9 months old - teething, sick, nw and developmental changes

[katie80]

Hi there, just hopping on here to be another pair of eyes and some encouragement. I agree with Bec that his daytime sleep is quite high for his age.  At nearly 11 mo, the most my DS gets is about 3 hr.

I also agree that it's tough to break a sleep habit while teething.  My DS got 6 teeth in the span of two months right after we had been on vacation.  So, he was already a bit 'off', so to speak. Then, he learned to pull up to standing. I decided to give PD a try since he wasn't settling on his own and was waking frequently at night. There were many naps I spent 45-50 min of PD only to have him sleep 30 min. And at night, I would do it for 45 min only to have him wake again 15 min later.  It was so exhausting that I just went back to APing him, even though I still had to do it a few times a night.  However, once his teeth were through, any time I've had to do PD, he is almost always back to sleep within 5-10 min and stays asleep. I know it's not ideal to have to help him back to sleep so often, but there really may not be much you can do (after working on his daytime routine) to help him back to sleep quicker.  Have you tried ibuprofen for the teething pain at all? Both my kids have been better helped by that than acetaminophen.

except that he now gets his bottle AND solid food together every 5 hours (per doctor)

What's the reasoning for this? Just wondering as some of this sounds like discomfort.

I'm also curious about this as a few times he's been unhappy it seems like he was hungry.

(((Hugs))), NW are tough. I lived much of what you're describing for a couple month, except for the long naps during the day.

[mmjones]

When i started this thread at the end of May he was only having 2.5 hours of awake time between naps.  Since you told me to extend his awake time his awake time is now 3 to 3.5 hours but that has only been for the past 3 weeks and its been a process getting him to stay awake this long.  So his day, on average, looks like this:

6:30/7 - awake
9:30/10 - down for nap (the wind down routine starts at 9:30/10 and takes about 10 minutes or so then he's sleep)
11/11:30 - awake (I don't let him sleep more than 1.5 hours per nap UNLESS he had a horrible nights sleep or its his second nap and his first nap of the day was short)
2/2:30 - 2nd nap
3:30/4 - awake
7/7:30 - bedtime routine starts

Basically -- I limit his total daytime sleep to 3 hours

Note: when he's at daycare Monday, wednesday and friday this schedule often changes.  Often times he will go down for his first nap earlier then I stated above but still won't sleep more then 1.5 hours during that nap and then not have a second nap while at daycare.  Then I pick him up at 3 p.m. and most times its a struggle to keep him awake in the car on the way home -- I put him down for a nap on these days at about 3:30/4 and depending on how his morning nap was I let him sleep till 5:30 or 6 which pushes his bedtime back to 8.

for the past week he's been GREAT during the day, far less clingy and it gotten better as the week has gone on. His naps have been easy as they always have been, at least they are when he's with me. I just put him down and I don't have to do much by way of coaxing him to sleep and he usually doesn't wake early from them.  While at daycare they have difficulty getting him down for his 2nd nap.

We started WIWO last night and Brady did GREAT!  He woke 5 times during the night but it only took about 6-10 times and about 10-15 minutes (sometimes less) for me to go in, lay him down, say i love him and night night, and walk out before he'd stay down.  I would wait outside his room out of view and count to 5, I never go in until he's standing and he's usually crying or was just crying before I went in. I have noticed that when we close the door he stands and cries but if I leave the door open when I leave out he's likely to stay down.  So far tonight the initial put down went well too with DH doing it.  it took 5 pd/WIWO and 10 minutes before ds went to sleep.

[mmjones]

Katie -- just saw your post!  thanks for the encouragement.  Your little one sounds just like mine lol -- you feel my pain.  I don't think his doctor has a medical reason for wanting me to feed ds his solids and liquids at the same time; he just feels that the normal way of eating is to do it all at once instead of having part of your meal at x time then the second 1/2 of it an hour later.  I don't se it as a problem during the day and the amount of food he's been consuming hasn't changed since I combined the feedings so I don't think he's hungry.  And the issues we are having were there before I started combining his feedings which has only been for the past 4 days.  Also, this week I've been giving him more formula in his bottle during the day to address any possible growth spurt he might be going through.

i know my posts have been long so just to reiterate -- for the past 2 weeks (since returning from vacation) his naps have been limited to a total of 3 hours during the day divided across 2 naps.

[katie80]

Sounds like good progress on the NW! Well done.

While I can understand your doctor's logic, I do think it's too much to ask a 9.5 mo old to go five hours between eating. I don't expect my 3 yr old to wait that long. So, if you're going to do meals like that, I'd make sure he's getting a snack in there somewhere, so he doesn't get so hungry.  Also, I would venture to say most nutritionists would disagree with 3 large meals at any age, breaking it up during the day with 4-6 smaller meals.  Not to say there is one right way, but just to be aware of hunger, iykwim.

[becj86]

While I can understand your doctor's logic, I do think it's too much to ask a 9.5 mo old to go five hours between eating.

I agree with Katie - its quite important for LO's to get food regularly through the day so they have a fairly constant supply of energy. Part of the reason we break it up with milk first and solids an hour or so later is actually to keep energy going into LO more frequently. The other reason is that milk is meant to be the main source of nutrition til age 12 months and offering it with food can take away from that. We offer water or milk as a drink with solids too.

[mmjones]

Thanks for the suggestions ladies! I will keep and eye out on ds's hungry and eating cues and make adjustments if necessary. Update 11 last night was the best nights sleep this household has had in weeks! He went down with little problem and only woke once at 4:20 am after sleeping about 8 straight hours!!! Then when he woke standing and crying, after waiting 5 seconds I went in pd and walked out leavin the door open and he went back to sleep till 6:50ish this morning! And when he woke he was sitting playing in his crib alone I didn't even know he was awake!

So far tonight is going well too aside from the late bedtime due to a late afternoon nap to recover from only napping 55 minutes while at daycare today but he went down easy. Let's see how the night goes.

[becj86]

Fingers crossed things continue to improve