DS will be 6 weeks on Tuesday. He's been having sleep issues in the daytime since he was 2 weeks old. We are at a loss of what to do and my girls come back on Monday. I'm nervous with them being back and DS being such a crab. He is sleeping great during the night. He wakes up for a bottle of breasmilk and then goes right back to sleep. During the day, it's a completely different story. He usually wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30. We make sure to not feed him in his room like we do at night so that he realizes it's morning and time to be up for a bit. He'll take his bottle, burp, poop, etc and then sometimes is crabby immediately after, but not always. Usually within 45 minutes of waking he's ready to go back for a nap. As soon as we see him yawn once or twice, we swaddle him, take him to his room, sway & pat for a bit while listening to the sound machine, and then put him down for a nap. He always cries. Sometimes screams, sometimes just fusses. We've found that when he screams or fusses, we can't do anything to soothe him. We've tried bouncing, more patting, shhh shhh shhh sounds, rocking, etc. Sometimes he'll fall asleep with just a bit of fussing. However, he's awake again after about 30 minutes and is in no mood to be awake. If we get him up, then he's a bear and screams. This goes on all day long. The swing works sometimes, but he'll still usually wake up before he's really rested and be crabby. I do put him in a front carrier sometimes and he'll calm down with a nuk, but usually doesn't fall asleep. The nuk calms him, but as soon as it falls out of his mouth he screams til it's put back in, which is why I think he doesn't fall asleep with it. I bought material to make a homemade Moby Wrap, but I haven't gotten the hang of wrapping it yet so I haven't used it.

I do realize that he's a little baby and that at this age they don't have a schedule much. I wouldn't mind him being up so much if he was happy, but he's not...he's overtired and needs to sleep. Just wanted to clarify that b/c I posted this on a local mom's page and nobody gave me suggestions, just said he's a baby and they don't have predictable sleep patterns yet.

WHAT AM I MISSING???? PLEASE GIVE ME SOME SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO HELP HIM SLEEP BETTER!

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Are you sure that there isn't anything medically going on such as reflux/silent reflux? Does he have any other symptoms, weird patterns, painful screaming, etc. that might help narrow down what is going on? So he falls asleep during the day but just doesn't stay asleep OR is everything sleep related an issue?

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I don't think there's a medical issue. Pretty sure no reflux...he's sleeping in his carseat in the crib, not flat on the mattress. I don't think it's gas. He is a big tooter, but that's usually after he's been crying or is pooping. I think the crabbiness is all sleep related. He'll start to fall asleep, close his eyes, and then BAM! starts screaming. He fell asleep around lunch time pretty decently, but woke up after 30 minutes. I put him in the swing after that to see if he'd fall back to sleep, but I'm not sure if he did. He has been quiet though.

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How great that he's sleeping at night! That's a huge yippee!!!
Is he fussy all day, or just in the morning after his first nap?
I'm assuming you know he's not hungry or still needing to burp?
Is his room drastically different from day/night? (noise level/ light/temp...)
Sorry no help yet.
Just trying to think things through with you

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Is there a reason you have him in a car seat inside his crib? Very curious about this one.

I would suggest you try to get him to sleep without the aid of a swing or car seat sooner rather than later....it'll make things much easier when he's too old/big for the swing.

Try tightly swaddling him and letting him lay on his back in his crib. He may be getting uncomfortable or too hot in the car seat.

**Please use caution with the next bit of advise, never NEVER leave a baby unattended on their tummy**

With my niece, she hated sleeping on her back. So I would put her on her tummy (especially right after a bottle, as I find tummy sleeping after a bottle was better for digestion and reflux) and let her fall asleep that way and flip her over once she was sound asleep. Of course, I was always in the same room with her so watching her during tummy time wasn't an issue

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Fussy all day; Not hungry or needing another burp.
Room is the same, just a bit lighter b/c of the sun, but we have room darkening curtains up.
Thanks for helping me! I just feel like I'm missing something. It's killing me to hear DS cry so much and there's nothing we can do to soothe him. I feel so powerless.

[quote=MN Mom;99922]Is there a reason you have him in a car seat inside his crib? Very curious about this one.

He's in a carseat because he wouldn't sleep in his crib or bassinett from day one. It was hold him or use the carseat. We don't/didn't feel comfortable holding him and sleeping at the same time. He hates being laid flat.

Try tightly swaddling him and letting him lay on his back in his crib. He may be getting uncomfortable or too hot in the car seat.

He is tightly swaddled. I was thinking he might be getting too hot in the carseat, especially when he can't calm down. I will try laying him in the crib and see if he's ok.

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Does he spit up very frequently? Mine had reflux and hated lying flat for that reason. It took meds and special formula to get back on track.

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Everything you're saying sounds like he's in discomfort during the day more than at night. Is he eating more during the day? I assume he is since he's only taking one bottle at night.

My son wouldn't sleep flat on his back either, and he ended up sleeping in his infant carrier most of the time. He was a horrible sleeper--lots of catnaps throughout the day, and longer spells of sleeping at night. Now that he's older, it's becoming obvious to me that he has some reflux issues that i didn't even think to check for earlier, because in total, he was getting enough sleep every 24 hour period and wasn't cranky. He like to sleep on his tummy now, and it seems to help.

Because he sounds like he's having more issues during the time he's eating more, I'd have a doctor check for reflux if I were you. And allergies and food intolerances. Lots of the mommie groups I'm part of have infants like yours, and they all have either reflux or food allergies.

Good luck!

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I'm so sorry, but I misread the part about silent reflux! I was rushed when I was reading and responding and missed the silent part I reread everyone's posts last night, saw the silent part and looked it up online. It fit it to a t!

Took him to the doctor today and she thinks it's that also and gave us a scrip for Zantac. As much as I'd hate for him to have reflux issues, I'm hoping that's the problem and we are able to solve it. Thanks everyone for your help! I was at my wits end and knew you'd all come through for me! You ladies are the greatest!

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Our DS had this and a day after he took Zantac he was a different baby. I saw him be happy for the first time in his 6week life. I told dh at the time "so this is what its like to have a baby instead of a screaming little person!". At about 5 months he grew out of it and in a year and half we havent had any issues.

Hope that helps him

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great!

Reflux is a nightmare sometimes so I hope that you see quick results with your doctor's input. I would also recommend that you research other non-medication related tips and tricks to get baby more comfortable. I went on the elimination diet for my younger (who was nursing, can't remember if you said you were nursing or not) and this helped a lot to figure out her trigger foods. Its a pain but well worth it. Sleeping slightly inclined helps (though I would never let my kids sleep in a car seat for safety reasons) and there are numerous other tips out there. We were able to get baby off meds in just a few weeks and found better success with other alternatives. Either way, hope baby feels better soon! Oh and we also had some success with regular chiro adjustments. Its TMI but after that first adjustment, she let go so much gas. Poor thing, its crazy how much was trapped inside there!

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