At least 6- 12 NW's a night

[Evgenia]

My dd yawns sometimes at about an hour of A time but I don't put her down, as when I tried putting her down after 1 hour she was UT and wouldn't sleep for 2 hours. Now when she starts getting tiered after an hour I sitch to a very quite and low key activity and keep her going untill its almost time for her nap.

Its hard to say what A time will work best for ur lo as u have to take into consideration that he's up at 5.30, so i would say his nap should be around 7.30 (2 hours A time) even if u feed him at 6.30.

Heres a thought if u have to be up at 6.30 to get ready for work, why not get him up at 5.30 and treat it as the start of the day, this will give u and ur ds 1 hour to spend together in the mornings. Though his bed time would have to be earlier than 7pm.

And since he keeps getting up at 5 am maybe u could move his bedtime to 6 - 6.30 and see how this affects his naps? U should aim for 12 hour night and with bedtime at 7-7.30 and 5.30 wake up he doesn't seem to be getting enough sleep.

In regards to solids, one of the reasons I started weaning was NW and disturbed naps, but she was never great with bottles and it was a struggle to get her to take even 5oz But once the solids were fairly well established she's beem flying it. No NW and significantly better naps.

I started with half a table spoon of pear half hour after the seond feed of the day (11.30 am with our routine), after a few days a started giving pear for dinner. She would have a bottle at 5 and pear at 6. After about a week I started carrots at the 11.30 feed. 4 days later I started apple at 11.30 and moved carrots to dinner. U always give new food at the second feed of the day to see how the lo gets on and in case if there are any allergies, once u r satisfied he's getting on fine u move that veg/fruit to dinner time.
After a week and a half of solids I started giving her cereal an hour after first feed of the day. Over time as we introduced more fruit and veg the portions increased, and I also started with nighttime cereal (Milupa), and baby rice with vegetables (Heinz)/buckwheat/ corn cereal for lunch. After about 4-5 weeks I started mixing the veg/fruit that she's used to together.

At the start I tried to ensure she's fed at least an hour before bed/naps so I can keep an eye on her and her reactions.

I found the sample easy routines very handy in deciding what foods to give and at what times, here are the links:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=10385.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=10386.0
The ones for 6months and older have solids a bit more well established and are great to get ideas as to what u whant to do urself.

I put my dd out for naps in her pram, but I don't rock her or walk with the pran, just stick her out to fall asleep on her own.

I take my words back about snowing! Its been snowing for 2 days now, everything covered in 10cm of snow. But sure enough thay don't have those trucks that clean the roads from snow like u do in canada so driving is seriously dangerous, nearly crashed yesterday! Traffic is moving at 20km an hour, so gonna stay home untill it all melts

[Michael Pauls Mom]

Snow snow snow...it can be bad.  Stay in it is not worth the risk some times.  Well today I started pears.  I have to tell you I think everything has gone crazy.  His naps are worse, I can't even AP him into naps.  I really wonder if he is teething.  I am sure he is in some stage of teething but is it the stage that causes upsets in sleep.  Also he has not pooped in 4 days, it is all crazy here.

I have been trying to adjust his A time.  I have made it shorter, I have made it longer I have tried it all and nothing.  Over the past three days his naps have shortened sometimes to 30 minutes?  UT...I doubt it but maybe?  Every other night is bad.  Two nights he was wide awake at 4/4:30 and had no plans of returning to sleep.  The one night it took until 5:30 to sleep and then he was up at 6:10 (nap).  Though when i feed him he is not overly hungry.  He has been
eating less at each sitting as well/

So I thought about the food and thought, ok food it is.  I just gave him pears at noon today which was after his bottle.  Now Tracey says to feed it to him before his bottle?  I was rereading the feeding chapter but most people do it after the bottle.

I have been studying the FAQ's in the nap section as well to see what ideas are there.  I think I will try WTS again.  I tried that when he was about 3 mths and no success.  I don't think I can do PU/PD as I am a little chicken.

