Am I doing something to renforce early wakings?

[emmas]

Hi Fiona,

My routine goes sort of like this

6.10 - wake
6.45/7 - bottle 8oz
8.30/9 - cereal + fromage frais
11.30/12 - lunch - main and dessert
2.30 - bottle 8oz
4.30/5 tea - small main and something like rice pudding for dessert to keep him full.
6 - bottle 5oz
after bath he will have another 8oz bottle of good night milk (it has rice and potato starch in it suppose to keep them fuller longer - I'm a sucker for marketing!!)

I was advised by my health visitor to drop a bottle so he just has 3 because he was drinking too much milk and no solids but he still has about 29oz a day - I think they shouldn't go below 20oz until 9 months.

Hope this helps a little - if he has had a short nap in the morning I give an earlier lunch and always make lunch bigger than tea so he still drinks his night milk.

Best of luck with the move - sounds like the cot might be the key!! Drop us a line when  you are back up and running!

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Thanks, I think I have to cut out a bottle, but think the afternoon one cos he has gone from drinking 8oz at bedtime to 3 so am sure this is not helping with what are now night wakenings. The only full bottle he has is his breakfast one which is 8 oz and then lunch and pm are about 3, so he is not really getting too much but not enough in the evening. I shouldnt be too suprised as dd gave up all milk at 7 months but she slept 12 hours  Up until all these crazy wakenings took place we were on about 27 oz and 3 solid meals. Thanks again

[emmas]

OMG - 7.15! Yes 7.15 - I'm probably speaking too soon but I was expecting a really early wake as he had hardly any daytime sleep and was one hypo child last night - took nearly an hour to settle him for bed and he managed to pull himslef up in the bath last nigth so was expecting the same in cot - but 7.15 wow.

Sorry to hear you are still having a rough time - hopefully someone a mod will give you some good advice and we will both get sorted.  x

[clareharley]

That's brilliant news! Long may it last! It's certainly given me hope! What time did he go to bed?

[emmas]

I really struggled - I have him bathed and he has most of his bottle for a 6pm bed time - I put him down and he spent nearly 50 mins screeching etc it finally went silent about 6.55.

He seems to want to do around 3.15 in the morning, then he has his long nap, this morning he went down at 10.30 - woke at 12.10 went to sleep at 3.20 woke at 4.10. The timing is crucial - he show no signs of tiredness then he starts to sort of grunt, I have to leave him in the cot and he will talk himself to sleep - I can only go in if he is really crying if I think he is and his not that's the whole sleep ruined as I seem to just wind him up even though I think I'm trying to help - I thought the interfering mother thing started later lol.

Have you had a better day?

[clareharley]

It's funny you mention that. I've just posted another note about this. I'm worried that I'm the cause of Harley not being able to settle. He's shouting and crying and flipping about like a fish out of water in his cot and so, does my going in to help calm him down just make things worse? Worse, not just in the sense of being more stimulation at a time when he needs none but also worse in the sense that he might start expecting me to come in and therefore rely on me to come in whenever he makes a noise. I can't leave him to cry but I don't know if I should be leaving him longer to settle himself.

He slept for half an hour this morning but I spent half an hour trying to get him to sleep. Lunchtime nap was brilliant - it took me 10 mins and he slept for 1hr 15. Then we went out in the buggy this afternoon and all of a sudden he started crying and crying and crying. He hasn't cried like that since he was about 4 months. He's was desperately upset about something so I had to keep stopping and picking him up and cuddling him, then he was fine. As soon as I put him back in the buggy he was crying again. It just came from nowhere. God knows what's happening at the moment. Hopefully it will just go away in the same way that it just appeared!

[emmas]

Oh no - maybe teeth?

Sometimes it will take harry ages to get off - I tend to put him down and he springs back to life - I've learnt to leave him until he actually cries like I need you - if that makes sense, sometimes I think he is crying then he starts screaming in a happy way.  Even when I hear him start to cry - I stand outside the room for a minute or so just to check he is.  Don't know whether this makes any sense.

Thats progress with his lunch nap - it must be a case of catching him at exactly the right moment.  Thats more sleep than he has had for awhile - hopefully you'll have a good night tonight and even dare I say it... a little lie in? x

[clareharley]

Hello,
Yes, I think last night was good. Everytime I woke up - I'm just programed to wake up at certain times now - he was fast asleep. I woke up at 5am and he was still asleep and woke up at 5.30am so that's pretty good. I've just got him down for his morning nap without too much trouble so hopefully we'll have a good day today.
Fingers crossed.
Clare.

[emmas]

Excellent,  hopefully he is catching up on his sleep and you'll soon be back to normal.

I spoke too soon - been up since 4.23, still awake now (9am) will not go to sleep, I don't understand it at all, there is no pattern in his sleep - everything was the same yesterday except he had about 30 mins extra daytime sleep and a 15 min later bedtime - how on earth does that equate to waking 3 HOURS earlier.

And how can he not be tired yet - I'm shattered, tempted to go back to bed and leave him playing ha ha.

