OT cycle (?) and EW- can't break

[Mjaz]

The funny thing is he seemed completely himself this morning - happy and playing on his own.  I was like, "seriously, Elijah?"  My plan for the day was simply to follow him - I don't really know what else to do after a night light that.  And at an A time of 3:15 he was still happily playing on his own...?  I kind of got scared of the OT monster, so I put him in his crib right around then and he fell asleep on his own at the 3:22 mark. 

I don't think I've ever been so stumped by this little guy.  No fever.  Two teeth seem to be pretty much through - and I don't see evidence of others, though the doc had mentioned he thought his saw 4 on the top coming in (the two that are through are the top middle two)

Kate, sorry A is ill   Always something, right?

Wendy, thanks for looking at the routine - I appreciate it - though I must admit I don't feel like I have much of a routine at all these days.  Glad Finn gave you a good night of rest.

Going to get a second cup of coffee :/

[Tweakster]

I'm still pondering but your Friday tells us that he does reasonably well with ~2.5 hrs day sleep.  His last A was long so I suspect it should be titch shorter for him and he may not have done the EW at ~10 hours in...that's pretty classic OT...I live with one of those 10 hour kids so I know :-)  It does look like he does best with a shorter middle A, we can't really look for too many theories here, if it is what he needs then we have to just accept it from him until he changes it up again.  I suspect it's due to the shorter night, longer AM A time and then a shorter nap than he is used to.  I am beginning to wonder if you need to shorten the middle A even more after a 1 hr nap, maybe he's only good for 2 hr 30...

However, clearly things deteriorated so he got OT either due to his routine being off or teething or because you had to be out of the house or one of the other many million possibilities these kids throw at us.  And Sunday after his longer night (even with a NW) he only gave you just over a 1 hr nap on a shorter A time...so looks like he's getting used to the longer A/1 hr AM nap but the rest of the day is going wonky.  His first A looks good for him though, so let's keep that.  It looks like it's between 3 - 3 hr 20 depending on his night.

I wonder if you could try 2x 1 hr 15 min naps for him?  It's different but may work for a kid so sensitive to A times.

What about:
Awake 6
Nap 1 hr 15 @ 9:20 - 10:35
Nap 1 hr 15 @ 1:35 - 2:50
Bedtime asleep by 6:20/6:30 - if he's fighting this I suspect he can actually handle a longer final A after his good naps and his short middle A time, you may even get him to a later BT and still get a good night

Then when he's sleeping better through the night etc. we try adding more A time to get him to where he should be.

It's just one plan and it's no exact science, someone may have better ideas :-)  I know you don't want less night sleep/early mornings but it can be out of our hands at times :-)  Ideally you want a well-rested kid in the day and night so sometimes we don't get good naps and long nights until they have transitioned and evened out.

[Mjaz]

Wendy - thanks for the routine - I promise I will look at it in more detail once I recover from today.

Today brings all new meaning to OT.  I have never in 9.5 months seen Elijah like this.  I guess his night was worse than I thought - that first nap this morning after 3:22 of A (b/c he seemed completely rested and happy) backfired big time - 30 min nap.  Screaming.  APOP'd another 30 minutes and then he was up.  2 hours later, he seemed really tired, so I put him down at 2:20 of A time - 30 min nap -screaming - would not go back.  2 hours later, another 30 min. APOP'd nap.   I had to go to a meeting this evening so DH was in charge of bedtime, so I told him to get him to sleep as fast as possible - aiming for 5:30pm.  When I got home at 7:30 Elijah was still up.  DH had been trying to get him down for 2 hours.  I took over - rocked him for 30 minutes - and his body was jolting, but he went to sleep for me within minutes.  So - asleep at 8pm after an awful, awful day.  I just had myself a good cry and DH is out picking up a pizza so we don't have to do anything else tonight.  I tried so hard to help him today...it was just so sad...I don't even know where to go from here. ;(

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

Oh Melinda, I'm sorry all I have are hugs for you this morning.  We were up all night, literally.  Austin's temp was up to 103 something 30 min after Motrin.  I ended up getting him a couple of hours by putting him in the carrier and bouncing on an exercise ball like when he was a newborn. 

I'm so sorry it was such an awful day for all 3 of you.  He's still not acting sick at all?  It sure sounds like something is going on with him. 

More hugs and I hope last night was ok and that today is a better day. 

[Tweakster]

Melinda, it definitely sounds like he's ill or really badly teething.  No OT should cause that kind of backlash. 

I think you may end up just following him, letting him sleep as and when he needs it, allow some APOP and just get through whatever this is.

Hugs to all of you!!!

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

M, how was the day?  Any teeth show up yet?

[Mjaz]

Hi ladies.  Well, like you Kate (I'm so sorry!  (((hugs)))  everything is so much harder when we ourselves have no sleep!), we hardly had any sleep last night.  He was, again, up every 45-1hr.  I took him to the doctor today - nada.  Ears are fine.  She didn't see any more teeth coming in, aside from the 2 top ones that are mostly through.  I know it seems like it *should* be more than OT, but I'm really wondering if I have one incredibly sensitive to OT child.  He did 3 hours of naps today - 1:18, 1:18 and 30 - with all very low A times.  He seemed much better today.  The first A this morning was 1:45!  I will follow him and see if we can simply get back to a stable place.  From there?  I'm not sure.  Thanks for your support.  I'll check back in soon.

[Mjaz]

So we've had 4 very similar nights - nothing is making a difference and I am at a TOTAL LOSS for what to do.  He was up 8:30, 9:30, 12, 1, 3:30 to 5 (wide awake) and then for good at 5:45.  He seems fine.  Both teeth are through.  While the previous 3 nights have seemed OT, last night's 3:30-5 stint was definitely UT - I guess b/c he had 4 hours of day sleep.  ANY THOUGHTS AT ALL?  I cannot even think straight

[Tweakster]

Ok Melinda, I recommend popping a post on EASY board to get a fresh set of eyes on the issue.  Not that Kate and I haven't been great lol (tee hee) but really we need to call in reinforcements here and I think a new post rather than trying to get people to wade through this one. 

What do you think?  Let's see what people think about the routine and what might be causing this!

[Mjaz]

OK, will do Wendy.  You both have been great - thank you   I am at my wits end...  will you link my post to the EASY board, as I know there are some others following this...  I will post now and I will call it "SOS - BW baby gone terribly awry"  Ha ha ha (wish it were really funny!)

Melinda

[Tweakster]

Ok ladies I am locking this one up and let's see if we can get some routine help on EASY - I do think it's a routine issue.

Please visit Melinda's new post on EASY if you have some tips!
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=172796.0