Please help . . can't break this vicious cycle :-(

[Spencer's Mum]

Our little man hasn't been well so obviously his routine went out the window.  As he was on the up, my hubby was being Mr Mom as I was studying for an exam . . .the routine got even worse.  So now I'm dealing with such an overtired bub, who is fighting his naps, and cause he is so tired is only doing 40min naps at the most.

He is 9.5mths old, and his routine did look like this

6:30am/7am  Awake
7am  Bottle
8am  Breakfast
9am/9:30am  Nap (1hr)
11am  Bottle
12pm  Lunch
1:30pmish  Nap (1.5hrs)
3pm Bottle
5:30pm  Dinner
6:15am  Start getting ready for bed
7pm  Bottle then into bed

He was also sleeping through, but when he was sick we were sleeping in his room.  Now that we're back in our own room he's waking for a feed again during the night :-(

I know I need to tweak his routine anyway, and extend his A time, but I'm currently dealing with a very over tired little man, that I'm having to resort to rocking back to sleep ggggggggrrrrrrrrrr.  It's now 1pm and he's been awake since 9:30am after having just a 30min nap this morning.  I don't know if I need to change the wind down too ?  Any suggestions for that ?  I can hear him standing up and playing in his cot now . . . and when I go in to settle him he'll start pulling on my hair and biting me while giggling . .  a massive clue he's tired

Please help - I'm at my wits end :-(  Want my text book bub back

from me

[Spencer's Mum]

PS When he does have short naps, should I be keeping him up until his next normal nap time ?!?!?  He's so overtired it's hard to tell when I should put him down.  And just when I think he's ready to crash he gets a second wind and off he goes again . . .I'm so tired of this.  He doesn't know if he's Arthur or Martha. 

[yaya]

bumping this up for you, I cannot give advice on naps am afraid , my DD is queen of bad naps

[Aly Mac]

HI there,

whenever my lo has been out of whack, I go back to the basics and watch for tired cues, but with the routine in mind iykwim? Also, write down what he is doing now, post it here, and we will see what the best way to get him back on track will be, as is routine above looks ok.

[Spencer's Mum]

Hiya,

His tired cues are fussing and can't sit still to play with one thing for any period of time.  So I usually take him away from his toys (we have a small flat) and potter around the flat doing bits and bobs while carrying him, and then go into the back room and read.  When he starts rubbing his eyes or yawning, we wander around the flat, then into his room for some quiet thim and then he's into his cot.  How long should this 'wind down' process be ?!?!!  It used to take 20 min from the fussing, before he'd go into his cot - is this too long for his age (9.5mths) ?

We're not sure how long he has been awake for this morning, but he's sooooooooo tired, it's hard to tell when he really is tired (as he was rubbing his eyes at the breakfast table), and we (hubby and I) have been trying to put him down for the past hour :-(  and then he's due for a bottle soon which will just throw things out again.

There's just no consistancy at the moment, so not sure where or how to start. . .

Please help . .  our little man is shattered (as are we !!!)

Thanks heaps,

Cherie

[Aly Mac]

there is no right amount of time with a windown - all bubs are differnet.  but if it is consistently taking that long to get to yawns etc, then try putting him down at 10 or 15 mins and see how that goes. then you wil know that it's not too late and he might settle easier.

Not knowing how long they are awake in the morning is a tricky one.  do you have a monitor or the like so you can check on him earlier? It's good that he doesn't cry out straight away but makes it hard. you may have to get up earlier yourself to see/listen to get an idea.

how did he go today?

[Spencer's Mum]

Been hard work today . . finally went down for his morning nap, but woke at 30min crying and sitting up in his cot with that 'but Mummy, I'm so tired' look.  So my hubby had to resort to rocking him to sleep and he did another 45 min in his cot.  But even when he woke you could tell he was shattered.  So we have kept everything low key this afternoon, and he was been yawning since lunch time.  But thought we'd give him his bottle, and then put him down (3hrs after waking) and he went down with a bit of a fight - now we'll just see how long he sleeps for :-(

We have a monitor, but he is happy to play in his cot, so doesn't call out the second he wakes - which is good in one sense, but then we have no idea how long he's been awake.  I'll get up a  little earlier and take a peak to see if he's stirred, and perhaps try putting him down at the 10min mark of winding down.

He was soooooooo easy to put down before he got sick, and not it feels like we have taken a massive leap backwards, to when he was a wee tot and we were teaching him how to put himself to sleep.

Will keep you posted

[BecNZ]

Hi Spencer's Mum, just curious to see how things are going with your lo?  I've been having exactly the same issue with mine for the last 4 days and stumbled across your post...

[Spencer's Mum]

Still struggling . . just can't seem to get it right :-(  but he did sleep for 3hrs yesterday afternoon, but fought it all the way, but he was absolutely shattered from a restless night, a busy morning at nursery, and only doing a short nap at nursery too.

It's so frustrating . . . can't seem to get the timings right and I know he gets mad at me because of it.  And his feeding seems to have gone off too, as he is tired when he has lunch so doesn't eat well, then gets hungry about 30min into a nap.

He only did a 20min nap this morning (that is a first) and has now been awake for 3.5hrs since that nap, and is still fighting me on the going down.  I guess the only plus is that he doesn't cry when I'm trying to put him down . . just gets hyper

Suggestions still welcome !!!!!!

from me again