2 month old won't sleep (10 hours a day TOTAL?!)

[KristieW]

I went back six months in the search and didn't see anything about this.

Anyway, I'm dying here. DD seems to have gone on a sleep strike of sorts. Before Christmas she actually STTN (6 hours once, 5 a couple of times) for a few days. With the holidays and a run of bad weather and houseguests and me thinking cutting out dairy wasn't doing anything (boy was I wrong!) and whatnot, things got really disrupted and she hasn't done that since. Okay, that's fine. It's hard to be up multiple times a night, but hey, sleep when the baby sleeps, right?

Except that for the past few days, she hasn't slept. She had been falling asleep for the night sometime between 9-10pm. Around Christmas we had a couple really bad nights, and one night she didn't go down until 2am. :eek: Lately it's been between 10 and midnight. Then she'll be up every 1.5-2 hours, until 7, when she's mostly up for good. But in the week or so after Christmas, she was at least taking a 1-2 hour nap around 8 or 9am, and then maybe dozing a bit in the afternoon (one to three 30ish minute naps). Okay, I can work with that too. But on Saturday she apparently decided that this was not something she wanted to continue doing. Saturday she finally slept from about 10-11:30 (after being up at 7) but only because I was in bed napping with her. Then she didn't even doze again until 5. She was such a bear (and I was so tired) that we both slept until 7. She fell asleep for the night around 10ish. Then she was up pretty much every 45 minutes to 1.5 hours all night, eating or fussing (mostly eating). It was miserable, and when she woke up for real around 8, she was a bear and I was in tears. I finally put her in her swing at 9:30, hoping she'd conk out and I could doze. I dozed, but I don't think she conked out, because I was up every 20 minutes or so to tuck her blanket back in. I finally gave up around 11. She fussed until 2:40, at which point I decided a walk was in order. She fell asleep three minutes after we left the house and slept for an hour... until two minutes after I walked through the front door. And that was it until 9pm. She wouldn't sleep in the sling or the swing, she wouldn't sleep while nursing, nothing. And when she spent most of that time fussing.

She slept relatively decently last night, for 2.5 hours at the longest stretch, but hey, I'll take it. She's been up since 7, and it appears we're heading for another no-nap day. And I seriously don't know what to do. I'm dying, and CrankyBaby isn't much fun either. We'll probably go for a walk here in a bit, but it snowed 3" last night, and it's really slushy, making it relatively impassable for a stroller and really slippery for a sling. Trying all the same stuff I tried yesterday, nothing's working. Don't even mention the car--she's hated her carseat since day one and screams when we go anywhere.

I don't know what else I can do. She's not acting sick, other than being fussy and refusing to sleep. Her temp is fine. She has been more spit-upy than normal the past couple of days, but I have no idea what that could be attributed to. Am I missing something else? Because I'm seriously dying here.

Help. Please. :(

[mcgwigan]

Kristie Yikes-no 10 hours a day does not sound like nearly enough for a 2 month old. Are you BFing or FF? Could she maybe be having reflux that's causing her to be uncomfortable and not able to stay asleep? If you are BF have you tried cutting out dairy to see if maybe she is sensitive to that? It seems like there would be some explanation...sorry I'm not much help. Have you tried to call the pediatricians to see if they could help you out?

[linekelei]

My DD has gone through this a couple of times and ever since those few times, has been a crappy sleeper (not to scare you or anything-my DD just doesn't like to sleep). The complete sleep strike times seemed to ccur when DD was "waking up" more, and craving stimulation. Your DD may just be discovering the outside world and is more interested in being awake than being asleep. The fussiness is definitely caused by lack of sleep. A few things we tried that worked on different occasions:
1. A loud vacuum running right next to DD while she sat in the swing on the highest speed (iTunes also sells a running vacuum CD)
2. Loudly "shhhhh"ing in DD's ear until she falls asleep
3. Holding DD and jiggling her so that her head moves slightly back and forth
4. Sleeping with her at night, with her propped up on a Boppy pillow

What works for us during naptime now is putting DD in her bouncy seat, tucking a blanket around her, putting a hand on her chest to gently bounce the seat, and loudly shhhing her until she falls alseep (and even then, her naps last no longer than 45 minutes). Sounds complicated, but it works for us. You will eventually find something that will help your baby sleep. I know how horribly stressful it is but your DD will eventually sleep again.

