EW, OT and routine....

[steph_pet]

Hello,

It's with sheer desperation I'm turning to you all as I've just about exhausted everything I can think of when it comes to my 21 month old son and sleep!

To give you a bit of background....he's never been a great sleeper thanks to a nasty bout of silent reflux that took 6 months to get under control. A bit of a shock I tell you as my eldest son slept through from 6 weeks and has always been a good sleeper. Slowly we've gotten better with time and he's gone from waking up maybe 11 times a night to just once or twice and this isn't every night. I'm a stickler for routine and have always followed the EASY routine with both of my kids from them being 2-3 weeks old....and I'm religious about following things too....

I've got two problems I just can't seem to crack and unfortunately they both go hand in hand with each other....early wakings (anywhere from 4am) and overtiredness leading to even earlier mornings and night wakings with him screaming.  As I said I've got a fantastic routine when he's at home with me which in an ideal world looks like this...

6-6.30am wake
7am milk
10.15am snack
12pm lunch
12.30-12.45 sleep (up to 2 hours)
3pm snack
5pm dinner
6.30 begin bedtime routine of bath, story, milk, bed

Now as I said this is an ideal world...at the moment I'm trying to stick to it but we're in an overtired vicious circle as he's actually waking up anywhere from 4am.....I can't physically put him to bed any earlier so that isn't an option and he's not napping well in the afternoon as he's also overtired for that...come bedtime he's out for the count but he's waking in the night screaming and can take me up to 2 hours to get him back to sleep again!

One of the issues is he's at nursery 3 days per week and doesn't sleep well there on their little beds...so it kind sends us into a downward spiral for the weekend and I just haven't been able to get out of it since the clocks went back....I can't help this I need him to be in nursery as I work....I'm going to have a chat with them this week about it all.

I've had a quick scout around the forum and saw a post about putting the EW's down for a CN to try and take the edge off the tiredness....I've done this this morning after a bit of a battle he went down so going to see how the day and night pans out...

Can anyone else offer some advice....when I ask friends they just keep saying oh maybe he doesn't need his sleep anymore....but then they're not walking in my shoes and seeing how bad he is when he has no sleep at all in the day....

HELP!!!

[Lolly]

Hello and welcome!

How is your day going - did you manage a cat nap and a longer nap?

Is he teething at the moment - have you tried medicating at bedtime and during the night?

What happens when he wakes early - does he go back to sleep at all or is he up for the day then?

Laura

[steph_pet]

Hi Laura,

Thanks for replying...

Yes he CN'd for 15 mins and then slept for 1h45 this afternoon....fc....!

Medicating him with what hun?

He's got all of his teeth so know that isn't an issue...we thought he was cold so we put another layer on and left the heating on low overnight but it made no difference. When he wakes early he very very rarely goes back to sleep...we have to be careful not to let him scream too much or he wakes my eldest son up and then we're done for as he has to go to school too!

He's a bit of a mare our Harry is!

[steph_pet]

Well after all the hard work yesterday and him sleeping through last night *yay*...he did wake early at 5.50am but that is nothing compared to of late....it's all be undone in one foul swoop at nursery today!

They 'tried' to follow my routine but he's had 40 mins sleep since 5am.....it's just taken me 1h15 to get him to sleep and he has screamed solid for that time before collapsing in a heap in my arms....

I really don't know where to turn next?

[Lolly]

It's hard when they are nursery - my DS was a nightmare too because he didn't sleep well there. He waas there 3 afternoons but travelling time meant he had a 20 min catnap in the car on the way and wouldn't sleep there, then another catnap on the way home which made bedtime too late - one OT boy! We would get him caught up again on the other 4 days and it would start all over again .

By medicating I just meant paracetamol/ ibuprofen to help with teething pain - he has got his 2 year molars early if he has all his teeth already! That's a bonus!

They only thing you can do really is bedtime as early as possible and then extra naps to help catch up on days he is at home. I would get him to nap earlier too when he is at home, especially if he is waking before 6am and you can't get him back to sleep.

Laura

[steph_pet]

Prob is as I work I can't do bedtime any earlier that 6.45pm by the time i get in and get the bath run and things....so that day sleep is vital for him....feel like banging my head off the wall!