night wakenings, early wake-ups 19 months

[mothergoose]

Hi Everyone,
I haven't posted on here for a while as things have been going reasonable well sleep wise until approx 2 months ago....Early wake ups started about then - 5am, sometimes 5:30 consistently nearly every morning  This is where the first big mistake came in and we started giving a bottle to see if he would go back to sleep (He usually didn't). After that we had a bad tonsillitis and he is so bad a taking medicine we got into a really bad habit of giving a bottle with it in...could only get him to take it when in his cot as he loves using it as a sleep prop! So now we are in a big mess and I do not know if it is sleep regression, AP gone wrong or both!!
Over the last week we have managed to cut out the bottle going to sleep (he never had this before..just during illness..but became very attached very quickly!). Tried WI/WO which really made him worse every time we walked in he would stand up in cot/scream louder for bottle so it ended up being about half hr to an hr of crying before bed every night. This has now settled. going to sleep by himself again but I think maybe he got OT in this process...or maybe its his bottle addiction raising it head again during the night...but there are at least 2 NWs at approx 11:30pm and 2:30pm where we give him bottle to try to damage control any OT...he continues to wake at half 5  What have we done! Feel like I have managed to ruin 18 months of good sleep habits with a couple of months!!

Would really appreciate some advice on what way to go about this one...I was thinking routine tweak first then try to remove bottle from NWs?
current routine
WU 5:15
nap: 12:30-2:30 (little flexibility on this as daycare) (straight to sleep no fuss)
BT 18:50 (staright to sleep no fuss)
NW 11:30 and 2:30 straight back to sleep with bottle
WU 5:45 usually wakes up happy

I have read some things about cutting nap at this age...should I still do this when having NWs? Also is it ok that his nap is so usually at least 6.5hrs after wake-up at minute or is this contributing to issues...read something about pushing it out but not sure how much further could push it would have very long A time?

Thank you so much for any help!!

[Truly Blessed]

Hi Hun,

First of all (HUGS) it's really hard when you don't know what to do first. Especially when illness has been at play. Here is what I would do Hun.

First of all address the OT issue, because tweaking routine is very hard starting out from an OT standpoint. Our DS didn't respond to WI/WO until he was 3, it would have the same affect as you described, so Gradual Withdrawal always worked better for him. I have BTDT with the bottle when DS was 11 months old and going through awful teething! I would definitely cut the bottle altogether as of now. Leave a sippy with water in his cot, so you can rule out him being thirsty (if you're a worrier like me this may cross your mind  )

It's great he is going to sleep by himself again, so well done on that. But it is possible that he is waking in the night instead of resettling because he thinks "Hmm I'll say hello to Mammy and have a little bit milk now" KWIM    IIWM for the NW I would start GW. Go into him, use your sleepy phrase only ie: "Sleepy time Darling" and then it's up to you to decide where you would like to start the process ie: sitting by the cot (not looking at him) until he lies himself down, or sit further away at a starting point, you're the one to judge that. Do that for all NW. The other alternative is to try 'Wake to sleep' if his wake up's are consistently at the same time, let me know if you need more info on that (Can't find the link  )

The EW are unlikely to go until he has caught up on some sleep. I doubt that it is routine related right now TBH, but time will tell.

TBH with you, even though he is EW, IME with DS it is helpful to shorten the A time to nap after illness, but that sounds tricky with daycare. So in the first instance I would stick with what you have and deal with the NW.

How does that sound 

Oh if I had a pound for every time I thought I'd cocked things up permanently  you haven't Hun, these things happen and it won't be the last time, but once a LO is an independent sleeper you can always get back there, with patience and support which you have.

Let me know your thoughts, you know him best.

Love Vicki.x.
 

[mothergoose]

Thank you so much Vicki!
It is all so confusing! To be honest I had in the back of my mind that the nw might be partly due to the sleep prop at this stage just didn't want to believe it....means a good bit more crying to resolve which I am not looking forward to :/ it is hard to fix ot with such ew and set nap in nursery of 12.30...even if bt early then he is still ot at times....will try to fix at weekend..any thoughts on how much earlier I should move nap? Would half hr be ok do you think? I think its going to be hard to tell if I have fixed the ot too as he has hardly any tired signs and nws are occurring anyway! I will keep in touch for some much needed advice if thats ok?! We are going on a weekend away for milestone birthday of mine this wkend and have babysitters for a change so plan to leave the bottle withdrawal until after that or they will never offer to babysit again!
Thankyou again
Lucie

[Truly Blessed]

Hey Lucie,

Hurrah for the time away!  Happy Birthday for then WRT the nap, the only reason I say its helpful to move it forward sometimes, is that it gives the longer A to bed and for Sam that was the best combination when OT, BUT......it can also work to have a very long morning A time, and that over rides the short one in the PM, so honestly, why not ride it out this week the way it is. Deal with the NW with GW after your break,  and then see where that gets you, what do you think 

x.