Anyone else with this sleep problem?

[samiam]

My baby is 13 weeks old and in the last 2 weeks, finally started sleeping 5 and 6 hour stretches. However, once he wakes for that initial feeding, he doesn't appear to sleep soundly after that. He goes back down to sleep, but 15 - 30 minutes later is chirping, grunting, and making noise. After the initial feeding, he's often wide awake 60 - 90 minutes later. He doesn't want a bottle, doesn't need a diaper, is just awake. Since he's just making noise and not crying, I've let him "grunt it out" for as long as an hour, but he never settles back down into a sound sleep. The problem is his chirping keeps me awake, even though he's in a basinette in his own room (his room is across the hall). He likes to go to bed around 8 - 8:30 (he set this schedule on his own and has been very consistent with it), so even if he sleeps 6 hours, it means I'm up at 2 and then up on and off every half hour or so after that. Any ideas? By 5:30 a.m. or 6:00 a.m. I'm desperate and I pick him up and he sleeps on my chest on the couch - we'll both sleep soundly until 9 or 9:30. I wonder if he keeps waking because he wants his "mommy time?" I know it's not an issue of belly capacity here as last night he is able to go 5 - 6 hours two times in a row without a feeding?

I've tried not having him sleep on me in the mornings, but he's awake constantly (thus I'm awake constantly) and he'd be up for the day much earlier.

Would greatly appreciate any idea. I don't really believe in the CIO method, so that's not an option. But again, he's not really crying anyway; just grunting and chirping. I know babies aren't sound sleepers by nature, but he's totally peaceful during the first 5 or 6 hours that he's sleeping.

Thanks for any ideas or advice!

[puglucy]

I think I read that babies sleep most soundly during the 1st stretch of sleep & the last. In btwn is when they sleep more fitfullly -- sounds like what your little one is doing, but maybe for a longer time.

Only advice I can think of would be to try having him sleep with you -- maybe starting after the 2 am feeding?

that might buy you both some more sleep . . . ?

good luck!


Lucy\r\nAlex 3/18/03