Thank you! Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words!!! I know! I know it will not last forever, but sometimes it is just so damn hard! Thank you again! Even virtual hugs mean a lot! And support that I get here - I just do not have words to describe how great and valuable it is!
Thank you for the advice - this is more or less what i did the moment he was showing signs of tiredness. I went to bed and took him with me, decided that this time I was indesperate need of some APOP. We slept for 35 min which helped me A LOT! And the rest of the day was manageable.
My Lo is indeed 5,5 months and he has been short napper since 2 months and since 3 weeks EWs started. I did manage the short naps ok, if I needed to extend one in 90% of cases I could do that by holding him the rest of the nap, not the best solution but at least he got the sleep and i got if not sleep but at least rest. When EWs started I was managing ok but the last week I decided to start working on extending those naps which means - W2S at 25 min mark and then I sit next to the crib for the rest of the nap and if I am lucky I get to extend it.
I actually have a very strong desire to start a poll in the naps forum to know what is the age they start having longer naps, because I do need to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
So, about our routine. He is on a kind of 4 hr EASY, not perfectly due to short naps. I try quite strictly to keep his A times to at least 2 hrs, normally it is 2-2,5 hrs, but his E times are not always 4 hrs apart, as foten I have to somehow manage around short naps and not feed to sleep.
Here's yesterday and today:
yesterday:woke up at 5-00 and I rocked him to sleep and put him in the bed with me, he slept till 6.20
E 7.00
S 8.25-9.05 (had some rest myself so did not try to extend this nap)
E 10.40
S 11.20-12.40 (I managed to extend it)
E 15.30
S 14.50-15.25 - failed to extend it
E 17.40
BT 18.15 (a bit early but putting him for a short late nap did not feel right so I decided to have early BT instead)
DF 21.45 (normally i do DF between 22 and 23 but he woke up and nothing could get him back to sleep)
NF 01.30
today:
WU 5.00 and nothing worked to get him back to sleep
E 6.50 solids
S 7.20-8.00 slept together with him
E 8.00
S 10.10-10.50 could not extend the nap
E 11.45
S 12.50-14.20 he woke up after 35 min and I was holding him for a while, so he slept in my arms and then some more in the crib and I actually woke him up to avoid having similar situation as yesterday where another nap would be too close to BT
E 15.40
S 16.55-17.25 had a short nap in the stroller
E 18.50
BT 19.30
Unfortunately, his WU times and BT are not consistent due to short naps. His NFs as well as not at the same time every night, they are not even exactly 4 hrs after DF, sometimes it is 3hrs or 3,5hrs or 4,5hrs, I think he dii have 5hrs between meals at night couple of times, but not more than that.
As for his reflux I think it is under control but honestly the way the discussion went last time at the pediatrician I figured as long as he is gaining weight and seems most of the time Ok I will not go back to discuss reflux because of some discomfort because he is on the highest dose of meds now and there is not many other options of meds that we could get her, it is either powder or some kind of granules, powder I give now in the bottle with some water, but granules have to be mixed with some puree and taking into account how he is totally rejecting solids so far I do not want to switch to granules. I also use special thickened formula, I stopped BFing just a couple of days ago and now he gets most of his feeds from formula and only 2 feeds are my frozen before breastmilk.
As for sleep he used to be sleeping in a co-sleeper next to me but at 5 months (2 weeks ago) we first put him in a crib in our room and one week later we moved him in a separate bedroom but I moved together with him and sleep now on a sofa bed in the same room as him, the idea was for me to move back to our bedroom after a week or so, but i am not in a hurry. Also, the head of bed is elevated.
For his sleep routine I carry him around on my shoulder saying a night verse and then I softly sing kind of a lulluby (just repeating "good night Mattias sleep tight", it rhymes in my mothertongue
Sometimes while signing I take him in the cradle hold and give him paci but he seems to like it less now so now after my shoulder he goes straight down, I give him paci, place his lovey in his sight and reach and just sit next to the crib shushing and holding a hand on his hip, he fusses and moves around but I do not pick him up unless he starts to cry, then I pick him up for a 30-40 seconds and put him back, he seems to like to fall asleep on his side, but does not have skills to turn into his preferred position so I just roll him from side to side every now and then and sometimes after one roll he would fall asleep, sometimes it takes 4 or 5 rolls, and sometimes he falls asleep on one side, sometimes on the other. So, for now I am almost happy with our going to sleep routine as it does not require too much effort. It does take time sometimes, when is OT, but nothing critical.
Also, I think it has to be mentioned that he is definitely a thriving not-so-little-anymore boy, he is now 8.4 kg (18.52 lb) and 70 cm (27.56 in), which puts him in seventy something percentile for weight and ninety something percentile for height. Everybody, like literally everybody who sees him, tells me he is so big for his age
and I totally agree: everytime during a walk I see babies that already walk that are the same size as my 5 months old boy who does not even sit unassisted yet
oh my, motherhood is such a strange dichotomy: one moment I am crying from tiredness and cannot get out of bed for 20 minutes and a few hours later I cry happy tears at the laughs and shrieks of my LO! It is so difficult sometimes but I cannot imagine my life without him! I love him so much!