[Crystal_Orchid]

That sounds like my baby when she was that young.. I just did whatever I could to get her to sleep every 2 hours, even if that meant walking up and down the stairs rocking her for an hour. Here is what I did:

Rocked her until she's asleep and then put her in the swing.
Nursed her while she's sleepy and then not move when she did fall asleep.
Co-slept and put my boob in her mouth whenever she started to stir so she didn't completely wake up (although this resulted me in getting 1-2 hours of sleep a night for a while)
Held her while she napped and rocked her whenever she stirred, before she completely wokeup.

[KristieW]

5 Ss--check. No dice. When she sleeps at night, it's because she's swaddled, but she doesn't seem to buy that for daytime sleeping. The rest of the Ss, yep, check. Doing that.

Co-sleeping--check. She usually spends part of the night in her co-sleeper, and then I bring her in with us when she wakes up the first time. For awhile, though, she was spending the whole night in there. Lately, though, that requires me to wake up too much, and I haven't been able to bring myself to do that--sleep is hard enough to come by. Naps are usually on our bed or in the co-sleeper.

Swing--check. It used to put her to sleep reliably. Now she just sits and stares at the mobile, and after awhile, she starts to fuss.

Bouncy seat--she hates it. Always has.

She's had reflux since she was born. I cut out dairy (I mentioned that in my first post) and for awhile she was sleeping really well. Still no dairy for me, but now no sleep for her either.

We're going to the ped tomorrow for her 2 month WBV, but I was kinda hoping I'd find an answer here before then. Or a solution. :p

[KristieW]

Oh, and most of her naps are on me... she used to sleep that way if she wouldn't sleep any other way. Not the past few days. Could she be hitting her 3-month growth spurt early?

[Twylla]

I don't have a ton of experience with this, but we had a couple difficult days with DS, so I ended up in the rocker with him for about 6 hours straight, letting him sleep skin to skin and on the boppy pillow. It worked for us, though I highly recommend a good small paperback book and a DH who knows exactly how to make you a good cup of tea. I hope this helps.... or at least buys you a bit more time! GL!

[linekelei]

Just wanted to say that my DD hates the bouncy seat, too, but it does work in getting her to sleep. There is almost always a super fussy period she experiences as I bounce her and "shhh" her to sleep and then she finally conks out. I've come to accept that she just won't fall asleep nicely. It's not like she's doing CIO because I'm right there trying to get her to sleep, but she simply won't get to sleep without some fussing. It's crazy. Anyway, you might try some sort of bouncing/jiggling and see if that works. It's the whole loose head movement thing that seems to work for our DD, along with the loud shhhing. And when I say loud, I mean I'll do it so loudly and for so long that I get lightheaded!

[lil_geek]

I had one of those!!! She would literally stay awake for 14 hours during the day!!

What helped us was to get out of the house- by putting her in her car seat and driving she would fall asleep - and was sound enough at that point to take the bucket out and walk around the mall/groceries etc.

What I tried to do was leave the house at the same time (around 9am ~2 hours after she got up) everyday. It helped her to get on a schedule of some sort. Unfortunately it took a lot of time before she sSTTN but she did get into a very good routine!

[Marisa]

It sounds like she might be overtired too -- they're awake a little too long, then the adrenalin kicks in and it's *really* impossible to settle them down.

With DS2 I decided to follow the two hour rule and it's helped so much. In the beginning, maybe for three or four months, I would not let him be awake any longer than two hours, tops, at a stretch. If you can get her to sleep at all, then I'd try nursing her down for her next nap sometime around an hour to an hour and a half after she wakes. If she can catch up on some good sleep that way it should get easier and easier.

