SLEEP Help!! Please!!!

[aliceinwonderland]

I feel like we're going backwards, and I'm so tired and frustrated. DS (6.5 months old) will go to sleep around 8, and sleep for about 4 hours. He then gets up, but that is not the problem. He never REALLY wakes up, but he makes these REALLy annoying almost moaning like noises, loud and in his sleep. If left alone, he will get frustrated and wake up screaming. We pick him up, rock him, shushhh him, etc. but he has the hardest time going back to sleep (to where he's QUIET!)..This can take up to an hour, at the lovely hour of 1am. Sometimes I'll nurse him to expedite the falling asleep process.
Then, once you think he is down for the night, he sleeps another hour or two, and repeats the moaning/singing/talking craziness. Sometimes he cries in his sleep. We keep doing this until he wakes up for good at little before 6 am.

This is driving us nuts. It's taking 3 adults to get through the night...What to do??

Yes he is teething, but he has been for a while. And if he can sleep for 4 hrs straight, why can't he sleep for 3 more?? He's never really slept through the night, but I was in heaven when he would just get up twice or three times and feed, and then go right back to sleep...It's not the frequent waking, it's the freakin' moaning or singing he does for hours on end that I can't figure out. HELP!!!

[psophia17]

DS does all that moaning and singing too, and you're right, it's tough to deal with. If he's teething, maybe the pain of it is getting to him at night? We went through a phase when DS would start making noise and I'd get the Tylenol dropper ready, go into his room in stealth mode and drop it in without waking him (DH couldn't manage this). DS tended to go back to sleep when I did this. I was slightly worried about the choking hazard, so I'd stick around for a couple of minutes to make sure he was okay, and then go back to bed myself.

If nursing him down is working, you could try doing that first, and see if skipping the hour long shushing period. If you're sharing a room with him, I highly recommend giving him his own room, just so that you're not as close to his noises and he's not as close to yours. When DS shared our room, he would always wake up at the crack of dawn, and sometimes for a night feeding. As soon as he had his own room, he slept until 9am and dropped the feeding. I think our noises (especially DH's snoring) was enough to get him awake enough to not be able to easily fall back asleep.

HTH!

[Saartje]

I can't remember if you cosleep or not; but if not, would you be willing to try it? Isaac does something like this at times, but it stops when he's cuddled up in bed with me, with the option of nursing in his sleep. (I can substitute a pacifier if I need to, but the cuddling is pretty well mandatory for us at those times.)

[aliceinwonderland]

We do not regularly co-sleep, but I've benn bringing him into our bed regularly when he does this. Sometimes it helps, but in the cases when it does not, we have two overtired, sleep-deprived parents as opposed to one.
If one takes Erik downstairs to rock in the rocking chair, at least the other is getting some rest...

I really think something is wrong with my kiddo.

[sntm]

Nope, he's totally normal. It's just something you have to deal with. Remember too if he is teething, the meds only work for 4-6 hours, so they may be wearing off and he is in more pain. If nursing works to get him back to sleep, keep nursing him. He may sleep longer with a full belly.
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shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03
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Breastfeeding 17 months and counting

[deenass]

Eri,

Your DS has hit that 6 month window where sleep seems to be messed up for almost EVERY kid, so yeah for you, he's normal! Seriously, sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. Have you read the Weissbluth book? It can help you understand developmentally what may be going on so that you and DH can igure out what approach you want to take in dealing with it.

[aliceinwonderland]

After taking 40 minutes to FINALLY go to sleep last night(9pm) Erik woke up at 11, 1, 4 and 6. Each time refusing to back down. I'm dizzy with exhaustion. ANd I have exams comng up. Lovely, just lovely.

thanks for your help...