school run / set naps for 11 mo old

[delancepants]

Sounds good.  I'm scared to AP now though, I APed so much over the past year and it's been a nightmare to break.  he's so quick on the uptake I'm scared that I'll have more crying on the following mornings as a result.

[delancepants]

My child is a freak of nature.

4.45 wake
11.15-12.30 nqp on his own then a noise woke him so I carried him to sleep till 1.20 to make sure he got a good nap on the first day.
6.10 bedtime

He slept perfectly until 2.40am.  cried for a few minutes then tried to go back to sleep but he couldn't.  around 3 he started crying and by 3.20 he was crying hard.  Gqve calpol (spotted a tooth coming through yesterday) qnd immediately he went quiet.  He was yawning away, but still he couldn't sleep. By 3.50 he was standing up crying again and by 4 it was clear that he wasn't going back to sleep on his own so I took him out of the cot and fed him in the hope that with the calpol he would fall asleep on the boob.  No. 

Wtf am I supposed to do?  Keep him up till 11.15? 

[delancepants]

Following on from above...

Im really starting to think there must be something wrong with this child.  how can he be so wide awake after only 8.5 hours sleep?  I was wondering if it could be hunger thats preventing him sleeping in the mornings...he is very small, only about the size of a 9 month old, even though hes nearly 14 mo.  He's 10 th percentile and hasn't put on any weight in 3 months. Ive tried everything to get him to eat but he just refuses to eat more.  We're currently having treatment for worms but who knows if that will make a difference.

I just dont know what im supposed to do now because ive been posting on bw for months trying to get him to sleep better and everyone says something like 'if he wakes up tgat early you'll definitely be able to resettle'...but he doesn't.  In fact at this stage I've had several bw moderators tell me just to apop, but at this stage he won't fall asleep on the boob reliably and he's too heavy to carry every day.  I have no buggy and no car seat.  Its fine to carry him for a 15 min nap in the morning but thats as much as I can manage.

Im at my wits end.  What comes next?

[Papaya]

Oh my dear. Hugs. Can he make it through to 11.15? If so, I would stick with the set naps. At some point he will HAVE to sleep, and if you stick with the set naps, in theory he should have to lengthen his nights. And whenever he does nap, make sure you get a rest yourself if you can

I know what you mean about the AP - I had no buggy or car either, and once LO is too heavy to carry there's not a lot you can do. It's hard.

Calpol (paracetamol) did nothing for my LO when she was teething - have you tried ibuprofen?

He's 10 th percentile and hasn't put on any weight in 3 months.

Has he always been in the lower percentiles? My LO has always been small, even now at 2 she can fit into some of her 9-12 month clothes, but she's active and healthy so that's just her. She will go for months without putting on any weight as well, then put on a couple of kgs in a growth spurt.

[delancepants]

he probably could have made it through to 11.15, but I just was too scared to do it, so today we had a two nap day.  so even if he wakes up so early i still have to stick to the set times?  i have been told that before but i didn't realise it was possible for a child to stay awake after such a short night's sleep.  so basically i just stick to it and give it two weeks?  i expect the next couple of weeks is going to be pretty rough then.

when he was born he was a decent weight, 3.6kg and he was fine till about 6 months.  his growth rate has been steadily dropping since then. in fact i don't think he's put on much weight since then at all.  DH's family is small, so i expected him to be small, but 10th percentile is a little worrying. apparently my sister in law ate very little as a baby, so it's in the family.

[delancepants]

(following on from above)

so what should i do in the morning?  atm i try to keep him in the cot as long as possible, but at some point he starts getting too upset.  at that point it's impossible to take him out without feeding him straight away not only because he demands it but mostly because everyone else is trying to sleep and i need to keep him quiet for them.  so usually i manage to keep him in the cot for about 45mins to an hour so that means he's having a feed very early in the morning, which takes 30-45 mins.  after that i usually let him play with toys quietly, otherwise if i keep the curtains shut and try to keep him in bed, he just jumps all over me and my husband and starts getting down to play with the ac.  then it's a wrestling match to keep him in bed.  i don't really want to put him back in the cot as that's reinforcing the idea of night feeding, which we've only just stopped.  lately he's been waking around 4.30 or 5, so the feed is around 5.30-6 and then i let him play, but with this early wake up today he was playing by 5.30 this morning.  do you think it matters?

[Papaya]

He is an independent sleeper, right? Have you tried WI/WO with him in the mornings?  How do you usually settle/resettle him?

[anna*]

If you're not doing night feeds, then don't feed him til morning. You can't start your day at 4.30am, so if you feed him at 4-5am, that's a night feed. I would definitely resettle him however it takes (for me it would be leave him in his crib and do WIWO) and for as long as it takes - until at least 6am.

[delancepants]

His cot is in our bedroom right next to the bed, no other place for it for the foreseeable future,so I cant do WIWO...  I try to keep him in the cot but eventually he just starts crying too much.  This morning he woke 3.30 and I managed to keep him in the cot till 5, but that was it.  I've been thinking though, I'm 100% sure now that the cause of the EMW is that he simply needs to be on one nap.  Whenever he gets a 15 min nap and a 1.5hr nap in the day he sleeps really badly at night.  But if he has two short naps he sleeps better.  Also I can't resettle even when he wakes at 3.30.  I don't think I'll have to worry about that morn feed any more if I just get him onto one nap, the feed will automatically move later.  So I'm going for it now.  Taking no prisoners!!  How long till the worst is over?  3-5 days?

[*Becky*]

I think that seeing as your lo is over 12 months it would be better to start a new thread on Toddler Sleep now - might help to get some fresh eyes too...are you ok with me locking this one?

[delancepants]

Ok no problem.  I'm starting today so i'll give it a few days and see where we are.  Thanks to everyone that's helped along the way.