9 month old NW at least 4x- think SA!

[Caro15]

Baby is turning 9 months tomo. For the past 4 weeks, since I have returned to work his sleep pattern has become very disturbed (thats why Im thinking its seperation anxiety), but he is fine when I leave him in the morning. Beforehand he was waking once through the night (he has never slept the whole night!), he doesn't feed through the night but when it is hot I will give him a drink of water, he has also been teething on a few nights so been having his powders on those nights. We did have one night sleep at the weekend using the frequency ipod app to get him to sleep that a friend had brought round. Getting him to sleep is also becoming a difficulty, fighting sleep with lots of crying and can take 30 mins to get to sleep, wereas he used to go to sleep himself when he was put in his cot awake. Its going very downhill. I'm a single Mum so have learnt to cope with the lack of sleep, but being back at work and waking 4-5 times in the night has been killing me, so I have been naughty in work nights and put him in my bed as it is the only thing that calms him and he goes straight to sleep and sometimes he lets me put him back into his cot and others he kicks off and he ends up with me for the restr of the night (its only been that bad 3 or 4 nights over 4 weeks). He's never really slept much through the day and he is a live wire.

E - 7.30
A - 8 till 9.30
S - 9.30 - 10.0/10.30
E - 12.0
A - 12.30 -2.30
s - 2.30 - 3.30
E - 5.0
A - 5.30 - 6.30
S - 7

Any help would be great on how to get him to sleep! Thanks

[empowered mama]

hi there and welcome

It is looking to me like you could bump your first A time a bit, as LOs this age are doing 3-4 hours activity time between naps.  Often, this can be the cause of EWs and sometimes NWs. 

It looks like your first nap is only 30min - 1 hr, is that right?  If so, you may want to consider shortening the next A time a little to try to get a long nap in the afternoon.  4 hrs is a long time for a LO to go on a short nap. 

It does sound to me though like some of the NWs are either due to discomfort (more teeth perhaps?) or that a prop is involved.  I can understand how difficult it must be to have all the NWs and have to get up for work (esp. as a single mom!).  Really I suggest doing what you need to do to make it.  However, the BW method encourages teaching LOs to sleep in their own cot which takes a lot of hard work at first, but can pay off later once your LO can sleep more independently.

HTH and hang in there!

[Caro15]

Thanks for that! A few things... He has more teeth coming through, I can see them just under the gum, so yes teething has been to blame on the odd night. With regard to naps its only recently he's up'd his naps, before the lack of sleep he was napping 30mins to 1 hour twice a day, now he at least sleeps for 2 hours. Will try to get him to nap earlier.....possibly he'll go to bed earlier then too! He slept right through last night, he hasn't done that since he was about 2 months old ( he did two nights over Christmas.....best Crimbo present ever) and he ate a lot more food yesterday and had a bottle of milk and a bottle of water before bed, so tried to do the same today. Fingers crossed!

[empowered mama]

yes, it does sound like teething is most likely the culprit.  Good news is, it is very short lived (until the next one comes!)  Hope things continue to stay on track for you