Sarah/Anyone PLEASE HELP!!!!

[Coopers_daddy]

Cooper's daddy here with an update

DS had 4.5 hours A time today
Nap at 10
Awake at 11:15 Crying (Might have been from the stupid thunder)

so with a 1:15 hour nap, Do you think we can go for another 4.5 hour A time?  That would put him down for a nap at 3:45, cat nap and then back down to sleep at 6:45 or 7pm?

We are trying really hard to get that morning wake up time back.  He is only sleeping 11 hours at night these days and wakes up happy.  So a later bedtime might be the answer!  Thoughts? 

TIA

[deckchariot]

cooper's daddy - I think your plan is good - especially if he may have been woken by thunder (and not because he was done sleeping) - stick with the 4.5 hrs of A time before nap #1 (you're trying to keep that the long one, right?), then a short catnap.  If he only sleeps 11 hrs at night, then yes, I'd push his bedtime back.  Because even going to bed at 7, he'll wake at 6.  so as you push his A time, his day will naturally extend, which should help with 5:30 wake up.

Abby's almost 17 mos, and she usually does about 5 hrs of A time in the am before her 1 nap.  So as you head in that direction, that catnap can disappear and bedtime can get a bit later.

hth

michelle

[coopers_mommy]

Well today began really great....Cooper did great during his am A time and was having a great nap until the storms came (as DH stated).  So we were up and about.  I think I must have miscalculated how he was doing though as I think he might have gotten OT by the end of 4.5 hours of A time for the pm catnap.  He was tired, but wouldnt' go to sleep!  I attempted the nap at 3:40 and began doing WIWO from 3:50-4:15.  At 4:15 I gave up, I know, I know... but I was so discouraged!  Anyway, DS sat in his crib till 4:30 with me sitting right next to the crib.  Although he did go to bed at 5:45. He didn't even really fuss he was just so tired!  Anyhow, we'll start again tomorrow.  Praying that he will sleep till 6:30 or at least 6 and then we'll do 4.5 A time in the am and pray for a great nap!

Do you think it's okay to not do a full 4.5 A time in between naps if he wakes up mad from his am nap?  I'm thinking that's where I messed up today as he was kind of tired before that A time was up. 

We're still thinking positive though! 

[coopers_mommy]

Okay this is where we're at and I need advice for this afternoon....

Cooper woke at 5:55 this morning (better) and had no NW's so he was able to catch up on his rest.  He seemed tired by 9, but still went to a PG to extend the A time (4.5 hours).  So he went down to sleep at 10:15 without a peep.  He was tired.  BUT he woke at 11:25!  I don't know if he could have handled 5 hours as he seemed tired.  Anyhow....yesterday was a bust with the pm nap at 4.5 hours of A time later.  Should I attempt only 4 hours and then put him down for his catnap?  That would put it around 3:25.  Or should I be more about watching his tired signs to know when to do the catnap? 

He did wake up happy from his napthough... I can't be mad about that right?   

[deckchariot]

happy babies are good things - even if it's early from a nap   I'm guessing the short nap in the am was a combo - lots of stimulation from the PG and part of the yuckiness of the 2 to 1 switch.  Waking happy is good.  My guess though is that since it was a short nap, he won't make 4.5 hrs til the catnap.  I would say to start watching around 3.5 and see.  I wouldn't go longer than 4.

How long have you been doing 4.5 in the am?  If it's been 3 days or so, I'd go ahead and up that to 4.75 and see what that does to that am nap.  You are making HUGE progress - wasn't he doing just over 2 hrs of A time when we started?  And what a great night!!!!  He got 12 hrs of sleep!!!!!  Now if that bedtime can get a bit later, you'll really love the am!!

