Basically about to lose my mind.
For about the past three weeks my kid is fighting every nap. I mean literally I spend two hours before EVERY nap trying to get him to sleep before ge finally just peters himself out from fussing, which he pretty much consistently does all day from waking up until bedtime. We previously had a pretty decent nap/bedtime times going on--took maybe fifteen, twenty minutes to get him down. He doesn't cry, just fusses.
I wait until the first signs of sleepiness--Droopy eyes, maybe a yawn and then start him for his nap which is about an hour or so of walking of fighting with him and then when he does go to sleep he wakes up about fifteen minutes later cranky and yawning his head off so we fight for ANOTHER hour or so to get him back down for another fifteen minutes. Do this pretty much all day so there's hardly no play time because he gets pissed off from being sleepy.
He is well fed, makes all of his diapers. No gas problems, thought I did try gas drops and dripe water and neither had any effect one way or the other. In good health. Hates his swings and vibrator seat, hates being worn. Scratches at himself if he is unswaddled but screams bloody murder if he is swaddled. Doesn't seem to have a preference to being held or not being held. Seems to like a dark room a *little* better than a light room, but only speeds up going to sleep by maybe ten minutes; doesn't keep him asleep. Tried a regimented schedule and then tried letting HIM make a schedule. Earlier bedtime and then a later bedtime. I don't know. Am I missing anything or do I just have a miserable baby?
Dunno. Any advice or support is much appreciate.
Re: Wits End
Thanks for the replies, I think I just needed to vent and have some human interaction to calm down and feel sane haha.
We took him to the pediatrician and he's in good health. He doesn't scratch at himself so much persay, mostly just fidgets with his hands a lot, pulls his pacifier out of his mouth and then tries (sometimes succeeds too) to sick it back in. Sometimes spits it out to suck on his fingers ENDLESSLY. He likes to feel his own hair, too. Sometimes scratching but it's generally if he's uber pissed off and just flailing around aimlessly.
My LO started doing this too a while back, turns out she was just miserable from her formula. She was scratching herself, hitting me as I was trying to get her to go to sleep. It literally came out of nowhere. For 2 weeks she was miserable until I decided to try another formula. We switched from Enfamil Gentlease to Gerber GoodStart Gentle and instantly had a happier baby!
Hope this helps! Good Luck!
Thanks again everyone.
I'm going to try putting some black curtains in his room and seeing if that helps at all. Right now he doesn't go to sleep in his crib unless he is previously put to sleep--I used to be able to put him down drowsy but awake but no more, arg!
He's EBF so forumla isn't the issue but thank you for tryin'.
If he wakes up that often at night, it sounds like he might be consistently overtired. It's a terrible cycle. What are you doing when you say it takes you an hour to get him to sleep? Have you tried just soothing for a few minutes and putting him down whether he's happy, cranky, tired, or not? My baby used to fight naps like crazy, and I eventually learned that she would NOT fall asleep or really even seem tired in my arms; she would just cry and scream and get more upset until I put her down (screaming) and left the room. Sometimes within 30 seconds of my leaving she'd start sucking her thumb and fall right asleep. Sometimes I'd have to listen to her cry for 5-10 minutes. But now she goes down smiling and happy every time and naps great!
Yeah, I put him down and let him fuss it out occasionally but I'm not comfortable with letting him cry it out--Nothing against others who do it, just not my style personally. Usually what happens is, if he doesn't start screaming right away, he;ll kind of play around/fuss around for a little but until it leads to screaming, but he has yet to put himself to sleep.
Now he did USED to go to sleep this way, by putting him in his crip awake and then dozing off, but it just... stopped a few weeks ago.
My best guess it he is just going through a phase where this is what it is and hopefully it ends sooner than later, because the entire household is completely stressed out.
Currently the best effort I take for getting him to sleep is just walking him around the house endlessly; if I keep moving he stays pretty calm but sometimes it can take up to an hour of walking which, on the bright side, I have pretty killer calves from doing this multiple times a day so that's cool. He won't sleep in a carseat or stroller though.
I think he's just a pissy guy
It sucks because he's pretty fun when he is well rested and wants to play--Smiles a lot, 'talks', loves people and is super interactive. It's just lack of sleep is killing his personality, haha.
My DD was like this at around 3 months as well. I swear I was about to have a nervous breakdown...every nap she would scream like she was being tortured and NOTHING would help.
Sometimes I would put on some white noise from www.pediasleep.com and that would *sometimes* soothe her, other times I just had to bear it for an hour, or how ever long it took her to fall asleep.
It was HARD. The other thing that seemed to calm her was just constant movement. I remember I would be walking around, or just standing in one place rocking her, but as soon as I sat down, bam...screaching began. I kept the same motions and everything, but no, somehow she knew.
I don't know what else to tell you, it could take days, weeks or in my case close to a month for your LO to grow out of this phase
Thanks everyone for your replies--Even if they don't necessary apply to my situation, I really appreciate the support shown, it means a lot.
LeslieAnn6, I've never thought about that but I AM a big time chocoholic. I eat about one chocolate bar and one hot cocoa a day; worried more about what it did to my waistline and less about the caffiene, but you've given me something to think about. I also drink about two cups of coffee a day and one soda. There's been days where I've had neither and didn't notice a change in the baby at all but maybe I should give it a try longer and see if it's the culprit. Either way, it's a lifestyle change that's not a bad thing so... We'll see how it goes.
Thanks again everyone, it's been a rough day at the Hellaine Compound.