I am using PUPD to address a terrible NightWaking issue my 9.5 month old son is having. He has been severely hit by most of the Wonder Weeks and month 8 was a potent mix of WW, separation anxiety, traveling and milestones (crawling, cruising, babbling nonstop, but sadly, he remains a toothless wonder). He was a mess for weeks (clingy, fought bedtime, came awake every 5 minutes) and we rode it out for a while hoping things would put themselves right (he was sleeping 8-10 hr stretches before it and had dropped all nightfeeds except a DF at 10:45). 6 weeks later most of his other issues are sorted but the NightWaking has worsened to the point of him waking up every hour on the dot.
I began PUPD 6 nights ago and he responded really well. He goes to bed easily now, his routine has fallen back into place and over the course of 6 nights, his wakings have reduced from 7-8 to 2-3. But the problems now are:
- he still cannot fall asleep completely independently. When I put him down awake, he either immediately begins to play (though he was yawning during the wind down routine) or he lies there whining and scratching his face till he rolls over and stands up in the crib. I lay him down again and we do a repeat loop. I have to resort to holding him horizontally in my arms till his eyelids begin to droop, and quickly popping into the cot, in which case he falls asleep in a second. Is he waking up because he did not fall asleep independently to begin with? Could you please share some suggestions on addressing this? I also have a thread running on this in the PUPD board and waiting for suggestions there as well.
- The second big problem I have is: After a bt of 7;30 pm, he wakes once around the 60-90 min mark where he is super easy to resettle. He then gives me about a 4 hour stretch (since the last 3 nights) post which he wakes around 1:30-2:30 at which point it is IMPOSSIBLE to resettle. We have tried singing, patting, sshing, PUPD and he will have none of it. He's crabby for about 30-45 mins after which he is wide awake and ready to play. In desperation, I have tried rocking and nursing and interestingly, that doesn't help him settle either. After playing a little with the night light on, he finally tires 2 hours after his wake time and then falls asleep with the lightest of rocking.
What is going on? Is this normal, perhaps a sleep regression phase that will pass? I am mortally afraid I'm teaching him that night time is play time. Please tell me what to do! I wondered if it was EASY related but he's dropped some day nap sleep recently and seems on par with the sample routines for his age group.
- finally, how should I handle the shortfall of sleep resulting from the long NW? He's happy to extend his second nap of the day but I'm not sure that's such a good idea. On day 4, I pulled up his second nap and let him sleep for 2.5 hrs straight to make up for his NW, still waking him up by 4 pm to stay on schedule, but I felt that he was seriously UT at BT that evening.
A typical day for him now looks like:
6:30: WU
7:00 - BF
8:15 - Breakfast solids
10:00- Nap1 (45-60 mins)
11:00 - BF
12:15 - Lunch solids
2:15 - Nap2 (90 mins, sometimes need to resettle him at 45 min, I try to ensure a total of 2.5 hrs nap time, waking him up by 4 pm latest)
3:45 - BF
5:00 - Dinner solids
7:10 - Bf and wind down with fan for white noise (does not use lovey or paci)
7:30 - in bed and generally asleep
10:45: DF
NWs for last 2 nights:
#1:
BT: 7:25
NW1: 7:55 (PU and was asleep by PD)
NW2: 12:30 (In the excitement of his first long stretch of sleep, I forgot the DF
!! Fed him at this point and he was fast asleep when I put him down)
NW3: 2:30-4:00 (Just wouldn't settle in the cot. Tried rocking, singing, shushing and finally nursing, nothing helped. He started gurgling at some point and then I just let him play in the cot till I saw him yawn. Picked him and he was asleep in minutes).
NW4: 4:30-5:00 (PUPD 2 times)
WU: 6:30
#2:
BT: 7:30
NW1: 9:30 (Rolled him onto his side and shushed, asleep in a few minutes)
NW2: 1:15-3:15 (Repeat of the previous night. Mewled and cried through all efforts of resettling. Wide awake 45 minutes after waking up. Played till 3:10. Picked him up at first yawn and asleep few minutes later).
NW3: 5:00 (Fell asleep within a minute)
WU: 6:20 am
My reading on the forum indicates that playfulness at night generally means UT and a need to lengthen A times but I am nervous about truncating naps any further. He is well established on solids and is a happy, active baby during the day.
Please help! I am a high sleep need individual (do moms count?) and had given myself 2 weeks to sort out the NWs. But honestly, another week like this one and the two of us might just give up on night sleep all together and use our time more effectively, say by fighting crime. Hey Batman, need a hand?