And yes, if dairy's been an issue and it's still leaving your system, then keeping her upright more might help too, since her stomach is likely unsettled.

[Pine Tree]

Is she on reflux medicine? Axid worked wonders for my DD.

Also, if dairy is a problem soy may also be as well. There's a great thread here about breastfed babies with intolerances.

[twinnyme]

I had one of those!!! She would literally stay awake for 14 hours during the day!!

Me, too. I remember wondering how she could stay awake for 13 hours straight (except for maybe two 15-minute cat naps), from when DH left for work until he came home, when she hadn't slept all day and I was a basket case. And then she wouldn't sleep all night. It was a vicious cycle and was awful. She didn't STTN until 13 months. I tried EVERYTHING - the 5S's, walking, driving, bouncy/swing/etc. One thing that finally worked for us, out of desperation, was to put her in the bouncy seat, facing the wall, with the seat on and a hat covering her eyes. I discovered this by accident when walking her once in the stroller and not realizing for a while that the hat had fallen over her eyes. When I pulled it up, she was asleep. I couldn't believe it. I then started to do it purposely.

I'm convinced that even with the two-hour rule, etc., that babies just have their own sleep personalities. DD2 has been a fantastic sleeper (except for teething, growth spurts, etc.) from day one and we really haven't done anything different.

Good luck trying to figure this out - it's hard and I completely empathize! I call her my recovering catnapper now - today for instance she napped for 2.5 hours (from 2:20 to 5:00) and will still sleep 8pm to 6am. She's been taking much better naps since she started STTN at 13 months.

[Kopper]

I remember those days. DS wouldn't sleep unless he was touching me for a long long time. I held him for each and every nap for over a year. After that he still napped in my bed until he was over two and I nursed him down and would slowly move away. Forget the swing or bouncy seat. He hated those. He hated the car seat too and screamed until around 3 months or so everytime we went somewhere. He wouldn't sleep in the car at all. We did the 5 Ss and we swaddled him until 8 or 9 months. DH remembered the other day how he would have to pace the dining room for 30 min or more every night jiggling him until he would sleep. He would then have to transfer him very carefully and slowly or DS would wake up and the whole process started over again. DH did that for months until DS was too heavy. We both hope this baby likes to sleep more then DS did.

I can totally sympathize with you and hope you get back on track asap.

[cr8zyforaf]

Ahhh..I had one of those too...my DD #1 could stay up all day (maybe get two 30 minute cat naps) and still be up every few hours at night - it would drive.me.insane. I did everything - 5s's, co-sleeping, rocking, tried CIO (total bust), I even hired a sleep lady to come to my house - nothing worked.

For naps - I would swaddle her really tight (only upper body) strap her into the bouncy seat and bounce it up and down really fast until she fell asleep and then would slowly stop the rocking until it was just vibrating - and I had the fan and the hair dryer on - she would sleep for 45-60 minutes like that. I would also put her in the Bjorn and vacuum - once she was asleep I would leave the vacuum on and slowly sit on the edge of the couch (I had to keep doing the swaying movement)...it was exhausting - spending 1 hour getting her to sleep for 30 minutes.

I held her all the time and co-slept against my will for almost 2 years...she just wasn't they type of child that could pacify herself nor did she require a lot of sleep. Once she hit two things got much better.

I couldn't agree more with this:

babies just have their own sleep personalities

DD# 2 sleeps all the time - sleeping 7+ hour stretches at 8 weeks - and goes into the swing FULLY awake and puts herself down - the first few times this happened I had to check to see if she was still breathing I was so shocked. Unfortunately, you get what you get in terms of sleep - I fully believe that you cannot force a baby to sleep.

Sorry - it will get better.

[KristieW]

I really appreciate all of your stories--it's SO nice to know that I'm not alone. I appreciate the sleep tips, too--we'll definitely be trying those over the next few days.

I think part of my problem was that for the past 9.5 weeks, she's gone to sleep so easily--just kind of nodded off on her own. Yeah, for most of that, she wouldn't sleep if she wasn't physically in contact with me, but hey, that's fine. In any event, now that she's changing her sleep pattern, I forgot to regard getting her to sleep as *work*, rather than something that just happens. Silly Mommy. :p So me and my new attitude are really going to work at it for the next few days.

