9 MO multiple (long) NWs!!

[smahalik]

Hi! Just a very brief history: DS coslept (and nursed to sleep) with me until about 3 weeks ago when I started working on getting him in his crib through the whole night. I've also been working on breaking him of nursing to sleep (now takes bottles). I feel like we've made decent progress for the last few weeks, but are still struggling with 2-3 NWs and I just don't know what else to do!! He's a spirited baby and doesn't respond very well to PU/PD (too stimulating, I think) and screams loud enough to wake up the whole house!! What I've done to teach him to sleep is stand with him and shh/pat just to settle him, then stop when he stops crying so he can fall asleep on his own. This has worked really well overall, but have trouble in MOTN still.
He will now put himself to sleep (sometimes with just a quick pat) for almost all bedtimes and naps, and I thought once he learned to do that, the NWs would stop!! He's also pretty inconsistent. Some nights he sleeps from 6 pm (bedtime) until 12:00 w/o a waking, but other nights (like last night) he wakes somewhere in the middle (9:30 pm). When I first started working his sleep, I was nursing him ~4 times a night. The past 3 weeks, he's been taking 2 bottles, and last night I worked on weaning him down to 1 bottle (good progress, I think). So, aside of the fact that he's waking 2-3 times a night still, my biggest problem is that he's having a really hard time resettling and going back to sleep sometimes when he wakes (usually one of his wakings will be long, 90 minutes or so). Maybe it's just due to my weaning him to fewer bottles?? So, here's what yesterday and last night looked like:

Wake - 6:15 AM
Eat (bottle) - 6:30 AM / (solids - 7:00 AM)
Nap - 9:30 - 10:30 AM (normally he goes down earlier, around 3 hours after wake, so this was a little late)
Eat (bottle) - 10:30 AM /(solids - 11:00 AM)
Nap - 1:30 - 2:45 PM
Eat (bottle) - 3:00 PM / (solids - 3:30 PM)
Bath/bottle - 5:30 PM
Bedtime - 6:00 PM
1st waking - 9:30 PM (took about 20 minutes to go back to sleep)
2nd waking - 12:30 PM (wouldn't go back to sleep until I finally fed him at 2 AM, which was when I was trying to make him wait to eat)
Awake for morning - 5:30 AM (too early, but not too bad considering early bedtime)

I'm relatively happy with his naps. Most are 60-75 minutes (much better than the 30 minute naps from a month ago!) and he wakes up pretty happy from them. For the most part, I think his daytime is pretty good. He doesn't usually seem overtired at bedtime, although sometimes if he has shorter naps that happens. I would love to get him to go to bed later and wake later also, but I can handle that part for now if I can just get him STTN!

Do you think I need to just keep working on weaning him? Trying to get him to 1 bottle, then will try for no feedings in a couple of weeks or so. Do you see any other problems?? Thank you so much!! I'm soooo tired from 9 months of no sleep (he didn't even sleep well when he coslept!)!!!

[becj86]

I wonder if there's some level of discomfort - reflux?
Just because of the history of bad sleeping, even when cosleeping and the short naps and he seems to be waking at each transition - sleep cycles are around 3hr at night...

In terms of his routine, he could probably benefit from a longer first A time which may give you a longer (and restorative) nap of ~1.5hr.

What do you think?

[katie80]

I wonder if there's some level of discomfort - reflux?
Just because of the history of bad sleeping, even when cosleeping and the short naps and he seems to be waking at each transition - sleep cycles are around 3hr at night...

I wondered that too, also noting that he really screamed hard during PUPD. That can be very normal for spirited babies, but also those who don't feel quite right.

[smahalik]

Thanks ladies!!! Maybe I should also clarify that he's not quite 9 months (about 4 days away). I don't think he has reflux, but we have his 9 month well visit next week, so I'll have his doc check him out to make sure. So, I usually put him down for his nap at 2 hours 45 after he wakes and he's usually asleep within 5-10 minutes. Unfortunately, I can't wait for his sleepy signs because it's usually too late by then and he has a really hard time falling asleep. On your advice, this morning I tried laying him down 3 hours after his wake up (15 minutes more than usual) and I think that might've been too much, as he was fussing and crying while I was trying to lay him down. We'll see how he naps!!

I do have to say that last night was quite a bit better! He still had 3 NWs, but they were all pretty short and easy. He went down at 7:30 (later than usual after a 3 nap day due to one short nap). Then he woke at 11:30, but only took 10 minutes to go back to sleep (as opposed to 90 minutes on prior nights)! He then woke again at 12:30 and only took 5 minutes to go back to sleep! He woke for the last time at 4:00, when I fed him a bottle and he was asleep again by 4:30. I had to wake him up at 7:00 AM!!!

I think it's a matter of him getting used to not eating so much and so early. Hopefully in the next couple of nights he'll just quit those earlier NWs and only wake for a one feed around 3 or 4 (which I plan to wean him from very soon, too). We'll see how today and tonight goes. Thanks again!:)

[katie80]

Yes, it could be that he just needs to get used to it a bit more. If he can't quite handle being stretched by 15 min, you can always try 5-10. Some babies are a bit touchy that way and get used to a certain A time, so need to go slowly. Keep us posted!