where did my sleep go???

[irishprettykitty]

ok Finn is now 11 months and whilst he has never been a great night sleeper things have gotten so much worse.
Routine is as follows (or at least it used to be)

Wake at 7
breakfast of toast porridge and fruit.
Plays til about 9.30 then nap for an hour (normally goes down quite easily)

wake at 10:30 and then usually takes 4-5 ounces of milk. also has snack of rice cakes and strawberries.

Play for while (usually trying to walk after cats!) then lunch at 12:30-1.
normally chicken or fish with veg and pasta.
Also has water from cup.
1/1:30 nap til about half two (can fight this even though rubbing eyes and yawning)

half two up and sometimes milk. play til 4:30 then dinnner
again fish/chicken and veg and pasta or potatoes.

start to wind down with quiet play and reading books.
5:45 bath time where he plays for about half hour then gets bedtime massage.
Half six bottle of 7 ounces and more wind-down and cuddles.
bed for 7.

He is now not napping, not sleeping at night. he fights it even though is exhausted.
during the night he cries alot in his sleep, eventually waking himself and crying quite hard. this happens 5-6 times a night. very hard to settle back to sleep. now waking at 5.30 and not sleeping until 1 pm. have tried shh/pat, pu and pd and even ap. I am so tired and running out of ideas.
Pain killers, cold water, teething gel, more milk, soothers, cuddles nothing is working. Any ideas help or guarantees that this wont last??? PLEASE!!
a vey tired mummy

[anna*]

As you know you're probably approaching the 2-1 nap transition phase which does make sleep go wonky. To make the transition (gradually!) you will start to shorten one nap so that the other can lengthen, so you eventually (usually around 14-15 months) end up with 1 nap at around 12.

That aside, the thing that jumps out from your routine is that the A times are very uneven. The first A is only 2.5hrs, which is very low for this age, so the first thing I'd do is try to push that nap a bit later. Then on his current routine the next A is again only 2.5-3hrs. If his first nap is an hour or more he can probably manage at least 3.5hrs here. That would bring your afternoon nap a bit later so you wouldn't have to have a 4.5hr A before bed. My hunch, which of course could be wrong, is that he's undertired for his first two naps and then overtired from that long A before bed. Evening out your A times a bit might help.

[irishprettykitty]

Hi Anna,
I know the first a time is very short but I have been trying to lengthen this for months, he used to start yawning and rubbing his eyes (his signals for bed) just half an hour after he got up we are already trying to lengthen this. As for the afternoon one its the same, he gives all the signals of being tired, is closing his eyes in my lap and when I bring him upstairs its normally straight to sleep again.
its only in the last two weeks that we have had MAJOR problems here.
We tried keeping him up longer this morning.. he woke at 6 and was back in bed asleep  for half 9. he was up for ten. By two o'clock he was back in bed with a little bit of fuss ( he wanted to go at half one but again trying to extend it) and was awake and screaming by half two. We tried everything to get him back to sleep until we finally gave up at 4. he is in bed now but again there was lots of screaming and refusing to lie down.
I just dont understand what has happened in the past two weeks. he has never slept through the night but it was bearable at least. now we simply dont get any sleep.

[anna*]

Have you tried walk in walk out? http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=80750.0