Waking up crying and still tired

ShadyKull

My little guy has two kinds of naps:

1. The short 30 minute cat nap. Annoyingly short, but he wakes up happy and smiling. Most naps these days are this variety.

2. The long haul nap. It usually goes past 2 hours. He has this nap every other day or so, usually in the afternoon.

For the past week, he has been waking up crying several times throughout a long haul nap. I really don't think he is hungry because it is sometimes less than an hour since he last fed. It is a tired type of cry, and he goes right back to sleep once I pick him up and rock him for a minute. This no big deal, but he has been doing it at night also after his first MOTN feeding every 1.5 hours or so. So he has been waking up 3-4 times per night instead of his previous 2 times. I am tired! As a matter of fact, he has been napping for the past three hours and has woken up crying 3 times (but went right back to sleep with my help).

Anyone here experience something similar? Please tell me this is just a phase. Or do I need to do some sleep training to get him through it? I am not ready to let him CIO (nor is he!)

VPGIRL06

Could be 4 month wakeful rearing its head he's tired, but needs your assistance going  back to sleep. I'm not sure what to do for that, it hasn't hit here (yet!)

 

BUT- how long is he crying for? My LO will cry sometimes going between sleep cycles. Not sure why!  But after 5-8 minutes she'll go back to sleep, so I just let her go for that long.  Maybe just see if he will go back to sleep? If not, I'm afraid you might be stuck with this until either he stops regressing, OR you're ready to sleep train

dawnj08

So excited to see what responses you get. My LO is still 2 weeks shy of 4 months but his sleep the past couple weeks has been horrible. I feel like its back to square one. He is down at 8 and he was going until 4 or even 6 but now he's up at 1, then every hour or two after that. It's horrible and I'm so tired during the day I can't even enjoy him during the day :

I have actually just stopped feeding him at 1. I usually go in, stick his mam in his mouth and he's back out until 3 and then I feed him. How big is your LO and how much does he eat? Mine is almost 13 lbs and eats about 26 to 30 oz of formula through the day.

Funnygirl34

My LO is going through the same thing!  He sleeps fine at night but wont nap longer than 30 minutes during the day.  The thing is, when he wakes up, he's not really ready to be awake!!  It's so frustrating.. poor guy.

kellyrn9956

We're in the same boat. Read up on the 4 month wakeful. 

mnj05

Same here and I almost have to rock him to sleep for every nap and I've never done that before. He used to put himself to sleep whether I laid him down drowsy or wide awake. DS is also going through a growth spurt on top of the wakeful, he's eating more often. Just remember, as frustrating as it can be at times, this phase will pass eventually!

ShadyKull

Isn't it early for the 4 month wakeful? He is only 3.5 months (and was born a week early too). I guess babies go by their own developmental schedule, eh?

PS Bedtime was painful tonight.

mommy+of+4

no its not too early trust me my son is 14 weeks and he had the same problem. the trick I found that worked is controlling what time he lays down and how long he sleep. For example my son gets up at 5 in the morning I feed him put him back to bed and then around 9 o'clock I getting back up and I keep him up until noon by that time he's hungry and very tired I lay him down around 1 and let him sleep in till 3 I wake him back up and keep him up until around 7 and then I do bath, a bottle and then back to bed and he sleeps from then until 5 o'clock in the morning. I know it sounds difficult but it was pretty easy for me only to the fact that I have 4 kids all around the same age. it was difficult at first but I used the carrier to keep them up in between feedings, naps and bedtime