Baby Sleep Problems

Dear Ash,

You are such a great sleeper, when you actually sleep. You'll put yourself to sleep, often without crying even a little. We just wrap you up in your swaddle, lay in you your crib, and you are perfectly content. Even when you do cry, it's hardly any for maybe two minutes, at the most.

The problem then becomes getting you to stay asleep. From about two in the afternoon to eleven at time/one in the morning, you wake yourself up screaming 15 to 45 minutes into your nap. Sometimes I can get you to sleep an hour, if I put you in your carseat and rock you when you start to make noises.

The rest of the time, you are so content and happy. You sleep great and are a fantastic eater. You'll wake up, eat, then smile and play for an hour or so. Then you'll sleep for two hours, really well. Sometimes, I'll even go in to get you after your two hours are up and you'll be sleepy but awake, but not even crying. You just are sitting in your crib, totally content to just look around. I wish you could always be that happy baby.

Daddy and I think it's your stomach. During those same hard times, you'll have trouble eating--you'll break off and cry in the middle of eating, whether you're breastfeeding or eating from a bottle. A lot of times, when you're screaming inconsolably, if we can get you to burp or when you pass gas, you'll feel better and stop crying. Your diapers are quite the diapers during these times too. When you cry, you'll pull your legs in to your belly and squirm around. We're trying a lot of things--having you sleep sitting up to see if gravity will help, burping you as often and as good as we can, etc. So far, nothing we've tried really helps.

I hope you get over this soon. I've read most babies stop having problems like this around three or four months. I guess some babies do this all the way until six or seven months. I hope you don't. I don't know if Daddy and I can survive that long on this little sleep. It's a little rough sometimes, especially with everything we're trying to do right now.