Ever shortening A times...

[skatty]

Hello everyone and 3 cheers for Leorah she slept the night through  She was in bed from 5pm and screamed so I sat in her room while she settled and she was asleep properly within 20 mins, we heard her cry out exactly 4 hours later and then moaned a few times in the night and woke at 06.48 

After a very busy and exciting morning waking up to find Uncle Lee and Nanny here as well as too many gifts we decided to put her down at 12 but 10 mins before she started throwing her toys  All was not lost though, she took half an hour to settle down and drop off but was asleep by 12.30 so I hope she has a good nap, Martin put her down and thinks 5 mins earlier and she's have settled quicker so that would have 11.45am, the same as yesterday so we will try that tomorrow. Her teething was definitely having an impact on her mood today so it was more nurofen ( )and then she was fine but only eats fruit and has the worst nappies I can remember 

Thanks Elmarie for the reassurrance, that must have been a terrible time, I can see why you would be distraught, that's the thing you think your time is up of having a good sleeper when things go so wrong don't you?

Vicku, Lois sounds like she is doing really well on beach days, I think 2 x 40 min naps is great  I told Dh I definitely want to go to Sweden next year and he agrees it's about time so I will definitely want to meet up with you 

Thank you girls for being there for us this past week, I can see things should get better now and it's such a relief  Martin and the others are out shopping so I am relaxing and hoping L takes a good nap as we are going out for lunch at the harbour when she wakes and then to the beach. I hope you all have a fab day 

[elmarie]

{{{HUGS}}}  I'm sure she will be back on track soon  XX

[NiknLily]

very good news 

hope you had a lovely day 

[lesorl]

Yahoo for Leorah- I hope Mommy got some much needed rest too 

[Vicku]

Hurra för Leorah!!! STTN is a good sign that things might start righting themselves again. Hope she took a good nap and you got some nice Y time. Let us know how you get on xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[skatty]

Hi Girls, well the family left yesterday and we have had mixed success with L. On Saturday I went out with my mum and DH looked after L and put her down after just 4 hours A time as she was tired and had been up twice in the night screaming like she was having a nightmare  Of course she didn't nap and we had to put her to bed at 4.20pm and she fell asleep straight away and slept the whole night until 07.30am  This super night then proved problematic for the following day, I put her down at 12 and she settled immediately with eyes closed cuddling her lovey but obviously wasn't tired enough so perked up and started playing  We decided to take her to Ikea as we needed to go anyway and so she fell asleep in the car after 6hrs A time and we parked up and she carried on sleeping so she had 55 minutes. As she didn't wake until 14.20pm I thought it would be a great opportunity to push her bedtime later but by 5pm her normal dinnertime she was crying and acting up wanting her dinner even though she does not eat more than 2 mouthfuls of anything for the past 2 weeks! After that she marched DH of to the bathroom and wanted to continue her bed routine and get to bed so although we are having morning A time probs she still wants a short PM A time which leads me to think this problem has mainly stemmed from a lack of routine, she thrives on her routine and I think we need to get her morning back to where she knows what the drill is. She is still acting OT, was chatting in her cot at midnight for about 5 mins and woke early today at 6.40am, we put her down at 12 again and 30 mins later she was still squealing and playing so I went and crossed her shoulder straps across her body so she was really restrained and she cried for about 30 secs and the gave in and settled down and closed her eyes and went to sleep. Do you think she was OT or UT? I hate to restrain her so firmly but I am glad it helped. I am very tempted now to push her until exhaustion for her nap which I know wont help  the OT but work backwards from there. I am thinking about putting her down at 5.30/5.45 hours A time and see if she settles quicker and put her to bed early to help combat some OT, I know this is risky but it is better than no nap which she really can't handle. I am very much hoping with DH back at work on Thursday that we can get some normality back in her little life, she is still teething hard with no teeth through yet  She literally pushes her fingers or toys really hard onto her gums at the back of her mouth, I'm sure she is going to hurt herself  Her behaviour is getting out of control and I feel lost,  don't know how much of the bad behaviour is down to tiredness and lack of routine and how much is developemental, I just want my happy girl back  Any ideas greatly appreciated as usual.

[lesorl]

Katt- my advice would be to pick a morning A time before nap and a pm A time post nap, and stick with it for a few days (or longer).  So say 5 hours before nap and 4.5 hours post nap.  I think that might help get her sorted out on when she should be sleeping...

Sorry it's so rough at the moment, but it will get better!

L 

[skatty]

Hi Leslie, I think you are absolutely right but I am worried 5 hours wont be enough or if that makes her OT it will not be enough to make her exhausted enough to drop anyway, KWIM? I am thinking of going with 5½ hours in the AM. I think she was a bit OT today after 5hrs20 mins but she slept just over an hour after she finally dropped off (nearer to 6hrs A), we then went walking with the dog while she had (played) with her lunch which is what we used to do and she seemed to like it  I am definitely going to work on structuring her mornings a bit more again, although the teething and the ear thing haven't helped I am now pretty sure it is the lack of routine that has caused the biggest problems.

