7.5 months, new bedtime battles. ?EASY tweak or SA??

[nicolemca]

Hello all,
This is the third time I'm writing this post, it keeps disappearing on me JUST when I get to the end (URRRGH!) so it'll be a bit more abbreviated!!!
DS2 7.5months, angel baby, always happy, tolerates anything that is thrown at him, overtiredness, overstimuation with no apparent effect on his behavior, sleep, appetite. So amazing!
Healthy boy, breastfed, tolerating solids 3x/day and will eat anything and everything.
Has been BW since birth, self soothes by thumb sucking and is an IS. STTN since 4.5 months off and on, solidly for the past month (YAY!!!) Bedtime routine has always been set as bath, stories and songs, then BF. Since 6 months the final feed has been in his room in the dark, because his older brother, cats, plants, speck of dust is entirely more interesting that breastfeeding. He doesn't always fall asleep during this feed but if he does, he can be put down and he USED to continue sleeping no problem. Over the past month however, he would wake up 10-30 minutes after being put down and would cry out, and sometimes needed help resettling, could take up to 30 minutes to get back to sleep.

During the last week no matter the situation leading up to bedtime he is freaking out as soon as he is laid down and will require LOTS of PUPD, cuddles, reassurance to get back to sleep. This has been taking about an hour.  We will get him calmed down and as soon as he is laid down in his crib he freaks out. He will settle down after we close the door, almost instantly, but will start up again within minutes and we go back in when he is no longer mantra crying. This has been going on for a week now and is such a sudden change in behavior. So far naps are still easy, no crying, just settles himself to sleep within minutes of laying down.

No teeth, but chewing a lot and drooling. Meds don't seem to make any difference. Some recent increase in fussiness when I walk away but he's easily distracted by his hero, big brother! Usually is quite content to hang out with himself and his toys if I'm busy with DS1. No recent milestones, but almost ready to crawl and becoming more chatty.

Friday:
645 WU
7 BF, breakfast at 8
Nap 1: 950-1110 (I had to wake him for playgroup)
1115 BF, lunch at 12
Nap 2: 2-330
4 BF, supper at 545
6 bath
630 bf, to bed awake at 640.
Crying, PUPD ect, asleep at 8.
1030 dream feed

Saturday
630 WU
7 bf, breakfast at 830
Nap 1 955-1100
1130 bf, lunch at 1:00
Nap 2 2:15-3:20
4 bf, 5:30 supper
5:45 bath
6:10 bf, fell asleep, put in bed at 6:30.
6:40 woke, crying until 8 again needing PUPD.
*today was a short napping day, usually gets around 3 hours of day sleep.
1000 will dream feed...

Thoughts, suggestions? Thanks!

[Haribo2012]

Hi, sorry you've not had any response as yet.

It does sound like SA as this age is a prime time for it to set in, night times are ften worse than days.

Your A times look about right, 2.45/3 hours is good at this age, developmental leaps like the about to crawl can also throw things off for a while.
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!

Separation Anxiety

How have the last day or 2 been?
xx

[nicolemca]

Thanks for the reply Haribo! Last two days have been about the same, though I didn't keep track of the EASY because  Sunday the boys were with grandma and grandpa. They did not stick to our routine and put him down too late, so he was a VERY overtired boy and had another short nap. Bedtime was disastrous. Yesterday's naps were shoddy, but nap #1 he was woken by DS1 falling into the wall outside baby's room and crying, so he woke up quite upset. Sent nap #2 downhill as he only did 30 minutes after being up for about 3 hours. Couldn't resettle him. I put him to bed and bf to sleep just to let him catch up a bit. He woke 30 minutes later but was able to bf to sleep again and was out the rest of the night. A few days in a row of poor nap days is not normal for him.
Today's AM nap he was at his child-minder's, who he's known since birth. She said he was very fussy and she had to hold him for about 10 minutes until he fell asleep, then only went for 45 minutes. This is the first time this has happened for a nap. However he crashed for the afternoon nap on his own quietly and is still asleep now (1 hr 45 minutes so far).
We haven't done WIWO, should we be doing this instead of PUPD for the SA? How long does this stage typically last for? I can't remember this with #1, though it was all a blur because his sleep was horrible. The bonus with #2 is that we've been through a few cycles of regression/sickness/milestones already and he's always snapped back into his good sleeping habits after the storm has passed. It's nice to have the confidence that it will all go back eventually!

[Haribo2012]

It does sound like a combination of OT with those short naps and developmental as that always gave us crappy naps.
I think I'd do a collection of PU/PD followed by WI/WO so LO gets reassurance all ways round, I know we had bad sleep at this age and I put it down to teeth, SA, wonder weeks anything really lol.

I'm not sure there is a time for how long it will last bit as you said you've had it before and no it's a phase.

I'd try a few earlier bedtimes and spend a lot of time cuddling with stories see if it helps LO settle x