Settling advice please 13 wo.

hi all, i hope someone will have some ideas for helping me to settle my baby to sleep.

For the past 3-4 weeks we have been unable to get him to sleep without long periods of crying. The only way he will sleep with little to no crying is in our arms. Then when he is asleep in our arms it is impossible to put him into his bed. We would rather he settled in his bed as it's just not possible to carry him all day with a toddler to look after as well.

We have a settling routine - nappy change, song, into bed, patting and shhhing if needed and then we leave (and go back in and shh pat again if he really winds up again). This had been working for us until he was about 10 weeks old. Then all of a sudden he just started crying and crying as soon as he is laid down to sleep. He does have reflux and is on medication, but is happy as a clam to lie flat on the floor during play time. We have tried swaddling and unswaddling with no difference between. It is increasingly difficult to calm him in the bed at all, no amount of shh patting will work most of the time to calm him now.

Settling can take up to an hour, usually between 10mins and 40 mins. Then i get 45 min sleeps (he used to do 1.5 to 3 hr sleeps). So spending 40 mins to get a 45 min sleep is starting to rule our life and the toddler is really getting the raw deal! In the last 3 weeks i think i've managed maybe 2 sleeps with no crying. I'm trying to read his tired signs and he looks tired at about the 45-60 min mark (before he'd been staying up more like 1.15 - 1.30).

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated, i just can't think what else to do. He won't take a dummy - not for lack of trying - any suggestions on that would be good too! He won't settle in the capsule (unless driving), bassinet, pram or bouncer any easier. Just the front pack which we do use for about one sleep a day when we are out and about.

You could try having playtime in his bed for 10 minutes in the middle of his wake up time. This is what we did when Esme was doing that. She is refluxy too.

Even though he is happy on the floor it could be that his meds need adjusting we just had ours upped after 2 months. Esme's reflux is at it's worst about 1 hour after a feed so that is also what could be that case for your little one. I am also assuming that his bed is propped up.

I don't know what he is on but she was on 1.5mL x 2 ranitideen now she is on 2mL x 2. I went in and explained that she was starting to show all the behaviours that she had before she started on the medication it took a couple of days and she is now much happier (gaviscon didn't work for us).

How propped is his cot? It should be at around 30 deg angle which is quite steep.

We use an amber necklace, not sure about the reflux as we put it on around 4 months which was in the middle of her worst reflux behaviour and was more for teething/ezcema. But she is much more relaxed when she wears it. We notice pretty quickly if we have forgotten to put it on after her bath.

With playtime put him in with toys and the room nice and bright, I had a mobile that I put on when it was playtime and it was gone for sleep (didn't want it as a sleeping prop). Then when it's bedtime pull curtains, no toys etc.

esmesmum - where did you get your amber necklace from? i've heard that there are fake ones around so would rather get one recommended if possible.

dr won't increase his Losec, he is on 5mg twice daily. We may just have to ride it out and then start solids early as that usually helps.

i had some success yesterday watching his sleep cues like a hawk but maybe that was lucky.