Restless and exhausted baby just can't sleep or stay asleep - Page 2

[Dot-to-Dot]

Hmmm...night #2 with Camilia and she's awake after only 45 minutes.  :\

Update:

Okay, so night #2 didn't go quite as easily as night #1 but after a rough hour she actually did really well!  She slept for 6 hours again and after nursing slept another 4 hours.  I ended up giving her two vials of the Camilia last night whereas the first night I only had to give her 1.  Still not sure if it has helped her to be in her crib or if it's the Camilia...still feeling sad that she sleeps better in her room than our room.  DD1 was that way, too.  Trying not to take it personally

She seems MUCH better able to self soothe in her crib than in the co sleeper so naps seem to be a bit better too though she is still incredibly restless.  It's just that the restlessness doesn't seem to leave her upset as before.  I don't know.  I am totally perplexed honestly. 

Edited by Dot-to-Dot - 11/4/11 at 10:53am

[deni bronson]

Originally Posted by Dot-to-Dot 

Researched the chamomile tea thing...saw some people who swear by it and also some horror stories.  Not so sure about giving a young baby anything but breast milk.  I would like to think it would work.  I'm scared to try it though.  I already have to give her a little amount of water in order to give her a powdered probiotic and I think it's probably dangerous to give a baby too much water when they aren't meant to be drinking water at all in the first place, right?  Not yet sure how I feel about that one.

Giving them water as long as it's nursery water isn't dangerous per say, it just causes them to fill faster without getting the proper amount of nutrients. Is she getting any more sleep now? Mine still flaps her arms as I know of currently, but she would actually start crying really bad, I suspect a nightmare at that point.

[malayasmommy]

Dot-to-dot---how has it been the last few nights?  I've been following your thread as we are in a similar situation (non sleeping/napping baby and an older child).  I have also loosely swaddled my baby and he moves on his own to his tummy, where he sleeps BETTER but not great (3 hour stretches instead of 1.5 hours).  Right now he is sleeping in his swing with music going--I hate that he's in the swing but he needs sleep SOOOO badly that I'm wondering if he just needs to catch up somehow to sleep better overall.  Was just wondering if your DD was still out of your room...?  Been thinking of trying that with my little guy but it makes me sad to think about him sleeping away from me!

[Dot-to-Dot]

If my dd would sleep in the swing, I would do it.  She won't.  I think you're right that he probably just needs it so badly that you gotta do what ya gotta do.  Okay, so yes she's still in her own room.  I still have the co sleeper here next to my bed and I seriously get sad every time I walk past it.  I feel silly, but on some level, even though the nights were miserable, I miss her sleeping in here.  This may be our last baby because I have debilitating pregnancies (hyperemesis gravidarum) and it makes me sad to think that I just won't be co sleeping.

She's been going down a lot more easily.  Some nights a bit tougher than others, but we are not spending the 2-3 hours we used to.  It's crazy!  I just sit there on the couch waiting for her to wake up, but she doesn't!  However, she is waking every 2.5-4 hours.  Four hours I can handle, but every 2.5 hours still doesn't seem right.  She actually wakes happy too...so I don't think she's cold, hot, scared, etc.  And it's hard to believe she's hungry after 2.5 hours at night.  If I let her be for awhile (we have a video monitor so I watch to see that she's okay) she starts to get upset and it just goes on until she's crying so I go in.  When I go in and she sees me, she smiles and coos and is just so happy to see me.  But she makes it clear that she definitely wants to nurse.  I'm positive that if I just took her out to the living room to play at 2am or whenever that she'd love that and wouldn't actually need/want to nurse.  But SOMETHING wakes her...and then she wants to nurse back to sleep.  If only that something wouldn't wake her.  At least if it wouldn't wake her any more frequently than 4 hours.

