HELP our day started at 3.30am!

[*Jo*]

Caleb used to sleep 12 hours solid. then he got croup and this disrupted most of his sleep. Hes better now though, has been better for about three days, taking odd but really good naps, however we have these NW's all of a sudden, some lasting an hour and a half. today its 5am, we have been up since 3.30am, after a NW at 1.15am lasting 15mins (using hand on back or HOB as i will refer to ) we have done HOB this morning, I thought there must be something not quite right for him to go this long so i picked him up, he passed wind and started falling asleep on me, put him back in his cot and the crying began again. he gets to the point where hes nearly asleep, sometimes even quiet and then bang! all of a sudden he just starts up again, this happened three times this morning.

Yesterdays 1st nap did go a bit haywire and we needed to use HOB for 15mins to get him to sleep as he was screaming but usually theres no issue with naps. I really dont know what to do about these NW's. i thought it was teeth as he does have a few top ones trying to come through for the past three weeks. so i gave him panadol at bedtime and again at the 1.15am wake up but obviously not at the 3.30am wake up. DH did HOB at the 3.30am wake up and he was asleep by 3.50am, woke up again at 4.15am and we are were we are now, Dh is in there doing HOB as well. Even when he was sick with croup he didnt wake this much, its doing my head in! I even brought him into our bed (we never do this) at 4.30am thinking if hes that upset then he must really need our comfort, nope he just started PLAYING! so taht was the end of that.

Its now 5.30am, he is still crying so ive resorted to giving him a bottle. it must be hunger, i cant think what else it could be for him to be awake this long.

[brenda2]

HUGS!
my lo had croup last winter.  it really knocked her out and she was sick for about a week - really bad for 3 days but not herself for a week.  she slept a lot during the day and was up a lot at night during this time.  we did a  lot of AP to comfort her and it took a long time to get back on track after she had recovered.
make sure he really is better before you start in on the sleep training to get him back on track. 
what about a drink of water or something if he's awake at night?  my lo was talking when she was sick so she could tell us how she was feeling which helps a lot, but i'm sure their little throats are really sore.  we also ran a humidifier in her room to help with the breathing.
also remember their a times are going to be shorter if he's sick so if you are following the regular A times he may be OT.
hugs i know it can be tough!

[*Jo*]

well the he polished off the bottle and went to sleep at 5.30, woke up at 7am so he lost 2 hours sleep and then only slept an hour and a half. im soooo tired today.

He hasnt had the cough since Sunday adn today is Tuesday so i figured hes alot better. I have people coming to stay this weekend and i cant have a screaming crying baby up for two hours through the night! Im starting to stress out about it. I thought since hes been an independant sleeper all his life it wouldnt take long to get back on track.

[Tweakster]

Hi Jo, it does sound like he is waking from discomfort in some instances.  It could be that most of the symptoms are all gone but his body is still working on recovering.  He is going to get back on track...but it just might take some time.

Or just to throw something out there...now that he is feeling better...do you think he is looking to increase his A?  I also just wonder since you mention that he is playing at the early hours and that it took you a long time to get him down for the first nap when it normally doesn't.  Maybe he needs to push that nap out more? 

Hugs!!!

[*Jo*]

Hi Wendy, i was thinking the same thing about the discomfort and the A time too, but then when i changed his nappy this morning he had pooed, i couldnt even smell it till i opened the nappy and there was alot of it, so i think maybe he pooed in the night and thats why he wouldnt go back to sleep or why he kept getting close to it and then all of a sudden waking up, i have noticed he will not sleep if he has a pooey nappy.

anyway with the A time, yes he usually does 3 hours 15 mins A time but yesterday with that first nap and HOB. it worked out to be around 3.5 hours A time and he slept about an hour, i thought he would only sleep half an hour if it took so long to get him to sleep and all worked up with HOB like that. then he went 3 hours A time after that and slept 2 hours (i had to wake him up) but he only lasted 2.5 hours before he was rubbing his eyes and wanting to go to bed, so i put him to bed at 6.15pm and he went straight to sleep. total A time for that one was 2 hours 45mins

Today he has bright red cheeks and is moaning heaps so looks like the teeth have started up again, when it rains it pours huh! i dont know if i can stretch his A time with teething now appearing though.

[*Jo*]

oh and i just stretched his A time by about 10mins now and he was mantra crying but fell asleep. when i first went in there earlier with him he started acting like he did yesterday, crying and not settling. He is definately teething, we gave him a chewing ring and he chewed it like a monster and he was shaking thats how hard he was biting on it. gave him nurofen and hylands but still in a bit of pain, gave him a dummy to chew on for bed as well. i will do just about anything at the moment to help him not be in pain.

I think you may be spot on about all this wendy, lets see how tonight pans out!

