8 month old with a bad cold....cannot sleep. need advise.

[dsrt84]

Hi I breastfeed my 8 month old son exclusively. He caught a cold a week ago and has not slept well at all. He keeps waking up every hour and nurses. He has not been sleeping well even in the day time. He atmost takes 30 mins naps. He has completely stopped eating solids. I am a stay at home mom. I try to feed him solids every two hours but he absolutely hates it. My husband and I are not getting any sleep. I haven't slept for 4 hours straight in the past 8 months. Not even a single day. He co- sleeps with us because he wakes up every two hours to feed normally and we did not want to wake up and get him from the crib. Even though it's in our room. I am absolutely tired. He does not take formula either. Whenever I say I am tired, my husband says he is tired too. I feel like there is no one who understands me. I am tired to the core. I absolutely love my son but I just want to sleep for 6 hours Just for one day. I have no help here since my family lives far away. Does any one know what to do? 

[Asiago]

I found it a little difficult to follow the format of your post but if I understand corectly, baby does not sleep in your bed. One thing that many moms on this board will attest to is how much easier it is to nurse through the night with baby lying next you you. I was exhausted when my son was in a co-sleeper next to my side of the bed, not to mention how he felt. He slept and nursed so much better while sleeping next me.

Just a thought, if you haven't tried it.

This article may be helpful:http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detsleepthrough.html

An increase in nursing and refusing all solids is very common when children are ill. I hope your son is feeling better soon.

[dejagerw]

I agree with pp. Put the baby in bed with you. Also, I've found when my LO is sick and has a stuffy nose, I'll sometimes prop him up in the crook of my arm. That elevates his head a bit making it easier for him to breath. (or so it seems, because he'll often sleep better there when he's stuffy.) If he's really stuffy, I'll sometimes lay his head on my belly with his feet on the bed (so he's lying perpendicular to me on his belly with his head on my belly, if that makes sense). He's really elevated that way. Also, run a humidifier. Keep nursing tons!!! It will help him get better faster :)

[DaisyMae08]

She says that he co-sleeps with them already. 

OP, I'm so sorry that you're feeling overwhelmed.  Can you hire a sitter to help out just for one day?  Maybe she could watch your son and you could take a badly needed nap? 

[tooraloora]

Aw, I feel for ya. We're just getting over a cold. Is he congested? When my DS gets congested, I shoot some breastmilk up his nose and then go after him with the nasal aspirator after a few minutes. In this house, it's commonly referred to as The Evil Boogie Sucker of Doom. He hates it and takes off as soon as he sees it coming, so the process sucks (literally and figuratively), but he feels so much better afterwards, and he sleeps better when he can breathe. Also, I second sleeping with him propped up in the crook of your arm. Being elevated does seem to help him breathe better. I also second the humidifier. We don't have one at the moment, so I went with steaming up the bathroom and taking him in there (either taking a tub bath with him, taking a shower, or just sitting on the toilet nursing him). If we did it right before bed time, it bought me a good bit of time before he'd wake up.

[poppiesinjuly]

There is a nose aspirator called the Nose Frida that has helped us out a lot.  My baby got a cold after flying to visit my family.  It was the only thing I could really do to help him.  First I put a few sprays of saline in his nose and then I sucked it all out with the Nose Frida.  It really helps him sleep.  It seems a little gross at first, but none of it gets in your mouth.  It comes with filters. 

I second the idea of a sitter if you can swing it.  Things seems SO MUCH harder when you're not sleeping.  :(

[neonalee]

Originally Posted by poppiesinjuly 

There is a nose aspirator called the Nose Frida that has helped us out a lot.  My baby got a cold after flying to visit my family.  It was the only thing I could really do to help him.  First I put a few sprays of saline in his nose and then I sucked it all out with the Nose Frida.  It really helps him sleep.  It seems a little gross at first, but none of it gets in your mouth.  It comes with filters.

Love the nose freida. As much as one can love a snotty sucker anyway. DS was sick from Oct (2 months old) until April with 2 one week breaks, I kid you not. We also Co sleep and bf ALL night. I wanted to punch him when he said he was tired too. So not the same!

Anyway here's what we did. Humidifier was a must. Sleeping elevated. I often slept kinda propped up in bed with DS on my chest. We even saw an ENT twice. She said to try to nurse with his head a little elevated to help avoid ear infection. Lots of baby saline. Oh he hated that almost as much as the nose freida. Took months for him to start accepting it and even now its still a struggle sometimes, but it is one of the most important things. Whenever possible we just stayed in bed nursing & sleeping as much as possible. Tried vapor rub & vaporizer& those didn't help at all.

sent from my phone using tapatalk, please excuse typos.

[dsrt84]

Thanks for all the replies.  He is better now.  We had the humidifier on and used baby rub and just tried to make him as comfortable as possible.  He is over it now but still have a few ongoing issues with him refusing to sleep and refusing solids.  I will post that as a different topic as it is a completely different issue not related to this cold.