Floor bed for 9 month old who hates sleep?
My son is 9 months and has been a difficult sleeper since 3 months. As a newborn, he sometimes did 5-6 hour stretches at night but things have gotten progressively worse since he was about 12 weeks old.
He has had some reflux issues but is on medication for that and I think his reflux is largely being managed now. He definitely has a highly sensitive temperament so I know that’s at play but we have also ruled out any other sleep “red flags” (saw PT to rule out body discomfort/tension, ferritin levels checked and are normal, saw SLP and lactation consultant for feeding and reflux recs, etc).
As far as sleep goes, he only contact naps and wakes instantly when I try to transfer him to the crib. I have a toddler too so managing nap schedules with him only sleeping on me is so difficult and he often gets less sleep than I think he actually needs. At bedtime we sometimes can get him to transfer to the crib for an hour or so before he wakes up again and wants to be held but that’s usually after several false starts. We cosleep once I go to bed after he wakes up after that hour or when I’ve decided to give up. Overnight he wakes anywhere from every 20 mins to 2 hours (at a max). Most of the time I can nurse him back to sleep if it’s been 2 hours. He also usually has a full 1.5-2hr wake window in the middle of the night most nights too that no amount of rocking or nursing helps to get him back to sleep. He then wakes up for the day between 4:15-5:45am.
We have tried literally every schedule. More day time sleep, less day time sleep, earlier bedtime, later bedtime, longer wake windows, shorter wake windows, 2 naps vs 3 naps etc. I have given up hope that there is a magic schedule out there to help. I am reading a lot online about floor beds and how they may help with eliminating the crib transfer issue and help reduce false starts. Has anyone done this? Will it really help if a lot of the time he just wants to be bounced or rocked back to sleep anyway? Willing to try anything at this point! If you do recommend a floor bed, what’s the best set up for this age?
If you have read this far, thank you!