1.5-2 hour NW - 16 mo

[Mom-of-boys]

My DS2 used to be a wonderful sleeper.  For the longest time, he would only wake up once at night around 3 am to feed and then he would fall right back asleep again.  Not anymore!  For the last few weeks, he's been waking up at night and unable to settle for at least 1.5-2 hrs. 

He's not bouncing up and down happily at night when he wakes up.  He cries, and I'll lay him back down and he'll be quiet for maybe 5 minutes and then he'll cry out again.  I've tried feeding him, but that doesn't help him settle.  I've tried rubbing his back, telling him a sleepy phrase, giving him Tylenol (although not dream-medicating him). I have no idea if he's UT, OT, or something else.  I would've thought teething, but it's been going on for so long, that I'm not sure if that's it.

This is our current EASY:
Wake up 6-6:30 am
Nap 12:30-2:30 pm
BT 7:30 (usually sleeping by around 7:30)

If he happens to sleep in until 7 am, I give him a nap from 1:00-2:30 and cap it otherwise I find he is hard to settle at BT.

Today, he first woke up at 3:30 am, and he maybe fell back asleep for about 20 minutes at 6:00 am and then DS1 was up and DS2 woke up too.    I'm so confused! And tired. . If anyone could help me look at this with fresh eyes, that would be awesome!

TIA

[Mom-of-boys]

So yesterday I let him have a long nap from 12:25-2:45 to try to combat some OT and we did BT at 7:30 pm.  He woke up at 3:30 am and fell back asleep from 5:00-7:00 am.  .   Any suggestions or changes I should make to my EASY about time/length of nap and when I should do bedtime?  Any help would be great.

[Buttonbobs]

Hi there, he may well be OT overall but it is possible that this has arisen because he is UT at BT and daytime sleep is robbing from the nighttime. The other possible culprit is teething, have you tried medicating with ibuprofen (I don't know what you would call it) but it is an anti-inflammatory (not aspirin) and often can be more effective in terms of teething pain, might be worth a try.

I found the period from 16-18 months was quite disrupted for us in terms of E's sleep I'm afraid, there is a lot going on in terms of developmental stuff, teeth and routine shifts. Has he been on one nap for long?

Has

[Mom-of-boys]

Thanks for responding, Buttonbobs.  When we stretched to 1 nap at about 13 months, he woke up at 6:00 am and napped 12:00-2:30.  Then we cut it back to 12:00-2:00.  For a while, he started waking up at 7:00 am, so we switched to a nap from 1:00-3:00 and BT still at 7:00 pm.

Then he started fighting bedtime, so we cut the nap to 1.5 hours from 1:00-2:30 and BT at 7:00-7:30 pm.  That's what we've been doing since this all started, although I can't remember our exact routine because it feels like it's been going on for a long time now. 

A few nights ago, we tried keeping him up until 8:00 pm for bedtime, but he still had the same long night waking, and then was up for the day at 6 am.  I'm willing to try cutting his nap more, but I'm not sure how to make that work when's sleeping so horribly at night to prevent OT...

[Buttonbobs]

Well you might find if you cut the nap more than night will get better again. It could be teething or developmental, but if you have any idea that he might be UT then it may be worth a try.

What do you think about trying the other meds?

[Mom-of-boys]

I did try giving him meds when he first woke up, but that didn't seem to help.  And the meds I have only last 4 hours so if I give them to him when he goes to bed, they'll be worn off by the time he normally wakes up.  Or would you try to "dream-feed" them to him?

Do you think cutting the nap by 15 minutes would be good?  Like letting him nap from 1:00-2:15 and then BT at 7:30 still?

[Buttonbobs]

I think either of those things is worth a try. I could never get my DD to take a dream feed of meds but it is definitely worth a try.

Do you have ibuprofen where you are? Tylenol (which I think is what we call paracetamol) is often not as helpful for teething pain.