Please Help… my baby is the worst sleeper and I don’t know what to do. Night gas?

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People are complaining about 2 hour chunks and I’m just so grateful when I get one of those… my 3 month old wakes up like every 45 minutes. And he false-starts nearly every time I put him down, which is maddening.

He’s very chunky and not wanting for food. It might be gas, but I’ve tried gas drops.

A friend at church talks about how her baby does 6 hours and I’ve never been so envious. The lack of sleep if making me crazy.

Help? Solidarity? Did anyone have a phase like this but get past it? I’m actually going insane. I never thought I could feel bitter towards my baby, but some nights… ooooof.

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It’s cliche as hell but this too will pass. All three of my kids were not the best sleepers as babies, but it gets better. It’s honestly more in the range of normal to experience what you’re going through than to be getting solid 6 hour stretches at this stage. It’s tricky with babies because since they can’t talk yet so a lot of times it could really be any number of things: too cold, too warm, hungry, separation anxiety, wet diapers, working on a new skill, gas, teething…the list goes on.

You’ll find any number of books or sleep coaches and such out there, but at the end of the day (just my hot take) if you want to save the money, just know that it’s all absolutely normal for babies and young toddlers not to be sleeping without at least a wakeup or two through the night. They are going through massive development in every possible form the first two years including general growth.

Solidarity is all I can say! Coffee, getting fresh air and exercise daily and conversing with other adults on a daily basis were my personal ways of getting through the years of sleep deprivation. I weirdly found it easier with subsequent kids as I feel like by then I was used to it.

But it gets better! My youngest is my worst sleeper of all of my kids and is now 2.5 years old and at this point he does pretty much make it through the night. The other kids slept a straight stretch by two years old.

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@Palmer
I sure hope it’ll pass! He’s been this way for 3 weeks now. I actually miss the newborn stage, where he was giving me two hours at a time! I didn’t think it would be downhill from there :smiling_face_with_tear:.

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FreiyaThorsten said:
@Palmer
I sure hope it’ll pass! He’s been this way for 3 weeks now. I actually miss the newborn stage, where he was giving me two hours at a time! I didn’t think it would be downhill from there :smiling_face_with_tear:.

I totally get it! The (hopefully good news) is that usually the reeeallly extreme wakeup phases, like every 30-45 minute kind of things, are not typically for months on end.

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When I (dad) went back to work, it forced us to try new things to help increase his sleep for the sake of ours. Two weeks ago, it was a crapshoot, and now it’s like we have a new baby/nighttime experience. (Worth noting that our baby loves bottles, so if you’re only breastfeeding, some points might not work. We also broke a few rules, so take this with a grain of salt).

First, we got him a little co-sleep pad/bed thing and started keeping him in bed with us safely. It’s made him sleep harder and for longer periods, and I’m convinced he can sense we’re close because when he wakes, it is no longer instant crying.

Second, if you’re pumping, separate the “day” and “night” milk. Night milk has melatonin in it from mom.

Third, feed him on his side while he’s clean and warm and ready for bed. We bottle feed a lot, so I’ll let him drink himself to sleep, and it has worked like a charm. Feeding him on his side makes it so he can more safely drink without coughing or choking since the milk builds in his cheek.

Fourth, make sure he’s warm. I’m a hot sleeper, so I was projecting my hate for blankets onto my baby, who was double-layered already. Once we started draping a small blanket over his legs and belly, he started sleeping longer.

Fifth, I bought a small back support wedge and put it under the head-side of his little bed thing. It allows us to feed him without burping him, which lets him ride that milk high to sleep without us picking him up.

Again, we bent/broke a few “safe sleeping” rules that we used to follow religiously. I firmly believe in safe sleep, but I also believe in trying new things to find any equilibrium.

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what are the naps like during the day? How much awake time are you getting between naps?

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Lennon said:
what are the naps like during the day? How much awake time are you getting between naps?

He naps a lot. I usually get wake windows of around 30 min to an hour at the beginning of the day, then around 2 hours by the end of the day. When he wakes up at night, he seems uncomfortable and squirmy. He cries but he doesn’t fully wake up. I just bounce him around for a bit and he goes back to sleep, but will wake up again if I put him down…

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Lennon said:
what are the naps like during the day? How much awake time are you getting between naps?

His naps are typically also around 45 minutes, but occasionally they can go longer (similar to his night sleep).

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@FreiyaThorsten
I would check to see how much daytime sleep you are getting. If it is gas, I would do tummy massage during each diaper change after waking up. Aim for 5 tummy massage sessions a day at 5 minutes each.

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May or may not help but mine has done this a couple of times when she’s been a bit too cold (normally slept great so I knew something was wrong). When I put another layer or a thicker layer on her it helped heaps.

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@Finley
I just have him in a fleece footie. His chest feels warm, but not hot, so I think I’m good there…? But thank you!

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Our LO was doing this too, especially from 3-6 where the Only way she would sleep was upright on one of our chests. We realized it was her Vitamin D supplement! One day she absolutely refused the bottle that had the vitamin d supplement & so we did one without (she gets 3oz of formula to supplement before bed) and she immediately slept 6 hours straight that night! And she has every night since (this was 4 nights ago). We’re switching her to a vitamin d supplement that doesn’t have DHA in it to see if that’s better.

I also have increased the tummy time & give her a nice long tummy massage with bicycles before bed so she can get as much gas as possible out. And after her middle of the night feeding I hold her upright on my chest for 10 or so minutes before transferring her.

We’re also going to be trying the heating pad in the bassinet trick to see if that helps with the transfer - she’s a big cuddler who would happily sleep for hours as long as we’re holding her lol.

These may not work for your babes, but might be worth trying! You’d be surprised what will work!

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This was us at 3 months as well. I always thought it was the four month regression early. We did four weeks of it before it was absolutely killing us and we sleep trained. A lot of people say it will get better but it didn’t for us until we sleep trained.