Seriously Will NOT Sleep!!!

I think it is perfectly normal for a breast fed baby to eat throughout the night. Could he sleep in a bouncer/carseat/swing to help him sleep more upright? All 3 of mine had to do that as babies.

AF, he WANTS to nurse during the night. He doesn't need to. There's a big difference.

Give him rice cereal before you put him down for bed. Between that and nursing him, he should have a full tummy. Then no more nursing in the middle of the night. You just have to night wean him. Take a week to break him from this. It will be hard, but just DO it. Instead of nursing him, go in his room and sit on the floor against his crib and put your hand inbetween the slats and touch his leg. He will cry his little heart out, but don't pick him up, don't talk. Just touch his leg. He will cry himself to sleep. Let him.

If you do this every night, he will sleep longer and longer, and cry shorter and shorter. If you give him absolutely no incentive to wake up, he will train himself to stay asleep.

Yes, it's hard for the family to hear crying, but there's no way to get around it and get some sleep.

You can do this,
Dawn

We used Ferber it worked for us. Our DS was colicky, and screaming all the time, we felt we had nothing to loose. It was tough, but it was probably the best decision we made.

1. you can night wean without fully weaning, if that is what you want.
2. your child doesn't need to feed overnight, he just really wants to.

An idea which might make the whole thing more workable is to pack up the twins to grandmas for a long weekend. You and hubs stay at home and do the sleep training. He should probably do the night time training, esp if you are going to refuse to BF. Try to get us much catch up sleep as possible during these rough few nights.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

I feel your pain! My daughter was the same way, I always knew she wasn't getting enough sleep but no one understood how close I was to losing my mind!

As much as professionals will advice against this, my daughter slept better on her belly. I know it's a big no-no, but desperate times call for desperate measures, right? If they have belly pain, lying on their front can relieve that discomfort.

Also it made a HUGE difference when we moved her from a crib to a twin bed. She started sleeping through the night within a week. I think it was because we could lie down with her until she was groggy enough. I could also nurse her lying down and then not half to move her when she was falling asleep.

Hang in there, you will get through this!

I am not trying to be unhelpful, but you posted a similar question a few months ago and got several good responses with various suggestions. Did you try any of them? I ask because, you are likely to get the same suggestions again, if you don't mention what exactly you tried (or didn't try) and whether/how well it worked (or didn't).

One person mentioned The No Cry Sleep Solution. A couple mentioned checking for silent reflux issues. Did you check with your son's doctor about the reflux?
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How long since he was diagnosed with reflux? Are you sure that the medication is effective? Was there any change whatsoever after beginning treatment for the reflux? What does the pedi say regarding night feedings and reflux---most babies do not need to eat overnight at 5 1/2 months old (meaning for about 7 hours straight)... but perhaps it is helpful for reflux to feed them more frequently (I don't know, my kids did not have it so I haven't done any research on that). Or maybe it could be causing the reflux to be worse. I do know that if reflux is an issue, sleeping flat is not helpful (personal experience with my own heartburn). Riley gave you a good suggestion on how to address that.

If all else fails, my kids frequently fell asleep on car rides. Have you tried wearing him, that works for some babies. What about putting him in a swing? Have you tried that? Some babies fall asleep there when they won't anywhere else.

Welcome to the club of "sleepless babies." My DS used to be one of those. Now that he's a teen, he turned into a night owl and will sleep past noon on weekends if I don't wake him up. (Guess he's making up for when he was a younger.) I found the best thing to do is to not worry about it and enlist the help of others. A baby will sleep when he/she is ready to sleep. I will admit to country line dancing with DS, which worked really great. He'd fall right off to sleep; however, wake up 2 hours later. (At least we'd get him to sleep.) Car rides, rocking chairs, walking him around, etc. didn't work. Just country line dancing. Sometimes we'd sing instead of turning on the radio. You haven't lived until you've country line danced to "Oh, Suzanna!" My DH, MIL, and I would take shifts responding to DS's demands; so everyone would at least get a little relaxation in bed. (It helps, even if you lay there awake.) Turned out that DS is gifted. You baby might be gifted too, so start pointing things out and talking to him. He might wind up talking early. The earlier he talks, the better your life will be. My DS was talking before he even started walking, so by the time he was 15 mo. he was having full conversations about everything and anything. I can still remember him shouting out, "Look Mommy, a fuchsia motorcycle" when I was driving him to the daycare ctr. I was so shocked, that I asked them at the daycare center why they are teaching the kids such odd colors, and they told me he must have over heard them complimenting a mother that came in with a pretty fuchsia suit on. My DS hating nap time during the day, so I wound up carrying him around the house and used that opportunity to tell him what things were called. Have fun with your baby and don't worry. Each child is different, so you really can't go by the recommended health advisers.

It sounds like you're reading the wrong stuff... As nearly all medical literature says to feed on demand. For a whole host of reasons.

I would try 2 things:

1) feed him at night (if you won't, babies are clever, he'll keep himself awake if he only gets fed when he's awake).

2) try having him sleep in a car seat in his crib. Some babies (especially reflux babes... Need to be upright or it burns burns burns.

If neither worked... I would go in for a sleep study

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Whoops! Forgot to add... I was assuming you've already tried the Tylenol Test?

((Giving Tylenol before bed, and again 4 hours later. If they conk out its pain keeping them awake... Even if they're not cranky... Pain just triggers insomnia for many people. If Tylenol works, then you're looking for a pain source. Teeth, ears/sinus, etc.

Try to let him spend time in the sunlight as much as possible, even if its by an open window. Sunlight regulates the body's ability to sleep - while in it, you will be wide awake; when its dark, you will get to sleep quicker and sleep deeper. Works for new and grown up humans as well!

My baby had problems for a bit with reflux. I just kept him in his Baby Bjorn in front of me and slept on the couch with pillows propped up all around me. I only had to do that for a few days at a time when it would act up. This was when he was still on the bottle.

Has this been going on for months, or this is a recent development. If the later, Google Wonder Weeks.