To be honest, I don't think I can tell anymore. I get so confused. I often end up in tears myself. But I read your reply this morning and realised that probably I let him cry/scream too much on his own since HK. Because my presence seems to keep him from falling asleep. I did what you do, too. I didn't say anything, just laid my hand down and he could hold when he wanted to. But when he was settling to sleep, he would look up to check if i was there, started moving, holding onto my arms and wouldn't settle anymore. What would you do at this stage?
What I did was, to say to him, it's sleepy time now, see you when you wake up. Then I got up and left him. He would start screaming again but within a minute, he would calm down and settle and drift off. Was it letting him cry? There were times also after we're back, in the middle of his nap, he just woke and screamed in a rythmic way and 2-4 mins, he resettled to sleep. So I started getting confused as to what i should be doing. 2 nights ago, he woke at 23:15 and I went to him right away. It's like the episode in the paragraph above, so I had to leave him. Then he went back to sleep within 10 mins.
just now for his 1st nap. He started something like his usual old mantra, not really crying. Then he went quiet. half a minute later, he started with louder cry, and then kind of his old mantra. there were about 3, 4 rounds of this and he suddenly started again and cried and then screamed all within 5 secs and I went in. (This is after reading your reply.) Held him and he was so tired, he wanted to fall asleep in my arms but then he started arching (so i remember Tracy said no fighting.) so I laid him down. It's just one big fit in the bed. Pushing with legs, arching, etc. in the end, PD worked again. The whole process, from the moment I put him in his bed till he fell asleep was 55mins.
Do you have I have breached his trust already?! oh.. yesterday:
6:20 am wake up A 2h25
8:45 S 45mins (first time since 20 days no crying when he woke)
9:30 A 3h
12:30 S 40 mins (crying)
13:08 A 3h50
17:00 S (we coaxed some AP sleep in DS) 1h15
18:15 A 1h20
19:35 S 12h
YEAH, he woke at 7:40 this morning!! But this morning he's not his usual happy self. Cranky, so we tried to follow his tired cues and put him to bed at 10 but in the end, he finally slept at almost 11am.
I also removed the night light in his room since 2 nights ago and perhaps that caused the night screaming? but perhaps it helps with the morning wakings to resettle himself. The last mornings, he probably out of habit, screamed at 5:35. This morning, he only turned and made tiny sounds and went back to sleep.
I keep waking at 5. HW for sure...
Not sure how to get out of it yet... I started reading the BW for Toddler. I redid the questionaire and DS is still textbook with a bit of spiritedness. So confused.
