Advice on 8.5 month old EW

[smawfl]

Hi ladies,

Just wondered if anyone can cast a glance at our routine?  Generally DS sleeps really well, however we have EW from around 5.30-6am.  Sometimes i can get him back to sleep in my bed but wondered if anything stands out?

5.30am - 6am - Wake for the day
7am - Breastfeed
7.30-8am - breakfast
9-9.30am - nap for 30mins
11am breastfeed
12pm Lunch
1pm nap for 2hrs
3pm breastfeed
5.30pm Dinner
6.45/7pm in bed asleep

TIA xx

[trimbler]

Hi there, actually your routine looks pretty good to me, if his nights are good and he's getting a solid 2h pm nap. He seems much lower sleep needs than mine, but still within normal range, getting around 13.5h sleep in 24h, right? Or do you feel that he's really tired and not well rested? I'm guessing you'd prefer him to sleep in a bit later in the morning, right? What sort of time were you hoping for? What do you generally do when he wakes in the morning? Do you get him up at 5.30/6am or try and resettle for a bit before getting him up?

Anyway, if you let me know how you think he's coping and what you'd like to aim for, we can have a think about a plan to get you there You might find that stretching him a little longer before BT helps him to sleep a little longer (and later), but that's assuming he's getting enough sleep. If you don't think that's the case, we'll take a different approach

[smawfl]

Hi, thank you so much for replying!

I dont think he's tired, i think i would just like him to go a bit longer really, until at least 6.30am / 7am.  Last few days he's been waking even earlier.. 4:30am this morning!

If he wakes I try things that would usually work earlier in the night (dummy and Ewan the sheep) but once he knows i'm there he struggles to settle back on his own.  His early wakings he's very chatty and know he would easily be up for the day.

I have been bringing him into our bed and he instantly falls asleep once he's in my arms.

Tia xx

[trimbler]

4:30am - ouch! Well if he doesn't seem tired during the day then it may be UT, rather than OT, that you're dealing with - having said that, if he did his usual BT and then woke at 4:30, that's a very short night and could have been OT catching up with him due to having had several shorter nights...iyswim? Does he still tend to manage his usual naps (as you posted above) when he's woken so early for the day? My suggested plan for you would be something like:

Up 6am at the earliest, even if he woke earlier (if he wakes later, great, just shift the rest of the day by the same amount)
Nap 1: 9am for 20-25mins (may need to play around a bit with the exact times)
Nap 2: 12.30/12.45 (again, will depend on length of am nap, may need trial and error) for 2h
BT: 4h later

This should eventually get you a longer night and then you can try shifting his day later, I'd tend to move everything in 15min increments, hold for a few days, then shift again. Alternatively, you could try moving the first nap a little later straight away and move everything by the same amount, but I wouldn't personally try that if he woke at 4:30am, for example. Wdyt?

[smawfl]

Thanks for your advice.  The last few days his second nap is a little shorter, averaging at 1hr 15 to 1hr 30mins.

Last night we had a late night and he slept from 8.45pm - 6.20am which i was quite happy with so perhaps a later BT would work.

Will give it a try!

[trimbler]

Ok I'd probably want to concentrate on getting a nice long second nap so that he can manage a long A time to BT afterwards, so if that second nap is shortening then you could reduce the morning nap which may help. Must have been lovely to get that nice stretch of sleep last night and the later WU, but I should warn you that most 8mo LOs wouldn't be able to maintain a routine with just 9.5h at night for very long, so it could backfire if you do that regularly... Keep us posted

[smawfl]

So last couple of nights he's been doing well.. 11-11.5hrs which is great!  Hoping it continues

Yesterdays day looked like this:

7.15pm - 7am wake
9.25 - 9.45am nap
1.15pm - 2.10pm nap
Bed - 7.10pm - 6.20am

So quite short in terms of napping, but still slept relatively well

[trimbler]

Hey that's great that he's been doing nice longer nights I'd just keep an eye on OT creeping in with the pm nap not being terribly long and the long A to BT... I'd probably try to push her first nap out a bit more, aim for 3h A time at the beginning of the day, she may not then cope with such a long A before the pm nap, or she might...hard to say! But I wouldn't want to try to 'fix' anything if it's working, just letting you know what I'd be watching out for with the current routine

[smawfl]

Thanks again for your comments!

EW seems to be improving... usuallt around 6-6:30am which I'm happy with, especially as he seems content to stay in his cot until I'm ready to go in and collect him!

He has however been waking up drentched through despite going up a size in nappies, but that's a whole separate matter!!

[trimbler]

Oh dear! Hmmm not sure what to say about that except for going up a size, which you have Time to try different brands designed specifically for nights? Do you change him pretty close to him going down? Just wondering now much of the wee is from the BT feed...could try doing the feed earlier in the BT routine so he CN wee and be changed before pd?? Just thinking aloud here!

[smawfl]

I've got some even bigger nappies left over from when my DD finished using them so might try those.  Someone recommended bamboo liners to me so I have some bamboo breastpads I've tried tonight  haha will see if they work!!

I tend to feed him now about 15/20 mins before bed, as i was struggling to bring his wind up right before bed and then change his nappy.

I'm hopeful for the breastpads tonight lol

[trimbler]