[Tweakster]

Let us know how you get on...we were up from 1:50 - 3:45 last night so I feel for you!!!

It's so much guessing with these LO's...and then whatever it is passes and they are on to something else. 

[*Jo*]

ugh well no NW's at least but here we are at 5.30am after 10 hours sleep. I know some babies can go on 10 hours but i dont think Caleb can, not for long periods of time.

I snuck in a CN at 5.45pm last night because he had only had an hour nap and a 45 min nap and was about to go to bed at 5.45pm and i thought "this is getting ridiculous, i know early to bed doesnt mean early to rise but in our case thats just not true" If he goes to bed before 6pm he sleeps 12 hours usually anything later than that and he seems to sleep less. so he had a 30 min cn and went to bed an hour later at 7.30pm, slept through till 5.30am. feels alot better than a NW, at least it was a solid block of sleep! but I just dont know what else to do. He is teething the top teeth and one of them i can really feel today so i know he is in a bit of pain which makes it worse because it just feels like getting back on track is taking weeks to even begin to try. Its one thing after another.

First it was thosse top teeth, then he got Croup which the teething seemed to stop for, then he got a cold and now thats all passed hes back to teething again. not one day for the past few weeks has he not had something wrong with him!

AP doesnt work for Caleb much so i dont know what else to do except HOB and this mornign he was screaming so pitifully i nearly cried for him, so after half an hour i just got him up for the day.

Its not looking good for my visitors this weekend

[*Jo*]

hmmmm wendy, perhaps this A time jump is greater than i first thought, i just got him to 3.5 hours this morning and hes been sleeping for over an hour now..... might be something in this to the NW's! heres hoping!

[*Jo*]

OH MY GOSH!!!! its 6am, hes been awake since 4.30am!!! ive tried everything, nappy change, feed, panadol, hugs, Hand on Back, nothing is working! im starting to lose the plot here, DH is in his room now still with him, he just keeps on crying. He went to bed at 7.45pm so this is so not enough sleep.

I dont know what to do anymore, im feeling so lost with this. In fact im starting to rethink our plans of TTC again. HOw did we go from a solid 12 hours to NW's that last up to two hours and EW's??

I think im gonna have to cancel my visitors this weekend, it was supposed to be a pampering girls night at my house while DH is away at Mens Camp but i just cant subject them to this crying at 3.30-5.30am!

[brenda2]

Hugs
you'll get through this and he will go back to sttn. Really. It will just take some time. My dd1 always had ews with teeth. She sttn from 7 mo but there was always teeth or illness or something that throws it off. But they do get back to what their normal is
if you don't feel you can handle it then can el your visitors, I'm  sure they'll understand, or you can explain the situation and hand out earplugs at the door!
Really there's always something... We are still goingthrough teething pains and now potty training at night. So between the two of them we are up a lot!  And dd1 is over 2 years.
Good luck.  I bet it will sort itself out when he's feeling better as long as yu avoid the AP and stay super consistent.  Like I said before we had the worst time getting back on track after dd1 had croup. It's really tough on them. 

[*Jo*]

thanks Brenda, i have no idea whats going on with his body in regards to the croup, he hasnt had the cough now for 4 days so i just figured he was over it.

we finally got him to sleep at 6.10am after i put him on his side and patted his back, it worked instantly! i dont know if it was that or the panadol kicking in but it worked, we havent used patting in months because he used to hate it with a passion, he would scream harder, arch his back and writhe around almost as if to get away from me. but this time it worked.

Im so tired, i let him (and us) sleep till 8am today, I really dont want to cancel my friday night, i so need this time with the girls. I think i will tell them there is a high chance he will wake up and if they dotn want to stay over they dont have to

[alethiaperry]

Wow.  reading your thread is like reading my own story.  We got through it though and made it through last night with no NWs or EWs.  After I got DS caught up on sleep, I increased his A to 3.25 in am and 3.5 in pm.  This has really helped his naps and his whole night really.  It was dif to believe, cause only a short month ago I had him on a 4 hour routine (I didn't see the signs to increase his A)... then EVERYTHING happened at once... standing, teething, UT/OT... I feel like we have our baby back though.  Just stayed consistant at night.  Naps seem to be sorting themselves out slowly on their own.  He's always been an independant sleeper though, so I guess I had confidence that he could lengthen them without help now at his age... once I got the As right. 
Here's hoping to a good night with your girls.

[brenda2]

you do deserve a great night out with the girls!  i'm sure they'll understand and he'll probably have a great night that night just because you've been worried about it 

[*Jo*]

thanks ladies, he slept through last night with no NW's he went to bed at 7.30pm and slept till 6am so heres hoping things are getting better! even if he does those same times tonight i will be happy!!!