[coopers_mommy]

I agree about the bedtime....I was upset at first that we had to do an early bedtime, but it sure beats having to have multiple NW's and a cranky baby!  And yes, just a week and a half ago we were only doing 2 hours of A time...I have probably hit this more aggressive than some would have, but we only have a few more weeks till he'll have to be at 1 nap!  This is the second day for 4.5 A time in the am.  He does pretty well most of the time.  We'll probably stay with 4.5 A time again tomorrow and then go from there.  Although tomorrow we have to go back to the hospital for follow up lab work and ultrasounds for Cooper from his kidney infection he had a few weeks back.  Maybe he'll sleep great after being poked and prodded!   

I'll be watching around 3.5 A time for his pm nap.....I'll post later this evening about how it went!

[coopers_mommy]

Well just a quick update....there was no pm nap!    He stayed in his crib though for about 45 minutes as I attempted to get him to sleep, but there was no success....so he was in bed by 5:45 again and was asleep by 5:54.  He's made a few noises so far tonight, so I'm preparing for the worst (NW's)! 

I'm thinking if the am nap isn't long enough, I'll probably start watching for just about 3 hours of A time through this?  Tomorrow might be a rough day as we'll be at the hospital in the am getting labs and sonograms done on DS....UGH!

[newmama12]

^^Sounds like my dd yesterday. No pm nap and only a 30 minute am nap. I woke her from it too!! She had been doing well with a 30 minute am nap and then about 1.5 hour pm nap for about 4 days. Well, apparently, she was ready to go back to 1 nap. So, that's where we are at today. Unfortunately, I still got her to bed too late last night. She was in bed at about 6:40pm and fell asleep closer to 7 then woke at 6:15am, so she really didn't catch up any. She was definetly tired this morning but I kept her out and she went 5.5 hours of A time, so we shall see how long she sleeps. I'm really hoping she'll try and catch up and sleep at least 2 hours. What a pain in the behind this transition is! LOL!

I hope your ds sleeps good tonight. I am still sooo nervous about putting her to bed before 6:30pm, but I know that I need to when she doesn't nap well. Might be doing that tonight if we have a bad nap again.

[coopers_mommy]

We've had a difficult day so far.  It began with the trash truck (we have a dumpster behind our house since there is a shopping center behind us) coming at 5 am!  Normally it doesn't bother DS, but this morning he was very loud and it woke everyone up!  I wasn't too upset though because we had to get DS to the hospital this morning for followups on his kidney infection he had a few weeks ago(which began all this craziness!).

Anyhow, he ended up having to go about 5.5 hours before he got home to go to sleep.  Went to sleep easily although only slept 40 minutes     I don't get it, he was SO tired from crying when they drew blood, did an ultrasound and did a cathiter into his bladder that I figured he would sleep hard and long! 

So I got DS up and we did lunch and played.  I was not going to wait too long though before the pm nap because I knew he was super tired.  Well I put him down at 1 (and I'm attempting to no longer nurse at all before naps) which really made him made!  He would cry for a second and then moan and then be quiet then start the cycle over.  My mom is here to visit and I'm dealing with so much now with taking care of the results from the tests that she took over getting him to sleep.  I'm not sure how great of a nap it will be, but I'm pretty sure he's going to sleep around 5:30! 

BTW:  Cooper has a bi-lateral bladder reflux grade 2.  After all the medical talk, it means that there is urine that goes back up into his kidney's when he urinates.  So we'll be going to a urologist soon and finding out the plan of action for all of this! 

Like I said, it's been a crazy day!

[deckchariot]

oh goodness   - it sounds like you both have had a trying day!!!  I hope the urologist is able to offer some hope in terms of treatment for Cooper!  Glad your mom is there to help out for today at least.  I've found now with Abby as she gets older that when she's OT, her nap will be short, but no consistency in terms of how short (unlike when she was littler - 30 was OT, 40 was UT) - so even though he slept 40 min, could still be OT and OS from all the whatnot at the hospital.  I hope he makes up for it this afternoon for you!!!!

