We are in such a mess here with sleep.
DS had an ear infection and then teething which in total went on for about 3 weeks causing all sorts of accidental parenting to sooth him. Now there is nothing wrong with him other than a terrible cycle of overtiredness. He wakes almost every night-often around 10-12pm (for anything up to 2 hours) and then again at 5am. At this waking I feed him and he usually goes back to sleep fairly quickly. The trouble is the poor night sleep leads to poor naps and then the cycle starts again because he goes to bed overtired!
Its very hard to control the day sleep as he goes to daycare and he is lucky to get 2x40 min naps. I am working with the staff there to ensure he gets regular naps to prevent overtiredness but its not working very well. Before this illness he seemed ok with the naps there because he always had a 3rd one when I picked him up. Now I struggle to get him to have one because he's so overtired.
I spend most the weekend doing PD when he wakes from early naps in an attempt to get him back on track before the week starts but he is still not sleeping right. When he wakes from an early nap, unless he gets back to sleep very quickly, he gets a second wind and really doesn't seem tired enough to go back to sleep. I try to put him down again a bit earlier but he doesn't seem to want to go to sleep until he's had his usual A time of 3hr 15mins. Then he goes to sleep no problem but wakes after 40 mins or 1hr 15.
When he wakes I KNOW he is still tired because he cries when he wakes and also by the fact he HAS to be tired because of the poor night. Each day I manage to get him to have about 2 hours sleep but this isn't enough to make up for what he lost at night. Any suggestions?
Some nights I put him to bed at 5.45pm to prevent him getting overtired.
Here is a typical day at the moment.
7am I wake him up if he isn't already awake
9am first nap-usually 45 mins, sometimes has 1 hr 15 but wakes up crying
Try to get him back to sleep doing PD method (age appropriate)
12pm give him lunch (still not had anymore sleep)
12.45pm go for nap 2-if at daycare will have about 40 mins. If at home will have about 1.5hours
4.30pm I will pick him up and try to get him to have a half hour nap. If not, goes to bed 5.45pm.
wakes in night for 1.5-2 hours-just can't seem to get back to sleep.
5am wakes and I give him a bottle.
Each day we are lucky to get him to have 12 hours out of his normal/average 14 so he is getting more and more tired.
HELP!!!!