LO is 8 months and NWs are starting again!!! Please help!

[fireflymama]

Thanks Anna.  I'll look into that.

[greenefingers]

hi again just checking to see how you're feeling today. any more sleep yet? catherine only woke up once last night so an improvement here! probably shouldn't speak too soon though!
anna

[fireflymama]

Jaden woke up once last night too!  I try not to get too excited though...but it's definitely a huge improvement!!!  I'd love to see more nights like this!!!
I hope things continue to improve for you too 

[greenefingers]

keeping everything crossed for tonight!!

[fireflymama]

Hi everyone,

I have a question about EASY.  Jaden is now transitioning to 2 naps a day and he is finally interested in eating rice cereal.  (So far, it's the only thing he's eating but I will start to slowly introduce veggies and fruits.)  I'm having a hard time figuring out how to stick to EASY with 2 naps.  I'm worried that he's not eating enough during the day because his nursing times are now during his sleep times.

7:30 wake and nurse
8:30 cereal (only a little bit)
10:30-12/12:30 sleep  (he should nurse at 11:30)

and then it gets all screwed up...
I basically nurse him when he wakes, then try solids again.  he may or may not be interested, then nap at around 3.
by late afternoon, I feel like I'm trying to cram nursings in to make up for lost nursings earlier in the day.  I'm still doing the DF since he only started eating solids a few days ago. 
When he was doing 3 naps I would nurse him at 7:30, 11:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30, 10:30  (5:30 and 10:30 nursings to fill him up for the night.) 
I'm not sure how to do it now, especially because we're still trying to get back on track with naps.  I put him to bed for nap at 9:30 and he's been crying for an hour or even longer before finally falling asleep.  that throws the nursings behind even more!  On paper, I can make a routine that looks all nice and neat, but in reality, he's not falling asleep at 10:30 or 3.  It's dragging on and on.

Thank you for your help.

[lilac83]

Hi -

What has his routine been looking like?

Once he's more established on solids, they will help keep him full between feedings. I remember having to do a 1/2 feed before the PM nap and then the other 1/2 after the PM nap. Something like this:

7:00 - wake
7:30 - milk
10:00 - nap
11:30 - wake and milk
2:00 - 1/2 milk
2:30 - nap
4:00 - wake 1/2 milk
6:45 - milk then asleep by 7


Solids were an hour after milk feed. During this time in her life, I seriously felt like I was feeding her ALL THE TIME!!! But once she was more established on solids, at 9/10mos for her, she dropped from 4 milk feeds to 3 and things got much easier.

[fireflymama]

Hi,

I'm not even sure how to answer this question.  His routine is really all over the place.  We had a few great days in the beginning of the week but the last few days have been a mess (with bad nights too.)

On the good days though, it looked something like this:

7:30 nurse
8:30 attempt solids
10:00-11:30/12 sleep

11:30/12 nurse
1 attempt solids
2:30/3 - 4/4:30 sleep

4/4:30 nurse
6:00 nurse

7:30 nurse & bottle
7:45/8 sleep

10:30 DF

He's was waking up at around 2 or 3 in the morning but he was able to get himself back to sleep.  Then he'd wake at 5 or so and I nursed him back to sleep until 7:30.
The last few days though, he's been waking up every 2 hours but the good thing is he's been putting himself back to sleep each time, except at around 5, when I nurse him.

I'm feeling better on his good days and not very well on his bad days.  I'm looking forward to feeling more stable EVERY day and not be so affected by how his days are going.

[lilac83]

It looks like you've got a really good routine going for him and that's great that he's resettling himself at night! It looks like he's got his longest stretch of A time before bedtime, you could try shortening that a bit and see if he starts sleeping a bit more soundly.

[fireflymama]

Thank you.  I'll try that.  About how long of an A time would you suggest before bedtime?

[lilac83]

I would try to stay with around 3hrs.

HTH!

[fireflymama]

This is the 5th night in a row that Jaden has woken up around 3:45/4:00 and won't go back to sleep until around 5:30.  I try to let him cry a bit, I give him homeopathic teething gel, I even gave him tylenol last night in case he was really hurting.  I finally nursed him at 5:30 and he fell asleep until 6.  I nursed him at 6 and he slept until 8.  I'm not sure why he's waking up at this time and staying up for over an hour.  He had really good naps yesterday.  He slept from 9:30-11:15 and then again from 2:15-4:15.  He was asleep by 8.  I'm wondering if I should bring his bedtime back to 7.  I'm so exhausted.  It's definitely making me feel much more depressed and frustrated 

[lilac83]

What is he doing when he wakes? I would highly doubt it's OT with those awesome naps he had. If anything, he may be having too much day sleep. You could try wake to sleep at around 2:45am to see if that will break the cycle.

[fireflymama]

When he wakes, he starts off just mildly complaining.  I leave him alone for a while.  At some point, his complaining gets worse and worse until he's standing at the end of his crib with his arms extended shrieking for me. (We have a video monitor in his room so I can see him.)  I try pu/pd, teething gel, tylenol.  When it gets close to 5, I nurse him but that often means that he's been crying and complaining for over an hour.  When I nurse him, he's not even that hungry but he does fall asleep.  I need to read in the book how to do wake to sleep.  I've never tried that.  We'll see how tonight goes.  I'm just curious why he's doing this now.  Last week, on a good night, he'd sleep until about 5 and then i'd nurse him back to sleep until 7/7:30.  I'm not psyched about getting up with him at 5 but if nursing him gives me another 2/2.5 hours, I'll do it.  It's just that now, he's up for over an hour before 5!
Thank you very much for your help.

[lilac83]

Do you think he could be going through a growth spurt and that's why he's hungrier earlier? Here's a link about wake to sleep: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64168.0 This link is mostly about naps, but it's the same for nights you would just use it about 1hr before he normally wakes.

[fireflymama]

Lilac83, such a cute pic of your lo!

I am totally confused at this point.  Jaden did his typical 4 am wake up with difficulty going back to sleep on friday night.  Sat, he had the same naps as friday and that night he slept all through the night until 6:30 am!!!  Sunday night he woke at 5 and I nursed him and last night he did the 4 am thing again!  I really can't seem to figure it out at all.  One time that he slept all night, he had a cat nap very soon before bed but the other time he had been awake over 4 hours from his last nap!  So confusing.