His naps today I tried to leave him until he cried and he would stay in there for 30 minutes and then cry so I had to get him.  Then he would get a little cranky at 1 hr 30 minutes.  When his first nap was short I drove to the store to get the pears so I could feed it to him at the second bottle.  He was fine in the store and when he was up for about 1 hr 30 minute and we were driving home he began to cry.  I was driving so all I could do was talk to him and he fell asleep.  Normally he wakes when I get home and open the doors etc.  I unloaded the car and he was still asleep so I left him in the garage and he slept for an hour.  I think he only woke up because he was a little cold.  I have tried to analyse everything that I am doing.  I trying to read everything to see what is going wrong and I have no idea any more.  I am so tired as I am working from home while I am caring for DS and you can imagine that is not going that great.  I just really was hoping it was developmental and when he reached some magic point it would happen.  I am killing myself and most of my friends and family think I am crazy.  I talk non stop about the sleeping and get no further ahead.  I don't know.

I am hoping that the food will help but I know that it will be a few days before that will make a difference.  Thanks again for the support and ideas  I am open to them.  I actually did try an earlier bedtime and he gets up at 4?  I know
that the day should be 12 hours but he does not seem to think that.  I am sure it is over tired but again nothing seems to help.  I know before I go to bed that the night will be bad just based on the little sleep he is getting in the day.  He actually for quite a few nights made it through the first sleep cycle and no replugging.  I was seeing change and I was thrilled........but then the world rotates and back again....ah this to shall pass.

[Evgenia]

{{{{{BIG HUGS}}}}} Hang in there! I know how hard it can be and u just can't believe there will be an end to this! But it will get better, u need to try and stay positive and be consistent. I know that at times its impossible to stay positive, but when we have a positive attitude things just seem to fall into place. Just keep reminding ur self that ur lo doesn't know what he's doing or whats going on and ur job is to teach him, it might take u longer than others but consistency is the key.


As far as I can remember from the books, u give a bit of the bottle first, to take the edge of the hunger. Then solids followed by the rest of the bottle. I did that with my dd. Once we established 3 meals a day I had to do solids first at lunch as otherwise she would get too full on her bottle and wont take any, only did that for a while though. I gave dinner an hour after he bottle, 5 bottle 6 dinner, same in the morning 7 bottle 8 breakfast. Now all her solids are an hour later after the bottle.

With w2s it took me a good few times to figure out at what time to come in and how to stir her, it's a matter of trail and error and is very different for every lo,. so keep in mind it could take a few days for u to get it just right.
Though I would give pu/pd a go if w2s doesn't work and he wakes up. I actually found it a bit easier to do than shh/pat as I felt I was physically doing more than with shh/pat to calm her down.

Do u have BW solves all ur problems book? on page 43 Tracy describes a plan for introducing the routine at 4 months and older, I used this plan on a number of occasions wih my dd. Read pages 39-43 as well as it gives u the tools to use with the plan. It does sound that u r more confused than anything as u r struggling to find the root of the problem, so maybe this plan will help u in providing some guidance.

I would definetily stick with the solids from now on, even if u see his sleep/routine etc getting worse it most likely be temporarily. U need to be consistent and it could take up to a week before u see any changes. Don't get upset or stressed if its not going as smooth as u hoped for, at this stage solids are more for introducing different tasts and new way of feeding.

Look back on this post, u had some brilliant days, try to think what u did or did not do on those days.

Can any of ur friends or family come over and give u a break once in a while? Even 2 hours away from home might do u a world of good. Devote an hour a day to urself, get dh, relative or friend come in for 1 hour to look after the lo so that u can take a bath, watch TV, have a glass of wine or a nice dinner. If no one offered help, don't be afraid to ask for it! Get a friend to drop over dinner for u once in a while - theres  an hour free and a meal When u r tiered and stressed u r not much help to ur lo, its always easier to tackle a problem when u r well rested and refreshed.

And u know where to come for support and advice! Keep us posted!


 

[Evgenia]

Hi just checing in to see how u r getting on. Any news?