Sleep Issues

lilaros

Hi ladies. I know I have complained about my son's sleep issues many times before but I'm starting to think this is a bigger issue that needs to be addressed with a pediatrician. Most people are dismissive about how badly he sleeps so I guess I am just trying to gage of this is legitimacy of this issue before addressing it with his doctor.

Here's the rundown: He just turned 3 Months and usually sleeps for max 1-2 hours stretches at night. He slept for 4 hours straight twice in his life both times around 6-8 weeks. Lately his sleeping has been worse. Tonight for example, he has been up every 15-30 minutes since we put him to bed at 7:30 PM. It's now 3 AM. He takes about 3-4 naps a day usually with 3-5 hours of sleep spread out between those naps. We have a whole bedtime routine, I do a dream feed, he's swaddled and none of this seems to make a difference. We have tried literally every sleep tip that exists on the internet (with the exception of CIO) and nothing has even eeked us out an extra hour of sleep. I cannot continue on like this but I am unsure what to do to make things better. I'm hoping having a doctor involved might provide some insight but I'm not even sure they'all have any suggestions.

BabyBoyH92016

Sorry! That sounds soooo tiring. What are you doing every single time he wakes up? Do you soothe or do you feed him/nurse him? I used to nurse more frequently through out the night, but we stopped that. If he wakes up and it's not time for his next feeding, we try to get him to go back to sleep with out feeding him. If he persists (which normally he doesn't) then I'll feed him. We also give him a bottle at bedtime and not the boob. For some reason I think it helps him sleep longer.

Also, when he's getting up frequently is he legitimately up and crying or is he being noisey? The reason I ask is because there are a number of occasions when it sounds like my LO is up, but when I go to him, his eyes are closed. Unless my LO is actually crying, we typically wait a few minutes and many times he falls back asleep.

I know you have a bedtime routine, but do you have a consistent bed time and wake-up time? I've read a few baby books lately and many of them stress the importance of being consistent with bedtime and wake up time.

When does his last nap take place in relation to bedtime? Although it sounds like he's getting good daytime sleep (sleep begets sleep), perhaps he's having a long nap too late into the afternoon/early evening. 

drabong88

If he sleeps well during naps I would look at what's different between nap time and sleep time. Maybe he needs a nightlight, more or less noise. Maybe he doesn't want to be swaddled. I can't imagine how tired you are. My LO Has been a good sleeper up until this last week and now wakes up every hour....I have no idea why but hopefully it passes soon. 

Sbrown721

I sincerely hope you're not back at work 

lilaros

Hey @BabyBoyH92016! When he wakes up I was bringing him into our bed and feeding him but I've been trying to break that habit. Now I just try to rock/shhhh him back to sleep if it's not time to eat. I'll give him a pacifier because that sometimes seems to help. If I nurse him, he'll fall asleep immediately so that has been tough not to do.

I don't pull him out of his Bassinet unless he is full blown crying. If he is just fussing, I'll try to put my hand on his chest to get him back to sleep. 

I haven't been super consistent with the wake up time so that's definitely a good thing for try working on. He is usually up for the day sometime between 6:30-7:30 AM. I should probably try and pick a time and stick to it. After that he typical goes down for naps at 9:00, 12:30/1:00 and 3:00 sometimes if his lunch time nap isn't very good he'll take two naps in the afternoon/early evening. The morning naps are consistently good long naps. I try to have him up by 5:00 every night and we start his bedtime routine (bath, story, bottle) at 7:00 and aim to get him down by 7:30. Usually he goes down for bed pretty easily, thank goodness.

lilaros

Thanks for your help ladies. I finally broke down and called his doctor. They're having me bring him in to check for a physiological issue. The advice nurse did say she suspected he might have a little bit more severe reflux than what we have been lead to believe. If that's the case then the doctor maybe be able to prescribe him something and hopefully eventually he'll be able to sleep easier.

Oh and thank god, but I am not back to work yet.I do go back in a month though so I would definitely like things to be better than they are right now!

hejo2016

Ugh, @Laraeq that's so tough! My son was similar and he never slept thru the night until he was 15mo old. NEVER! No joke. And no one would believe us when we said we tried everything. Nothing helped him except time, so I have no advice. But I hope your doc can help you! I have very foggy memories of his first year because I was so tired! 

rock1cherry

Molly only naps about 2x per day. Sometimes three. Sometimes none! At one point I cut out caffeine because I was suspecting it was affecting her at night. You could try that too. Every 15-30 minutes seems excessive! Hopefully you can figure it out with the doctor! Fingers crossed for you!

jennlynn777

It really sounds like a silent reflux issue. I see you do suspect that but having a baby who had severe silent reflux early on that was one of the issues I struggled with. He was a horrible sleeper. Do you keep him elevated when he sleeps? If it is reflux that would help tremendously. I found that our fisher price swing on the lowest incline is the perfect elevation and the swinging really soothes him. I remember breastfeeding around the clock with my boy. The swallowing kept the acid down and my milk soothed his throat. I had to sleep sitting up with him attached to my boob. It was so rough. He has since recovered from the reflux. I am hoping you get some answers like I did. Be persistent with the Drs. Testing is good too. ❤️

if you get meds just remember it can take a bit for them to work fully. Zantac is ok but really not best for severe reflux babies. Prevacid is ok but they can grow a tolerance to it. Nexium seems to be the best. No tolerance issues and is a PPI.

Best of luck to you mommy! You are on the right track :-)

ab920

I had this same problem. We started swaddling VERY TIGHTLY--like she's not getting out of that thing. Also, letting her sleep in the Rock n Play. Since we've done that, she went from sleeping 1 hour at a time to 6-8 hour stretches. Good luck!

lilaros

I forgot to update but @jennlynn777 you hit the nail on the head. The doctor thinks it's a bad case of silent reflux. She gave me some things to try before we go ahead and get him on a prescription. She thinks if we can get this under control then the sleep will come. 

The main issue they're concerned with right now is that he is not gaining enough weight. He only gained 5 oz in a month, going from the 90th percentile for weight to the 48th. He has a weight check this Friday and if he doesn't gain then he has to go in for an ultrasound to rule out plyoric stenosis, though they're pretty sure that isn't the case.