u/Barbels_and_Bikes

In two days we'll be traveling by air to visit my parents (domestic flight) with our 7 month old sensitive FOMO baby. I don't really want to travel this early but my husband is from out of the country and really wants to visit his family before the year is out (they refuse to come visit us, long story ...) so this is a test trip to see how it goes.

Any tips? Normally he doesn't like to sit still very long. Longest we've done in the car seat is an hour but he's usually closer to 20-30 minutes max. Toys don't keep him engaged for long. I'm expecting a lot of aisle walking. I'm hoping since we have to wake up early (4 hours earlier than normal) to get to the airport he'll just sleep on the plane, but my fear is he won't be able to sleep (he struggles to sleep out of the house). And when he's tired but can't sleep, say hello to nuclear meltdowns.

Would love to hear from anyone else who has a sensitive baby how to survive the travel with minimal casualties lol.

I've been bed sharing with my LO since 3.5 months and he's now 7 months. We have a sidecar crib but he's usually snuggled right up next to me. To go to sleep at night we usually lay in bed together with the lights off (later bedtime so it's also dark outside). He rolls around in the crib for 15 minutes or so then finally snuggles up to me or either I have to hold him on my chest to fall asleep or sometimes we nurse to sleep but not usually.

Lately he seems to really be struggling with trying to get comfortable while sleeping, both during naps and at night while sleeping. He'll repeatedly move his head from one side to the other if he's contact napping. In bed he'll switch from his side to his back to his belly, often moving his head from side to side or alternately burrowing it into my side or armpit. If I touch him it doesn't help settle him. I don't know if this is physical discomfort due to teething, restlessness due to learning to crawl, or him deciding maybe he needs more space to sleep, or something else. Has anyone else experienced this?

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Our pediatrician advised us to use mineral oil and s comb to help with cradle cap. Well tonight my husband literally doused my poor baby's head in mineral oil right before his bath. He said the oil came out of the bottle faster than expected but he put it into his hand. Why he then decided to still put it on baby's head is beyond me. He could've just started over with less.

So of course even after a shampoo my baby is an oily mess. Not just his hair. His entire body. How do I get this out? I was thinking of slathering him and his hair in coconut oil tomorrow and then washing again but I don't know how well that will work. Any tips?

Every year we help good friends of ours bring in their steers for branding and vac-cin-ation and then again for the yearly sale. Usually we ride our horses to do this.

During branding my LO was 4 weeks old so I had him in the carrier and watched from the sidelines. He slept most of the time. Easy peasy.

Now he's 6.5 months old and it's time to bring the steers in for the sale. I'll probably bring my horse and I'm a little nervous for the day. Baby is a HUGE FOMO baby and there will be a few challenges:

1. We will wake up about an hour to hour and fifteen minutes earlier than usual to get there to start at 7:15am. I know people do this when going to airports for trips for even younger babies but this'll be our first time waking him early so I'm nervous.
2. 40 minute car ride each way. When he's tired he refuses to sleep in the car, carrier, etc. He'll have a meltdown instead. I'm more worried for the ride home because I'll be driving and my husband will be in back with LO (he's never pulled the horse trailer before). He definitely does better with me in back with him and my husband struggles when he melts down, so I'm definitely anxious about that. Worst case scenario husband will learn how to pull the trailer and hopefully not traumatize the horse.
3. Nap? He's got to do it either in the carrier on my husband who will be helping on foot with LO in the carrier or in the house either between rides (so he may get 30-45 minutes and I've never tried to make him nap anywhere but home since he stopped falling asleep while out and about at 14 weeks) or when we are done which means he'll be awake like 3-4 hours. Hence the fear of a meltdown on the way home.

He does love to be outside so I'm not worried how he'll do while we are there so much as I am about once we are done and headed home.

