Desperate Zombie - FEEDBACK

[SAmum]

Hi Ladies...

I posted a few days ago - for those who read my post...i'm not sure if i can post here but things have changed dramatically in the meantime.  Night time sleeping is going much better now, we're still not 100% on PU/PD yet - but it's improved substantially.  We could all sleep at night for the past 2 nights now.  What i've done differently...i've concentrated on getting the daytime nap-routine corrected/sufficient.  I has worked - so far so good.  He has 2 naps a day for 1,5 hours (am) and then an hour (pm) and only wakes once, maybe twice at night...but no crying/screaming anymore.  I don't even have to pick him up.  I can just talk softly and rub his back to get him back to sleep.  So ya - i feel much better now.

[aisling]

Please post your routine for your 1 yr old thank you. (moved your post to Toddler sleep as well)  I'm still thinking he may be in the process of moving to 1 nap so this is why you are having asleep blip.  If you post your routine lots of ladies with experience can help you out as it may be just a needed tweak and an adjustment of A times and nap lengths.

Aisling x

[becky1969]

Def post your routine! I for one would love to help out!

If he's 1, two 1.5 hour naps and a 1 hour nap is probably too much daytime sleep.  We could shorten that down and maybe get you some solid night sleep! I'm so glad you're seeing progress! Now it's just a matter of fine-tuning!

Please post routine, though, so we can really see what's going on.

[SAmum]

Ok..here's the routine - currently:  Note that it varies some days  so this is just a general overview.

7:00am - Wake up & Breakfast
10 am - Bottle feed (200mls) & nap for 1,5 hours.
11:30 - Wake up & some activity before lunch
12 noon - Lunchtime
12:30 - about 3/3:30 - Activity - We go for a walk, play outside, play inside with his toys & puppy
3:30pm - Bottle feed & nap for about 1 hour
4:30pm - wake up & dinner
6:30pm to 7 - Bath time & wind down routine - play in his room, nothing exciting.
7:30pm - 8:00pm - Small snack (either 100ml formula or baby cereal) and then Bedtime

He wakes up between 12 and 2 - then i give him a bottle feed again - no picking up. I did try to increase his food amounts during the day - but he doesn't want to eat more.
He also wakes at around 5 - but i suspect this is a habit.  I just pat him back to sleep - no picking up anymore - hopefully that will stop soon.

So that's it - i used to have a very 'loose' routine whereby i fed on demand and put him to sleep when he was tired. It didn't work so well anymore as he never wanted to go to sleep if i didn't make him - he's a spirited/busy type of baby/toddler.
His birthday is 16 May so he is about 11 months now. He weighed about 9 pounds at birth and was very tall.

It took a about a week to introduce the new stricter routine and he balked and screamed and resisted at first.  So we made it through to where we are now.

I would appreciate any feedback, comments or even crit as i only want what is best for him first of all and that will be best for the rest of the family as well. 
He's got an older sister - she's 17 now and they absolutely adore each other.  My second baby will be born at the end of August - so as you can imagine i have to have a better routine in place in order to keep everyone happy when that time comes.

Thanks for reading and your time.
 

[becky1969]

Don't worry, no criticism! The BW is a loving community! We're all just doing our best at this thing called motherhood. 

Can you clarify one thing for me? In your original post, you mention two 1.5 naps and then 1 hr nap.  But in your routine I only see one 1.5 hour nap (10-11:30) and then an hour nap (3:30-4:30).  Am I missing teh 2nd 1.5 hour nap?

[SAmum]

Don't worry, no criticism! The BW is a loving community! We're all just doing our best at this thing called motherhood. 

Can you clarify one thing for me? In your original post, you mention two 1.5 naps and then 1 hr nap.  But in your routine I only see one 1.5 hour nap (10-11:30) and then an hour nap (3:30-4:30).  Am I missing teh 2nd 1.5 hour nap?

Hmm..maybe i worded my post wrong...he only has 2 naps a day, 1 x 1,5 hours and 1 x 1 hour - sorry for the confusion!

[becky1969]

OK, that makes more sense!

I'll be back to give this another gander after put son down for nap. See you in a jiff! 

[SAmum]

Bumpp...

[becky1969]

Sorry it took me so long to get back! The holiday sort of grabbed me and I didn't have a chance to get back on.

So, let me just get this straight -- your issue now is that he's still having NWs? Is that what you're working on?

If he's 11 months then I think he's not quite getting enough daytime sleep which is causing him to be overtired at bedtime and therefore you're getting NWs and EWs.

His first nap looks great -- 1.5 hours is what we're aiming for.

His 2nd nap is short (we'd like to see another 1.5 hours at 11 months), and I think it's because of the long A time post-nap.  When you say 'about' 1 hour is it more like 45 minutes?  If so, then I think he's OT.  WhatI might do is move nap to 3 pm and see how that goes.  A 1.5 hour nap would really be preferable.  Also, we want to remove his associationg with feeding to sleep.  So, you need to move those bottle feeds earlier in the routine so that he's not eating right before sleep and using that as a prop.  You'll probably be losing that bottle soon after age 1, so if you do the work now that transiton will go much easier! With other moms new to BW I've simply suggested doing the bottle earlier in the routine at first, so that it's not the LAST thing child does before sleep.  Then you'll eventually move that bottle earlier and earlier so that it is happening after the solid feeds.  At age 1, we usually give them milk in a sippy WITH their meal.  Does that make sense?

If you move that nap a bit earlier, say to 3, and we get 1.5 hours out of him that puts a wake up at 4:3, just like you have now.  Right now you have about 3.5 hours between nap and bedtime and that's probably OK.  We'll have to see, though.  He only does 3 hours in the AM and some babies do better with a shorter A time before bed.  If we get longer daytime sleep going on and he STILL has NWs, then we may want to move bedtime a tad earlier.  But let's try to lengthen PM nap first to see what happens.