Going to get rid of NW

[becky1969]

LO is 14.5 months. We've had one NW for about 6 months now  - they started when he got 4 teeth in at once, we got about a 3 week break where he slept thru again, then NW started for the 4 molars he got at one time.

Teething is over, so I want to kick some NW butt fast before those eye teeth start coming in! We have some AP to work with too, since we started giving a bottle at the NW. NW can last anywhere from 30-90 minutes (wihtout the bottle they would sometimes go as long as 3 hours!  ).

My LO tends to stand up in his crib when he wakes up. We used to keep a FP aquarium in his crib, and he'd play with that happily for about 30 minutes before crying for us. We took that out, thinking it was stimulating him too much, so now he just cries for us right away. He SEEMS sleepy to me, but by the time we go in and say "Shhh, it's night-night time!", he gets all excited and wound up, hooting and even giggling.

Waht's the best way to deal with this? Gentle withdrawal? WI/WO? If I do WI/WO, do I stay out for a certain count, or do I just stay out as long as he's not making noise. I'd love to hear some WI/WO success stories, if anyone has 'em!

I'm very ready to whip this NW thing. It's just wearing me down. LO goes to sleep independently at naps adn bedtime, so I know that he knows how to! Right now we're slowly weaning the bottle by decreasing the amt. We've gone from 8 oz to 5 oz so far, and will continue that method. He's not eating much during the day right now, and I think it's b/c of those molars - even though they are all in, the 4th is still finishing cutting, so I think his mouth bothers him.

Thanks for your help!

Here's our routine:

7:30-8:00 am wake up
9:00 breakfast (he won't eat any earlier)
10:30 snack
11:30 6 oz bottle (I'm decreasing bottle due to night feeding)
12:00 nap (only 45 minutes today, but it's 1.5 hours, usually. This is new - we were doing 2 naps up until about 3 days ago. When he short naps, I try to fit in another nap late in the day).

2:00 lunch
3:00 snack
3:45 nap (1.25 hours)

6:00 dinner
7:00 bath
7:15 bottle (8 oz)
7:45-8:00 bed (he goes to bed at 6:30 when he naps from 12-1:30 pm).


NW anywhere from 12-4 am. Last night, b/c overtired, he woke (after bedtime of 6:30) at 8:00 (15 minutes), 11 pm (60 minutes), and 4:15 am (1.5 hours).  I know he was overtired. I'm going to make sure he gets a cat nap in no matter what.

[Layla]

Becky - I've posted on your other thread. I think he is taking a short nap because he is not quiet ready for the 1nap. I would continue offering 2 naps and see how that goes. To be honest, when we had nightwakings during the transition, we didn't do so much of wi/wo because it used to really hype her up and I understood that she was chronically overtired and therefore could not put herself back to sleep at night. I used to do a modified version of it... wi and calm her down completely (really stay with her and pat her hair or back) and then wo when she was calm. If she started to cry, I used to count to 5 and then wi again and pat her until she was calm... You can try wi/wo and its worked great for me as well when we were having troubles later on but I did modify it a bit when I knew she was overtied.

Layla

[becky1969]

Thank you. I am following your advice and going back to 2 naps. Today, we even limited the AM to 30 minutes so we could have a nice full PM nap. We'll see how that works out! 

You know, now that we've done a couple of 2 nap days and didn't have OT to deal with, I can see what a difference it makes! He woke very briefly on those 2 days, once DH did just a little Pat/shush. The other time, he pretty much just put himself to sleep. I can see in those instances where WI/WO WOULD work! Before I thought WI/WO was for lunatics, LOL! When OT, WI/WO would have driven my LO bananas!!! I've learned a lot these last few days, I feel so much better armed to handle his awakenings, b/c now I understand what is driving them. The bottle has become a moot issue b/c he actually never was hungry, and those wakings WEREN'T from habit - they were purely OT.

Since I've been preaching OT for 14 months now, I feel a bit of an idiot that it sideswiped me like this! But, they change and grow and you're just never sure if something new is entering the picture. Little monkeys!!