EASY tweak for 11 month old

[londonmama]

Me again!  The lovely BW ladies have been helping me navigate the very beginnings of the 2:1 switch for ages now, and we're on a pretty good streak (thank you!!)...except for a long NWing at 3 am the last three nights.

Could be teeth (I can see the very beginnings of the canines...but they're up high and he doesn't seem fussed by them at all yet during the day), but this NWing seems different in that he wakes up crying (hands in mouth) so seems like teeth, but once I get in there he is WIDE awake and playful for AGES!  Cries if I leave the room, but otherwise lies there wide awake playing with his lovey or babbling away.  Last night he was awake for nearly 1.5 hours!!

For the first time in his entire life, he has been napping well for over a week.  I am wondering if he is napping too well and that is making him not tired at 3 am?! 

Here is our EASY the last week or so:

Wake - 6:10 - 6:20 (this has been remarkably consistent for the first time ever!)
Nap 1 - ~9:45 (35 mins, we wake him)
Nap 2 - ~1:45 (up to 2 hrs...my Mom has been waking him at 1 hr 45 mins as he seems to be groggy and grizzly if he sleeps the full 2 hrs)
Bed - ~6:45

We used to do long AM and short PM nap, and it seemed that about 2 hrs nap total during the day produced the best nights.  Now that he is getting closer to 2.5 hours, I am wondering if that is stealing from night sleep?  I wondered if the A time before bed was too short, so I tried to extend him yesterday to 7:00 and he had a meltdown before bed and seemed desperate to go to sleep.  He has always liked a short A before bed.

So should I cut down that PM nap to 1.5 hours?  Or shorten the AM nap (reluctant to do this as we tried loads of different AM nap times before having great success with 35 mins!)?  Or just assume that the NWing at 3 am is teeth (I hadn't been medicating before bed, only if/when he wakes up...but tonight I'll try ibuprofen at bedtime or even as a dreamfeed)?

[sherry lynn]

My first answer was going be to extend the A time before bed. That has always helped me most with long NWs. But, you said it didn't work last night, so...

I would give pain meds before you to go to bed. The reason I say that is they might wear out by that 3am time. So you might end in the same boat if you only do it when he goes to bed.   The hands in the mouth seem to indicate teeth

You could cut the nap to 1.5, but then that will make bedtime even earlier, and then you might get an even earlier wake up, and then things might go lopsided again. If he can't handle more evening A time then I think that would be really hard

[londonmama]

Thanks Sherry Lynn.  I think I'll go the pain meds route and leave the naps for now (though today my mom said he woke up screaming at only 1 hr nap and wouldn't resettle...def indicates teeth).  I gave him ibuprofen 30 mins before bed and he didn't meltdown for the first time in a few days.  Can't give him more of that until midnight.  I could set my alarm for 12:00 and re-ibuprofen him, but then if he wakes up at 3 again anyway, what a waste!  Hmmm...maybe I'll roll the dice and see if the drugs at bedtime see him through!

[*Liz*]

I'm with Sher on this one with the first initial thought.

It is always worth trying pain meds before doing a mega routine tweak though.

I'm through the 2-1 - but shortly after getting there I started getting some looooong NW's where he just didn't want to be in the cot. Would just scream if I went anywhere near it. Lay him next to me on the bed, and he was fine, but showed no sign of actually sleeping. He was cutting his first molar so I assumed teeth, cut his A's, and restarted the CN. And the NWs continued. One night he started trying to play peepo with the curtain and screamed stay out his cot and go downstairs to play. I think it was Sher who suggested to try 1 nap again, and bingo, NWs resolved. So it was not enough A before bed, and I guess teeth triggering the actual wake-up.

Anyway - just keep it in mind as 3hrs isn't that long after a 2hr nap for an 11 month old.

Hope it settles soon - NWs are rubbish.

[sherry lynn]

What some moms do is they give 1/2 a dose at the LO bed time, then the other half when they go to bed. Not sure if it really matters or not.

But, I wouldn't be getting up at midnight either

Good luck on the night.

I agree that 3 hours is really not a long A time for the age also, so if it keeps up I would go for a routine tweak also.

[londonmama]

Well I just did the bedtime dose and he slept through until nearly 6 (from a 6:15 bedtime), so that's great!  It's almost like the bedtime dose helps him get into a deeper sleep and then he's able to sleep through without topping up the meds.  But then he also had a short nap yesterday aft (his choice!).

Will stick with the routine that was working and see what happens today.

[sherry lynn]

Good luck. I'm glad he made up some sleep at night for you.
I always just dose at his bedtime too and that does seem to help. Probably because of what you said. Just sets the sleep pattern off on a better start.