Strategy needed for excellent sleeper!

[* Paula *]

Hugs hun 

DD does exactly the same thing.  I tend to lay her on her side, and this helps for like 30 secons 
One thing I have found that keeps her interest in lying down, is I have bought her a little teddy that is in her cot, and it has a little light in it, so I turn it on, and it glows in the dark.  She seems mezmorised by it and will lay looking at it until she falls asleep.  It stays on for 30 minutes.  I bought it from the ASDA, just in case you are considering.

We also used a ceiling light for DS.  He loved laying on his back looking at it, and the light would shine on the ceiling and go round, and it would play music.

[clazzat]

FWIW, when dd1 went through a phase of giggling and pratting around rather than going to sleep, I discovered that it was actually because she was OT rather than because I was putting her down too early (I discovered this by going the wrong way, obviously!) and putting her down 5-10 mins earlier for a few nights sorted it out.  I seem to remember that it was round about the time that she dropped her morning nap - I reckoned it was basically because she still needed 10-15 mins of sleep in addition to her lunchtime nap, but she didn't want it in the morning.

Hope things get better for you.  Cx

[mini me]

We also have the giggling when DD is OT, which in turn makes her more OT ... we are now trying to catch up on lost routine sleep due to xmas and New Years Eve (we even got complained at cos we left the family party at 10.30pm ... they have no concept of "bedtime" here .. more of "the child will sleep when it's ready to"!!!) So we sneaked in a nap at 6pm last night, but she woke after 45mins and went to bed 3hrs late. So early bedtime tonight. ... we also had our first EW in months the otherday - 4.30am. So I reckon it's just with all the excitement and routine mess-ups our LOs are finding hard to adapt (plus throw in a few dev changes and teething!!). We are lucky tho that DD still sleeps on her back - although she squirms to turn over to get her knees under to get up again Good idea with the ceiling light ... may try it soon if it continues here ...

[sherry lynn]

Andi - we also got a 4:30 wake up over Christmas (too fun!! Huh?) ahhh well.... what do you do.

[mini me]

Sherry - and I thought that our LOs were to young to understand to wait up for Santa to come!   We had a 3.30am xmas morning as well, but touch wood it's all behind us now - well ... til birthday excitement next week!!!!

[babymunkey]

OK girls - I've done my reading on PU/PD and I'm not doing it properly really. And I've decided that I'm not really going to start as I'm not in the frame of mind to see it through at the moment.

The rest of the day was as bonkers as the rest of the week - after his am wake-up at 5, he was back down by 8.45, then awake by 10.10. When he's awake he's a joy to be around!
So we tried for a nap about 14.30/15.00, and it took us about 30minutes to get him down - then he bloody did a poop about 20 minutes later! He was soooo tired we cahged his nappy and got him to doz off on our shoulders each time we picked him up, but we couldn't put him down, he just screamed each time. We gave up about 4.30 and got him up - and he was really fine all afternoon - we've just got him down now about 6.30 so here's hoping for a good night, although I have a horrible feeling we may be up early again tomorrow.

I've done a new post on the EASY board as this post was originally about PU/PD......if you could pop over and have a peep - thanks for the input so far!

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=140128.0

Paula - I had wondered about putting our ceiling lights attachemtn thingy back on his cot music thingy (!) but hadn't cos he sleeps on his front - good idea re the toy - he has bunnies and a lovey, but doesn't seem to really fuss about them.

I tell you girls - Christmas morning is the only morning you don't feel like the only person in the world who is up early on their own, cos you know that half the world is awake with their over excited kids! Andi/Sherry - was that 3.30/4.30 and no going back to sleep

H

[* Paula *]

Helen, Abi seems to be doing exactly the same thing now 

She woke up about 30 minutes into her night time sleep last night, I thought it was all the fuss of MIL and FIL being here etc etc.  Anyway, tried to get her back to sleep and she just screamed.  Put her in my arms, she dozed off and as soon a I put her in the cot, she screamed blue murder.  I got her to sleep about an hour later 

Today she had a fantastic nap 2.5 hours, and when it came to bed time, she just freaked, and would not go down.  Everytime I picked her up she would settle down, and then I put her down and she would freak again.  She has been in bed for an hour now and has been mantra crying on and off.

