Hi! I had recently posted regarding my 7 month old's night wakings, but things have changed a bit since then so I need more advice!!
We are in the process of increasing our son's A times from 2 hours to (hopefully) around 3 hours. So far, we are at about 2.5 hours and are making improvement with nap lengths. Today went as follows:
3:30AM- wake/settled self back to sleep after 30 mins
6:00AM- wake, feed (still obviously tired when woke up)
8:20- 10:05- nap 1
12:50-3:30- nap 2
6:15- bed
After 2 hours of awake time, my son gets fussy and cries for a minute or so. He is consolable and I typically nurse him at this point as he is acting hungry. For the rest of his A time until sleep, he is happy and smiling. I guess I am concerned that he is OT due to the longer A times. He does not cry before going to sleep, and falls asleep quickly/easily. I had been trying to lengthen his A times by 10-15 minutes as advised but he was not acting tired at 2.25 hours and when put in his crib he was laughing/cooing. I did not want him to then get OT so I got him out of the crib and read books until I felt he was tired, when he then fell asleep quickly with no fussing. Am I doing the right thing? Or is it going to make him OT to increase the A times quickly? When babies are OT do they typically cry a bunch before falling asleep? Sometimes it takes our DS a long time to fall asleep in his crib but he is not fussing (he is heard kicking his legs).
My other issue is the continued NW's. He had STTN since about 3 months old, but has started waking in the past few weeks. His cry is different than any other cry I've heard from him; it is not a hungry cry and sounds so distressed. It breaks my heart to hear. He is unconsolable until I nurse him, at which point he has a complete feeding. He typically seems very restless while he is nursing and does not fall asleep while nursing. Sometimes when he is done nursing he wants to play, sometimes he falls right to sleep when laid down, sometimes he is up awhile playing. I suppose I am wondering what others think regarding the reason for his NW's. He recently cut 2 teeth (3 weeks ago) and I do not see any evidence of more teeth coming in. Should I continue to nurse him? I do not think it is a growth spurt, as it has been a few weeks. He is EBF, and we did start solids a month ago, so maybe that has something to do with it? Any advice will be appreciated!