I know so many people say don't worry about wake windows, naps, etc but that's far easier with a laid-back baby who WILL sleep anywhere and doesn't have meltdowns when tired. Would love advice for surviving the day. I'm really looking forward to it because they are dear friends and I miss riding so I'm looking forward to feeling a bit like my old self. Advice from fellow FOMO moms especially wanted!

My LO is six months old and having a pretty rough day today. I think he's teething. I was getting frustrated because nothing I was doing (nursing, gentle touch, holding, reading) seemed to help, so I finally decided to just try to get him to sleep.

I wasn't interacting with him or looking at his face when changing his diaper and putting his sleep sack on because I didn't want to be tempted to say something mean or for him to see a bad face. Then I started crying when I was walking him around and he got really quiet and still with his head on my chest. Usually when walk to sleep he fidgets and makes noise for a bit. I went into the bathroom and saw his face in the mirror. His eyes were wide open and he looked really sad. He stayed like that for a long time (at least 10 minutes) then finally fell asleep.

I'm aware of the blank face studies and I know they're super tuned in to emotions. Have I made him feel unsafe or like I'm mad at him?

My LO is six months old and we started solids at 5.5 months. We started with egg and he loved it! We taught him how to hold and use a spoon before ever introducing foods so he knows how it works. When we feed it's a mix of me feeding with the spoon and him feeding himself with it. Since the egg the only thing he's obviously liked is peanut butter.

But I'm worried I'm starting to create a food aversion. I also use the spoon to give him probiotics and another vitamin formula and he doesn't care for either so it's definitely "forcing." I think he's starting to see the spoon as a thing that bad stuff always comes from. Also because they put so much pressure on you to test allergens and make sure they eat them so you know if they're allergic or not, I tend to put the spoon in his mouth with food on it the first time we do a new food rather than let him explore. I also do this because with the egg he was crying and yelling at first and then I realized he wanted MORE FASTER, not less. So now it's hard for me to know whether to keep offering with the spoon or not.

Yesterday he started refusing the food that I know he likes so I let him lick it out of the cup (it's very pureed so that's easy to do) and that's how he ate it. Today was a disaster. He didn't want to try the food, didn't want to even hold his spoon or feed himself.

He did have a vac-cine two days ago and I wonder if that's contributing because he also didn't want to go on his morning walk and was just super fussy in general so I nursed and put him down for a nap. But I'm worried that now I've created a food aversion and am setting the stage for bad eating habits later in life.

I plan to start feeding the probiotic and vitamins with a syringe instead of the spoon and just letting him touch and play with the food and completely stay out of trying to feed him myself to try to reset and make it more positive.

Any thoughts/advice? I didn't cross a line that I can't cross back did I?

Since my LO was 3.5 months old (currently 6 mo) every nap has been a contact nap and we've been bedsharing. It's going well but at night I'm wondering if he actually needs some separation from me. Sometimes he'll be super fidgety and I can't calm him and eventually I have to nurse him to sleep even if he just nursed to sleep 20 minutes previously. But then I can go to the bathroom and he settles fine and is sleeping soundly without me by time I get back. I get in bed as quietly as I can but he senses I'm there and moves in close and about 50% of the time partially wakes and can't go back to sleep without nursing. I suspect if I never went back to the bed he would've kept sleeping until a more natural wake up point (sleep cycle, hunger).

Anyone else experience something similar? Is he telling me he's ready for more space? I'd love to be able to put him in bed and then leave for an hour or two to spend time with his dad before I go to bed, or to read or finish crocheting his toy dragon while he naps alone. His crib is next to the bed but lower than our mattress so I can't currently just roll him into it after nursing to sleep, but I've asked my husband to figure out how to make it even with our bed so I can do that.

I don't want him to wake and freak out because I'm not there. I want the transition to be smooth and him to always feel safe and supported around sleep. But if I am truly impacting his sleep I want to follow that cue as well. (Previously when he did nap and do ON sleep in his bassinet he never woke up freaking out if I wasn't there. He was usually pretty calm. But that was then. He may have changed after experiencing the good life :p).