I am thinking SA and teething.  She is cutting her bottom molars, so am thinking this has something to do with it.

Going to pop over to EASY and look at your other thread.

[sherry lynn]

We are also getting this off and on, at least once a day. For a nap or for night time sleep, not really sure what's going on. 

[* Paula *]

I am really wondering if it is SA anxiety.

Last night Abi took an hour to go to bed, and I know that she was not OT as she had a 2.5 hour nap.  Then was awake at 03:40, then went quiet and again at 5:00, then went quiet and again at 6:00ish.  I know that she was not OT, and all three times I had to go in and resettle her.  She was crying and not very happy.

Maybe too much daytime sleep

[babymunkey]

I'm thinking the same to a certain extent Paula......we haven't had any signs of SA at all til now.......but it seems to only be about sleep - he's fine any other time. I can walk out of the room no problems most of the time, or pass him to other people he knows and he's fine.........my other dreaded thought was that maybe he was developing some kind of cot phobia.....

[* Paula *]

This is so confusing, as the first night she did it she only napped for 1.5 hours and then yesterday, hgad a great nap and still did it

I am thinking perhaps it is all based on A times, perhaps the day before she had too much A time and was OT, and maybe last night was UT.

Abi is the same with regards to me leaving the room etc.  She is clingy to me, but always has been, she is fine though when left with her grandparents or DH etc.  As long as it is with people she knows.

I don't know I am thinking so many things.  I know she is teething quite badly at the moment with her molars, and the last time this happened she cut her top ones.  Do you think that H could be busy working on his molars?

[babymunkey]

Its possible, but as he only has his 2 bottom front teeth so far, with one of his top teeth just starting to poke through, maybe not. Although my theory is that when the teeth are initially on the move, you can't see anything but that bit seems to cause more upset than when they actually start breaking through.

But you're right its confusing when there's so much going on at once - I'm going to stick with fixing A times and see how that helps. I start a new job on Monday and he will be at the childminders 5 days a week - I spoke to her this morning and she said he hadn't given her too much trouble there yet re the cot, and had only once stood up in his cot (little monkey!) so we'll see how she gets on next week......

IF its SA, do they generally only show it re their Mummies, parents or any carer who leaves them?

H

[* Paula *]

I think that SA is generally towards the mum as that is who they spend most of their time with.  Although when Abi has gone through her phases, she would freak whenever I left the room even if it was MIL or FIL there, but would go into nursery just fine, so I guess it all depends 

With regards to teething, it can be extremely uncomfortable when the teeth are moving up in the gums, so it could be quite possible that he has a few teeth moving up.  With my DS I found that he was always more uncomfortable when going down for a nap or for the night, as during the day he was too busy to concentrate on his sore gums.

[mini me]

Hi - regarding the teeth, the moving unseen part is definately the worst bit for Artemis. Her first top tooth was the first time we had teething probs (bottom 2 were fine) - we had 7weeks of it pushing thru the gum and then just sitting there under the thinnest layer of gum ever for ages!! For most of the time she was completely messed up sleepwise as she was OT from broken naps and sleep then on the occasional day it wasn't bothering her she would catch up on her missed sleep and we would not know and put her down to sleep UT expecting her top be OT!!!! It was a nightmare for a few months ... but now she's settled a lot better and the teeth are not as painful ... NOT looking forward to molar time!!
Also it was when she was lying down that she had nothing to occupy her and her teeth would be really bothering her (nothing to take her mind of it iykwim).

[babymunkey]

I think the lying down re teeth thing is a good throught even more so for babies that sleep on their tummies, cos he rests his face on the bed so the pressure would probably hurt too.....
I've tried to avoid just giving him Calpol etc "just in case" but maybe I should for a few days just to see if it helps the poor boy.....