8 mo having horrible nws and naps are not good either - what is going on?

[annette.xx]

Hey Priya

gosh its so hard at the moment isnt it! My DS has a cold and last night cos I had let him sleep too much in day he was awake and screaming waking up every 20/30 mins until 11.30pm!!!  Horrendous!

anyway the last few days he seems to be shortening his am nap all by himself to 45/50 mins - I made the mistake yesterday of extending it and let him have an hour 15 and It backfired at night!!

one thing I do remember from last time was that if you keep a short first A time then you need it to become a shorter nap and it needs to be shortened at the first signs of pm nap shortening or multiple NW - so a couple of wks ago when my nights were good my routine was 1hr nap then 3hrs 15 then 2hrs pm nap so all in all fab but then crept in a few NW but I was still getting great naps so didnt think to change - now the naps are shortening as well so I need to nip this is the bud before I get major OT from poor naps and poor nights...

you only nap shorten when you are keeping the am A time UT and thats what we are both doing so we need to really keep cutting it or alternatively we need to push it out if we want 2 longer naps like Kara suggested.

Im pretty sure my lil man needs at least 3hrs 45/4 hrs last A as he isnt even getting sleepy on the boob now at bedtime and thats never been an issue!!

Annette.xx

[*Kara*]

Priya - I am thinking he might need an A time push... those naps are still quite short - I think you are in the UT/OT loop.. maybe push closer to 3.5 hrs in the AM?  What do you think?

[annette.xx]

ok so turns out my lil man has a cold - so that explains last nights happenings!!

[*Kara*]

Ugh - hope he gets better quickly Annette!  So hard when they are not well...

[shresmummy]

Oh no Annette, I hope he gets better soon.

We had an awful night last night. I can't remember how many nws, but one I do remember is he fed at 10:45 then woke again at 1:20 wanting a feed. I tried to settle without a feed, it took till 2:20 but he wouldn't give up! In the endi just fed him. I was soooo exhausted!

Today we had a better day nap wise ( probably making up for last night) but again tonight the nws have started. I give up!

Wake 6/6:25
Nap 9:15-0:25
Nap 1:45-3
Bedtime took in by 6:30 asleep by 6:45

Nws, he woke initially 20 mins after settled fast then again 50 mis later.

What do I o next? Nothing I try seems to help or work!!

[shresmummy]

We are online at the same time Annette!

[j.and.e]

hi shresmummy, we were in same place last wk, loads of early pm NWs and also some 1 or 3am NWs and then starting day at 5.30 or earlier. My guy was doing 1.10 nap in the am and disturbd pm nap (maybe 30min to an hr and sometimes dificult to pd or waking in the middle of nap). This has been going on for ages, but this wk he has sttn 4times! (never happened before!) Turnd out to be OT. I did early bed at 6pm and then 3hr A in the morning, and less for short nap. So if he naps for 1.10 (say 9-10.10) i do 1pm nap and hope for 1.5 or 2hr nap, then bt 6.30pm. He will wake at 5.30am, but i hope to get a gd nap routine first then slowly shift day. Am dreading DST though! My advice wud b to put up with Ebt and Ew and get gd naps and solid nite sleep 1st. Hth xx

[shresmummy]

If we weren't in an ot mess already today made sure of that! Not quite sure what tondo next.

Our day was wake 6:25ish
Nap 9:20-10:20 ( with some difficulty to put down)
Nap 1:40-2:12 (yuck!) he was not happy. But refused t resettle.

But surprisingly  was ok to last till 6 when I took him to bed. He didn't fall asleep immediately instead was calmly looking around everywhere till 6:20. Huh?? There goes my attempt at an early bt.

I think that pm nap was ot? But I thought 3h15 min A time was fairly reaonable after a 1hr nap. Perhaps I should try 3 h A time instead?

[shresmummy]

Go figure...one of the best nights we've had in ages...either he was so far into ot land he almost slipped into like a deep sleep state and is too buggered to even have nws or I am missing something big time on all the other nights.

He fell asleep by 6:20 pm, had brief nws at 6:45 and 6:55 but then has slept till 10 now with no other nws.

What do you reckon?

[*Kara*]

Super OT from that PM nap

I think he is in an UT/OT loop daily hun... if he has a decent wake time, push him to 3 hrs 15 or 20 tomorrow first thing

The other thing you could try is set naps... you are likely in the start of the 2-1 and may need to do a longer nap and a catnap instead of 2 average naps... I found that DD did much better with one catnap and a good long nap each day as opposed to two naps less than 90 mins each. 

That said, we are on our second day of one nap!  LOVE IT!

[shresmummy]

Kara,that is great! One nap is so great! How is she coping?

I am going to go the short am long pm nap route. So should I push to 3h15 min A time but then how long should the sleep be? I can't let him sleep past 10;45am cos we have to go pick up dd.

Another day very similar to yeaterday. Gosh! I am so over this. But at least he slept 40 mins inpm and 1h10 min for am. I have to try another 6 pmbt.

[shresmummy]

What a mess I am in! I not quite know how to get out of it....

Our evening was just disastrous!

Wake 6:10
Nap 9:10-10:20
Nap 1:35:2:20

I tried 6 pm bt, he refused to settle then ended up falling asleep only at 6;50!!

Then has had nw at 7:25, again at 8:10.

I have sort of being doing set nap windows. Usually between 9-9:15 and again 1:30-1:45.

But nothing is working! Boooo hoooo!