Hey Aleesa. Thanks for all your invaluable advice thus far
My little guy has just turned 15 months but is 13.5 adjusted. He only started crawling in the last couple of weeks, a huge milestone for him/us! He has had hypertonia and developmental delay since birth, but he's slowly catching up. I think this may also be the reason why, to date, he's had the sleeping pattern of a much younger bub.
I'm not altogether sure what's going on with him right now, whether it's SA, developmental or teething. He has always been a great sleeper even when teething, with only the occasional wake-up. He got like 10 teeth at once (
) and he really was a trooper. He also cut all four of his molars recently together
I think he also may be getting his eye teeth atm. What I'm trying to say is that he really has been a great sleeper throughout teething and illness, which is why now I'm at a loss as to what's suddenly gone wrong??? It's like I can't read him any more!
Anyway, as for last night, DH got him to sleep just after 8 p.m by patting him on the back in his cot. He was happy to be cuddled but when you put him down he'd start crying. I must have walked in and out of there 5 times before losing it
So he'd been awake from 3.30 p.m. We've always had a pretty quiet wind-down of the two boys in the bath together at about 6.15, stories in the lounge and then we say goodnight to Daddy and his brother, go into his darkened room (I just have a nightlight on), put him into his sleeping bag and then give him his bottle while sitting in the rocking chair. We have a burp and a little cuddle afterwards, I tell him it's sleepytime and put him in his cot, turn the nightlight off and walk out. I NEVER hear a peep out him. He also has music playing quietly in his room.
For the last week or so he's seemed quite "hyper" around what normally would be quiet time/stories. He won't sit still any more for stories and will crawl around playing. It's like he's not tired
For a couple of weeks now he's started crying out about 10 minutes after I've left the room at night, and then I'd go in and offer him the rest of the bottle that he didn't finish (most often it would be refused) and give him another little cuddle. Sometimes he'd squirm around and then do a burp and I'd put him straight down again. Often it'd only take a couple of minutes of cuddles and he'd be happy then.
But in the last week it's gone all pear-shaped, with the crying escalating and him not settling. Then we had that episode where he wanted to party from 9.30 p.m. till after midnight
After that we started cutting his last nap shorter as we thought he was sleeping too late in the afternoon to be tired enough for bed at that time. So we did the cutting back and he
still didn't seem tired to settle easily! We have been cutting the a.m. nap short for a while now. If not awoken, he would happily sleep 2 hours, even after 12 hours night-time sleep and only 2 hours A time before that first nap.
Today we needed to visit DH's grandmother who is recovering from a nasty fall. She's 92 yo and they don't expect her to be around much longer. We both decided we'd bite the bullet and see how he went with going down later in the morning, enabling us to make our visit earlier in the a.m. He woke at 7.30 this morning, btw. So after last night's dramas he still slept through
Anyway, we were home by 10.45 and he was happy as larry, didn't even nod off in the car on the way home, so we thought we'd stretch him out some more, give him an early lunch and see how he went with one nap today. He ate a great lunch, I gave him a bottle at 11.45 and put him to bed at 12 p.m. Didn't hear a peep out of him! He then woke at 2.30, whingeing, the same as he did this morning. But it didn't take him long to wake up properly and for the rest of the afternoon he did great. Usually he has predictable whingeing around arsenic hour (even after waking at 4 p.m. in the arvo, usually he's whingey really until bed!) but none today. I was aiming for a 6.30 bedtime but we were a little late. I gave him a bottle at 6.45 and put him in his cot just before 7, after lots of cuddles. He'd then sit up and start crying when I left the room. I did WI/WO for 10 mins and then sent DH in to work his magic. He patted him on the back in his cot and he was quiet by 7.10. DH is pretty sure he was still awake when he left the room. I thought for sure he'd wake after 40 mins but he hasn't stirred. It remains to be seen what the night will bring
So tonight it only took 1/2 hour to put him to sleep, which is an improvement on the last couple of nights, but of course I want to get back to the old days of him happily just rolling over and going to sleep!!
Can you glean anything out of all my rambling to see a new routine emerging or anything I'm doing wrong???
Thanks so much in advance!
