It was a long NW for DS, but I don't think it was reflux, because it was different than when he was a little bub and was truly in discomfort. The cry is different and his behavior was different. He's on 7.5 mg of prevacid. A while back we did go to the Dr. to see if the dose should be increased because he does a fair amount of coughing, but the DR. refused to increase the dose and prescribed and inhaler for the coughing, which we chose not to use. The coughing doesn't seem to bother him....he coughs throught hte night sometimes and doesn't wake. He did have a few toots, which led me to believe that his tummy might have been bothering him (gas) a little, but in general, my gut was telling me that it was because he wanted to fall asleep in my arms with a bottle in his mouth. He would settle, and then I would put him down and he would cry hard, then when I picked up again, he would settle (lay his head on my shoulder and relax his body) and then when I put him down he would cry hard again. It's possible that there are teeth at play here, but he isn't acting like he's teething during the day and once again, I really believe it's a falling to sleep by himself issue. I put him down for his nap this morning without giving him a bottle and put him in his crib drowsy but awake and there was minimal fuss......I then had to wake him up from his nap after 1.5 hrs (I let him have a tiny bit extra because of last night). It always seems as though he does well when the way he is put down encourages independant sleep, kwim??? The way the sleep starts is the way it continues.
OT could be a factor......I don't really know how to judge if it is. DS doesn't really give me any cues, except when he is waaay beyond OT, he gets very silly and wired. Yesterday was all 3.5 hr A times and his daytime sleep was approx 2 hrs. His nighttime sleep hasn't gotten any better since his daytime sleep went from approx 3 hrs to 2 hrs so I was thinking of letting his am nap extend to be 1 hr, then his pm nap would be 1.5 hrs, thus giving him 2.5 hrs daytime sleep. He generally wakes at 7:30 am and goes to bed at 7:45-8:15 pm, so he has a 12.25-12.75 hr day giving him somewhere around 13-14 hrs of total sleep.
So, after last night's wakings I woke up (if you can call it that since I didn't really sleep....
) with a new resolve and want to do pu/pd with LO to teach him independant sleep. DS is going to go to my mom's tonight so that DH and I can get organized to start tomorrow night and so that we can have a full night's sleep before embarking. I have a bunch of questions before starting though. I reread the sleep interview, the chapter on PU/PD in BWSAYP and also read a bunch of the FAQ threads but have some questions:
1. after doing his BT routine, I will put him into his crib and I am fairly certain that he will sit up immediately. At that point, I know I am supposed to lower him down, say my key phrase and then walk towards the door (but not leave). DS will most likely then wriggle around and flip himself over on his back, hitting his head on the side of the crib in the process and will then cry even harder. What do I do at that point? He is not up, so doesn't need p/d and I'm not really sure if I should do p/u, or try to flip him over - usually when I do that, he resists against me. Can't rub his back since he's on it and he doesn't respond to rubbing his belly (he sleeps on his tummy now).
2. for the first few nights, I am supposed to stay in the room until he is fully asleep, then after a few nights I would do wi/wo..right?
3. For the past few days with his naps, I have found that when I put him in his crib and immediately rub his back and sing him "twinkle twinkle little star" he settles and then falls asleep pretty easily and quickly..............problem is, I don't really know at what point he falls asleep, I could be rubbing him until he is sleeping, which I know will just turn into another prop. Should I try to do this, or does it work against pu/pd?
4. Do you think I need to try more tweaking with the routine before I do pu/pd? My instincts tell me that giving him back the extra 15 mins for his am nap is probably sufficient as long as I combine that with paying close attention to the last A time being 3.5 and not a minute longer.........but I was wondering what you think.
5. For NW, I go to him as soon as I hear him cry, and he is almost always sitting up, so I p/d and then try to soothe in the crib? and repeat the process the same as I did for BT? No bottle at any cost, right?
6. What happens if he cries for 3 hours.........
In your experience, how long did pu/pd take? Any other words of wisdom?
If I do this, it should solve the feed to sleep problem and the falling asleep on us, right? (assuming there is no other reason that he's waking or resisting bedtime) so I won't have to do any other weaning, etc. He should then be on the right # of bottles for his age because he won't need them to sleep anymore. He does well with solids. Had a bit of a time with him gagging for the longest while, but now he is eating all sorts of finger foods and I am fairly certain that he is getting enough to eat. For breakfast he usually has oatmeal and fruit. For lunch he usually has some sort of homemade casserole, pasta, veggies, meat. He has yogurt for a snack sometime through the afternoon, has some of whatever we have for dinner (potatoes, veggies and usually a fruit) and then sometime throughout the day he usually has a biscuit or two.
