STM's- regarding sleep training

jordans_wife · March 2016

My LO is 5 weeks tomorrow. Every night he gets exhausted around 7:30 or so. I feed him and put him down around 8pm for the night. He has this pattern or fussing/crying until around 10 every night. I have tried rocking him and soothing him to sleep in a variety of ways but he can't seem to let go and sleep. I nurse him and he falls asleep but wakes up right away after I put him down and starts fussing. He gets angry/overtired and pushes away from me/arches his body. So I've found he seems happiest swaddled and laying in his cosleeper with a binky. But inevitably he might sleep for a couple minutes then wakes up again or just loses his binky and fusses til I put the binky in again. I lay next to him in my bed with him in the cosleeper so i can soothe him and give him his binky. This pattern goes on for an hr and a half or 2 every night. He's so tired and miserable but just cranky on top of it. I can't help but think letting him cry a bit might do the trick of him releasing his pent up energy or finally getting to sleep. I've tried everything else but nothing seems to do the trick. However I don't want to do this while he's too young so I'm looking to other moms who are pro-sleep training and who have experience. I'm only referring to the period of 8 to 10 at night. Not looking to reduce feeds or anything like that. Just to get him to sleep for the night. How long was it before you let your LO cry? What age do you start putting them down drowsy but awake?

Mamabeagle · March 2016

It sounds like waiting until 730 is too late, and he's already overtired. Perhaps try moving his night feeding up to 7 for a few nights. 5 weeks is too young to cry it out, but I would always put them down drowsy but not asleep. He also may be colicky/gassy like my LO, who we have started giving gripe water to throughout the afternoon and into the evening, and making sure he is thoroughly burped during and after every feeding.

jordans_wife · March 2016

@Mamabeagle I'd never considered I was waiting too long to put him down at night. But that's a good idea. I'll see if moving his bedtime up helps. Thanks !

Achae · March 2016

I also agree to try and move up his bedtime. Babies don't understand cause and effect until months later. No way at 5 weeks.

Rach8672 · March 2016

Sounds like the witching / purple hour which doesn't last long

PedsIsHardcore · March 2016

When babies are overstimulated they will become super fussy so I agree with PP that you should try earlier.
I will be going back to work soon so we are going through the same thing with DD2. She gets super fussy if she is overstimulated. So we turn everything off in the living room or bedroom to help her body recognize its bed time.

hailees · March 2016

I agree with PP's. I watch for any sign of tiredness and begin our sleep time routine immediately instead of having a set time. 30 minutes past exhaustion means you probably have an overtired baby on your hands! You can start drowsy but awake anytime, at 5 weeks I would probably only try it once maybe twice, if that's not working move on to doing whatever it takes.

2winterbabies · March 2016

Also I heard around 6-8 weeks fussiness can peak so hang in there. Not saying your LO isn't crying for a reason. I agree with PPs as well -- try putting LO down earlier. I found that my DD ended up being a really gassy baby and sometimes when I put her down to sleep she will wake up right away because she doesn't have all the gas bubbles out. Could that be an issue? Her formula was also affecting her mood. She is really sensitive to the milk protein and had to go on soy formula. All this combined has led to my baby being from fussy all the time to only fussy when needing something.

jordans_wife · March 2016

Thanks guys. I'm going to try moving up his bedtime and see if that helps. I don't think gas is the issue at night. He doesn't seem in pain just tired. However he wakes at 5:30am every morning and has a fart/poopathon. He twists all over and makes a ton of noise to poop a lot. He's done this forever now. I've found putting him in the bouncer seems to help him poop and quiet him. So every am at that time he goes in the bouncer and sleeps until around 7:30 in there.

katiedid0907 · March 2016

DS is 7 weeks old and we have the same issue. He's tired but he just doesn't want to sleep. Like you it takes us 1.5 to 2 hours to get him to sleep at night. It's exhausting. We put him to bed at 7:00 when I put my 2 yr old to bed. Last night I noticed DS seemed tires at 6:15 so I put him to bed at that time, but it still took an hour and a half to get him to fall asleep. I comfort nurse him to sleep and rock him because it's the only thing that works. He won't take a pacifier. I'm out of ideas.
As for sleep training DS 1 was an AWFUL sleeper and I didn't start really "sleep training" until 6 months because I just felt like he was too young before that. At 8 months we resorted to CIO and he magically slept for 8 hours after the 2nd night of it.

EmmyMommy123 · March 2016

Totally had this issue for the past few weeks - maybe weeks 4ish until a few days ago (falling asleep but then up again within minutes and this continued for hours), tried earlier bedtime, tried a lot of things. *Magically* a few days ago (the day before he turned 8 weeks) it's like he suddenly decided he's cool with bedtime and gets the routine and it rarely takes more than 30 ish minutes now to put him down (by now I mean the last 4 days so of course that could change).

So I'd say do what you have to do short of crying it out (agree that it's too young but trust me I was almost ready to try it I was so tired), and hopefully babe will snap out of it sooner rather than later!! That 6-8 week peak of fussiness is no joke.

jordans_wife · March 2016

@EmmyMommy123 that us Sooo good to hear! I hope so!

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