Sleeping Patterns

how old is he?

www.askdrsears.com has LOTS of information on sleeping. its a tough issue.
the fact of the matter is that theres no way to really "teach" a young baby to sleep better. you have to nurture them to sleep. :D
babies need a lot of love, response and nurturing! :D sleep disterbances can be caused by teething, colds, learning a new skill, or night mares or terrors. try using teething methods before bed, and upon waking to see if thats the trouble, make sure the room is comfortable.
use a white noise of some kind. i have a vacuum cd :D works every time. OR lullubyes.
use a nightlight so baby isnt in the dark.
anyway, write to me if you have more info - and please tell me how old he is!

Sleep patterns change as growth and development changes. Know that his body will regulate itself as to needs with sleep. Is he teething or in the midst of a growth spurt?

Read Dr Sears Night Time Parenting, it saved our lives! Ask Dr Sears Web site is excellent too.

Have your thought about co-sleeping? We have had great success with both of our kids. We all get the needed sleep and enjoy the closeness.

Good luck!
J.

I'm not sure how old your son is, but I know at certain developmental stages, there is something some sleep books call a "45-minute intruder". My son went through it too. You can try to ignore it--my son went back to sleep after crying for about 15 minutes...and the naps started lasting longer with no wake ups after 2-3 days. Also, I have always had a fan in my son's room for white noise. I don't point the fan right at him of course, and I just bought a little $4.00 fan at Target, which is then easy to pack to travel with us wherever we go. It has worked really well, and I just saw that there's new research out on SIDS that says that the incidence is decreased when there is a fan in the room.

K.,

It really depends on how old your son is. Is he a month old? A year old? 45 minutes is the length of a sleep cycle. He has learned to become dependent on you to put him to sleep and after every sleep cycle he wants you to do it again.

The only way for him to learn to put himself to sleep is with practice. That means he needs to go to sleep on his own from his crib. (Not in your arms, the car or the swing.) This will be hard at first and probably include some crying, especially if he is older.

You can comfort him a few ways. Each baby is different, so you'll have to see what's best for him. You can come in every 10 minutes to calm him down. Or get progressively longer - 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 20 min. Some babies do better if you pick them up, others just get more upset. Some babies don't do well if you come in at all and it is best just to let them alone.

Healthy full term babies can sleep 12 hour stretches at night from the time they are 2-3 months old.

This worked well for my first two kids, who learned to put themselves to sleep when they were about a month old. Then I figured out that the earlier you do this, the easier it is. So with my last two, I started the day they were born. Yes, after every nursing, I woke them up and changed their diaper and laid them down awake so they could put themselves to sleep. The "cry it out" method was totally unneccessary. They knew how to put themselves to sleep from day 1.

Good luck,
S.

Agree with the first post...I am actually going through the same thing right now with my 3.5mos old daughter. Except, her sleep cycle is 30min! I would relish 45min! I have started laying her down for her naps (she falls asleep w/in 5-15min) but then wakes up EXACTLY 30min later. Unless she is wailing for 15+ min, I let her whimper, and she goes back to sleep after 30-40min for another 30min...so at least she is getting 1 hr for that nap. If she cries for 15+, I go and sit by her crib and try to help her get back to sleep...sometimes this work, sometimes not. I also try to make sure she is not hungry...I tested this out a few times, and she didn't take a full feeding.

Some posts I have read say this is a phase, it will pass...but she has been this way since 8 weeks, only I used to soothe her (rock, paci) back to sleep. I decided I couldn't do that anymore, and I wasn't doing her any favors either. Her night sleeping is fine, so I am lucky there; she only wakes up if she is hungry.

I have found the following helpful:

http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/search/label/45%20minute%...

K.,

Please come back and tell us how old your son is... The answers will vary depending on his age.

For one thing, 45 minutes IS a nap in my book, so as your son gets older, he may only need a short nap.

Also, if he is teething, it will disrupt his sleep schedule, hence the waking every 2 hours.

You don't say how old your child is. There are lots of things that could be keeping him up. Somethings to consider.

Growth spurts usually occur at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year.

Teething can begin as young a 4 months and continue until the teeth come in.

Noise (I see you asked about this is another post). We use white noise for our daughter. Sometimes she needs it and sometimes she doesn't.

Temperature. The outside temp as dropped recently. Is it cold or drafty in his room. Try putting more layers on him (t-shirt, long sleaved shirt, pjs, and sleepsack works for us on cold nights). We cut the draft with the plastic windo wrap. Or is he too warm.

Does he have a cold or a stuffy nose that makes it hard for him to breath. Try a cool mist humidifer for this.

Gassy or Constipation. Our daughter was very gassy as a newborn and became gassy again when we started solids. Try some baby message techniques for either gass or constipation.

Baby just misses you. All babies wake in the night and some are able to soothe them selves and some need help from parents. I find it helpfull to have baby in her own room with a safe toy in the crib. When she wakes she can play with the toy and fall back to sleep. Of course this doesn't always work. I usually wait until she cries before going to her.

Right now my 10 month old takes 2 naps that are at least an hour long. She sleeps from 7pm to about 6:30am and wakes 0-3 times a night. When she was younger than 6 months old she took 3-4 shorter naps.

This is the best info I can give you with the limited info you provided. Hope you find something helpful.