Thank you so much, everyone!

[Twylla]

One thing that finally worked for us, out of desperation, was to put her in the bouncy seat, facing the wall, with the seat on and a hat covering her eyes. I discovered this by accident when walking her once in the stroller and not realizing for a while that the hat had fallen over her eyes. When I pulled it up, she was asleep. I couldn't believe it. I then started to do it purposely.

This reminded me of our magic trick at night when DS first came home from the hospital: a good swaddle, his soother, and a hat. We pulled the hat down to his eyebrows, and I think it almost forced his eyes to shut, so he'd just drift off. Worked like magic for us!

[Grenouille]

This reminded me of our magic trick at night when DS first came home from the hospital: a good swaddle, his soother, and a hat. We pulled the hat down to his eyebrows, and I think it almost forced his eyes to shut, so he'd just drift off. Worked like magic for us!

This (and the other hat story) remind me of a little trick that sometimes worked with DD. I would take one of those Gerber flat cloth diapers (they are one thin, gauzy layer, VERY breathable) and drape it over her face and my shoulder while rocking her. It always reminded me of covering the birdcage at night. 9 out of 10 times, she would fall asleep. Its like she just needed to literally shut out the rest of the world in order to fall asleep. I would sit there in the glider, with the TV on, and rock for hours.

I also followed the 2 hour rule for my son, like Marisa. Up until about 6mo he could really only stay awake for a max of 90 minutes before he *needed* to be asleep. If I waited any longer than that I would miss the window of opportunity and he would be a royal overtired mess. As soon as I saw him yawn, or get pink eyelids, I had to go nurse, swaddle, and binky him and he would go to sleep. He was a totally different kid about this than my DD.

And I do vaguely recall a hellish period where he would wake up after 5 minutes of sleep for about 5 hours per night and I thought I was going to lose my mind. I never really figured out the problem, but man was that rough. Eventually things did settle down. I can't recall how old he was when this happened (I think there is some sort of mental block in place ;)), but he was an infant. He is 3 now and I can confidently say he has no problems falling asleep or staying asleep anymore.

I totally agree with whomever said that kids have their own "sleep personalities". Its the same for everything else in parenting, I've found. Some are adventurous eaters, some are not. Some are great sleepers, some are not. You can raise 2 (or more) kids the same way, and each can end up with totally different habits. And what's worse, they are forever changing their little minds! They may start out as great eaters then suddenly decide they won't eat anything green. Or they may start out sleeping well, and then start waking up 5 times a night. They really keep us on our toes ;).

[miaclear]

This reminded me of our magic trick at night when DS first came home from the hospital: a good swaddle, his soother, and a hat. We pulled the hat down to his eyebrows, and I think it almost forced his eyes to shut, so he'd just drift off. Worked like magic for us!


This makes me smile. Sleep child, sleep....I'll force your eyes shut if you don't. (sorry it made me chuckle) I'll keep it in mind if my next two are bad sleepers :)

As others said I just followed his sleep cues and for quite awhile (I think till he was almost 1) he took 3 naps a day and could never stay awake more than 2 hours at a time.

Maybe it is being overtired, I know when I am I sometimes have problems actually sleeping and when I do it's crappy sleep. I hope you get it worked out soon. 10 hours is not enough for a 2 month old. Good luck.

[Twylla]

This makes me smile. Sleep child, sleep....I'll force your eyes shut if you don't. (sorry it made me chuckle) I'll keep it in mind if my next two are bad sleepers :)

DH likes to tell him to "suck it and go to sleep" referring, of course, to his soother, lol.

Kristie, I hope something worked and you're both getting some sleep right now!

[Taurus]

<shudder> I'm having flashbacks to a year ago skimming this thread.

