I thought babies were supposed to sleep!

[MommyKim]

Is it just me? My first ds - now 2 - always had trouble with naps. It didn't matter how much or how little he slept at night, he just was no good with naps when he was little. Now he sleeps great, but we have ds number two. I thought for sure God would send me a sleeper this time, but no. My children must be plagued with insomnia as babies. No one can believe how little they sleep.

DS number two is 6 months old and still not on a good routine. I can tell when he's getting tired and I've tried everything to get him down, nursing, rocking, letting him CIO, walking with him, laying with him, you name it. He rests well when nursing, but as soon as he's done, that's it, he's up a ready to go again. He doesn't want to be rocked or held - that's playtime. He's such a happy baby, it's not like he's upset all the time, he just doesn't sleep.

At night it's not much better. He'll be up 4 times a night for 1 to 2 hours at a time. He's just awake and ready to play.

Does *anyone* else have this problem? What do you do to survive? It's 24 hours on the job with no breaks and most of all - NO SLEEP!

[sohj]

Wow, that must be really difficult!

Some suggestions (that you've probably already thought of):

Do you drink anything caffeinated? Especially when fighting exhaustion, it becomes tempting to do so; but it gets into the milk and can keep baby awake.

Have lavender in the room. Its scent is relaxing and may help.

Also, is the diaper wet each time the littlest wakes up? Might be hyper aware of that. Ours was. I got flannel inserts for extra absorbancy at night from www.greenmountaindiaper.com and that seemed to help.

What about teething? Ours became really restless about that time, even though he wasn't apparently in a whole lot of pain. He just didn't sleep well.

He also went through a stage of only napping with my boob in his mouth, then waking. It ended eventually.

When I was having a little trouble with milk production, I was taking a tincure of hops (it is a galactagogue! and soothing). It is really bitter, but it made sure I had plenty of milk and it is also calming and soothed my pixie through my milk. (http://www.herb-pharm.com/ for information and www.flowerpower.net, my favorite herb source)

Foot massage? With a little bit of fennel essential oil added to the Weleda Baby Oil (which has chamomile and calendula and smells great). Ours seems to love having his feet played with...most babies do, I think.

last but not least...is there any way you can get someone to do a "napping co-op" with you and come over and play with your energizer bunny for a couple of hours at your house while you nap? And maybe you could return the favor in kind or some other way (like a pot pie or a cake or something)?

[Evergreen]

Sorry, I don't have any advice, just wanted to comiserate. When she was first born, I actually worried that my 4 month old slept TOO MUCH! Ha! Its now 5 pm and she just lied down for the first nap of the day. Of course, it is so late in the eventing that it will mess up her whole nightime sleep schedule. errrr...

[Kundalini-Mama]

are you b/fing? do you consume dairy??
it sounds like it could be an allergy. you also might want to look into taking him to a chiropractor. he may very well be in need for anadjustment.

hth
amy

[Piglet68]

Babies come in all sizes and temperaments. I'd say that if your baby is happy and healthy and growing and reaching his developmental milestones, then all is right. At least in his world, lol.

I'm gonna move this to Life with a Babe...

[Stacymom]

I had a non-sleeper too. I remember when she was about 3-4 months old and I was looking at some chart that said that babies that age were supposed to be sleeping 16 hours a day or something like that and I cried and cried because we weren't ocming anywhere close to that. I remember spending more time trying to get her to sleep than she actually slept, and crying then too. Bedtimes and naptimes were awful, stressful things, and my whole day used to be dependent on how she slept or didn't sleep.

But now, as an almost 20 month old, things have relaxed a lot. She goes down for a nap without any trouble most days, and will sleep anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours, and she will sleep nine to ten hours at night waking once or twice.

We thought of allergies, teething, etc, but I really don't htink that was the case for her. I think that sometimes they just have immature systems, and I think that dd was way too sensitive in a lot of ways to be a sound sleeper. I'm just so grateful that she's grown out of most of her sleep problems, (knock on wood,) and hoping that #2 will sleep!

[MommyKim]

Thanks

Thanks to everyone for your input. I am breastfeeding and ds doesn't seem to have any problems with alergies. He is a very happy baby, he just doesn't want to sleep.

Stacymom, thanks for your reply. Sometimes it just takes another mom that has been through the same thing. My first ds sounds almost exactly like your first. He's now sleeping great. It's just hard to remember that things will get better when your going through it. It seems to me that sleep time should be relaxing, not so stressfull. At least ds and I can cry together!

This too shall pass I suppose.

[Free Thinker]

I am having this problem, too. My DD hasn't been much of a napper even as a newborn. My ped. said that just like some adults need less sleep, some babies don't need as much. As long as she isn't getting fussy, then just let her stay up. I am lucky at night, though. Lacy will sleep from 11-5 pretty well. Durring the afternoon she will stay up 6-8 hours, though w/o napping. Hope you get some sleep soon.

[Island Mommy]

Wow. My problems don't seem like anything now. My dd is a cat napper - 45 minutes at a time, anywhere from 3 - 5 times/day. I read books that say she's supposed to sleep in 1 1/2 hour stretches...that anything less than an hour is not "good sleep" and doesn't count. Stressed me out somewhat, but I see that she's happy for the most part and so try to remember that she's probably fine. Makes going anywhere or planning anything difficult, though, doesn't it? I can never say with any certainty when dd will be asleep!