Hello. I am the father of a 10 month old baby girl. She was born a month premature but otherwise healthy with the exception of a tongue tie and torticollis which have been resolved with PT and a tongue release. My wife and I have gone through a few sleep regressions since she's been born, but her latest problems vex us both. I am at my wits end and running on fumes as the stay-at-home. I'm feeling overwhelmed and nothing seems to work anymore. Five to six weeks ago the entire family came down with COVID; my daughter and wife at the same time, my infant three days later, then myself. Around the same time, she began crawling, sitting up, and trying to stand and scoot. She underwent major developmental milestones the same time she got sick. It took her two weeks to recover from COVID, but she developed a secondary ear infection which resulted in her developing antibiotic-induced diarrhea for two weeks. Despite frequent baths and copious amounts of aquaphor and other creams, she developed a bad yeast infection from the diarrhea. It took another week of treating the yeast infection with antifungals and creams for it to get better. In addition to that, she stopped taking solid foods from us and began to refuse the bottle. She was breast-fed since she was born, but would take the bottle and solids when mom went to work. She also won't take breast milk from a sippy cup, strawed cup, or regular cup. She will only breast feed now, and this started with COVID almost two months ago. At the same time, because she was sick and couldn't sleep or nap on her own, she began to nap on my wife or I during her illness and sometimes at night. She has been steadfastly refusing her naps for weeks now. It doesn't matter if I try ferber, close chair, CIO, pick up and put down, gentle reassurance from outside the crib, etc... She will continue to cry beyond the duration of her nap, and then by the time the next nap comes, she's so overtired from missing her first, she won't nap. The other day she was awake 9 hours before she went down despite multiple attempts at getting her to sleep. I know we're not supposed to rock our kids to sleep all of the time because it creates bad sleep associations, but even if I do that, she wakes up the instant she is put down and starts screaming non-stop. We used to be able to get her into the crib without her waking if we did that, but now she wakes the instant she's put down.
We've ruled out common medical conditions like GERD. She isn't teething right now. She did have separation anxiety three-four months ago with her 6-7 month sleep regression, but it seemed to settle down. The only way she will sleep is on my wife while breast feeding now. We know she has a few bad night time sleep associations, but the day time napping was never really a problem until recently. She also stopped taking almost all solid foods and has steadily lost weight. We've seen her physician who said to keep trying, but otherwise has no magic solution. She is offered a variety of finger foods, healthy table foods we eat as a family, and various stages of purees and texturally appropriate foods. It hasn't been a problem until now. Her food offerings include (purees when appropriate due to chewing/choking hazards): carrots, peas, squash, mango, strawberries, raspberries, bananas, baby cereals, various ground meats, cheeses, toast, avocado, butter, peanut butter (natural baby), gluten free pasta, pears, broccoli, etc., etc., and any number of combination texture or flavor purees.
How do I get her to go back to her naps? She instantly goes from drowsy or tired to overwhelmed when she's put down (no change in routine) and inconsolable. She is in a huge sleep deficit. She barely sleep eight hours a day, and doesn't sleep well overnight either, waking up several times every night. We sleep in the same room as her, have blackout blinds, and her bed is both comfortable, clean, and safe. The temperature is appropriate and she's in a sleep sack. I've tried moving her wake window back without success. At ten months old, she's showing signs of being tired at 1.5-2 hours after waking, instead of the average of 2.75- 4 we've read about. It doesn't matter if I try 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, she won't take to a nap and can show signs of being tired anywhere between 1.5 and 4 hours.
Any ideas, thoughts, or tips? Is this just a stage? It's been almost two months now and getting worse each day. Consistency with a particular type of method hasn't worked. She just continues to show no signs of giving in at all. We know things get worse before they get better, but it's getting ridiculous. She sounds like a yak when she screams now and I just want her to be able to get the sleep (and food) she needs. We have consults with occupational therapy and feeding therapy coming up, but the sleep a problem more major than either of us had expected at this stage of her life.
We've ruled out common medical conditions like GERD. She isn't teething right now. She did have separation anxiety three-four months ago with her 6-7 month sleep regression, but it seemed to settle down. The only way she will sleep is on my wife while breast feeding now. We know she has a few bad night time sleep associations, but the day time napping was never really a problem until recently. She also stopped taking almost all solid foods and has steadily lost weight. We've seen her physician who said to keep trying, but otherwise has no magic solution. She is offered a variety of finger foods, healthy table foods we eat as a family, and various stages of purees and texturally appropriate foods. It hasn't been a problem until now. Her food offerings include (purees when appropriate due to chewing/choking hazards): carrots, peas, squash, mango, strawberries, raspberries, bananas, baby cereals, various ground meats, cheeses, toast, avocado, butter, peanut butter (natural baby), gluten free pasta, pears, broccoli, etc., etc., and any number of combination texture or flavor purees.
How do I get her to go back to her naps? She instantly goes from drowsy or tired to overwhelmed when she's put down (no change in routine) and inconsolable. She is in a huge sleep deficit. She barely sleep eight hours a day, and doesn't sleep well overnight either, waking up several times every night. We sleep in the same room as her, have blackout blinds, and her bed is both comfortable, clean, and safe. The temperature is appropriate and she's in a sleep sack. I've tried moving her wake window back without success. At ten months old, she's showing signs of being tired at 1.5-2 hours after waking, instead of the average of 2.75- 4 we've read about. It doesn't matter if I try 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, she won't take to a nap and can show signs of being tired anywhere between 1.5 and 4 hours.
Any ideas, thoughts, or tips? Is this just a stage? It's been almost two months now and getting worse each day. Consistency with a particular type of method hasn't worked. She just continues to show no signs of giving in at all. We know things get worse before they get better, but it's getting ridiculous. She sounds like a yak when she screams now and I just want her to be able to get the sleep (and food) she needs. We have consults with occupational therapy and feeding therapy coming up, but the sleep a problem more major than either of us had expected at this stage of her life.
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