He's 15 months now and sleeping 11-12 hours straight, plus two 1 hour (ish) naps per day. :)

[KristieW]

She's slept a half hour twice today. So far we've
* taken an hour walk in the stroller
* listened to Enya
* nursed
* taken a bath/sung/read a book (bedtime routine I've been working on for a week-plus)
* nursed
* watched Mythbusters and talked about it :p
* made dinner for Mommy (reheated pancakes because DH is at class... whee)
* nursed
* played white noise until Mommy's ears ached
* bounced on the exercise ball
* nursed
* snuggled
* swung in the swing
* nursed
* walked up and down the stairs
* swaddled while doing all of the above
* nursed

She's still awake. I want to get her to go to sleep, and I'm really working at it. But she's not biting. And I'm at the point where I've been crying off and on for the past hour. She's been in the swing for a half hour or so and is reasonable content... and completely awake. All I want to do is go to bed, but I don't feel like I can until she falls asleep because I feel like the minute I conk out, she'll be fussing again, KWIM?

Oh, I tried the hat thing. I'll try it again tomorrow, but it made her really unhappy tonight (she doesn't like anything touching her face--I can't even nurse her under a blanket.)

I can't say again how much it is helping to hear from those of you who are saying that you've been there. I know there's light at the end of the tunnel, but it's much more believable when I hear it from someone else.

Back to folding laundry. Earlier today I'd have given almost anything to have her content in her swing so that I could do something besides rock and nurse her. Now I really just want to be asleep. (And I'm an early-morning person by nature, so this is really hard for me.)

45 minutes in the swing. Eyes are still wide open. The rhythm and white noise are making ME drowsy, though. :rolleyes:

[Lucy Van Pelt]

Is the swing near a couch or bed so you can at least get some sleep while she is content?

[Ericka_Jarett]

I would sleep while she is content in the swing, even if it's only a few mins you get.

Also is she crying or just fussing ? My kids all had times that they just needed to fuss, then they would sleep just fine. Sounds like she is getting overtired and when babies get overtired they don't want to sleep at all. With my kids I use to swaddle (if they allowed it, was usually my twins that were ok with it for a little bit) and lay them down and put some classical or lullabye music on and they would drift off to sleep.

Since my son was only 13 months old when the twins were born, I could put the twins down during DS's nap time and catch some sleep while all 3 were out. My son would sleep about 3 hours and the girls at least 2 hours. Sometimes they would wake up and just babble to each other or to a toy and that would get me a few extra minutes.

[Mrs.Chappy]

No sound advice from me but....my second - colic - NEVER slept,,he was up 12 hrs a day with maybe a 20 min catnap until around 4 months when we started seeing longer snoozes. No one believed me except DH and then my mom when she finally spent the weekend with us. The morning nap finally made its appearance around 5-6 months. I wore him constantly and lost 20lbs!! Hang in there.. go with what works!

[linekelei]

Did you try the vacuum? It's the loudest white noise I can find and sometimes works for my DD when she's really overly tired.

[KristieW]

Yep, she hates the vacuum... but loves the hair dryer, so we have that on the iPod.

She slept last night. Thank GOD. Six hours straight, all in the swing (when she finally went down, there was NO WAY I was moving her!) It's funny, actually--I'm always the one up with her, and I kept waking up last night to check on her, but once when I did, DH was up checking on her too. It was sweet.

In any event, I think she caught up a bit--was up at 5:30 to eat, and then slept until 8. I *definitely* feel a lot better. Hopefully this means she'll handle her WBV and shots today; at the very least, *I* will be able to handle them. :p

Thank you again for your support and stories--they definitely got me through yesterday.

[miaclear]

Nothing like a good nights sleep :) I hope it continues and eventually you'll even be able to sleep through the night :p

[BusyBee21]

So glad to hear you got some sleep! It really makes everything better, I swear! I hope the WBV goes well and that sleep issue goes away!

[Twylla]

Yay! 6 hours, then another 2, that's awesome! Isn't it just the way when baby sleeps longer than normal, which makes us very happy, then we're up making sure all is well? Hang in there, this WILL get better for you.

GL at the WBV!