Thanks so much for your reply MasynSpencerElliotte - I hadn't really thought about him having low sleep needs, but if he is only getting average of 9.5 hours and is as functional and generally happy as he is (apart from being extremely demanding in the couple of hours before bedtime
) then perhaps that is the case?
Last night was a disaster though... although we had done really well with naps yesterday and he'd had 3.5 hours day sleep, he was very cranky after his catnap - he is teething - and was giving me lots of tired signs, so having read lots online about how early bedtimes can cure all sorts of sleep issues, thought we'd give it a go.
BIG mistake.
He was asleep about 20/30 mins earlier than usual and went down without any trouble and woke at 11pm for a feed, going straight back to sleep. However there was a major cot party between 2:45am and 4:45am and then he only slept for 2x 45min between 5:40 and 7:15 - however the fact that he was so sleep deprived meant that he did go back to sleep after waking at 5:40am (admittedly it was in bed latched onto me - but even that hasn't been working with the recent 5:45am WUs)
The funny thing is, his total sleep for the night was
exactly 9.5 hours!!
So what is that telling me? Should I be committing the cardinal sin and moving his bedtime back instead? Would that mean he'd sleep a fraction longer in the morning? Even 6am would be fine - I just don't want what Tracy says about EWUs getting earlier and earlier to happen!!
I took your advice and pushed his first A this morning to 2hr 45m - so we will see what difference that makes to our day
If he does a good nap, I am hoping to push the next A too and try and avoid the CN to see how that works out. With our previous disastrous napping, he has missed the CN before and I don't remember it causing any major issues beyond the ones that already exist - he was just really cranky and i'm used to that in the evenings anyway.
He doesn't have any reflux issues though - I think he just likes the coziness of the carseat and the fact that I throw a blanket over it, so it is really dark. The bedroom has a blackout blind, but our window is a particularly sunny one so it's never totally dark. He seems to be very sensitive to light, even in the car when he is tired, he'll just stare out of the window but as soon as I throw a blanket over him, he's out like a light!
I agree that he probably needs to be fed at night and I have no real issues with the nightfeeding, as long as he is sleeping for decent chunks in between. The night I mentioned where I tried to resettle, had only been 2 hours from last feed, so I was fairly certain he was't hungry. The 3 hours crying started because he couldnt work out why he wasn't getting his normal treatment and then continued and ended up in hunger. Was horrible though because although I knew he was hungry after the first 2 hours, I had read what Tracy had said about once committing to resettling you need to make sure that you do not 'give in' - hence it taking 3 hours. Was really awful and not something i'm keen to do again in a hurry.
Thanks so much for your advice...will see how we go with the longer A
