Sudden routine madness since he turned 1!

[babymunkey]

We are having very sudden and weird nap problems and general routine madness this week. My LO just turned 1 and until recently was on a rough routine of

06.30 - 7.00 wake - sippy cup of milk offered
07.30 ish Breakfast - cereal + fruit and porridge + toast + sippy with milk
10.30 - 11.30 (approx 3.75 - 4.15 hours after wake-up) - formula (about 8 - 10 oz) and "am" nap
was sleeping anywhere between 2.5 to 3 hours - last week or so has been decreasing to 2
Lunch on wake-up - 2 cubes AK style food, finger food, yogurt and fruit
and then either
mid afternoon snack with more milk in sippy
or
5 oz formula and if possible quick catnap (generally won't take it unless in the car - fights it like a demon even if tired)
Bedtime - between 6.30 and 7.30 depending on catnap/length of am nap/last A time etc

We were doing catnap/early bedtime to catch up on 1 nap days, and he seemed to be coping as his nights were consitently 11.5-12 hours which is normal for him.

Then this week his am nap went bonkers Mon/Tue/Wed and last few days we've had screaming abdabs before every nap, and this morning EW cos he was sooo tired last night I guess.

He has a tooth coming through at the top, I am wondering about SA as he will only fall asleep cuddled on our shoulders these last few days, he has recently started  "talking" ALOT - so much so that he seems to have forgotten he was nearly walking and gone back to crawling everywhere (men eh - can't do 2 developmental things at once  ), he could be due for an A time stretch but how would I know cos I think we're stuck in an OT cycle and I've got to start a new job on Monday and give the childminder some idea what I'd like her to do - 

Help!

H

[* Paula *]

Hug hugs H.

Wow so much going on developmentally.  Defintley could be the reason that his naps have gone so haywire.

Defintley sounds like your DS is in a vicious OT cycle.  Perhaps try decreasing A time for a few days and see if this helps him catch up on sleep.

Could quite possible be SA and the fact that he is teething is not helping either.

Wow, this poor little guy has so much going on at the moment.

I would definitely try and decrease his A time for a few days in order for him to catch up on some sleep, and see how you go from there.

[babymunkey]

Another early sytart this morning - I'm not going to call it an EW cos its really his OT pattern - he seems to do 11 hour nights when he's OT, and we put him to bed last night at 6.30 and he was up at 5.30.

So I think I have decided that we may be stuck in an OT trap, possible due to short naps caused by needing longer A times.......last time this happened we fixed it with fixed A times, so I'm going to go with that for the next 3 days and see how we go and PRAY for some longer daytime naps. He is mostly happy and full of energy when he's awake and part of the problem is he never shows any tired signs until we start winddown.......so we're going for 4 1/2 hours A time for the next 3 days regardless of wake-up tie and will try for catnaps and stick to early bedtimes......

I was also thinking yesterday that he may need a longer wind-down time as he's soooo on the go when he's awake, so combined with trying to move bottles away from bedtime, I might start doing bottle and quiet time downstairs for 30 minutes before we go up, then do nappy and story upstairs......will see

wish us luck!

H

[* Paula *]

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

If you say you are doing 4.5 hours A time, that would make him ready to go down for a nap round about now.  Let us know how he goes down.

[babymunkey]

Will do Paula - although he's at the childminders today so it won't be my battle! And it will be intersting to see if she has anywhere near the same level of trouble - that's why I asked about SA and who it applies to in the LOs mind on the other post.....

H

[* Paula *]

If he goes down well for the child minder, then it could very well be SA, but he could be comfortable with the child minder KWIM?  Like I said in my other post.  DD would be fine when going into nursery as she was so used to spending time with them.

[sherry lynn]

H - what is AK style food?
Just now remembered to pop over here

[babymunkey]

Sorry Sherry - Annabel Karmel - I think you have her books in the US too? Thanks for popping over!

So today was much much better, but he was at the childminders so maybe it is SA and he just loves his Mummy and Daddy sooooooo much! I got her to push hi am nap out to 4 1/2 hours, and by the time he'd finished his milk it was actually 4.75 and he did 2 hours. And she got him down for a 2nd nap no dramas at 4 for 40 mins........phew!

So will stick to 4.5 over the weekend, and then if he's still doing OK, may get her to push it to 5 hours next week and see if we can get back to 3 hour naps! If he can do that, then he'll make it to bedtime without needing a pm nap maybe......

H

[* Paula *]

H, that is fantastic news about the naps  You must be so pleased.  How did bedtime go?

[babymunkey]

Definitely a relief and adds weight to your SA theory......and/or the longer A time helped I guess......

Bedtime went OK - I'm trying to sneak a story inbetween finishing his bottle and going to bed - very quiet low key kind of story (not a Daddy story with big booming voices and made-up bits ) so he did his bottle tonight and went to turn into my shoulder as usual, but I stopped him and read the story which he sat quietly for. Then a little bit of mucking around in bed, so I went in and out a few times putting him back down, and every time I left the room he cried - when I went back in he thinks he's sooo funny - he throws himself back on the bed and giggles when he's in this mood So I did my "don't mess with Mummy" voice and just said "its sleepy time MooMoo" and put my hand firmly on his back......

in the end I decided to sit in the room while he went off to sleep, but I took my hand off his back - I had to put him down a few more times, but he drifted off farily easily after about 2 or 3 minutes - so no screaming which was a blessing!

[* Paula *]

Fantastic news, it is progress, sounds like it definitely has a lot to do with SA.  Keep trying with the settling but after a few days move further away from his bed until you are able to just put him down.

Keep us posted on how he does this weekend.   I hope you have a fantastic night with the good naps you have had today.

[babymunkey]

Hmmmmmm, well night was OK, but 5.30 wake-up again this morning........but he was stil sleepy and settled straight away on my shoulder, but for the next hour and a half he only dozed and kept stirring and waking, trying to get up, but would settle if I put him back down - he had one big cry and I had to pick him up again, but he started to struggle against me so I put him striaght back down and jiggled his back like we used to and he went queit again. Eventually at 7, I left the room while he was quiet so I could have a wee and put some warm clothes on, expecting him so stir again (why do I NEVER do that before I start these things - I was freeeezing!) and the little toad stayed asleep and sletp for another 45 minutes 

So, would you count wake-up as 7.45 and start his A time from there and stick to my 4.5 hour plan?

H

[babymunkey]

Also, was now wondering about lunch and food etc.....

so up at 7.45, Breakfast at 8.30. Planning to put him back to bed at about 12, and would normally do a bottle before his nap. Would then also offer him a snack mid morning........but hopefully he'll sleep afor 2 (maybe 3?) hours so lunch would be late, and if that happened would put him to bed early still.......

So getting in a muddle with feeds/milk and snacks!

H

[mini me]

My meals and snacks are all over the place too atm with A's routine being so varied!! Just lurking here to see what advice you get. Good news on realising it could be SA, but BOO! for the EW! We have had a few at around 4.45am, but a resettle and she sleeps til 8am - so does that count as a EW or a NW? She starts to play and coo and squeak, then shout (all happy) and no tears, so I think she would get up and play if I gave her half the chance!!

[charmie]

Awwww H no advice from me.  We've been allover the place for a month now, with the 2-1 nap switch.  Everyday is different in terms of naps, lunch, snacks and milk.  It looks like a series of snacks rather than proper meals and snacks in between.  You must be LYAO at me right now huh!!    So long perfect routine...sigh...

Good luck on your new job.


xxx
charm