Awake ALL night!

My DS was up form 1am-6am...what's going on here? I've heard it's a little early to try a napping schedule and most babies sleep when and wherever they sleep at this age but he was just ridiculously awake last night. It started out with him having terrible gas (and he's on Alimentum) I tried helping him work it out for an hour and then he just wouldn't settle down. He was all smiles and said his first "ah-goo" at 5:30 am (how cute). During the day he was up here and there in the family room where it is noisy and bright so I don't know how he could stay up that long. At night they are eating about every 5 hours now. What do you think is going on here? How can I fix it? And I thought getting up every 3 hours was bad...I'm not sure which is worse!!

 

:hug99: So sorry. I would probably keep him up for a longer stretch before putting him down for the night. It's so unfair when they do that to us parents.

 

thi happens to me sometimes... i make sure to keep them awake from at least 6 till i put them down at 730.. it makes for a better nite for all!

 

This has been happening to me lately too. One twin will stay up from 12:00-3:00 a.m. then the other from 3:00-6:00 a.m. /It is exhusting. I am interested in what others offer as advice.

 

Wow I remember those days... its all very fuzzy now, but we had many a night (usually with Meara) where she was just up. DH would sometime lay her on his chest and hum and she would finally fall asleep then we'd carefully swaddle her and put her back in the pnp with her sister. Its tough. One thing we did at night was leave the lights off. We had them in our room for the first 3 months and we'd leave our bathroom light on with the door partially closed, but we fed and changed them in the dark to signal this is sleeping time. Sometimes it worked, other times not so much. Just know that it won't always be like this. GL.

 

This is very frustrating and tiring. I am not sure I can offer much more advice, but I will tell you I have been there twice (2 sets of twins in one year). None of mime were great sleepers. They ate about every 2 hours and loved to stay awake all hours of the night.

We too only used a closet light, etc. in the middle of the night. When they turned 3 months old, they only got changed in the middle of the night if they pooped, or leaked ( many parenting books recommend this). I used rubber/vinyl pants and good diapers). Changing them seemed to wake them up.

I also learned to feed them, don't talk or make eye contact and put them down right after a feeding. Some babies think you are there to play in the middle of the day. Keep it all business (it sounds harsh, but you need your sleep).

Swaddling worked for my younger set until about 3 months old. Moving them into their own room at 3 months helped too. Our doctor said their noises and ours could be keeping everyone up or sleeping lightly. Lastly, we started naps around 3 months. Morning and afternoon ones. No one was allowed to sleep past 4 pm b/c it messed up their nighttime.

I hope this helps. I hope you get more sleep.

 

Wow. I've had some nights that one or both were up for an extended period but never like that. I can't imagine how you are functioning today. I noticed you said the nap scheduling was too early...as you know, I've been trying all sorts of things for sleep training AND I'm having a bit of success with the nap schedule (more so than the evening sleep I was attempting). I wrote out a schedule and started with a wake time (7 a.m.). If they aren't awake by 7, I wake them. They go down after being up for only one hour all day. I just keep putting them back down and I don't pick them up until they've been down for an hour or when they wake up, whichever comes last. For instance, I put them down at 10 a.m. and they slept immediately but only until 11. They seemed tired so I put them down at noon and they cried for about 40 minutes, I went in often to pat, shush, put in pacifiers. If they don't fall asleep by 1:00, I'll get them up and try again in a bit. I just try to stick with the schedule and eventually they will get it.

Hang in there!