UT/OT loop?

[afranklin]

Dear friends,
I just can't get this right. Ever, it seems. I've gotten loads of wonderful support and advice here, so I'm hoping for a little more.

I feel like a failure b/c my babe has NW almost every night. There is a solid night maybe once per month. I'm baffled by his patterns. His sleep needs seems to vary widely, I mean, even after two good night in a row, I do the same thing the 3rd day and it's a mess all of a sudden. I don't know which direction to go in... toward more or less A time. I can't tell what his 'usual' is b/c it seems to change always.

I'm *guessing* I'm in an OT/UT loop, over the course of days. How do I fix this!!? A specific question would be: what do I do after a long night, b/c letting him have a 2 hr nap the next day isn't working? Cap the nap to 1.5 hrs? I'm thinking I should try to keep total sleep to 13.5 b/c 14 seems to be too much? I don't know.

I'm doing set naps, and believe it not, it seems to have helped. But maybe things are getting worse again. I've been doing set naps for about 4 weeks. Doing the 7 WU, 12-2+ nap, 7:15 in bed one. Give or take 15 min for naps, give or take 30 for BT, as needed (although I'm apparently terrible at knowing what is needed).

Thank you a bazillion.
Amanda



Friday: 11 hour night with a WU in the early eve
6:40a WU (plus snooze? I got him at 7
11:44-2/2:15 nap (wasn't sure when he woke up)(2.25/2.5)
7:15 BT attempt
7:30 in bed
7:45 asleep

Saturday: NO NW! (11 hr night)
6:45 WU
11:50-2:17 (I woke him) (2.5hr)
7:25 in bed and sleeping soon after

Sunday: NO NW! (11.5 hr night)
7  Woke him
11:55 in bed-1:55 crying (just shy of 2)
7:14 in bed happily, no crying

Monday: Two NW (11hr 40m night)
7 woke him
11:56 in bed-2:06
7:36 sleeping, with some crying/trying since 7:19

Tuesday: 1 NW (11.5 hr night)
7:05 woke him?
12:10-2:08 crying (1 WU in the middle, crying)
7:30 sleeping, with some crying/trying since 7:15

Wednesday: 1 WU early am (like 5)(11hr +?)
Heard him at 6:15, again at 6:40+ snooze? Got him at 7
11:45 in bed- 1:55 cry (<2hr)
7 in bed, easy. (1 WU early in eve)

Thursday: 2 WU, 1 early eve, 1 early morn (11.75 hr nt)
7 WU? maybe before
12:05-2:15
7:30 in bed
7:55 asleep with plenty of crying

Friday: (<11 hr night?)
7
11:44 in bed-2:17 woke him, he cried
7:15 in bed
8:15 asleep after much protest

Sat: No WU (10.5 hr night)
6:50 WU babbling (after 10.5 hr night)
11:45-1:35 crying
6:45pm BT

Sun: 3 WU (12 hr night)
6:55 happy
12-2:05
7:35 asleep after some protest

Monday: NO NW (10.5 hr night)
6:05 WU Would NOT go back down.

[Buttonbobs]

Hi there, how old is he?

[afranklin]

Hi!
So sorry, I forgot to say. 16mos.
Amanda

[Buttonbobs]

Ok, I have to say at this age that we had quite a lot of sleep disruption from DD. I think teething and developmental leaps cause havoc for us at this age. To be honest your routine looks pretty good, have you tried medicating at all to see if this makes a difference?

How long has he been on one nap?

[afranklin]

Hi,
Once in a while if he seems frantic we'll give him ibu or acet, and that might help, though I'm not certain. He's been on one nap since Feb, at about 13 months old.

The disruption common at this age is comforting. I might be blaming myself for things beyond my control, that would be nice!

To top it off, it's like he suddenly needs less sleep. Monday was a 10.5 hr night (historically very bad!!), he had a just shy of 2 hr nap from which he woke up crying, collapsed to sleep at 7:10pm. That was a whopping 11hr 20m total A, on only 12hr 20m sleep. I was expecting a horrid night, and we got a solid 11hr night, waking up happy.

What in the world??? I'm stumped.

Is it possible that UT NW could be short and crying, and I've been interpreting him wrong for a long time? I've always thought those were OT, no matter what time of night. I've had other NW in the past that were more babbly and long and those were certainly UT.

Most of his life he's been a little on the side of low sleep needs, an hour or so less than the lowest range given here. But when he transitioned to one nap he seemed to pop onto the scale for a good long time, even beyond the adjustment phase I thought.

I guess I'm going to look at routines for older babes and see if anything looks like it might fit him better. I won't make sudden drastic changes of course (or perhaps he's making them for me), but it's something to consider.

Amanda

[Buttonbobs]

I would say if this is a dev leap blip then quite often during the leap LOs need much longer A times than usual. These don't necessarily stick around after the blip, so keep an eye out for it building and shift the times back again. Of course, it could be possible he just needed a big A time jump, but reading between the lines teeth and dev blip seem more likely to me right now.

[afranklin]

Interesting! Good to know!!
Thank you!
Amanda

[Buttonbobs]

Keep me posted honey xx