Routine help needed - 9mo cot party 2am - 4am

[ryates71]

Hi All,

Back again!  We seemed to be so much better before Xmas and then since New Year we are up 4 or 5 times most nights.  Also seem to be resettling him every nap time at 30 or 45mins.  LO starts nursery next week and I start back at work the week after.  Please can you take a look at his routine and offer advice.

Wake up time is variable but with the crap nights has been 7:30-8am ish. 

Yesterday was like this:

A 7:30 (3hrs)
S 10:30 - 11:20 (at nursery on a settling in visit - they didnt manage to resettle him)
A 11:20 (2hr 40m)
S 2:00 - 4:20 (resettled multiple times)
A 4:20 (3hr 15m)
S 8ish after 30mins of settling/grumbling

Woke at 2am.  Unsettled to 2:30, settled for 10min, resettled for 10min, settled for 10min, resettled for 10min, unsettled for 10min gave pain meds and resettled for 10min.  Then slept through to 7:50am. This was actually a better  night than the previous night when he was awake 12am 1am 3-4am.

Today's day was as follows:

A 7:50
S 11:00 - 13:15 (DD was on duty so he didn't need resettling!)
A 13:15 - 16:00
S 16:00 - 17:00 (resettled at 16:20)
A 17:00 - 19:30
S 19:30
woke 19:50 ish and had to be resettled.

Will let you know how he goes overnight.

He is 9mo.  Bottle fed.  Solids going well.  Just cut 5th tooth hence the pain meds at night.  Doesn't have dummy/paci but wondering if I/DH have become a prop for resettling.  He has never been a great sleeper but before Xmas we were getting at least one good nap without resettling and maybe 1 NW which was relatively simple to resettle.  Xmas eve he slept through to 6:30!!!

Anyway, enough rambling on.  Ask any questions if I've missed anything.

Cheers,
Rachel

[Tweakster]

Hi there Rachel, sorry to see you back here hehe...we don't like to see repeat offenders, want me to have a chat with Harry??  Anyway, Finn is in the throes of SA.  Any chance Harry could be starting already?

The other thing is that Finn just dropped his sleep needs dramatically.  Harry could be getting too much day sleep. 

I am desperately trying to clean the house while DH is out with Finn so I will pop back and have a closer look at the routine.

Hang in there!

[ryates71]

Hiya Wendy,

You could be right about the SA - I wonder if Finn has already been in touch with Harry?  He he.

Also we had settling in sessions for nursery last week and started fulltime on Monday this week.  Day time sleep at nursery has been really low (20m am and 35m pm naps on monday, 20m am and 55m pm nap on Tuesday).  Monday night (Tues morn) he was up 2am to 3.30am.  Last night he was awake at midnight for 30mins.  Last night I made sure he was properly asleep for 15m before leaving the room.

I think we are beyond hope until he figures out how to sleep for a bit longer at nursery which will probably take quite a while.  I have asked them to try and get him down earlier for that first sleep but I think there is so much goingn on that he will not lie down in his cot and relax until he gets to the point where he cannot keep his eyes open anymore.  Still, for an OT little boy he is generally in great spirits the rest of the time.

What I would like your advice on is what to do after nursery.  Should I try and get him down for a little nap at 5ish when I get him home or should I just hang on and go for an early bedtime?  On monday (20+35m sleeps at nursery) I did get him down for another sleep - only 35m but otherwise I knew he'd fall asleep on the bottle before bath.  Tuesday I didn't go for an extra nap just brought bedtime forward 30m but he then needed to be resettled a few times in the evening.  So, early bedtime or extra nap?

Thanks
Rachel

[Tweakster]

Hi there, to be honest I think I would aim for a little CN before dinner - even with the CN I doubt you would have to push bedtime out that much.  He will probably be up for his dinner, a little quiet play and then bedtime routine and then he will be ready for bed again after such a long day.  He's still quite young for so little day sleep and it is going to catch up, if not already - probably the reason for all the NW.  I would let him catch up on sleep to be honest, with little naps when you can get them and a good routine on weekends with full naps.

He might figure out that he needs to sleep more at daycare, or he might just have to grow out of it so to speak. 

Let me know how it goes.

[ryates71]

Hi Wendy,

Wednesday I thought we'd got it cracked as he had 1hr 20m in the morning and 1hr 10m in the afternoon (woo hoo!!).  However he then had a bad night - not helped by the fact that I did my back in yesterday so couldn't lift him up in the night and DH had to help out each time he woke.

Today he only slept 30m am and 30m pm and I wasn't able to get him down for an extra nap due to DD's social life (;-)).  So we'll just have to see how tonight goes.

R x

[Tweakster]

Hi there Rachel, he sounds just as OT as Finn.  Finn slept a total of 37 mins yesterday and we were STILL trying to nap him at 6 at night.  It's ridiculous but I guess just one of those developmental phases they go through.