, rock, walk him to sleep, and then when he is finally out he wakes up again and we start all over. I'm getting super frustrated with this whole routine. It used to be that he would nurse to sleep, then I would wait until he was really out, swaddle him and lay him in the co sleeper where he would stay for 4-6 hours without waking. Now it takes an hour to get him to fall asleep, and when he finally stays asleep he's only out for about 3-4 hours. This is mostly just a rant because I am the one who has to wake up with him since I'm breastfeeding, and I feel like I haven't had a full night's sleep since my first trimester of pregnancy.

[mormontreehugger]

Oh mama, I hear you there. Have you read The No Cry Sleep Solution? Pretty much saved us over here. I've found that to get my baby to sleep (11 mos. old) nowadays, I have to Wear. Him. Out. Splashing in the tub, crawling around like a maniac with lots of interaction with people, walking with me outside; all works to get him good and tired. I know I've succeeded when he starts falling asleep during a diaper change.
I used to be able to nurse him down and he'd stay down for a few hours at least.
Also, is your babe hitting any milestones at the moment? That could interfere with sleep as well.

[Knitting Mama]

Swaddling is the only thing that keeps Cecilia, who is one day older than your son, asleep for longer than 30-45 minutes. Have you tried swaddling your son? I'll admit that Cece fights it at first, but once she's nursing in the swaddle it's like every muscle in her body relaxes.

[P.J.]

I recommend swaddling your DS before he falls asleep rather than after. It may help him. Once he's swaddled, you can still nurse, sing to, and shush him off to sleep.
My DS also struggles a bit as he's getting swaddled, but once I lay him down and start nursing him he relaxes.

[LadyCatherine185]

It looks like your DS is about 4 months old? 4 months is a super common time for a sleep regression. Although 3-4 hours is an excellent chunk of sleep for an infant. Mine woke every hour or more his entire first year....

Have you tried wearing him for naps during the day? What about laying him on his belly? That was the only way I could put my DS down asleep.

[mrs.t]

I thought about swaddling him before he falls asleep, but in the past he would just get angry and try to get out of it, which would get him into more of an awake state. Maybe I will swaddle and then nurse, since he is used to that.

I thought I was putting him to bed too late at 10pm, so I had started to make it more like 8-9, but I guess it's just to early for him.

He has been moving around a lot more, rolling from tummy to back. Is that one of those milestones?

Last night was ok, he took forever to get to sleep, but then he slept for 3 hours, nursed, and slept another 3 hours in his co sleeper. So I guess 6 hours collectively isn't too bad. After that I fell asleep nursing him so he ended up in our bed anyway. Apparently the days where he was sleeping 5+ hours at a stretch are over for now.

The other factor is that he is so distracted when he is nursing during the day, so even though he eats every 3 hours, he is only nursing for like 4-7 minutes. I guess he's just hungry at night and isn't so distracted?

[october]

My DD was born 4-3-10 and I could have written your post.

DD also is getting suuuuper distracted while nursing, so her nurse seshes are like snacks. Good to see someone else is experiencing this...

Except for the sleep part. We just started swaddling DD and it improved the situation ten fold. The only problem is it's still too hot for swaddling. Last night when we went to bed she was laying in a pool of sweat. Back to plan A... which is, cross your fingers for a good night of sleep.

[Knitting Mama]

Are you swaddling her just in a diaper and with a very lightweight blanket, like a piece of muslin? I live in the desert and it's never cooler than 84 or so overnight anymore. That is what we do for Cecilia.

[BathrobeGoddess]

Moved to nightime parenting...

[Tattooed Hand]

Mamas, the 4 month sleep regression is murder. DD woke every 1-2 hours for 5-6 weeks straight. It was rough. And she has hated to be swaddled from birth and will scream bloody murder if we try it and keep screaming til we take her out of it.

But what I did do was begin to nurse her in a quiet dark room so that I could properly tank her up during the day. Then, using some techniques from the No Cry Sleep Solution, I began unlatching her when she stopped actually eating and was sleepy, but not asleep. Then shush and rock and cuddle her off to sleep the rest of the way. If she starts roots when I took her off, I would lightly press my finger under her chin. It's temporarily more disruptive and then you really begin to see results...

She now sleeps 1.5-2 hours twice a day alone...and I can usually get her to sleep with a bath, short walk and nursing. She still wakes up 2-3 hours a night, but unless she is experiencing a developmental milestone or teething, she sleeps 4-5 hours the first part of the night and then 2-4 the rest of the night. And about hald those wakings I can just pat and shush her back down.

Of course, now she is having a mini growth spurt and has top teeth coming in so she wakes 4 times and wants to chow and is difficult to get to sleep, but hey, better the exception than the rule...