Nearing crisis point

clarryd

Hi Sascha, I feel your tiredness and pain.

Have you tried putting a small amount of lavendar oil on his pillow. It will relax him and help him sleep.

The other thing is could he be hungry, my daughter used to wake up most nights and I was the same as you I had to go to work full time and was so tired I couldn't function.

I started to give her a weetabix before bed which filled her up and was not full of sugar and rubbish. Just a thought.

I hope he settles down soon.

System

I feel your pain. Sounds weird but it is actually a relief to read someone going through the same thing . Some of the stuff you wrote happened in our house just last night!

My DD was born in July this year and until Sept we were up with colic on a regular basis. Sept also happened to be the time my 2 year old caught his annual cough which is still on going. It has been non stop sleepless nights. Once he starts, it can last from a few minutes of intermittent coughing to hours.

The worst times are the ones where you get a couple of good nights, feel refreshed but then the sleepless nights return with a vengeance.

I hope you guys find what is keeping him up

mummyroysof3

My youngest is four and a half and has never slept through the night on a regular basis even now he is on medication. So I've no advice just wanted you to know you not alone x

fluffnutter

sacha28 wrote: »

... everything we try works for a couple of days ..

Can you explain more about this? It usually takes some weeks or even months to establish new patterns so I'm interested to know how long you're trying things for. Do you mean you're trying an approach for a couple of days or that you see an improvement (after trying for, say, a fortnight) but that the improvement only lasts a few days?

Can you also say what you've been trying so far?

In the short term it might also be useful if you could go somewhere one night a week just to sleep. A friend's, your parents' (if they're local), even a B&B. But just somewhere where you know you can get an undisturbed night's sleep. Sleep deprivation is a real killer and will hinder you being able to keep this in perspective.

Does this cause the same problem for your husband or is he able to sleep through it more easily?

FBaby

Fast forward a few weeks and he was admitted to hospital where they found he had a 'post viral gut infection' which I've since found out is fairly common and when we were giving him milk during the night it was like adding petrol to the fire in his gut.

This is very interesting. My DD started to sleep through the night when she was 3 months old, and then started waking up all through the night screaming with little comforting her from the time she was 6 months old. It was horrendous. Not just because of having to manage with so little sleep, but also because the feeling of helplessness when I was so desperate for both of us to get back to sleep. It got worse and worse, and as both my partner and I was working full-time and having to commute over an hour each both ways, we had to find ways to just stay sane. It ended up being with me sleeping with her. I took her to the doctor, but always got fobbed off. I could tell something wasn't right though and suspected she was in pain. In the end, I started to watch her diet and noticed that the more fiber she digested, the worse it was, despite suffering from constipation. I removed most of it from her diet and she stopped waking up crying for hours...however, the habit was there and she still woke up looking for me. I despaired that I would ever found my bed again, but when when she was 2 1/2 and I was pregnant with her brother, I one day decided I had enough and moved back to my bed, expecting her to come and wake me up...but she didn't and never did again.

Resulting to sleep with her was purely a last resort solution because it was that, or me losing the plot for good and risking accidents at work, at home or on the road utter exhaustion and lack of concentration. She is now 13, that time is long gone, but looking back, I would do the same again.

sassyblue

I feel for you OP you must feel awful.

Have you tried wrapping him up warmer? Does he wriggle out of his covers and that wakes him?

There's a place called the Millpond sleep clinic, you can sign up for a package and they will sort you with a plan to implement, for a few hundred pounds though.

sacha28

His bedtime routine is the same as it has always been and is as follows.....

5pm tea time
5.45pm bath time
6.30pm he chooses his books, give daddy a kiss goodnight then we go up to his room to read them.

I don't put his light on, use the landing light with his door wide open, and he always has the same book read before getting into his cot. He goes to bed with a half filled bottle of milk (more if he hasn't eaten well for tea)

He goes to bed with 2 cuddles bears, god help me if we lose one, which he puts either side of his face whilst he drinks his milk.

We have a thermometer light that tells us the room temp and shows a different colour whether room is too hot etc. He also has lullabys and a night light (we have forgotten to put these on a couple of times which caused trouble).

Both myself and oh have done exactly the same thing since he was very little......given him some water, covered him up, whispered 'it's night time, time for sleep' then left. Very little interaction from either of us. Sometimes this works, sometimes it just seems to wind him up.

The GP has prescribed phenergan (a sedative) about 6 months ago. He slept well the first night then was worse than ever for the next week. I also believe that this was making him groggy during the day as he wasn't sleeping well enough on it (has anyone here taken a low dose sleeping tablet then not slept well? I have and I felt terrible in the morning!)

His moods are very up and down. He was awful over the weekend. Whenever I called my oh all I could hear was screaming in the background. It's very wearing. He has bags under his eyes and seems quite pale. He looks constantly knackered.

We've tried putting him to bed earlier, we've tried putting him to bed later. Neither has worked. I can never keep him up past 7pm anyway, he stands at the bottom of the stairs begging to go to bed.

Our boy NEVER has milk during the night, hasn't for well over a year, yet the past few nights it's the first thing he asks for. Is he just trying it on? He has also NEVER been in my bed and it isn't something that either of us are willing to do.

If there are any more questions feel free to ask, I will answer as honestly as I can xx

stardoman

My middle son was like this, he just didn't need the sleep. In fact, he had dark circles under his eyes from just a few months old, but I think there was too much going on. He didn't want to miss out.

One thing which did help was getting him a new mattress The ones which come with cot beds are sometimes cheap and uncomfortable. I really feel for you though.

Can you and your husband take it in turns. We did alternative nights with the person not getting up sleeping in the spare room. At least thing way one of us knew we would get a full nights sleep.

Wilma33

Is there anyone that could watch him for one day or night whilst you check yourself into a hotel?
Could you book the day off work and sleep whilst he is at nursery?
It won't solve the problem long term but it might get you past the crisis point.

balletshoes

sacha you say you cant keep your son up past 7pm as he's begging to go to bed - so does he sleep from then and then is awake later in the night? If so, I'd suggest one of you parents goes to sleep too when he does - sleep is really important to every human being, adults as well as kids, so take the HV advice from when he was a baby - when he sleeps, you do.