How do I know when he's ready for something like this and how do I navigate the transition? Would love to hear how others have done it.

Since my LO was 3.5 months old (currently 6 mo) every nap has been a contact nap and we've been bedsharing. It's going well but at night I'm wondering if he actually needs some separation from me. Sometimes he'll be super fidgety and I can't calm him and eventually I have to nurse him to sleep even if he just nursed to sleep 20 minutes previously. But then I can go to the bathroom and he settles fine and is sleeping soundly without me by time I get back. I get in bed as quietly as I can but he senses I'm there and moves in close and about 50% of the time partially wakes and can't go back to sleep without nursing. I suspect if I never went back to the bed he would've kept sleeping until a more natural wake up point (sleep cycle, hunger).

Anyone else experience something similar? Is he telling me he's ready for more space? I'd love to be able to put him in bed and then leave for an hour or two to spend time with his dad before I go to bed, or to read or finish crocheting his toy dragon while he naps alone. His crib is next to the bed but lower than our mattress so I can't currently just roll him into it after nursing to sleep, but I've asked my husband to figure out how to make it even with our bed so I can do that.

I don't want him to wake and freak out because I'm not there. I want the transition to be smooth and him to always feel safe and supported around sleep. But if I am truly impacting his sleep I want to follow that cue as well. (Previously when he did nap and do ON sleep in his bassinet he never woke up freaking out if I wasn't there. He was usually pretty calm. But that was then. He may have changed after experiencing the good life :p).

How do I know when he's ready for something like this and how do I navigate the transition? Would love to hear how others have done it.

Reposting because Reddit filters removed the previous post. No clue why.

My little one is 6 months old in ​just a couple of days and we're having some interesting issues nursing as well as sleeping and I just need some solidarity. I cannot be the only one experiencing these things.

He does not nurse to sleep but he will nurse to go back to sleep in the middle of the night. We've been bed sharing since about 3 and 1/2 months when he started the 4-month sleep regression and just wouldn't settle in his bassinet anymore. Most nights are okay but occasionally we'll have these really ridiculous nights where he just will not grab the boob and I have to roll him and physically put him in position, ​and he will roll back and forth pull, kick me so kick himself off/unlatched and then get very upset because he's not latched anymore. I don't mind the waking up every hour or so to nurse but what really annoys me is when he won't even nurse and that's the one thing that will get him to go back to sleep. Now to be fair, I do get him nursing and get back to sleep within 5 minutes or so. But it's frustrating to feel like it's a fight to get there. And because I got all riled up I can't fall asleep again like he is. Last night was particularly bad: he woke every hour and then it seemed every little thing bothered him. If my husband shifted in bed, if I scratched, boom, awake again even if it was just 15-20 minutes later. I know it must've impacted him because he had a short wake window this morning and is passed out on my chest. He was falling asleep in the carrier on our morning walk which he hasn't done since he was 3 months old.

During the day he also seems to be very distracted while nursing. I'm not sure if maybe I'm offering to eat too often. I offer every 2 to 3 hours right now, usually before a nap and sometimes when he wakes up as well. When nursing he'll constantly come unlatched and roll back to look around behind him, try to put his fingers in his mouth at the same time, or, recently, even started to just clamp down on my nipple. He is teething so I'm hoping that this is the reason for all of this but I just want my nice nursing sessions back and my nice night times back.

To give you an example: two nights ago he had a great night. He only nursed three times in the night and the rest of the time just wanted to cuddle and he didn't wake up very much either. Just slept really nicely next to me and we both had a great sleep. Then last night. It seems like every time he has a really good night he follows it with a really bad one. Has anyone else experienced something similar? When does the phase end?

My little one is 6 months old and just a couple of days and we're having some interesting issues nursing as well as sleeping and I just need some solidarity. I cannot be the only one experiencing these things.

