u/ZestyLemon_456

Our boy is 15 weeks/almost 3.5 months old and started sleeping through the night around 10 weeks with anything between 8 and 10 hour stretches (sometimes even up to
11), no wakeups to BF. We started his bedtime routine around 7pm where he would get a bottle of pumped breast milk at bedtime before being transferred to his cot in his own room, usually asleep just after 8pm.
For naps he's never really liked being rocked to sleep and has fallen asleep relatively easily when we place him in his cot awake once he starts showing signs of being tired (all of a sudden becoming fussy/blank stare). We would stroke his forehead and place a hand on his chest to settle him and that used to work well - so I guess not self soothing, but falling asleep in his cot, assisted.
We also do eat -> play -> sleep to avoid the feeding to sleep association.

Now for the past week his naps are NEVER more than 45min (you can almost put a timer on them) and I only manage to get him to fall asleep again after waking up once in a blue moon.
He’s also been SCREAMING before his naps when I place him in his cot. Basically hysterical until he eventually gives up and falls asleep. He also becomes super cranky almost 20 minutes to half an hour before his nap and just feels like he’s miserable most of the time, and I miss my smiley boy. Wake windows are around 1hr30min, and I have tried putting him down for a nap earlier.
He’s also now started fighting bedtime and waking up once or twice shortly after we get him down in his cot (but at least settling quickly) and then waking up every night around 3am/4am. I try to settle him first but end up breastfeeding him eventually. He then takes very long to fall back asleep and wakes up again after an hour or two, then I put him in bed with us just as a last ditch attempt to get another hour of sleep.
I know he still gets a very good first stretch, which I’m very thankful. I’ve tried moving his bedtime an hour earlier because I think he gets overstimulated in the evening because his naps were so short during the day, but then he just ends up waking up an hour earlier.

I also feel like self soothing has gone out the window. Two weeks ago he often managed to self soothe after he wakes up by sucking his fist, but I feel like that hasn’t really been happening anymore.

But I want to know if things will ever go back to the way it was or is this the new normal? What can we do differently? Do I stick to the soothing techniques that used to work or change things up?
How long will this last?
The hysterical crying before every nap is making me lose my mind.

Our LO is currently 12 weeks old. He is exclusively breastfed. I often hear moms complaining about a blowout, and here I am - praying for one. Since 3 weeks he’s been struggling to poop (infant dyschezia) and is just constantly uncomfortable, grunting and straining. He’s been checked out by our paediatrician and everyone tells me it’s apparently just a developmental thing and that you have to wait it out until they learn how to coordinate what they neer to in order to poop. But waiting it out has honestly been absolute torture, the sad look on his face when he doesn’t manage to poop after trying SO hard is absolutely breaking my heart.
Initially he was swallowing a lot of air while breastfeeding which made the matter so much worse, but that has at least improved significantly after we had his lip and tongue tie release around 8 weeks.
Whilst waiting it out, I’ve been trying everything I can to make him more comfortable- bicycles, tummy massages you name it! I’ve taken him to a craniosacral therapist and a chiropractor.
So here’s the thing - around 10 weeks I was so optimistic because things seemed to be turning around. He started pooping by himself (without tummy massages/gas drops) at least once a day for a bit more than a week. Every time he would poop it absolutely made my day. It usually happend with him propped up against my thighs while looking at me or when we put him in his vibrating bouncer. I could literally see how he was thinking about pooping before it would happen, not just screaming and crying and using all the wrong muscles.
But now we seem to be back at square one cry 😭 with maybe only two poops in the past week. I just feel so disheartened. One step forward and two steps back. I try to remind myself how it was when it was at its worst but I honestly just need this to end. Did this happen to anyone else? Getting better and then stopping again?