u/Deekaygee

We have been stuck in this bad sleep doom loop for weeks now, ever since his pediatrician suggested we try taking him off his reflux meds cold turkey at his 9mon appointment (which was April 20).. that was apparently a horrible idea, and though we have since got him back on the meds and even adjusted the dose w his ped - his sleep is still a mess. He used to fall asleep independently since about 5 Mon, then he got sick after Christmas and has only nursed sleep since. But it wasn’t a big issue, he still napped at least 2x per day sometimes up to 3 hrs total if I let him. At night he was waking 3-4 times to nurse, but easily back to sleep. Now he’s fighting every nap with his whole soul and waking who knows how many times per night. He hasn’t popped any teeth yet even though he’s been showing all the signs for like 2 months. I can’t get him on a solid schedule to even attempt any sleep training and am not willing to just cold turkey CIO or anything if he’s not even on a decent schedule - seems like a recipe for failure. His naps are a mess and nights are even worse, probably because he’s so damn tired from naps being a mess. I’m at a loss. Any suggestions welcome.

My (EBF) baby has never been a good sleeper truly, but the past few weeks have been another level of horrific.

We did a modified ferber when he was 6mon old, and it worked after a couple of days. He used to fall asleep independently about 75% of the time, after bedtime routine & nursing I’d put him down awake but if he fell asleep while nursing I didn’t wake him to put him down just transferred to crib. Hes slept in his own room in the crib since 4mon or so, but has always been waking 3-4 times a night to nurse and go right back to sleep. Naps he’d go down awake and fall asleep in 5-10min. Basically we had a good routine, but I’m not a super stickler about it and that has been working for us.

It started after his 9mon ped appointment, where she suggested we take him off the famotidine he’s been on since 3mon for reflux cold turkey. My gut didn’t think that was a good idea (though I wasn’t sure if reflux was still a problem now that he can roll onto his stomach to sleep and is eating solids 2x a day) and turns out — it definitely wasn’t.

The night after stopping his meds, he had an absolute meltdown and took 3 hours to fall asleep, then woke every hour and would only sleep on my husband or I. It took me like 3 days to realize it was probably the meds and not teething (no teeth yet, but all the signs they are incoming) so I restarted the reflux meds. That was 2 weeks ago.

He now won’t nap, he can only fall asleep nursing or in the car but if he falls asleep nursing I cannot transfer him without him waking / he wakes up after 15-20min. He used to take 2+ hour naps!

At night, he’s waking every 90min - 2 hrs. Sometimes Motrin helps, sometimes it doesn’t but I don’t want to just keep giving it to him because it’s been multiple weeks with no teeth yet, so I don’t think it’s just teething pain? But please someone let me know if their kids first teeth took this long to pop through / affected sleep this long.

I’m at a loss. I don’t know if it’s reflux, or teeth, or separation anxiety, or some horrible combination of all of the above? I don’t know if we need to sleep train again? He was on a pretty solid 3/3/3.5 ish schedule, wake up at 8am and bedtime at 730p though I adjusted if his first nap was long. (I don’t cap naps except never letting later nap go past 530)

Any ideas or suggestions? His schedule is an absolute mess now with these nap problems and I think that just makes the nights worse. I also WFH full time with him so I desperately need naps to get work done / the night sleep deprivation is making my brain feel like mush 😩

Bad sleep doom loop