[Ms. Cellaneous]

I'm so frustrated and tired and I need help!<br><br>
DS is six months old, and he sleeps pretty well ... for the first part of the night. He'll usually go to sleep around 7-8, wakes and cries a couple times between then and midnight, but I hold him and bounce him and he falls back to sleep pretty easily. Then sometime around 12-2 he'll wake again and I'll nurse him, then back to sleep usually for about two hours.<br><br>
Then the trouble starts. When he wakes around 4 am it is REALLY hard to get him back to sleep. The methods that work in the beginning of the night (bouncing, rocking, shushing) just don't seem to work anymore. He'll fall asleep in my arms, but then when I try to gently put him in his crib OR when I try to lie down and co-sleep with him, he wakes up and cries HARD.<br><br>
Last night was particularly bad. He woke at 12, I nursed him back to sleep no problem, he woke at 3 and he was SCREAMING. Even when I nursed him, he'd nurse a bit and then pop off and scream. It was really hard for me (and I assume for him!). Again, he would sleep in my arms as long as I was bouncing him, but the moment I stopped and tried to lie down or put him down, he woke up and screamed. Finally at around 4 I was able to nurse him to sleep on top of me and we both slept for a couple more hours.<br><br>
He may be teething, which could explain the screaming. But there's this underlying issue of the 4-7 am wakings being so hard that I would like to solve or at least understand a little better. Sorry this is so long. It's just hard when I try everything I know to comfort him at night and he just screams and cries. It makes me feel so bad, and not like the loving mother I want to be. Any advice or thoughts would be very very appreciated.

 

[Therese's Mommy]

I never change my children during the night unless they are poopy or ask to be changed. Sometimes my baby will be fussy in the early morning hours like you describe. She certainly isn't ready to wake up for the day (and neither am I!), but she just can't settle down. I sometimes will try and change her diaper. She will then wake up completely while I am changing her. I lie quietly with her for a little while and then she wants to nurse and goes back to sleep. This has happened a handful of times, certainly not every night, but it is something you could try.

 

[Ms. Cellaneous]

Thanks, I will try that. Changing the diaper at night is such a catch-22, isn't it? A wet diaper may be keeping them up, but if you change it then they'll _definitely_ be up... But if I could just get him to the state where he quietly nurses back to sleep, I'd be more than happy with that. It's certainly worth trying.