Sleep horror

[creations]

Yes, obviously you need to play it by ear and go with the flow a bit because you've all been away, come home, back to day care...it's quite a lot for all of you isn't it?
Hope the rest of the week holds at least some sleep for everyone x

[Florena49]

I guess it is always like this for us, we also have major renovations in the house and we travel a fair bit back and forth, so this os nothing new, but since we moved at the end of September its been no stop and i think its catching up with all of us and of course another baby on the way.)

[Florena49]

Well he has been a little darling in the night. He had stupid sleep, well actually 2 short sleeps at the childminder and his second sleep ended at 3.30, it was only 40 minutes, so he didnt settle for bed until 7.30
I anticipated stupid waking but this is what happened

7.30bt
Woke at 10.30 came to bed and slept till 6! I told him it was sleepy time still and he went back to sleep until 7.15!

No crying in the night, no trying to find boobie, nothing.

I guess next step would be to keep him in his cot, we just managed to catch up on sleep, will see when best to start on that, but dont want to drag it out.

[creations]

Sounds good!!  What a great boy to go back to sleep until 7.15

I might have asked this before, can you try a W2S when you go to bed? It may get him through that 10.30 NW.  Just tuck him in or give a light nudge until he makes a movement which will indicate he has shifted to a new sleep cycle.
The other thing you might try is some reassuring words at that time, the kind of thing you'd say at BT, yk have a nice sleep, I love you, kind of thing.

[Florena49]

I know U couldnt believe it myself tbh, i could see he wasnt all that sleepy and it took him a few minutes of mumbling to himself to ge to sleep, and im sure its because of the two nap day and an early first nap yesterday. I will try w2s as soon as we start getting him to stay in his cot all night. Although his room is ready it is pretty empty there and his furniture will arrive on monday, hopefully it will be a bit more welcoming and less empty for him. Good idea i will try the reassuring words, i guess a bit like sleep talk?

[creations]

Yes, I mean you could do a proper sleep talk script if you know what you're doing, focusing on his comfort and happiness to sleep in his own bed/cot, happiness to go back to sleep when it is still dark and have restful sleep. I wouldn't be able to advise on a script though as I never read the book. I do find reassuring words seem to help DS in a general way even without a ST script.

[Florena49]

Ok ill hve a look, i would be scared to wake him with a script a couple of words souds better.

Is there a regression generally in the first week of Ny changes? Because last noght wa as bad as night 2! ;(

[creations]

I think when there is so much going on there is bound to be sleep disturbance.  The difficult part to making even more changes is to choose when. You can't do it when you are all exhausted, but disturbed nights are going to continue to make you all tired.

[Florena49]

I can see a little bit of a pattern,  every time he has rubbish sleep duribg the day we get struggles in the morning, around 5.30ish. So generally

He goes to bed at 7-7.15
Wakes around 11.30 husband takes him to bed, then he wakes around 5.30 and struggles to go back to sleep, but generally goes back to sleep until 7.

All the furniture and the blind arrive next week, so from thirsday we will be trying to keep him in his cot for the night and see ifthe patter changes

[creations]

I think you're actually doing great to have found a routine which gets you all some sleep for now

Can you try to put him down to bed 15-30 min earlier if he's had rubbish sleep in the day? It may help to prevent the 5.30am WU.
Blinds should help, mine will still wake at 5/5.30 if there is even a hint of morning light, it amazes me, especially in the winter where everyone would consider it still dark at that time but mine just knows the sun is on it's way...even though it's still dark when we head out for nursery at 8.20am!

[Florena49]

I must say im rather eased with the progress and how quickly he got used to no boobie and as lovely as breastfeeding is he just wanted comfort. I can see so many benefits to this. He eats so well during the day now and we cuddle more and all sleep better.

You are right about the blind and for us its not actually the darkness its more the need not to have the distractions. We usually watch out of the window and spot the dogs with Os so as soon as we are in his bedroom thats what he wants to do and of course he doesnt know when to stop, so this could go on for a while! Blind would really help with that and pulling the blind down has always been the signal for sleep.
He will settle 15 min early on those days, but sometime its near to impossible time wise. On the days when he is at the childminders i pick him up at 5 and we still have dinner and bath to do, and usually its ok unless we get stuck in traffic. On days he is with me its not a problem at all, but generally he either sleeps ok or i manage to resettle him, so no problem there.

Yesterday he had a monster nap over 2 hours, and we paid for it in the night, he really struggled to go to sleep in the early hours. So long nap doesnt work either or at least I havent figured out when to do BT if he has a long nap.
Today he woke at 7.10
Nap 12.20-woke after 30 mins, still asleep now though.

[Florena49]

I think we meed some help with our routine.
We have been sticking to
7 wu
12 nap
7bt

But in the last week Os wakes in the first couple of hours and then around 5.30-6am, and as before it was easy to resettle him now it is impossible to do that in the morning

Yesterday way

Nap 12-2 (i had to resettle him, he was Ot as morning hours were messy)
7.15 BT it wasnt as easy as usual
 to settle him
He woke at 10.30pm and 6am and stayed in bed with us clapping his hands and laughing, my husband got him up at 7, so by the time its nap ti e at 12 he would have been awake for 6 hours.
Im not prepared to wake at 6 every morning but im not sure whether its the first a time ir the a time to BT that is the problem.

[creations]

How about move the nap 15 mins later and keep BT as it is, see how it goes for several days and look again?

As a heads up, I think he's around 15 months now, yes? You could be moving towards the 18 month regression which for some is as early as 15/16 months. Even if you get the routine perfect in the next couple of weeks/month you could see it go haywire again soon after and for no other reason than developmental/age.

He seems to be getting a longer stretch of sleep at night though I think. If he is waking early hours then sleeping until 5.30/6 this seems to be quite an improvement!  Any regularity to the early evening NWs?

[Florena49]

He is 15 months now, oh no kust when things seems to be getting better!
Yes we are gettibg a longer stretch and he is in his cot for his nap and im half way out of the room too, so we are makibg huge progress.
 Went for a nap at 12.13 was tired, bless him, but settled within seconds.


When he has 1.30 nap and BT at 7 he does a loger stretch to start with, but with a 2 hour nap he will do 2-3 hours and then wake, but will then sleep until 5.30-6 like he did this morn.
So im wondering if he needs more A time after a 2 hour nap too. It seems he cant manage 14 hours sleep in 24 hours, its always 13-13.5

[creations]

OK. So either cap his nap at 1hr 30 or on the days he has a 2hr nap try a later BT. I like set nap and BT at this age, I think it works best for most toddlers so you might want to move BT 15-30 mins later regardless of nap length. So there's a couple of options there to try or to choose from, whichever you feel is going to suit him.  I know for instance mine was much better with a 2hr nap even though this eventually led to a much later BT, capping just didn't work for him but it works great for others. See what suits him best.