Going nuts with 8 month old!!

[sinye]

My DS is waking up every 2 hours!!  It's driving me nuts!  I've tried PU/Pd for over a week and he only seems to be getting worse.  I'm pretty sure it's all due to his short naps - 30 min at most.  I've tried wake to sleep, pu/pd for his naps, but he just won't extend the naps.  My DH is out of town a lot and I'm getting pretty sleep deprived.  I think I must spend 3 - 4 hours of the day trying to get him to nap, only to have him nap for 1.5 hours total. 

What am I doing wrong??

Here's our schedule:

6:30 am BF

7:30- 8: solids

8:30: start the nap wind down.

9 - 9:30:  Nap  (30 min) 

10:30 or 11 BF

12  Lunch

1 pm:  Nap  (30 min)

2:30:  BF

4:  fruit

4:30 catnap  (I don't want to do this, but he gets so sleepy and cranky)

6:15 bath

6:30 BF

7: Bedtime - but really it gets closer to 8 after all the settling down.  He is able to play with a couple of stuffed animals and slowly drift off to sleep.

He wakes anytime between 5 and 6am.

Any help will be appreciated!!

[NikiJ]

Hi

I am by no means an expert but I just wanted to make an observation.  Your ds seems to be going down early for his afternoon nap.

How about adjusting his routine so that Lunch is at 1 and nap is at 2 or 2:30, then bf at bout 4 & dinner at 5:30 or 6, followed by bed at 7.

It just seems to me that his nap is so short at 1 coz he's just not tried enough, then he isn't getting enough sleep so he is cranky & has a nap at 4:30, which then upscuttles his night time.

Hope this helps
Niki

[Colin Macs Mom]

Sinye, how old is your LO?

[sinye]

My son is 8 months and has always been a terrible napper and have never slepted through the night.  It's getting more difficult now since he's more mobile. 

I just put him down for his afternoon nap.  He couldn't wait until 2 - but it's now 1:40, so that's getting closer.  I'll let you know how he does.

thanks!

[Colin Macs Mom]

Some LOs are just plain not good sleepers. I hate to say that, but it's the truth. My DS never slept through until 7.5 months and even now he doesn't every single night. That doesn't mean that we have to just live with it though! Have you tried moving him to one nap, or one nap and an evening catnap?

[sinye]

Well, he slept for 45 minutes - I guess that's something.

I am coming to grips with the fact that he just doesn't sleep well.  My MIL tells me that my husband was even worse than my son when he was a baby!  But I just can't give up hope because I'm awfully tired!!!

thanks all:)

[Colin Macs Mom]

Don't worry Sinye, even if you don't have a good sleeper, we can try and make it the best we can!

[lynnmc]

hi, sorry this may not be advice to any problems your having but to let you know it sounds familiar. I`m new at this and this is my first message so I`m hoping it goes ok.  My little boy Matthew is 14 month now, older but with the same problems, now and back at 8 months.  Thats why i have resorted to help on line.  It gets so hard trying to understand where you are going wrong, and what you could do differently.   I listen to others and they all seem to have these great sleepers who go down awake and sleep all night, I WISH!  It`s nice to read here that people are having the same problems i`m having.    Hope things work out for you. 

[NikiJ]

Hi Sinye

So glad he slept for 45 mins.  Did he still have the catnap later?  How did last night go?

I should have mentioned yesterday not to keep him p till 2 straight away.  Work up to it 5 - 15 mins at a time.  It's great he stayed awake until 13:40 yesterday.  Try for that again today & if you think he can stay up another 5, do that.  Take a few days over it & see what happens.

Let me know
Niki

[sinye]

I made sure not to give him a nap in the late afternoon.

Still a bad night.  He woke up about every 2.5 hours.  But at 3:45 my husband went in and he didn't like that.  So we were all up until 5:30.  Needless to say, we're all beat.

I just put him to sleep, it's now 9:15.  We'll see.  I never realized that the naps should be moved incrementally instead of just going for it.  Should I try to change the morning nap and make that later too?

