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no sleep, always crying, getting worse and worse :(

Brie - posted on 06/07/2012 ( 1 mom has responded )

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My son is now 13 weeks old. He is breastfed about 95% of the time and gets a bottle of soy formula at night (usually with daddy so i can sleep) because he has a pretty bad milk protein allergy, which means NOTHING with dairy or whey protein in it. Do you know how many things have cheese in them? Everything that tastes good!

Anyway, my son seems to NEVER sleep. The longest stretch he sleeps is a 4 hour block at night. And then he can be up for 8 hours straight. He may doze while nursing for about 15 mins but thats it.
I can tell hes not getting enough sleep because he acts cranky and over-tired. He has bags under his eyes but just refuses to sleep! We've tried swaddling, warm bath, rocking, car-rides, stroller....
I've had a few people tell me to co-sleep...haha NO! Bad idea. My husband is a tall guy and a very restless sleeper. He thrashes, throws elbows, kicks, punches, moans and groans all night long not to mention our bed is a small, full size bed.


For the first 10 weeks, he had really bad colic and just as he seemed he was getting over it, a tooth decides to come through. The past 2 weeks its been constant crying except when he's nursing. We've tried teething gel, teething tablets, infant tylenol....he refuses to chew on anything (teething rings, washcloth) except his own hands.

I honestly feel like im about to drop dead from exhaustion. Our parents live out of town and we have just moved into a new apartment complex and we don't know anyone. My son is a HUGE mamas boy and the one time we left him with a babysitter when we were moving, she called me 2 hours later, unable to get him to stop crying.

I'm completely healthy. I eat well, take my vitamins...i feel like if i just could get more than 2 hours of sleep at a time.

Any ideas? Is there anything i can do to help him sleep longer? I'm desperate!

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Lori - posted on 06/07/2012

1,092

9

Of all the things you mentioned that you've tried, i didn't see you mention the use of a sling or other baby carrier. When my oldest was little, she was colicky and the only thing that worked for her was walking with her. If you don't have a sling or other carrier it'll just kill your arms and you won't be able to do anything else. If you put him into a sling you may even be able to do something simple like straighten up the living room... if you want to. With my oldest I had a non adjustable sling that I hated, and a cheap carrier that would hurt my back every time I wore her in it. With my 2nd, i got a ring sling, and an Ergo carrier. I cannot even begin to say how glad I am that I broke down and bought new better carriers. I soooo wish I'd had them for my first since she was more cranky/colicky than my 2nd. But, even with my 2nd of course there were times when she just couldn't or wouldn't settle down to sleep by rocking and nursing. So I'd put her in the sling and start doing dishes. Soon enough she'd be fast asleep. And usually I could then lay her down. Though during the day I'd sometimes just keep her in the sling and let her nap as long as she wanted to in it just so she'd get some more sleep.

Aso - a very high percentage of children who cannot tolerate dairy protein are also sensitive to soy. My 2nd daughter cannot have ANY dairy - and yes I hear you about everything having some sort of dairy in it. But even after I'd cut the dairy out of my and her diets she was still having some (although more mild) symptoms. So I cut out the main sources of soy too. That meant no soy milk, soy yogurt, butter substitute made with soy... and of course that would also mean no soy formula. The rest of my daughters symptoms cleared up. Luckily I don't' have to be as careful that there is NO soy in any of the ingredients of a food, because for the most part if you do find something without dairy... it has soy. And yes, she started sleeping better too once I'd cut out the offending foods. It wasn't a complete miracle for sleep, but it did help.

Teething is of course a whole other problem. At 13 weeks he's not old enough for ibuprofen which is what helps my little one's teething pain better than tylenol. We do have good luck with Hylands teething tablets, but you've said you already tried that. Some babies are more disturbed by the numbness in their mouth with teething gel.. and I've not had it ever really help my little ones, except on one of my daughters teeth when she developed a blister over the spot where the tooth was coming in.

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