Adjusting EASY to fit short afternoon naps

[sleeplessinmanchester]

I've just got him up and am pretty sure he is OT...He is still rubbing his eyes and whining. It is so hard to get this right!

[*Ali*]

Sorry you are still having a hard time of it. When you say he is taking 20mins to get to sleep what exactly is happening for that 20mins? Does that include getting him ready for sleep? Is he crying? Are you shh/patting or PUPD or not in the room etc.?
If Cadan wakes early from a nap I only ever go in if he cries. He can sometimes drop off 30mins later if he is left. Do you ever try to get him back to sleep when he wakes early? What have you been try to get him back off.
Maybe 2hr55 is too long for his A time if he isn't doing long naps. Could you try 10 or 15mins shorter and see if that helps? If he is rubbing his eyes etc. he sounds OT to me.

[sleeplessinmanchester]

Hi,

I did a short A time (2 hours) after his short nap and he managed a two hour long nap later. i do try and leave him to resettle but he escalates into a very sad/angry cry within about 10 mins normally.

The 20 mins to get to sleep is once we have done wind down; I take him to his room, read him a story, listen to a lullaby, lay him in his cot, put his mobile projector on and repeat my sleep phrase. He has been crying as soon as I put him in bed, lately.

I first of all try and shh him and calm him with my voice, then if the crying escalates I do PUPD. However he never falls asleep with PUPD, just goes quiet for a few minutes then starts whining again which can in turn escalate into crying. I don't know what I am doing wrong. When I am doing PUPD I pick him up, hold him on my shoulder, say my sleep phrase then put him back down immediately. I give him 30 secs to a minute to see if he will settle and then pick up if he is still crying.

We are still having frequent night wakings - I feed him if it has been more than 4 hours since he last woke up and if it has been less then DH goes in and settles him with his voice (just says shh and repeats sleep phrase). If it has been more than four hours since the last waking LO is starving and takes a full feed (both breasts). \

The other thing that happens is that LO normally wakes within 15mins - 1hour of DH settles him, he NEVER goes back to sleep for longer than that. I don't know if he is just hungry/having a growth spurt or what the issue is really.

We have had one night with just one NW. Success for me would be the NWs down to just 1 or 2.

I will edit the post above so you can see what happened with today's EASY.

x

[*Ali*]

There is a massive GS around 6mo so it is likely he is hungry. DO feed him at night if you think her is hungry then can you try to increase his calories during the day? I often found doing a nappy change after feeding from one breast meant he would take a bigger feed from the second breast.
20mins is not actually that long for an LO to settle to sleep. Do you have the BW SAYP book? The PUPD chapter is really helpful for ensuring you are doing it right. Make you you only hold him in the cradle position and don't put him down immediately is he is still crying. Have a look at this link and check if what you are doing is appropriate for your LO's age.
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=69177.0
How did things go last night?

[sleeplessinmanchester]

Hi,

Thanks for the PUPD advice, I posted in the PUPD board and asked about it before and since then I have been putting down immediately, even if he is still crying. I'll try holding him a bit longer and doing it in the cradle hold. I imagine this kills your back!  I have the book but find it a little hard to understand.

Last night was:

6.35 bed
9.15 awake
11.01 asleep (!) PUPD, I didn't feed as when I went in at 9.15 I thought he had been fed too recently and I didn't want to feed him eventually or it would seem that the crying would have been for no reason
1.30 awake, feed
1.50 asleep
6.15 awake


today has been okay -he had a 2 hour nap at 8.50 but I have missed the window for his afternoon nap as i got caught in a queue in the supermarket. he is determined to stay awake now!

[*Ali*]

Well done. Keep at it and things will get better I am sure.
How did the rest of today go?

[sleeplessinmanchester]

hello again...well it has all gone a bit wrong...

DH had to go and work abroad for a few weeks so I went to stay with my parents. I thought this would give me the opportunity to have some help getting LO to take a bottle, get used to other people etc.

It didn't quite work out like that - LO was massively unsettled, was having night terrors the first few days and would not sleep. Then he learnt how to sit up, roll over both ways and got a tooth all in one week (poor DH missed it all). This has really disrupted his sleep and routine. We are back home now and he just will not sleep at night time at all. He is screaming for hours on end and when he does sleep is doing 1 hour max.

He seems to still have some teething pain and it looks like a second tooth is on its way. I am giving him baby ibuprofen, teething powders, teething gel and a teether to chew on. PUPD is not working at all. He will fall asleep but wake up 10 mins later.

Weirdly, daytime sleep is fine and he is quite happy in the daytime, having a 1.5-2 hour nap in the morning and a 1 - 1.25 hour nap in the afternoon.

I just don't know what to do to get things back on track. Does anybody have any advice?

[*Ali*]

Hi again.
Oh dear. It might help if you can post what day routine you are working to now and how old your LO is now. I am thinking that it might actually be better for you to start a new thread perhaps on the sleep board so you get more eyes on it. More people tend to look at a new thread without any replies rather than an old, long thread like this one with lots of replies (albeit mostly from one person) so you would probably get a better response. Plus it seems like you have a different problem now rather than adjusting your EASY to fit the short naps you had originally. Just a thought.
FWIW, travel can unsettle Los and upset their routine and you may find he improves with now you are back home.
HTH.

[sleeplessinmanchester]

Thanks, I will do that.