Me again...I feel like I've been posting constantly on here for the last 8 months, but I just don't know what to do with this kid. He just cannot get his sleep right.
I have finally starting getting him to fall asleep on his own at night and for naps in the last few days, so I was hoping that was going to make a difference but it hasn't. I had been shushing and patting him to sleep but switched to just shushing and saying "go to sleep" from across the room and now just need the occasional "go to sleep" just to remind him if he is fussing a bit too much. But he still wakes up way too much at night and for naps I feel like his sleep cycles keep getting shorter and shorter.
He used to wake at 40 mins, then 35 mins needing to be patted and then would wake up at 1hr10mins on the dot to end his morning nap. The last 2 days though it's been 1 hour on the dot and nap is over. For his afternoon nap he will not sleep longer than 35 mins no matter what, and sometimes only 25 mins. I don't bother wasting my time patting him for the pm nap anymore because I know it will just frustrate me and he will not go back to sleep and will be gone in a few months anyways. He was at a 3hr35min A time for a while, and I was hesitant to push it because I was having to pat him at 30 mins to settle for OT. But last week I pushed to putting him down at 3hr45min figuring it was time for a push. That helped for 2 days of good morning naps that he slept through on his own, but now I'm back to having to pat in the middle. 30 mins used to be a sure sign of OT and he would be quite difficult to settle back to sleep, taking 20+ mins, but yesterday he settled pretty quick then and woke at an hour, so I'm worried that now his sleep cycle is only 30 mins?
So my nap questions are: what can I do to get him sleeping through his morning nap consistently? Should I push his A time even further? And should I do anything about his pm nap? His A time for that is 3hr30mins as suggested on here because he was having trouble settling for it a few weeks ago. He is only getting a total of 1hr40mins of daytime sleep with the occasional longer morning nap maybe one a week if I'm lucky.
Nights are a complete disaster. He falls asleep at 7:30, on his own the past few days. Then he wakes sometime in the 8-9:00 hour and can usually settle himself then the past few nights. Then wakes around 10 and can't self-settle so I have to pat him then. From then last night he woke at 11:30, 12:05, 2:15 (nursed him at this waking), then slept til 5:05 and had to pat him on and off every 5-15 mins until 6:35 when I finally just got him up and nursed him so he would fall back to sleep til 7:20.
The most frustrating part of the night is from 4-7:30, as that's when he is unsettled every 5-30 minutes every night for months now. I am 99% sure it is gas causing these wakings because he passes gas every once in a while throughout and sometimes arches his back. I've been getting him out to nurse him back to sleep once it hits 6:45/7 for a few weeks now just so he can get a little more sleep and not make the rest of his day start so early. I just don't know what else to do to get him to sleep better at night, and I would love to sleep in my own bed again rather than on pillows on his floor.
Any thoughts?