Emma

[clareharley]

 I know, nothing seems to make much sense, does it. That's why I'm thinking things just are the way they are regardles of what we do. I really think that ultimatley we just have to let this phase run its course because I know that it'll start sending me loopy if I'm constantly trying things, they don't work, I try something else which works one day and not the next, think I've got it cracked then it's all up in the air again. I'm going to carry on trying to get him to sleep as much as possible but if he won't sleep, I can't make him and I can't let myself get stressed over it. I'm just going to try and accept that this is how things are at the moment and I can only do so much and it won't last. He slept for 11 hrs last night but only 30 mins this morning. Hopefully he'll sleep longer at lunchtime again but maybe not. He's just too excited. He wants to play and move about all the time. If that means he gets tired, he'll catch up when the novelty has worn off - I hope.

[emmas]

Hi Clare,

How are things?  We've had that awful stomach bug that still seems to be doing the rounds - I feel like I'm coping on auto pilot at the moment, it is almost impossible to be ill and look after an ill child..... 

But on a positive, we seem to have moved to a 6.30ish wake up - I don't know how, I think he has settled himself into a daytime nap set routine and that must if helped his night sleeps and I have to have him in bed before 6.30pm but so it is working - apart from the last few nights when he has woken every hour (but he is poorly so I forgive him lol).

How's things with you - Is Harley sleeping any better?

[clareharley]

Hi Emma,
Sorry to hear you're ill. I had a day of being sick at the end of last year and it was the worst day ever! I hope you get over it soon - it's soooo hard to look after yourself and your bab when you're ill.

But brilliant! Things just changed, did they? You didn't do anything differently? Did he just one day wake up later and that was that or did you change the timings of his day naps? It's great news and gives me a lot of hope!

 I'm afraid there's no change here. Still waking up at 5am. Daytime naps have fallen in to a routine of 1/2 hour in the morning and an hour at lunchtime. He'll occasionally sleep another half hour around 4ish in the buggy but otherwise he gets 1 1/2 of sleep a day. To be honest, I've given up. I'm waiting for nature to step in and sort it out because I was getting too stressed worrying about it all the time. He slept from 12 -1pm today but was rubbing his eyes and getting really tired about half an hour after waking up. By 2.45 he was so tired I tried to get him to sleep but he's still in there now, babbling/shouting/not sleeping. Oh well. I've done what I can. I just have to make sure I'm in bed by 9.30pm every night which has turned me in to an extremely dull person! As you can tell, I'm resigned but not happy!

[emmas]

Oh no, I really thought things would've got better for you..... 

It seems to be getting him asleep before 6.30 that does the trick, although I knew I shouldn't of posted - this morning it was 5am!!  He goes down for a nap exactly 3 hours since waking than 3.15 from the next one and I stopped feeding before 7, and has a grand total of 2 hours daytime sleep (1.5 and a half hour in the pm). 

Mind you today I couldn't get him to go to sleep - he had been up for 5 hours before he finally went off - slept for 25mins and is now sooo miserable with that lovely grumpy grunt, cry, moan noise - bless!!

I have to say I think you are doing well to make it to 9.30 - I seem to be heading off at 7.30 at times.

Only 4 weeks until the clocks change!!!

[clareharley]

How do you manage with the feeding times? Do you feed him every four hours from 7am but then an earlier one at bedtime? So, I mean, 7am 11am 3pm and then around 5ish?
I was considering keeping H up a bit later today. I just wanted to see what would happen if I gradually make bedtime a bit later, working back up to 7pm but he was falling asleep at his bottle then, as soon as he got in his high chair for solids he was so hyper so I decided against it. He went to sleep immediatley, though. This is the first time in ages that I haven't had to help him to sleep. So your H is getting 2hrs a day usually? My H manages 2hrs from time to time but there isn't that much of a difference between how much sleep your H is getting and how much mine is getting. So, are these early wakings really still to do with being OT or is that he goes to bed early so wakes up early? I think the next time he manages an afternoon sleep, I might start creeping back up to 7pm bedtime.
Anyway, speaking of falling asleep on the bottle, must go and open one!!!!

[emmas]

I feed him milk at 7, about 11.30 (he struggles with this bottle), 3 (or whenever he wakes from nap) and 5.30 - solids at 9, 12.30 and 4 - life's one happy munch when you're 7.5 months old isn't it?

What time are you putting H down?  My H went down at 6.15 tonight - he almost falls asleep on the bottle although I think that is habit and a replacement for his dummy.  So he is having around 12 hours night time and 2 hours daytime - very occasionally he will have 1.5 hours total.  I've stopped the cat nap completely which can be a bit of a struggle if he wakes before 3. 

On the occasions I've put him to bed later, I've had a very early waking 4.20ish, but he has also had an extra sleep, maybe only of 45 mins but one of those things must make a difference.  I think I'm going to stick to this until the clocks go forward.  It can't hurt for you to try a later bedtime, there is only so much they can sleep surely.......