[newmama12]

Maybe you guys have some advice or reasons to this, but WHY IN THE WORLD is dd waking earlier now that she's been doing one nap for the past 3 days?!?!?! She's been waking at 5:50am! I totally don't understand. I thought the ew's would subside once she was on one nap?? AHHHHH!!!
Do I go back to 2 naps today since she's up so early again? She's been going about 5.5 hours of A time. If I go with this wake time, she'll be napping by 11:00am. She will most likely wake between 12:30-12:45 and then be up till 7pm bedtime. GRRRR....this is sooo frustrating!!

[coopers_mommy]

Well the last few days have been not so great, sleepwise and medically wise! 

Let's see first sleepwise:
if I didn't believe it before, I believe that Cooper IS ready for just one nap these days!  The past 4 days he has fought his nap SO much!  the only pm nap that he has had in the last 4 days is when my mom rocked him to sleep.  Honestly, I was so thankful that she did because he was SO tired from all the tests that had been run that day on him. 

He is waking right at 6ish these days.  And is still able to handle right around 4-4.5 hours of A time.  I haven't tried increasing anything because of all of the medical attention that we've been getting.  He's still only napping about 1-1.5 hours for a nap, but that pushes him to waking up between 11:30 and 12!  Then he just flat out refuses that second cat nap...he'll scream, whine, talk, laugh, and trust me WIWO does NOT do any good!  DH and I are thinking that tomorrow we'll attempt 4.75 hours of A time in the am and see how everything goes and then PRAY HARD for a good 2 hour nap!  His night sleep has been decent.  He's going to sleep around 5:30 or 6 from the lack of pm nap.  He is restless in the night, waking making small noises, but is able to settle himself!

So what do you think of our plan for tomorrow?

Okay medically; the reflux is now the least of our worries!     We were rushed in to meet with a hemotologist/oncologist on Friday for some answers about Cooper's CBC results.  One number of his white blood cells are REALLY low!  It's the cells that fight infection.  Because of this he's also somewhat anemic.  We're dong iron vitamins now to hopefully take care of the anemia; although we still have a week full of tests ahead of us next week to figure out the low white blood cells. 

Needless to say, the importance of dealing with the sleep is something we're trying to keep constant, but it's really hard with appointments at he hospital and specialists.  Oh if we can get through this week I think things might slowly get back to normal (praying that all tests come back with good news!)

[deckchariot]

new mama - if she's just getting into the habit of taking 1 nap, I would throw a 2 nap day in there every once in awhile - she may be cummulatively OT.  You can cut back her am A time on the 2 nap days, she'll take a shorter nap, then offer another one later in the afternoon.

cooper's mommy - so sorry to hear of the yucky test results!  I hope you get some good news soon!!!!  Your plan to extend him again to 4.75 sounds good to me - he's really done well with the A time extension.

[coopers_mommy]

Well we did extend out his A time yesterday.  He did decent, although only napped for 55 minutes and was up at 11:20.  We watched his actions after that and saw that he was acting really tired about 3 hours later, so we put him down around 2:15ish but had no luck.  He didn't cry though in his crib at all, he would talk and then would be quiet for a little bit, and then would talk some more.  BUT he still went from 11:20 to bedtime with no real nap.  We put him in bed at 6, but he didnt' fall to sleep till 6:25ish....and then was UP this morning at 5:15!  DH tried to put him back down, but it didn't work. 

We have a busy day ahead of us with an afternoon filled wil dr's visits.  I can't decide on if I should try for 2 naps, starting a little earlier than normal or one nap.  If I tried one nap I would go about 4.75-5 hours A time, but that only puts him at the latest at 10:15 for that nap.  Any suggestions?

[deckchariot]

I'd say if the afternoon is crazy, I'd go for 2 shorter naps  - I find the multiple nap option works best for Abby when we've got a busy day - sometimes, she'll even do 3 45 min naps.  I think he's probably ready for 1 nap, but his A time just isn't ready yet, so I'd keep pushing that A time out by 15 min every  2-3 days, but staying wtih 2 attempted naps at least.  We never did bedtime any more than 30 min earlier no matter what her naps were like, so you could try sticking with the 6:30 (instead of 7) bedtime.   Hang in there!!  You've got so much on your plate right now!!