18mo - Long NWs after recent illness and lots of AP

[Coopers_daddy]

Hello all!  First is a praise report. I had posted on here a few months back and my LO was doing great! She would even occasionally sleep through the night. We had eliminated all MOTN nursings. She would go to sleep in as little as 5 minutes with or without us in the room. She was a sleeping champ!  Then the ear infection/UTI combo, antiobiotics, dehydration, and 24 hours in the ER, and all is lost at the moment.

It has been a week since we left the ER. she is back to normal, but is VERY spoiled right now. In the ER she was suffering from dehydration and the ticket that got her out of the ER was that she is a nursing champ. She was held for 24 hours straight and nursed at least once every hour. Now, she wants to do that every time she wakes up. Who can blame her?

We dont have an EASY schedule, but this is what we have right now for bedtime:

Bed time: 6:30 to 7. This requires me swaying and holding her for around 20 minutes after she nurses with lights on in her rocking chair. She usually wakes up as I lay her down and am able to pat her back down in about 10 minutes.
NW: 1am to 3am.  Usually last somewhere b/t 1 to 2 hours. She does NOT want Daddy anymore. She screams very loudly and makes it known that she wants her mama and she she nurses in bed. So she does. I put her back down after an hour or more after her nursing. Lots of holding/swaying, and rocking if she will let me.
EW: 5:30 am. Same as NW1.  2nd verse, same as the first. Except sometimes I hold her until 6:30 so that way she can at least get some more sleep.

My question: Any advice to deal with a screaming child who screams so loud for mama that she can be heard even from inside the garage? I wonder what the neighbors think about that part?  oh well.  Before we stopped the nursings and the wakings ceased. Now I dont know how to stop the nursings.

Please help!!!

-One physically exhausted daddy.

[Coopers_daddy]

Oops!  Thanks for moving this over here

[*Becky*]

Hi,
Sorry to hear about the illness, that sounds quite traumatic for you all.

Were you feeding in the night previous to the illness? If she is all better I think it would be best to just stop this now as it will become harder and harder to break. If she wants her mum could mum deal with the NWings rather than you? We can help with methods to use but it really does need to be a consistent approach so that she knows mum and dad are on the same page and are not going to feed her.

How did you teach her independent sleep? Is she used to WIWO or GW?

Also - posting her routine would be useful.

Becky

[Coopers_daddy]

We had eliminated the MOTN nursing before the illness and that was actually quite easy to do. She would take a sip of milk from her sippy cup and that was good for her.  yes, it is time to break the MOTN nursing all together. She does want her her mum, but LO gets pretty upset when she does not get to nurse from mum.

Last time we used an adaptation of GW. I would sit by her crib and tell her it is bed time. She is safe. She needs to lay down, and she would listen for hte most part and go to sleep in less than 20 minutes. Sometimes as quickly as 5 min.

She is the 2nd child, so her routine is not as rigid as big brothers was. this is the general routine:

Wake: 5:30 to 6:30, nurse in bed then breakfast at the table
Lunch: 11:30
Nap: 12 to 1 or 2. Naps are anywhere b/t 30 min to 2 hours. She usually wakes up around the 45 min mark and we put her back to sleep
Dinner: 5:45
Bath: 630
Bed 7pm.
First waking: Usually around 11pm
2nd waking: somewhere b/t 1 and 3am

Last night she was awake from 1am to 3:30.  She wanted mama. So she nursed in bed (which I did not mean to bring her to mama but I did before I realized it. Habit I suppose). I took her and tried to get her back to sleep in her crib 20 minutes after waking up and she was done nursing. She was very content in my arms and did not want to lay down. I finally got her to lay down around 2am, but she would not fall asleep. She just laid in bed with me patting her very contently for a very long time. I got frustrated and left her in there for a bit. mama took over and that is when the screaming began. I ended up having to take back over again and got her to sleep in my arms and left her room finally at 3;30.  I am tired just talking about it.

What is step 1?  Eliminate MOTN nursing?

Thanks,
Really tired Daddy

[*Becky*]

Step 1 is eliminate the MOTN nursing for sure. She is not hungry but now needs feeding to settle back to sleep. I would decide to stop and just stop. It will be tough initially but if you are consistent then she will get the message. If you leave a sippy in her cot then just leave water, not milk.

From looking at the routine I wonder if she is a bit OT. On the days she is up early and only naps an hour I would def have her in bed earlier.

[Coopers_daddy]

Ok. Not sure what happened, but she slept through the night last night from 7 to 6:45am!!  We'll see if it continues

[*Becky*]

great