To lynnmc:

I know what you mean!!  It seems like everybody else's baby goes to bed at 630 and wakes at 6:30!  I'm lucky because I don't have to work and my husband works from home.  But he's out of town a lot.  I've been doing this for 8 months already and I figure I'm ok health-wise.  what's 8 months more?  I also keep thinking that it's all got to get better sometime......

[NikiJ]

Hi again

Sorry you had a bad night.  Just a couple more questions for you.  What do you do when he wakes at night?  Are you feeding him?  Are you doing pu/pd?

Niki

[sinye]

Yeah, he slept 1.5 hrs this morning!!  I think i've got a w2s method.  Instead of nudging him a bit until he stirs, I actually make a sound with the crib railing so he gets startled a bit.  Then I just sit there with my hand on his back.  He moves a bit, but eventually settles.  I think the startling works better because when I nudged him it just really woke him up.

Usually when he wakes in the middle of the night, I just need to pat him once or twice and then he sleeps again.  He's usually sitting up when I go to him - so I just lay him back down.  9/10 times it's fine.  Just hard that I have to keep getting up.  Last night I tried pu/pd, but he was just getting more agitated.  he eventually just fell asleep again an hour and a half later.

Thanks!

[sinye]

Another bad night!  He had taken a nap for 50 min yesterday in the afternoon and I thought that was a good sign.  He went to bed at 7:30 and woke at 10:30.  I couldn't get him to sleep until 12 and then he woke up at 4am.  He's basically been up since then. 

He normally gets up between 5:30 and 6:30 and I try to put him down for a nap at 9 or so.  He gets really cranky, so I just figure he must be tired after his usual bad night of sleep.  That's about 2.5-3.5 A time in the morning. 

I've now readjusted and he takes his afternoon nap at 2pm.  So it just depends when he wakes up from his morning nap.

Am I just being too impatient and that it takes time for change?  I just feel like nothing works and I've been working at this for months!!!

[Colin Macs Mom]

I'm so sorry that things have been so rough Sinye. Hugs to you!!

Change does take some time and that can be frustrating. But stick with it and be consistent and it will pay off I promise!  I think that your LO is caught in a cycle of overtiredness and that's why you're getting such icky wakings. A 50 minute nap might be great for him compared to the past, but you should shoot for at least 1.5 hours. How's the W2S going?

[sinye]

Well, the naps are getting better. This morning my lo slept for 2 hours!  For every nap I still have to pu/pd for about 5 min at about the half hour point.  But definitely an improvement.

The nighttime is marginally better.  He sleeps longer the first stretch - about 4 hours.  But then wakes every 2 hours after that.  But I'll just stick to making the naps longer.

Thanks for all your help!

[Colin Macs Mom]

Yeah, it's a delicate balance but you can get this Sinye! Glad that you're having some improvements! 

[NikiJ]

Glad things are looking up

[sinye]

Thanks for all your support!

Yesterday the family went to visit some friends so the lo didn't get to bed until 8:30pm.  He had a couple of extra naps in the car too.  But his night went better.  He slept almost 6 hours straight, then was up for 2 hours, and then back to sleep until 6 am this morning.

I think that my mistake before was changing his routine when something good "accidentally" happened.  When he had a good night, I would change everything around because I thought that he liked that.  And then things would fall apart.  I am going to try to stick to the same schedule no matter what - even if there are some great nights because of changes here and there.  I hope this is a better method.

Thanks again all:)

[Colin Macs Mom]

I also found the same thing Sinye. I would also make changes when they weren't needed and then thing would get worse. It's definitely best to stick to one routine and that's that. Consistency is everything!

[sinye]

Everything's going back downhill!!

For the last two nights he's been getting up every 1-2 hours again.  He's been doing good on his morning nap - a little less than 1.5 hours.  But the afternoon nap has been horrible - 30-45 min.  That's got to be the reason.  How long does it take for all this to settle in??  I just need some encouragement

Elena

[sinye]

My lo only slept for 20 min this morning.  Ugh.  It's starting to feel hopeless.  Could it be severe separation anxiety? of course, he woke up later this morning, but I still put him down for his regular naptime....