Help my 3 month old wont sleep....

Hi Ladies...I am in need of some major help with sleeping.

My 3 month old is a horrible sleeper. He will only fall asleep if I hold him and rock him with his pacifier. It can take an entire hour to get him to fall asleep. THEN, he wakes up as soon as I put him down. The most he will sleep during the day without being held is 10 minutes. Its ridiculous that he is awake from 7am stright through 930pm!!!!!

At night, he is still waking up every three hours for feedings, then it takes an hour to get him back to sleep and by that time I only have one hour left before the next feeing. I am at the end of my rope here.

I have tried everything including; swaddling, white noise, bouncer seat, rockers, swing, car seats, warm baths, dark room, walks in the stroller and so on. He is soooo cranky and visably over tired. I have no idea what to do next. I know he is too young to CIO but I am out of ideas.

And yes, he has reflux but is on a really high dose of meds for it.

Please help.

Re: Help my 3 month old wont sleep....

That is my DD exactly!!! She does not sleep much during the day and at night the only way she will go to sleep is if I rock her with a pacifer but I wait for like 20 mins. (or when I know she is sound asleep) and then place her gently in her crib. Most of the times she will sleep through the night lately she has been getting up because I think she is teething. Everyone tells me that she should be able to fall asleep on her own but she won't...it is frustrating so I understand what you are going through!!

Re: Help my 3 month old wont sleep....

IMO for a 3 month old to wake every 3 hours for a feeding at night is not unusual. Some people are lucky and get a 4-5 hours stretch but they still need to eat during the night.

I am guessing he isnt sleeping because he is uncomfortable from the reflux and gas. Is he crying? Or just laying there quietly? If he is crying alot he may be colic which he will grow out of. Not much you can do there.

Re: Help my 3 month old wont sleep....

My DD is 4 months and is the exact same way.
Won't fall asleep without a bottle.
Won't nap more than 15 minutes or so during the day.
Will NEVER EVER sleep through the night.
I have just resigned myself to the fact that she is a horrendous sleeper.
I pray that it changes one day.

Re: Help my 3 month old wont sleep....

When DS was 3 months, I had to wait until he was fully asleep to put him down for the night. I used to swaddle him and watch tv and then put him in his crib (after him sleeping for an hour).

He'd sleep 4-5 hrs then be up for the rest of the night, unless I brought him into bed with me.

ETA - That may not seem ideal to some but, I needed sleep!

Message edited 11/4/2010 3:12:23 PM.

Re: Help my 3 month old wont sleep....

I'm sticking with the reflux as the cause. Have you seen a change in him since starting the reflux med? Although he is on a high dose, perhaps this medicine isn't doing the trick and your doc might need to switch and try another one. My DD was the same way until we realized it was silent reflux for which we give her Axid 3x a day. I saw a change in her immediately. And she is horrible if I delay the medicine too long so I know it's still there and that the medicine is working. So, just a thought but make sure the medicine is really working.

Re: Help my 3 month old wont sleep....

DS was the same way. I used to say at 4 weeks he woke up and never slept (during hte day) which wasnt horrible for us as he was doing 6 hours at night but still!

I used to rock him to sleep, then sit with him for about 10 minutes. This is going to sound really funny, but someone gave us a book as a joke it was a handbook for babies when we first had DS. Its pretty funny but has some tips in there too. One day DH comes and tells me that it says if you can lift up your child's arm and when you drop it, it just falls they baby is asleep. If there is any reflex they are still not SOUND asleep. So I used to sit there and when I thought he was asleep do this! Totally worked!

Also at that age DS had a terrible falling reflex, so I swaddle him because I noticed that when I put him donw he would get startled and wake up crying. He didnt need the swaddle to sleep per say and would fall asleep in my arms with it just loosely on him but it helped with the falling reflex.

For day time naps in the AM the only thing that worked was about 2 hours after he woke for the day, after he was fed, I would put him in the swing and vacuum. I discovered this by accident one day but it was the only way he took an AM nap from about 2 months until 7 months!!!!

Also when you are in the room with him to put him to sleep, turn all lights off, minimize talking to him and minimize eye contact, this stimulates them sometimes! My friend said she used to feel horrible because her DD had day night confusion so she slept all day and then my friend would barely look at her at night because she didnt want to over simulate her and she wanted her to understand it was sleep time not play time!

GL.

Re: Help my 3 month old wont sleep....

Sounds like reflux to me too. My dd was on zantac, and it did nothing! Once we switched to prevacid she did so much better.