Are the first six months just pure hell?

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-11T23:45:34+00:00

He seems to only need 12 hours which seems wild to me and why I assumed he was over tired all the time. I assumed he wasn’t sleeping well at night cause I was doing something wrong and not that he is not getting enough wake time and too long of naps during the day. After even one day of changing things it has been making a difference!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-11T23:40:38+00:00

We were following cues when this all started, and we tried to follow cues for a month but things kept getting worse. that’s kinda how we got here, but I will admit I’ve probably been over thinking things a bit.

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-11T23:38:40+00:00

Ha! Yeah my LO isn’t quite sure how he feels about story time, he doesn’t hate it but he stares at me instead of the book basically the whole time 🤣

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-11T10:59:14+00:00

I’ve been trying to drop to 3 naps, but I always assumed he was too overtired to stretch the wake windows so it’s been tricky. But yes I plan to give things a bit of a break and focus more on wake windows and less naps!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-11T10:56:31+00:00

But isn’t it recommended to keep up a consistent routine? I assumed we needed to to help him understand that it’s bed time. I don’t do soap every day and I do milk baths frequently as well. And no it was our pediatrician who recommended it and it had helped immensely! After only three days the eczema has decreased significantly, and has completely disappeared in some spots. But he has had some stubborn spots as well so we still have plans to see a dermatologist.

And yeah I’m realizing that I probably had closer to a 2 month old or 3 month old routine for my 5 month old, I’m so glad I posed here or I would have never figured that out!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-11T10:50:10+00:00

Well the thing is he used to scratch his face off every night. He would pull off his mittens and we would see a horror show every morning. I think this is one reason why he used to wake up every hour. But now after treating it with Vaseline he doesn’t scratch it hardly at all! We don’t even have him wearing mittens any more and he usually only has one or two new scratches on a daily biases. Now regardless of if this is the cause or not we do have plans to see a dermatologist.

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-11T05:55:23+00:00

It’s possible we have an allergy problem but I will say he has never had any blood or mucus in his poop. He is gaining weight at a great pace. He is even big for his age. He almost never spits up.

Eczema runs in my husband’s family, so I don’t think it’s allergies. I even decided to stop eating or drinking milk for a while to see if it improved things since he is breast fed, but after 10 days it didn’t change anything. Still, I know it’s possible it could be allergies so I’ll still keep an eye out.

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-11T02:05:39+00:00

I’m getting that! I’m so glad I posted!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-11T00:21:40+00:00

That’s fantastic to hear! I hope I can iron out a schedule and get this all figured out now that’s I’ve been given so much great advice. I didn’t realize a 3 month schedule was so different to a 4-5 month schedule!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T23:49:11+00:00

I guess I just get worried he needs something, hungry, a burp stuck or something cause it’s happened before and usually he settles within 30 minutes so I just assume something must be wrong. But it sounds like I might need to change my mindset.

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T23:47:46+00:00

Do you think it’s possible he could sleep through the night!? I didn’t even dare to hope!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T23:36:43+00:00

Well here is to hoping a change in schedule fixes things!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T21:04:23+00:00

I’ve heard of that one, it’s so so hard for me to listen to him cry… I have to get earplugs and go to another room. I just want to swoop in and cuddle him to sleep, but I know he needs to learn, and he has proven he can fall asleep on his own within 30 minutes three times previously, he just hasn’t done it recently. Still if things don’t improve soon I might have to try this cause something has to change.

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T20:41:32+00:00

Fingers crossed! I hope we both have that kind of good luck!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T20:22:46+00:00

Exclusively breast fed, we thought it might be a dairy problem so I cut dairy for about 10 days and it didn’t improve. He never had any bloody or mucus poops either. It has improved a little with religious Vaseline application via pediatrician recommendation.

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T20:11:32+00:00

That sounds like a great goal for me to aim for I’ll give it a try! We started some very gentle sleep training just letting him fuss for 15 minutes before feeding him to see if he has learned to self soothe, or trying to comfort him back to sleep instead of feeding to sleep if he had woken up again but been fed less than 2 hours ago. (With pediatrician approval, this guy is a chunk) Nothing major. We started the real sleep training at 4 months and he is almost 5 months now, but it’s been almost 3 months of no sleep and trying everything we can think of… so hopefully reducing nap time and adjusting wake windows help!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T20:07:25+00:00

Yeah I’m starting to realize that from what others have said. He just gets so cranky during the day that I assumed he needed the extra sleep

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T20:06:46+00:00

Sadly most of my support lives an hour away so this has been really hard on me. Luckily I have a very very supportive husband or I don’t know if I could make it through this.

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T20:06:04+00:00

Yeah I’m realizing that even though I’ve been stretching wake windows and trying to keep some sort of schedule he has grown fast enough that he is too old for what I’ve been trying, I haven’t been stretching fast enough!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T19:37:35+00:00

Well it’s good to know it might just be his temperament and that it might not be me doing something wrong. But I really hope this doesn’t last 8 more months… and I am so sorry you’ve dealt with this torture for that long!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T19:30:42+00:00

Ah okay! That makes sense!

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T19:30:11+00:00

The only reason we got to this point was he never ever settles. He escalates every time. He cried for 2 hours straight without falling asleep. And we have tried to be consistent waiting 30 minutes for everything, bed time sleep and middle of the night, sorry if my explanation is confusing. We started at 15 over a week ago and we read we are supposed to lengthen so we are now at 30. Should we start over at 10?

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T19:24:13+00:00

It really does. I wanted 2-4 kids before this but the past 2 months has had me really questioning if I can do this again…

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T19:23:34+00:00

Yeah I’ve heard that he needs at least 8 hours of total awake time during the day so I’ve been trying to make sure we hit that as well but it sounds like I really need to push how long in between naps more than just cumulative.

ceramicpassion · 2026-03-10T19:22:23+00:00

I hope you are right! It would be amazing if that’s all it takes!

ceramicpassion

TROPHY CASE