I have a 5 1/2 month old (3 months adj age) who is having trouble sleeping. He has been sleeping through the night for a week or so now, and even when he got up he was fed and went right back to sleep. The last 2 nights have been miserable. Sunday night he would not go to sleep for longer than 30 minutes at a time and would take at least an hour to get to sleep before that. He finally went down at 4 AM. Last night was the same thing. His Dad finally went in to his room and held him so he would sleep and not wake me up. Are these types of weird sleeping cycles normal? Will he get past it? I have done everything I know to get him to sleep longer (swaddling, rocking, shhing, white noise machine, feeding right before sleep (even with cereal!). Does anyone have any suggestions??
OK it has been suggested there might be an ear infection. Would he cry all day and even during naps, or just at night? He's too young to have the coordination to pull on his ear anyway, so I know he wouldn't do that. I would think it would hurt all day, am I wrong? Thanks for the suggestions...
Thank you for all the responses!! He is sleeping through the night now but we have to swaddle him and put him in his swing. We try every night in his bed first and he sleeps for about 10 minutes then wakes up crying. As soon as we put him in his swing he's fine. So as long as he doesn't outgrow the swing we are set for now!!
K., Is he really screaming out when he wakes up? I would check into the possiblity of an ear infection. They don't always run a fever or pull on ears.
Good Luck, M.
Hi K.,
Congratulations on your new baby! How exciting! My son was not a preemie but he did not have any problems sleeping through the night. However, just like your son, mine would wake up in the middle of the night and not go back to sleep or he would sleep for 30 minutes be awake for 2 hours sleep for 20, etc. We tried everything we could think of as well. We finally ended up by calling the doctor because like both of you neither my husband nor I would get any sleep and we didn't know what else to do. Come to find out he had an ear infection. This happened every time that he woke up like that and not able to go back to sleep. I don't know if this helps you or not, but once we figured out what was going on we went to the doctor's office the next day, got him on antibiotics and then everything was fine. Good luck and I hope that you get some sleep!
You may want to have him checked for an ear infection.....my son usually showed no symtoms except crying and not sleeping at night. Good luck!
My daughter was 2 1/2 months early. She came home on a good schedule. She went through a time of not sleeping well, because of acid reflux. You may think about getting a wedge of sorts...just a thought, preemies tend to get reflux rather than a full-term baby. The fun part of preemie parenting brings all sorts of worries. May call your doctor - in regards to the ear infection, they may want to see him, just to check him out. BTW - congrats on your miracle. Mine is 2 1/2, other than her being small, you would never know she came 10 weeks early. Congrats!
Hi K.
First of all congratulations on your little baby boy. My daughter was born 8 weeks early (almost 11 years ago!) She came home from the hospital sleeping through the night and we were so surprised and happy! Then when she was about 6 months old (4 months adjusted) she stopped sleeping through the night. We tried everything! We spoke to her pediatrician and he suggested that she slept through the night so well initially because she was still trying to catch up with herself - and that her behavior was very typical. She had also slept most of the day away but we realized that along with waking up in the middle of the night she was much more active and awake during the day as well. Luckily for us it was short lived. I think it only took about 3 weeks before she was back on schedule. We joke that parenthood began for us at that time because then we were up with night feedings! I think the best advice we were given was to keep her active and alert more during the daytime hours so that she would be tired during bedtime. Before we let her run our schedule - if she fell asleep we let her sleep. But once we stuck to a regular schedule - napping once in the morning and once in the afternoon - we had much better nights! So don't worry - it's perfectly normal! Enjoy this time with your son!
This sounds like normal growth spurt thing. It will last for 2-3 nights and he will be back to normal. These happen at about 3 wks, 6 wks, 3 mos, and 6 mos. This is usually the pattern to increase a woman's milk output. And, you will see the need to increase formula if that is what you are using. Sometims the cereal can cause a tummy ache and cause the same thing you are trying to prevent. So, just be careful with that.