Thanks, OI will now go and cjheck out how M is doing 

[skatty]

Guess what Leslie, I think you are spot on with the 5 hours A time  Today we had family around again (groan  ) and Leorah had woken around 6.40am (early for her). At about 4½hrs A time she was sitting at the table having a snack and watching a dvd very calmly, my plan was to put her down at 12 again but by quarter to 12 she suddenly had a burst of energy started running around the room squealing and wrestling her toy horse    I put her down at 12 (5hrs 20 A time)and she finally dropped off at 1 after I strapped her down again! I have the feeling if I had put her down at 5 hrs or just before we wouldn't have had this problem. I will definitely try for 5 hours tomorrow, please cross your fingers for me.

DH is also going to cover our conservatory roof with dark plastic and we are going to pull the blinds down so it isn't so bright and I am starting a pre nap routine again of a snack and a dvd as she thrives on a routine and will soon get with the programme I hope! No NWs the past few days so I do think we are slowly getting somewhere though these short naps make her want a very early bedtime.

Leslie I am so happy you are getting long naps, you so deserve them, well done to you for all your hard work and consistancy, you are a true expert now 

[NiknLily]

Hi Katt, lack of structure always throws a spanner in the works round here, Lily used to sleep eat etc like clockwork as a baby/young toddler but weekends with Dan home it would all go to pot.  Good news is as they get older they do get a lot better at coping with long spells of irregularity in the routine.  With regard to tantrums etc, probably that is down to the teething and ear problems but mostly OT.  Lily is like the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead.  When she is OT she is a totally different child, made more noticeable by her angel/textbook behaviour when she is OK.

Good idea to remove outside stimulation and make conservatory darker, particularly as she gets older, when they go through these nap refusal spurts the less they can do to keep themselves awake the better.  Lily's room is as black as coal to make it as boring as possible so that sleep stays No1 priority, not having a singing lesson with all her babies and teddies!

[lesorl]

Awww Katt- I'm no expert, that's for sure.  I hope it works!  Go with your gut on A time-

We've had success with keeping our days the same- breakfast at 7:40am, Sesame Street around 8:30am, outside from about 9:45am-11ish, lunch and then nap.  I think M's body now knows what to expect.  Same with post nap...

Let us know how tomorrow goes-

[skatty]

I know what you mean abou the singing Nik, drives me crazy! It doesn't matter how much I cutr down on the stimultaion she always finds something even if it is just blinking 

Leslie I also wanted to do evetrything at the same time like breakfast but she really isn't eating at the mo', I guess it's her teeth. All she ate yesterday was half a corn cob, 3 grapes and half a pear and we were saying she has eaten really well 

Well I at least had a great night, 10 hours! I think Leorah woke twice, we didn't give her meds before bed so we heard some crying in her sleep for the first few hours. She was awake around 6.40 again today so I am putting her down around 11.40 I think. Yesterday she slept 1hr15 but woke up miserable and crying her eyes out, I really need to fix this!

[skatty]

Hi Ladies I need your opinions please! Today I put Leorah for her nap at 4.55 hours and she still took 50 mins to sleep  The last 10 mins were with her eyes shut but she'd open them now and again. Once again I seemed to miss her window where she has a snack and watches a dvd, could the snack (corn cobs again today) be giving her a burst of energy or does eating relax them and then you get them down quick  Today when she started getting energetic I sat her on my lap and watched an episode of Noddy so she relaxed a bit again and then put her down. I really am not sure whether she needs more A, less A or if she needs this time to wind herself down whatever the A time. By the time she was asleep she was quite jerky but she resettled herself everytime and slept for about 1hr25 mins. This long settling for her nap is driving me mad but DH pointed out it is getting better, there is less squealing, naps are getting longer and we haven't had any refusals and slowly her settling time is shortening. Do you think if I put her down at 5 hours every day with the same routine (up, breakfast, walk, garden play, snack and dvd) her body will recognise the cues again and she will start settling quicker or is this a time issue DH is convinced it is because she hasn't had a set routine, I am praying he is right!

Thanks, Katt x

[NiknLily]

I'd say if things are slowly improving and you stick with a fairly set routine for a while, maybe more so than you did before it will all come good again.  If you've given it a couple of weeks and she is still taking longer to settle, then maybe push A time 10/15mins, but in all honesty I'd say it was probably unlikly that her A time has jumped that far from what she was doing before all this started.  I'd say maybe 1/2hr jump in 'normal' A time max.

Lily usually is in bed 30mins after lunch ends and she usually settles fairly quickly (10/15mins) so it is possible she having a slight energy boost but for Lily its not to noticeable.  The dinner rush is the one I notice more, its like a witching hour.  She is getting tired but has a new boost of energy but it just makes her leary, she is easily over excited at this time of night.  So in answer I wouldn't say eating relaxes Lily.

Hugs
Nik x

[skatty]

Thanks Nik, I will try and be very consistant these next few weeks. Back in March she was doing 5 hours A time but Nws and Ews crept in so I put it back to about 4hr40 but then at the end of May her molars bumped up and she got sick and then the ear problem and her A time went down to about 4hrs
20/30 so 5 hours by now should be ok I would think.

I think that dinnertime witching hour is common, we are lucky that so far we have never had that, Leorah loves her bath routine and bed which is what makes me think she needs more structure in the morning. At the moment she is barely eating anything so I don't know why I am wondering about food! One thing that always relaxes her is milk, I am going to give her a straw cup of milk for her nap tomorrow and hold back her lovey as she just plays with it, if she throws the cup on the floor when she's finished it can stay there but I always have to give her Tinky Winky and her dummies back