Hello all,
Some of you may remember me as i used to be a regular around here! I have a 10 (nearly 11) month old boy who i need some advice/ input with. It is a wee bit embarrassing as i work as a doula and postnatal sleep/ routine consultant and use the BW techniques all day, but i have just lost my way here a bit.
Unlike with my first 2 children Rory has never really had a schedule. We have always just read his cues and put him down to sleep when he is tired. When he was younger we followed EASY, but now he is on solids this is not the case. He isn't a great napper, but until recently he could be relied upon to sleep for the majority of the night with early wakings the only problem. He has a dummy, but can find it and re-plug easily.
He has started to wake in the night. Or rather in the evening and throughout the night. I have been using Pu/Pd with ZERO success. I did it consistently for about a week (every nap and night waking) and he did not fall asleep once. I give up on naps and he falls asleep in the car or pushchair, and overnight i do it for so long it becomes the morning and we get up. I quite literally Pu/Pd'ed for 6 hours straight one night with no sleep for either of us.
He eats well and has a varied diet, but is not a big milk drinker maybe taking only 10 oz per day. We have also just been through an illness and so this has sent him even further away from sleeping well, he is better now so i feel able to move on with sleep training. I think he has separation anxiety - although he doesn't display it during the day and is a happy confident boy. The reason i think this is that some nights if i sit within his eye sight he will settle, but if i get up and leave he will scream. The other problem is that my partner has health issues and NEEDS to sleep well. She is now really struggling with his sleep patterns and so it is paramount we get it sorted asap.
I think the final straw for me was that he spent 2 nights with his dad at the weekend and slept from 7pm-7am both nights and then came back yesterday and was up ALL NIGHT (not kidding either). I am just worn out with it
Very loosly this is an average day:
6am - up and milk (4-5oz max)
9.30am - nap for anything from 10 mins to 2 hours!
12pm - lunch
1pm - nap (again for random amounts of time)
5pm - dinner
6.45pm - milk and bed
Wakings intermittently throughout the evening and night.
In my mind the main issues are lack of day time sleep and maybe not enough milk(?).
Help please!!!
