Help needed for 10 mnth EASY

[kmalbin]

Hi, I'm looking for some help with our EASY.

We've been on it from around 4 mnths and DS has been doing ok but we've had NW since 4 mnths after illness that have never stopped, apart from a month ago ish for 2 weeks when we changed his milk to Nutramigen, but he then started reacting to that too and is on Neocate which has helped but we are having even more NW now and most days EW's too.

He was having 2 good naps a day of 1.5 - 2hr, this has gradually reduced and he'll only sleep 1hr now.

He wakes between 2 and 6 times a night, never less than 2 and hes started getting up for the day between 5:30 and 6 when it was always 7.  If DH gets up with him he will go back to sleep after half an hour until 7ish, but if I do hes completely up for the day.  Trying to get him back to sleep in his cot just does not happen and he works himself into a right state if we push too much.

He is an independent sleeper.

I have tried to extend A times to 3.5 hrs as I thought maybe he was UT and this did help the EW, but hes put himself back on 3hr A time and still only naps 1hr so I've been putting him to bed at 5:45-6pm to compensate.

So I guess I'm looking for guidance on an EASY for his age, and that fits in with school runs at 8:30 and 2:45 (20 mins each time)

Thanks in advance,

Kirsty

[jessmum46]

At ten months we were on something like 4h A, 1h30 nap, 4-4.5h A, 30-45 min nap, 2-2.5h A, BT.  DD was fairly high A needs and LSN at that point.  I think that would fit fairly well with your school runs though to do a long am nap after 3.5-4h A in the late morning and then a late afternoon catnap?

I know you say he is an independent sleeper - how do you handle NWs?

Could you post a current typical days EASY?

[kmalbin]

its all over the place atm, as he thinks morning is 5:30-6am and refuses to go back to sleep, he was on 3 hr A time but ive extended it to 3.5hrs to see if it helped EW and coz his naps shortened to 1hr when it was 1.5 - 2hrs but hasnt helped lol, so atm it is something like this:

wu 6am
e 7am then porridge at 8am
s 9:30 (1hr - 1.5hr)
e 11am lunch at 12
s 2:30 (1hr)
BT 6:30

this is what yesterday was like roughly, then last night he woke at 7:30 (finished his BT bottle) gave him a DF at 11pm,
WU 3:10am and wouldnt resettle for over an hour when hubby gave up and took him downstairs, he then slept on and off till 6:10am

so today so far has been

WU 6:10
E 7am then porridge
S 10am (would not go to sleep before this and he was terrible to get to sleep when usually he just rolls over and goes to sleep as soon as i leave the room) wu at 10:30am, resettled with a bottle and is still asleep now.

I know I shouldnt feed right before nap, or during lol, but he was screaming like he was hungry, he always seems hungry atm and he eats great so Im not sure whats going on :-(

NW, well, i used to shush pat back to sleep, but this isnt working anymore, I try to lie him back down and leave the room but hes straight back up again and constantly cries.  I try water (as dont want to keep feeding) How is best to deal with them?

Im guessing he was OT for the first nap today which is why he woke after 30 mins, is that right? 

I just dont know how to get back into a good routine and Im sooooooooooo tired :-(

[kmalbin]

any ideas?

[jessmum46]

Sorry for such a slow reply - your thread seemed to have dropped out of my unread replies

Does he usually fall asleep/get very drowsy on the bottle at bedtime?  I just wonder if that might be causing some of your NW problems?  With DD I always handled NWs in exactly the same way I would if she struggled to settle at BT (was always put down fully awake).  I would walk in, lie her down, then walk out again. Repeat repeat as long as necessary (going in only in response to an 'I need you' cry).  I would only do that with a fully independent sleeper though - if he needs the bottle at BT then I would work on breaking that association first by adding in a story or something post feed and making sure he goes into the cot fully awake.

Routine wise I do wonder if you'd get a longer pm nap if you put him down a touch earlier, especially if his first nap is short. Have you ever tried that?





