How do i keep my baby from fighting his sleep?

Question

My son is 3 1/2 months old and has fought his sleep since he was born. I thought it would have gotten better by now, but it seems to be worse. I've tried everything from rocking him, singing to him and taking him for a car ride. I even switched his formula to Nutramigen which eliminated all of his gas issues. I am a 1st time mom and really need some help!!!! Is there anything else I can do to keep him from crying so hard when he is fighting his sleep?

Answer 1

i use a pacifier and gently hum my baby to sleep.

Answer 2

make sure the room is dem/quiet maybe play some classical music, keep play time very little.

Babies cry when they are tired - just keep in mind of that, if you need a break - put the baby down and walk out of the room for a couple minutes to cool off. It will get better - just do what you're doing...

Answer 3

Start putting him to bed when he's quiet and alert, not already asleep.  Then he can learn to put himself to sleep.

If he's fighting it, he's past the drowsey stage into "overtired" baby stage.  Try putting him to bed earlier.

I only let my son, now 5 months, to be awake for 2 hour windows.  Once 90 minutes passes, we start our routine to go back to sleep.  As mentioned above, the routine is important.

Answer 4

My son was like that.

It might sound bizarre, but I used to take him into a dark bathroom and run the tap on high.  The darkness with the "white noise" almost always settled him down, and often put him to sleep.  (With accompanied rocking in the bathroom!)  (At 9 months we finally gave in and did crying it out, but your son is way too young for that!)

Do you have a baby swing?? I used to put ours in the bathroom with the tap running, or next to the washer or dryer while running and sometimes, but not always, that worked too.

Good luck.  I feel your pain!

Answer 5

there is no way. my son has been doing it since birth and hes no 5 months going strong lol. you will just have to deal with it. you will get used to not getting much time or rest.  

Answer 6

My baby is the same way....She will wiggle around, cry, kick, and do basically anything she can to stay awake. I found the only thing that even helps a little is to swaddle her and give her a pacy. If you haven't already tried it, I would give it a shot.  

Answer 7

How long do you let him cry?  Mine used to do this but I let him cry just once and he got it...  I looked up how long he could cry for his age and sent the timer 30sec feels like a years when your little one is crying.  He cried for 4 and a half min and now when I put him in is crib he knows it is bed time.  I do not put him in his crib for naps so it does not confuse him he naps or has quiet time in his pack in play.

Answer 8

actually I found a routine is the best thing. It's hard at first to stick to it, but after a week or ten day if you do the same things in the same order every night or every sleep time, they crash easier and easier. I refused to Ferberize but I picked a routine that I could keep consistently and her brain gets sleep signals as soon as we start now, it starts with change into pajamas not just another outfit but an outfit that is reserved for sleeping in that she recognizes its bedtime. and goes from there. oh and we always listen to the same slow music when bed time is coming up... we use lorena mckennit

Answer 9

I co slept with my baby in the bed with me (much safer than people think) until she was about 4 months old, then transitioned her to a crib beside my bed (now recommended by the APA).  Now she's 7 months and has her own room and has never really had much trouble sleeping at night.  We just decided that going from 9 months of the womb to sleeping on her own in her own bed deserved a long transition - we did that, and she doesn't have a lot of sleep problems.

Note, though: if you are going to co sleep, there are some basic safety principles you should follow, you can find them at Dr. Sears' website.

Answer 10

Hi JJ,

I was having this EXACT problem!!

At first what I found was good was to cuddle him in my arms and cover us in a blanket (like a tent) so he can't see anything so he doesn't have anything to stimulate him and keep him awake.

Within 5 minutes he was out cold !! Use a blanket with no patterns on it.

I did this for about a week and then i gradually started putting him down in a bouncer without a blanket covering him and now he sleeps good especially during the day.

Hope this helps :)  

Answer 11

i give my son a binky.  it's the only time he ever uses one -  when he is falling asleep, but it works very well.  i lay him down and give him a binky and he falls asleep within minutes.

Answer 12

Let him fall asleep in your arms.  And then gently put him down to sleep on his own.  

And make sure that the baby is neither too hot nor too cold.  Normal room temperature often feels too cold for infants.  Because due to their small body size, they loose their body heat more quickly than older children and adults loose.

Answer 13

There is this blanket at babies r us called kiddopotmas $9.99 It is a swaddling blanket.  I bought it after not being able to get my child to sleep.  So I decided to give him a bath at 8:30 feed him a warm bottle and wrap him in this blanket because the cant get out of it.  It took a matter of 5 minutes and he fell asleep and slept 7-8 hours.  I was getting up 3-4 times a night now I getting up in the morning when he.  Thanks to whoever invented this blanket