help me get my child to sleep better

DD was a difficult baby. She had reflux and colix and I thought that those issues were to blame for her poor sleep habits. I tried very hard to keep her on a routine and put her to bed awake and at the same time every night.

DS started out great. He will 4 months this week and for the past two weeks the nights have been horrible. He goes to sleep around 8 with little difficulty but he has been waking up around 12 and from that point until like 3 or 4 he is miserable. He shouldnt be hungry because he is eating close to 40oz in 24 hours, sometimes we feed him at that time because we dont know what else to do. We use a humidifier, a white noise machine, he is swaddled, and he sometimes takes a pacifier. We give him the binky but sometimes he clearly does not want it.

I cant let him cry too much because he will wake up dd. Both my dh and I have to work and are exhausted. Please give me some ideas.
Oh, and he goes to daycare so I have little control over his day time naps.

edited to add: he is on elecare for his milk protein allergy and I wonder how much this formula sustains him because he does eat so much. He also is very irregular and we have been giving him prune juice to help him poop and this weekend he has not pooped at all despite the prune juice. Do you think his being constipated is effecting his sleep?

Message edited 12/15/2008 9:08:30 AM.

Re: help me get my child to sleep better

Can you start him on cereal to help fill him up?

I am going through the same thing with my DD who is 4 1/2 months old and waking around 9-10 and screaming for an hour straight. The only thing to calm her down is the swing or jumparoo, now I feel like she has this habit of waking up and then being able to play I don't think she is eating enough during the day. She grazes with the bottle and my BM supply is decreasing.

I can offer you b/c I am in the same boat!

Re: help me get my child to sleep better

any other ideas? He just started cereral so he is eating very little of it.

Re: help me get my child to sleep better

Im so sorry... No advice here. Some babies are just not good sleepers (mine being on of them) and need a lot of comforting! Hope you get some rest soon!