He does not nurse sleep but he will nurse to go back to sleep in the middle of the night. We've been bed sharing since about 3 and 1/2 months when he started the 4-month sleep regression and just wouldn't settle in his bassinet anymore. Most nights are okay but occasionally we'll have these really ridiculous nights where he just will not grab the boob and I have to roll him and drag him around the bed just to get them positioned and he will roll back and forth pull off, kick me so kick himself off and then get very upset because he's not latched anymore. I don't mind the waking up every hour or so to nurse but what really annoys me is when he won't even nurse and that's the one thing that will get him to go back to sleep. Now to be fair, I get him nursing and get back to sleep within 5 minutes or so. But it's just I don't know. Very frustrating.

During the day he also seems to be very distracted while nursing. I'm not sure if maybe I'm offering to eat too often. I offer every 2 to 3 hours right now, usually before a nap and sometimes when he wakes up as well. When nursing he'll constantly come on latch roll back to look around behind him or he's recently even started to just clamp down on my nipple. He is teething so I'm hoping that this is the reason for all of this but I just want my nice nursing sessions back and my nice night times back. To give you an example. Two nights ago he had a great night. He only nursed three times in the night and the rest of the time. Just wanted to cuddle and he didn't wake up very much either. Just slept really nicely next to me and we both had a great sleep. Which seems like every time he has a really good night. Has anyone else experienced something similar? When does the phase end?

*I've already decided my stance on vaccines, I don't need science or opinion or anything else. I'm asking for real experiences with a specific vaccine; if you can't share that please don't comment.

My LO is 5.5 months old and will be getting his first vaccine, ACTHiB, at his 6 month visit in a couple of weeks. We are skipping some vaccines and delaying others. I have a PhD in microbiology and have researched this extensively so this is where I ask commenters to refer back to the first sentence of this post if you feel yourself finding it difficult to contain the urge to tell me to just vaccinate or to just run the other way and get no vaccines.

I had originally also planned to give Prevnar (Pneumococcal) two weeks after HiB but I've never been 100% certain of that decision. I'm just not sure if the dismal efficacy is worth the side effects (fever sometimes very high, fussy, swollen arm most common). The only reason I'm considering it at all is because we will be traveling to Spain to visit my husband's family when LO is 10 months. I'm not worried about him getting sick. Rates of HiB and Pneumococcal infections in Spain are similarly low as in the US. I'm worried about him getting sick and having to be treated in the healthcare system in that particular area of Spain. They f'd up my sister in law's healthcare before she finally died and I do not trust it. At all.

Baby is EBF and taking B. infantis EVC001. I know risk of illness is low. What would help me make my final decision is honest accounts of how it went for your baby: the good, bad, and ugly (also age of baby at first Prevnar dose, did you finish the series, etc).

My LO is 5.5 months old and I've answered every cry he's ever made. Today I picked my mom up from the airport and since my husband is back at work I brought Lo with me. If he had napped as usual he would have been fine but he took a really short (45 minutes) first nap.

As expected he was tired and started crying just when we were getting my mom. I asked her to sit in back with him but he wouldn't have her. He smiled once and then started crying and very quickly meltdown mode. She was rubbing his feet and legs and head and trying to calm him but he screamed and screamed. I tried talking to him when he stopped briefly and that seemed to make him scream more. Finally after 15-20 minutes I couldn't take it anymore. I pulled off the freeway, asked my mom to drive. I went in the back and took him out of the car seat and held him for a minute which calmed him down, but I had to put him back of course so we could continue home. He started screaming again but with his head in one of my hands and hand in another, he finally stopped crying. He stared at me with glassy eyes and shaky cry breath and finally fell asleep. We are home now and he's sleeping on my chest in our chair, still shaky cry breathing.

This is the longest and hardest he's ever cried and it broke my heart. He doesn't understand why I wasn't going to him. I couldn't help but think when I finally went to the back seat and he stated at me it was an accusing stare.

