need help with short naps and night waking-please!!!!

[stargazersteph]

HI,

i really wish elizabeth pantley had a hotline.

i just don't know what to do or think about my little one and his sleeping issues.
evan is almost 7 months. he is small for his age. he has been exclusively bf til he was 6 months and then he has had homemade ground oatmeal, banana, pears, sweet potatoes and carrots. he only eats a small amount of food each day. the first 2x he had the oatmeal he slept really well. 6 1/2 hours straight one night and 4 straight the next. also i work 3 days a week, and he is home with either my mom or my husband.

so basically, the kid can barely nap. he either nurses through a nap for a half hour or falls asleep in someones arms for a half hour. or he sleeps in his crib for a half hour. it is very difficult to get him to sleep longer than that. occasionally he will. any suggestions?

nighttime-we get pjs on between 7-8 depending on how tired he seems.
sometimes i recite goodnight moon. i try and rub his back and tummy and legs to be soothing. i then nurse him to sleep. this could take an hour sometimes or 20 min. depending on how restless he is. sometimes i rock him a bit too.
so he goes down in his crib between 8-9. many many times he is up within the first hour. sometimes my husband just goes in and rocks him back to sleep and sometimes i nurse him. then he gets up every 2 hours. sometimes a bit more sometimes less. i end up bringing him to bed to nurse him and fall asleep with him. but many times, i think we end up waking him up, or he wakes up more in bed with us cause he smells my milk. last night i felt like he was just nursing all night.

anyway, if anyone has any input on how to get him to nap better or sleep better at night i would appreciate it. am i nursing him too much? not enough? could my milk not have enough fat in it?

anyway, i would appreciate any advice. i am really tired.
thanks
stephani

[rzberrymom]

From the countless posts I've seen on this sort of thing, I'd say waking every 2 hours is very normal. Dr. James McKenna's research really helped me understand why it happens. http://www.naturalchild.com/james_mckenna/rethinking.html

My DD also wouldn't nap beyond 30 minutes. I would lie down with her and nurse or rock her back to sleep at each 30 minute waking--at about 7 months, she started to sleep more deeply and didn't need as much help during her naps. There have been tons of posts on this too--others have said that it didn't happen until 9 or 12 months, but it will happen.

Good luck!

[Ilana]

Does he seem tired to you or like he's not getting enough sleep? Maybe that's all he needs. DD also never sleeps more than an hour and 20 minutes on a good day and wakes up a ton all night long, to the point where I can't figure out how she does so well all day, but she just doesn't seem to need much sleep. I need her to sleep, but she doesn't!

ILANA
:goorg:

[mskgandn]

No real advice since I'm dealing with the same thing. My 7 1/2 month old takes short naps and has short sleep cycles at night. So, just saying that I feel you. This is a great place to learn that you are not alone and sometimes that in itself is enough to get you through to the next day.

mskgandn

[mezzaluna]

hi :hug

my DS is usually a good napper, but we have the same kind of schedule at night. for naps i find it helps us to make the room dark, and sometimes play some quiet classical music to mask background noise. i also try to get him down for a nap 2-3 hours after he wakes up (from the night or from his last nap) - he's easiest to get down then... later and he gets overtired. we pretty much always nurse to sleep for naps - occasionally he falls asleep in the jogging stroller/bike trailer if i'm out and about. i find if he naps in my lap after nursing, or in a carrier he gets a shorter nap... this can be ok sometimes, but he's happiest if he gets at least one one-hour nap in per day.

nighttime... i have no big solutions here! is this pattern new or has he always been like this? is he warm enough? too warm? teething? nursing enough during the day? have you considered food sensitivities? we also found our DS hates sleeping in a wet diaper - so i would recommend using a feel-dry cloth like fuzzibunz or a disposable at night (or EC like us :) ).

sometimes i'm ok with how often i have to wake up... some times i get worn down... i do know i feel best when i go to bed about 9 hours before my DS is up for the day. that way i get about 8 hours of total sleep in and i feel pretty normal.

hang in there!

[tangozulu]

For night when he is sleeping with you - it seems to help my ds when I scoot him over a bit so he is not laying right next to me with the boob ready to feed. Sometimes he'll stir and go back to sleep that way. When the boob is there he ALWAYS wants it, but if it is a few inches away he will sometimes go back to sleep on his own. That is about my only suggestion. I can't always stay awake long enough to get him away from the boob, anyway.

Oh, regarding solids - my son had trouble gaining wt, so when I started solids I tried to give him high calorie, high fat items. Some I did were (boiled) egg yolks, whole milk yogurt and cottage cheese, avacado. Maybe that will help your little one, too. It seemed to help put some pounds on my little guy.

Good luck!

[sarahsteineke]

I would like some help too. Lap naps mostly and still lots of waking at night. After the third waking at night I bring her in to bed with us and she still wakes two more times.

Read Dr Sears - have "spirited baby" who does not need/want sleep!