travel threw off our schedule. now hourly NW

[bluehour]

Hi Everyone,

we're frustrated and looking for help.  Any help appreciated!

We've been travelling with our 6m old and thus our schedule is all screwy. (baby jet lag SUCKS)   We're home now and trying to get on a schedule and to get him sleeping.  He's never been a great sleeper,  but travelling really messed it up.  Now he's waking every hour at night,  and will only sleep if we cosleep.  Sometimes he wants the boob, othertimes he just wants a cuddle. 

We'd like him sleeping in his own room,  and sleeping longer than an hour!  (sigh).  I think he'll improve once we're on a schedule and at home for awhile,  but what do we do until then?  TIA for any advice.    Answers to the questions below.

How old is your child? 6 months.
What’s his/her daily routine? we've been travelling...  so no set routine.   2 naps a day,  one morning, one afternoon,  sometimes an additional cat nap.
What’s nap routine?  See above.
How long are naps? Usually 45m,  sometimes a 20m cat nap.
What's bedtime routine? Time?  7PM,  bath, massage, boob, bed.   
Do you bottle or breastfed?? breastfeed
How much? or how long?  he empties a boob in 5-10 minutes
If breastfed.. one side or both?? (at each feed).  usually one side. he's very distracted so its hard enough getting one boob in him.
How many wakes per night? LOTS   5+.
What’s your LO like when waking at night? How long is he/she up?  crying,  looking for cuddles. 
When you go to him/her is she fussing or crying? Or is it a mantra cry? crying.
What have you tried to settle??    pacifier,  singing, music, picking up and putting down, CIO, cuddles then put into bed, cosleeping.
What do you do for A time and how long is it?  play with toy typically.  Also walks,  activity groups.   Can be over 3 hours sometimes (no schedule...)
Are there developmental issues such as teething or milestones?  he's working on crawling.
Have you introduced cereal? Why, how much, and how many times a day? (for LO’s under 6 months)
Do they have a prop? If so what is it?  Pacifier.
Do they have a lovie? No,  we've tried to introduce one but he's not interested.

[bluehour]

Thanks for the response!   We were visiting family in the US and are now back in the UK.

We only half heartedly tried CIO, and it didn't work.  I'm not above a little fussing if the baby seems to be winding down, but am very happy to avoid crying if something else works! 

We've started solids (BLW) and its going very well. 

I've been working at the following schedule for the last week (since we got home). 

7 Eat
8 Solids
9:30 Nap
11:00 Eat (sometimes earlier-- we're fighting the 20 minute and 45 minute naps)
12:00 Solids
1:00 Nap
2:30 Eat
4:00 Nap
6:00 Solids
7:00 Bed (after bath, massage and boob).

After reading the forums here I saw that our naps were too short,  so have been working on extending them and on a 3rd nap if needed.

I have also been working on putting him down awake so he learns to self soother--  he won't go to sleep straight in his cot,  so we're doing a wind down time and then when the eye lids get heavy I put him in his bed.  He usually fusses,   then I sing to him and use the pacifier.   Sometimes nothing works and we hold him in our lap until he is asleep,  then transfer him,  which works most of the time.

He's still up every few hours in the night, and I co-sleep with him from say midnight to 5 am just so I can get some sleep. Not ideal.

Its like we're starting from scratch here and I'm wondering what is most important to do.  Should we just get rid of the pacifier and deal with a very rough adjustment period?   Or wait until the routine settles in and then remove the paci? 

 

[bluehour]

we have been working to an EASY and had some real night time successes--   2 nights in a row with 1 waking.  Then we had immunization fever for 4 days, and now teething waking.  Sigh.   But atleast we know he can do it.  Still using the dummy too,  he loves it too much!