 

[kmalbin]

That's ok, thanks for the reply

he is an independent sleeper, for naps and bedtime we go in to his bedroom, put his music on (which is where he cuddles in) draw curtains, quick rock and kiss then into cot, grobag done up and walk out while hes awake, he usually rolls over, bum in the air and goes straight to sleep, sometimes he'll wriggle around for a bit but always asleep within 10 mind max, unless im trying to put him down too early, or its a NW.

i don't usually feed to sleep that week was crazy and his nap fell on e time and that's what he wanted lol.

he's also cut his first tooth few days ago so on pain killers for BT atm

i have tried tweaking nap times around, the other week he was only doing 2 hes A time as poorly so I've gradually built it back up. Can u have a look at today and see if anything needs tweaking more?

WU 6:20
S 9:30 -10:40
S 2:20 -3:30
BT 7:15

we only had 1 NW last night which is REALLY good for us, it was at 12:30pm, and i thought he may be hungry as the night before he drank 2 full bottles in the night, but he had an oz and went straight back to sleep.

anything shouting out to you? I do have the school run @ 2:45 till 3:15 so him napping at that time in the arvo is a bit of a pain (ok a weekends lol) but i don't know how to change it or get WU closer to 7am xx

[jessmum46]

Great that he's an independent sleeper!  Sorry about the teeth though it always make a things more complicated.

Overall that day though was pretty good . I would suspect to get a longer first nap you may need to push the first A time out a bit more though. You could try adding 10-15 mins and holding for a few days to give him time to get used to it.  It would be better probably if you could get at least one long nap, and then cut the other short to keep BT if needed.  If the first nap is usually more reliable then I would (for now) stick with trying to encourage a long first nap by getting the A time right.  I think I said before we needed a good 4h A time at this age to get a 1.5h nap so don't be scared to push a bit. 

He may not sleep until 7am with a 7.15pm BT - some babies at this age just don't need a full 12h overnight especially if they are still having two pretty decent naps.  A 13h day and 11h night is not unusual.  If you get into a stable routine of one long and one short nap, you may be able to push the whole day out in 15 minute increments to get WU to where you want it to be (a bit like daylight savings).  What do you think?

[kmalbin]

Good idea on pushing out the whole day to get Wu a bit later, will try then, if we ever get a good routine going lol.

hes been chopping and changing naps like there's no tomorrow, sometimes doing 5hrs A time, and still only an hr nap, some times 3 hr a time, but still only an hr nap.  I cant tell if an hour is it or ut 

also, how should i be dealing with nw? Atm im trying water, if still doesn't settle then bottle as nothing else seems to work

[jessmum46]

What did you think of my idea above for NWs?  He's an independent sleeper normally?  If so, the combination of walk in, put down, walk out should work fine.  You have to see it through though, no giving up after 20 minutes. OT may take a while the first few times but after that it will usually work fairly quickly I there's nothing else going on.  I presume you've ruled out teething pain etc by trying pain meds?

[kmalbin]

Oh yeah, lol, missed that bit! I will try that then, but hes so strong willed hehe.

he is teething but I've been giving pain meds at bt and sometimes in the night if he wakes, also just got some teething granules which are meant to be better than gel so fingers crossed.

what do u think about today?

Wu 6
s 9:50 - 11:10
s 3:10 - 4 ( wasn't happy about being woken up lol)
aiming for bt 7pm

is this a pretty good schedule, hes done this himself lol x

[jessmum46]

That looks good!  I'd stick with those times for a few days if you can, then we can tweak if needed to try to get the morning nap just a touch longer.

Fwiw I found it was only 'proper' meds such as paracetamol/ibuprofen that really helped DD when teething, but you have to use what you feel comfortable with

[kmalbin]

We've managed to keep it around the same today so fingers crossed. We had 1 NW last night at 10:30, i fed him as he didn't drink his bt bottle and he slept till 6:10am  its not the 7am i wanted but this is amazing considering how bad it was before!

today was
Wu 6:10
s 10:15-11:40
s 3:55-4:30
bt 7:20

yeah I've found he needs paracetomol, but teething granules really help, although I've just noticed they contain lactose and hes allergic so no more of those  bit weary of ibuprofen as dd has asthma and i did as a child plus he has eczema so just stearing clear for now lol.

will keep with the 4hr a's and see how we go, will keep u updated and thanks so much for your help so far x

[jessmum46]

Great job!  Hoping the last few days have been good for you xx