18mo night waking

[ladymugg]

Our 18mo DS has been night waking on and off, mostly due to teething, for the past couple of months.  (is it just me or do boys seem to take teething way harder than girls?).

Anyway he seems to be on a break from teething at the moment.  He has been night weaned for a while but while he's teething pretty much one of the only things that soothes him is a small bottle to get him back to sleep.  No shush/pat, PU/PD, cuddles etc has ever worked on him, as much as I persisted as all these techniques were great for my elder daughter.  He isn't fed to sleep either, I guess it just relaxes him.  (Please no judgement!)

Since he isn't teething at the moment (I think - there are two more incisors that are potentially on their way, then we are done until the second molar set - thank goodness), sometimes he is waking from habit and needs that bottle to get back to sleep.  What would you suggest we do to break that habit given that he doesn't seem to respond to normal settling cues and is now quite big and large for some of them anyway eg: PU/PD. 

I have also considered that maybe he is waking because his EASY isn't right either.  So perhaps some adjustment may help?

WU - 6 am
E - 7 am
E - 11.45 am
S - 12 or 12.30 pm - 1.5-2 hours
E - 5.30 pm
BT - 6.30/6.45 pm

Does that nap need to be moved around maybe?  Or do we need to be capping it?

Any ideas on either potential habit waking or EASY or something else I'm missing would be great. 

[ginger428]

Hi Ladymugg, nice to hear from you although sorry it is because of sleep! No judgments at all! 18-24 was the hardest stage for me on all fronts... teething, behavior, naps, BT, etc...

How about a soother/paci instead of a bottle?

Are you medicating?

From first glance and at this age, he might need a push in BT OR a capped nap, depending on what seems to work best for DS... some kiddos seem to need a longer nap and a shorter night, and others need vice versa. Do you happen to notice better nights when his nap is 1.5 as opposed to 2 hrs?

Worth a try to push BT to 7:00?

I would keep nap time the same as 6 hrs seems to be a sweet spot at this age.

[ladymugg]

Thanks ginger!

Yeah it is an annoying age.  I wish I wasn't so frustrated sometimes  

He does have a paci already... and yeah medicate with pamol when he is teething.  I hate flinging drugs at him but I know the doctor says its safe as long as its within the required doses. 

I'll think about capping that nap perhaps.  I like the bedtime where it is to be honest, so will try the nap first

Thanks so much.

[ginger428]

Any progress? Hope so! xo