I am afraid I've taught him he can't always trust me to be there 100% of the time anymore. I don't know how people can actually do cry it out. I still have tears in my eyes from this ...

My five month old did not breastfeed to sleep for the first 4.5 months of his life. At 3.5 months we started bed sharing because of sleep regression and it was the only way I got sleep. He'd feed probably 3-4 times in the night.

In the last week or so he's been waking up every 20-90 minutes needing to nurse to go back to sleep. Sometimes it's only three sucks and he's back out. But we're going up to 8-12 times a night now. And he's also started doing it with naps which are contact naps on my fully clothed chest. I think he's awoken from the nap, I turn on the light, remove his sleep sack, turn off the music, and then feed and he falls back asleep nursing. He'll then wake up and nurse back to sleep again 2-3 times for another hour or so. This may be as little as an hour after the last time he nursed so I don't think it's hunger, I think it's comfort.

Is this normal? Is the nap habit potentially giving him too much daytime sleep and leading to the night issues? Is it just developmental or potentially related to teething? Anyone else experience something similar? Did it eventually work itself out? When?

Note I do NOT want to sleep train or night wean so im interested in input from people who experienced something similar and let nature run it's course.

My baby is five months old and recently I started changing up our bedtime routine (we bedshare ). After bath and books, he can hang out in bed with me until he gets tired. He can cuddle, nurse, play with his feet or sheets. I don't try to get him to sleep, I just set the environment and let him fall asleep when he's tired - usually nursing.

At first it went great. He fell asleep no stress - no vacuum and walking vigorously and sweating for me followed by a careful lay down in bed and then stealth ninja entrance into the bed myself.

But things have been getting progressively worse the last few days. He just won't settle when nursing. He kicks and tries to climb me, pushes my boob, gets upset when he pushes himself too high and off the boob, pulls my nipple, and just overall messes around. But if I stop him nursing he just cries. He won't do anything else. Doesn't want to cuddle or just be next to me playing.

I thought perhaps the wake window was too long after last night so tonight I tried shortening it and it may have been too short. The result was the same both nights - I ended up holding him on my chest, patting his butt and rubbing his back, while he screamed. Tonight he went through three screaming fits like that. Didn't last long (maybe 1-2 minutes each time), but he was so upset. I've never let him cry like that and I know he was in my arms so it's different than CIO but ...

After the first big screaming fits he calmed down a bit and put his hand in my mouth and I played around pretending to eat it and he smiled ... Then 5 minutes later screaming again. I've heard sometimes they need to cry to release CNS stress before sleep. Not sure if that's what's happening here. He did finally calm down enough to nurse nicely and fell asleep in about 30 seconds after starting to nurse. Nipple still in his mouth and he's flutter sucking 20 minutes later...

He's only five months old but I'm trying to set patterns that are well established by time he understands cause and effect: nurse nicely, and once we are in bed we don't leave until morning. But it seems like the only way to do that is let him cry. I'm just not sure if I should keep on this or go back to the old way until he's older. I don't understand those magical babies that love cuddling or just go to sleep laying next to their parents. Am I doing something wrong? Recommendations?

My baby will be 5 months old in one week and I'm really struggling with hating motherhood. I'm getting so tired of people saying, how's motherhood? Don't you just love it?

I love my baby more than anything but I'm increasingly losing patience with him the older he gets. He smiles and laughs but he fusses and cries just as much if not more. I feel like I can never make him happy. He wants to be held all the time, but even that doesn't make him happy. I can't put him in the carrier and wear him around the house because he'll scream the entire time. He only likes being in his carrier when outside and that also has a time limit. Lately he's either suckling but not eating, or just pushing off the boob and screaming and coming back and pushing off and screaming and the cycle continues. He fights naps and sleep. He used to sleep in 3-4 hour stretches and now he wakes up every 30-60 minutes. Abd that's with bedsharing which is supposed to make it better. He will NOT nurse to sleep unless it's the middle of the night and the things that used to work to put him down no longer do. I can't put him down long enough to fill my water bottle or eat and God forbid I hold him in my lap while I eat because he hates that too.

