Difficulty in getting over to sleep and night wakenings

[edel]

Hi, I'm new to this fab site but have some understanding of Tracy Hogg's work. I have a 17 month old boy who up until a few weeks ago was no bother in getting over to sleep and staying asleep. I would describe him as having a text-book/angel temperament.

Incidently he had heart surgery at 7months old, but heart wise is doing so well. I went back to work in september 07 and our baby went to my sister a childminder. Shortly thereafter he began to have a bad run of cold/cough/ear/throat/chest infections and it was around this time that we probably fell into some bad habits of letting him sleep with us, when he was particularly unwell. Now we are finding that he cries when we try to get him over to sleep and will waken many times during the night. He uses a dummy, but is able to put this in himself, unless he cant find it. In the last few weeks he has begun to drink between 10-14 oz at night. I should also explain that this is actually important in that he has always struggled with drinking due to the heart issues as so it is essential that we allow him to drink as it is really unlikely that he would drink this amount during the day, and therefore this keeps him hydrated.

We have resorted to bringing him into bed with us, but even at this he is quite fussy and will often waken numerous times. He manages to stick very well to his daytime routine and naps. His day time routine is as follows:

7AM: AWAKENS
7.30AM: BREAKFAST
10AM; SNACK AND THEN NAP FOR 1.5-2HRS
12: PLAYTIME
12.30-1PM: LUNCH
3PM: SNACK AND THEN NAP FOR 1-1.5 HRS
5pm: PLAYTIME
5.30-6pm: DINNER
6-7PM: PLAYTIME AND GETTING READY FOR BED
7-8PM: BEDTIME.

We would appreciate some advice on how to get back to were we were and what we should do differently. At the moment we try the shh/pat technique mixed in with abit of WI/WO but eventually give in to him as we are knackered!!

Thanks again,
Edel

[Layla]

Edel, hi & welcome to the boards

I am thinking that maybe he's so restless at night because he is sleeping too much during the day & perhaps he is ready to go down to 1 nap???

Couple of ways to do this: you can either push the mroning nap in increments (like 15-20mins every few days) until its around 12pm & in the meantime offer a short catnap in the afternoon (around 3-3:45pm) to tie him over till bedtime OR offer a very early bedtime (like around 6pm) if he doesn't take the catnap.

Or you can shorten the morning nap down to 1hr & then 45mins & then 30mins & bring up the afternoon nap so that the morning nap is phased out & the afternoon nap will stay.

So ultimately you would have him take 1 nap his day would look something like this:

7am - wakes
12-2pm - nap
7pm - bedtime

If you are going to cut the morning nap then it would be something like this:
7am - wakes
10-11am - morning nap (morning nap cut to 1hr)
2.30-4pm - afternoon nap
8pm - bedtime

7am - wakes
10-10:45 - morning nap (cut to 45mins)
2-3.30 - afternoon nap
7.30 - bedtime

7am - wakes
10-10:30 - morning nap (cut to 30mins)
1.30-3pm - afternoon nap
7pm - bedtime

hth & let me know how you go
Layla

[edel]

Thanks Layla for ur quick reply, i will give this a go. Last night we tried wi/wo, with success although he did waken about six times during the nite, but i was able to get him over again with just rubbing his thigh and gradually phasing this out. The site has provided great support.

thanks again , Edel.

[Layla]

Good luck & let me know how you go

[edel]

Hey LAYLA,
 
Have now cut Harry down to 1 sleep per day and this is working! Thanks for your support!!

Edel

[Layla]

Thats great to hear !!!