The biggest consistent improvement since Camilia/moving her to her room is that she's less fussy and less resistent to falling asleep for her initial bedtime.  So while I'm not getting any more sleep than before really, the nighttime scene is less draining and stressful.  She is still wildly restless when awake.  I was trying to nurse her this morning and she was sort of pushing off on the arm of the couch and she was practically man-handling me as she rocked my body all about the couch as I tried to hold on to her. (and she's in the 99th percentile, so she's a BIG baby).  Arms and legs flailing everywhere but latched on as tight as could be.  I think if I'd gotten up and walked around she would have paddled through the air to stay afloat and latched on tight enough to hang on without me holding her.  It's craaaazy!

[Mollergs]

Thank you so much for posting this. I am really in the same boat w my 6.5 month old. She started the same behavior shortly after 4 months. Previously had slept thru night although only took half hour naps. Since 4 months we've had a steady decline she now wakes up every hour and on really bad nights is rocking and flailing so much she won't even latch on (We co sleep). Sometimes she does that during breast feeds during day too but generally those r better. We have also tried so many things. Recently stared swaddling and that helps decrease the motion and make getting to sleep better, but she still wakes up so frequently. I didn't want to do the crib thing cause I felt like something was keeping her from deep sleep and it would be doubly cruel to leave her to deal w that and adjust to new sleeping arrangements, but based on your success I think I'll try it! Could it be as simple as I'm not ready to let go but she is? It all started w her becoming more fidgety on the breast like she didn't want to be there anymore or didn't like falling asleep that way anymore. Whatever it is, I too am desperate to figure out as I am so stressed seeing my baby sleep deprived and myself as well! Please post more if you r having continued success.

[Dot-to-Dot]

Yes! I didn't want to further exacerbate her struggles by leaving her alone in a big, cold, crib.  Ha! That's how I saw it...this big empty space that was scary and cold.  Obviously, she did not see it that way and feels warm, safe and comfortable there.  It's like you say, she was ready for some space but I was not (still am not) ready to let go.  We are having continued success on most nights.  Not consistently, but still it's much better than before.  I do not swaddle her anymore and she is using one of those tag blankets to soothe herself to sleep.  She rubs the tags when I put her down in there after nursing (still awake but drowsy).  I've had to experiment with how I lay her down.  She was doing the best on her belly, but now she has learned to push up on all fours and just wants to practice that all night long so that has thrown off our prior success. Now that she is accustomed to using the tag blanket to get to sleep, she has had a little more success at nap time and even had a 2 hour nap last weekend!  It's like she really needed help finding something to soothe herself.

We're still using the Camilia (1-3 per night but sometimes we forget and it's been okay).  I now lay her on her side, tucked up against the side of the crib and I tuck the tag blanket into her arms and facilitate her rubbing them until she's doing it herself and then she'll put herself to sleep.  However...when she wakes at about 3-4 hours, she is unable to put herself to sleep again without nursing.  I really don't think she's hungry...and she's in the 99th percentile so the child ain't starving!...but she seems so wide awake at that point that nothing will soothe her except nursing.  I REALLY wish I could get her to extend that first stint of sleep a little bit.

[chaiteach]

Just found this thread after googling fidgety five month old not sleeping!! Our second son is 5.5 months old and both Dot's and the previous poster's babies sound JUST like him! I've been thinking the same thing about moving him from the cosleeper into the crib in our older son's room (he's 3 and sleeps through the night fine). Part of me isn't ready to let go of my cuddly baby, but the sleep is getting worse and worse, and I'm starting to get desperate! Like your baby, he's huge--shouldn't need milk all night long! Also has gotten super fidgety on the breast during the day--pushing off with his arms and legs almost like he doesn't want it, but nursing with a passion at the same time--such a crack up to watch but also annoying trying to hold on to him because he's nearly 21 lbs!

Would love to hear how you all are doing now that it's several months later! How did it all turn out???

[Hannahkatiebell]

Yes, I'm curious to know how it's going? Our DS is eight months and doing the same things at night. He wakes after short stints at night and is incredibly restless all night. I feel like I have a newborn!

[rainface]

My daughter is a really fidgety nurser too...she's just too busy to eat much during the day so she nurses quite a bit at night. And she'll wake up 45 minutes or so after she goes down to tank up some more. At 8 months she's over 22 lbs so it hurts when she starts flailing. She's a happy girl though, so I'm not too worried. We swear by Camilia too