I don't know what he likes or how to make him happy. Looking at pictures of him smiling or laughing or remembering positive times we have had used to help but don't anymore. I just want him to sleep for an hour straight so I can spend time with my husband or watch something or read or just be me.

And I know he's really not that bad compared to some babies which makes me feel even worse.

I feel like this is impacting my bond with him and I hate it. He was fighting his nap so hard today and when I was walking him around with the vacuum on I just started sobbing.

Telling myself he's not giving you a hard time he's having a hard time doesn't really help. Hearing that it gets better doesn't help. It's just getting worse, not better, the older he gets.

I'm taking an AP approach to raising my almost 5 month old but I think my husband is losing a bit of patience with this approach and TBH, I'm wondering a little bit. My LO will usually fuss or cry if I put him down for a moment to pee or fill my water or whatever. But lately I've noticed a difference in this cry vs true crying sometimes. It sounds more like a complaint and sometimes if I just wait for a minute or two he stops and starts to entertain himself - and then he'll start up again as soon as I enter the room again and he sees me. It's different from when he really cries and obviously needs me because something is not right inside for him.

I know the aren't supposed to have enough white matter in their brains for this and you can't spoil a baby, etc., but he has me wondering. My husband is worried we are teaching him to be impatient and self-centered by me always picking him up when he fusses and complains or not leaving him to lay in the center of the table with us right there fussing and crying while we eat (we have to eat) and that it'll be a much bigger problem later. I normally would disagree but lately I'm not so sure.

Another reason I'm doubting is because I started bed sharing when he started his 4 month sleep regression at 3 months (and still going). Before that he'd sleep in his bassinet all night and wake 2-3 times to eat. At first bedsharing went really well. Now he often wakes every 30-60 minutes and sometimes not even the boob will calm him back to sleep and I have to walk him around. It feels like he would just sleep eep better - or at least the same and then I at least wouldn't be getting kicked and hit - back in the bassinet or crib. I just feel like I'm creating new, annoying problems.

Thoughts?

I thought we were blessed with a great sleeper when at 6 weeks our baby decided to sleep in his bedside bassinet all night and only wake 2-3 times to feed. We were transitioning naps to the bassinet too, with the 1st of the day always in the bassinet and the second in process of transition.

Then he turned 3 months and it seemed like a sleep regression hit. He's false start 2-3 times per night (but then be normal after that) and all naps had to be contact naps. And he gradually started getting worse. He's kick and flail and wake himself up, sometimes every 30 minutes. I was so tired of halfway sleeping in his bassinet that one night I brought him in bed with me.

We slept great and I'd get 6-8 hours of sleep a night. He did start searching for the boob more often but I didn't care because he and I would both just fall back asleep.

Well, things seem to be getting worse AGAIN. He will be 5 months in a little over a week and he's had a couple of nights where he once again wakes up every 30-60 minutes and sucking on the boob doesn't help. He kicks, pushes himself up too high to get the nipple, or pulls off the nipple then cries, won't hold still for me to help him get the nipple, screams bloody murder if I try to get him my finger or a pacifier instead. Last night I actually had to just get out of bed multiple times and walk him back to sleep. And then when we got back to bed if my husband moved or made a noise he'd wake back up (this kid used to sleep through my husband's snores).

He is teething but gets Camillia before bed.

Just don't know what to do. Why is this getting worse? Is this normal? I will NOT be sleep training so please no suggestions on that. I just want insight/advice from anyone bedsharing who has experienced something similar.

I did try first nap in the bassinet today and just laid down next to him in bed, with my hand on his. He made it 30 minutes. I just don't get what's happening overnight, why it's getting worse, why he struggles so much to comfort nurse back to sleep, etc...

I want to show my baby the world and have him "fit in" to our lives but he really doesn't tolerate the carrier, stroller, etc. for very long. Plus this American culture of kids are a nuisance and you get dirty looks if they cry in public.

I struggle because I don't want to let him cry, but how different is it if his fundamental needs are met (food, clean diaper) and it's just that a) he's tired and won't/can't sleep (he no longer sleeps on the go) or b) he just doesn't want to be in the carrier anymore? For example, I went to a local 2 mile paved trail last week and had him in the carrier. He cried nonstop the last 10-15 minutes of the 40 minutes hike but there was nothing I could do but pat his butt and talk to him since we were, you know, on a hike?

I wonder if I integrate him more he'll just eventually stop fussing so much but right now I'm so afraid I'm doing him emotional damage if I let him cry (while held, I NEVER let him cry alone) that I'm hesitant to go out and do things. Like, I know he won't nap on the go anymore and when he gets tired he'll cry or have a complete meltdown and I don't want to deal with that if I'm out whale watching, at a restaurant, in a museum, etc.

He's 4 months old and at 3 months on the dot started becoming more impatient, fussy, etc. no longer sleeping on the go. I think he just is too interested in his surroundings and doesn't like being confined to a carrier, stroller, etc but at what point can you say "kid, you gotta suck it"?

I'm at my wits end with my poor baby. He's 4 months old in two days and despite everyone saying it gets easier at 3-4 months, I feel like it's getting worse for us. And this even though we are doing everything "right" in terms of responsive parenting.

He is actually a very smiley and giggly baby but also very hard to keep happy for any length of time. I wear him in the carrier to do chores or walk and he's happy for 10-15 minutes then starts fussing and trying to escape. I put him down he cries. I hold him while sitting in a chair and he fusses and cries. I hold him while standing in one spot and he fusses and cries. We set up a station for him to do tummy time or sit in his bouncer on the dining table so he can be with us while we eat and he lasts 5-10 minutes tops. It feels like no matter what we do we cannot make him happy for any length of time. And this thing about babies who spend time in carriers cry less? This one has had several meltdowns in the last month - like nuclear alarm level meltdowns - something he never had before.

Sleep is also getting worse, not better. He used to sleep all night in his attached bassinet. I'd take him out to eat of course but he'd go right back to sleep. We had settled into a rhythm where he would eat at 1:30 and 4:30am and sleep the rest of the time .

3 months on the dot he started false starting at night and only contact napping during the day. Figured this was the 4 month sleep regression early. Then he went from false starting to just not settling. His first feed moved from 1am to 10pm and I'd have to bring him in bed with me to sleep the rest of the night after that. Now even bed sharing doesn't work. He just won't settle. It takes 30 minutes to be able to lay him down in the bed without waking and then I'll often spend 1-2 hours trying to settle him because every 30 seconds to 5 minutes he'll kick and thrash his arms and wake up and cry.

I hate reading things that make it seem baby carrying and bed sharing are magical solutions because it's just getting worse and worse for us. Last night I was feeling like the only way he'd sleep is if my husband and I took turns holding and walking him around for 10 hours straight. That isn't sustainable.

I even tried the Possums approach and that backfired spectacularly because this baby will NOT just fall asleep no matter where we are or what we are doing if the sleep pressure is high enough. Instead, he has a breakdown. Case in point: we accompanied my husband to get his tattoo and before heading home I fed him in the truck. He fell asleep eating but of course woke up as soon as i put him in the car seat. He went from happy to fussy to full on nuclear alarm, and only passed out in my arms once we got home. I tried the approach for two days and had a baby that no longer smiled until one day he fell asleep at 4:45pm and instead of waking him or limiting him I let him sleep and other than waking for feeds he slept until 7am the next day.

What are we doing wrong? Why does all the research not apply to our baby? How much worse is this going to get?