Hi all,
A new topic from me! After a total struggle a few months back to get my LO napping in the first place, I now seem to have moved to the next bump! Bit of background:
LO us almost 9 months but only 8 months corrected - so I tend to find he has a low A time for his actual age.
Refluxer (under control with omeprazole). Cows milk and other allergies currently trying to figure out. Main problem now is he has recurring terrible eczema on his face. Most of his other symptoms (intestinal) are under control since we cut milk and soya out.
Previously ebf until 6.5 months, has been fully ff since 7.5 months (Neocate because of his milk allergy).
2 weeks ago, we went on holiday for 1 week, and since then things have been all over the place. Literally the week before we went away we had started to settle into a decent routine that looked like this on a good day:
WU 7am
E 7.15am 8oz milk 8.45am solids (fruit puree and tiny bit of baby porridge)
A
S 9.45am- 10.55am (1hr 10 min)
E 11.15am 8oz milk 1.15pm solids (meat/fish and veg with a yoghurt)
A
S 2.40pm-3.20pm (40mins)
E 3.30pm 8oz milk 5pm solids (veg and fruit purees and finger foods)
A
E 6pm 8oz milk
A BT routine
BT 7pm
Sometimes he would do two naps of 1hr 10- 1 hr 40. Sometimes only short naps and still refusing 3 naps. We only properly moved to 2 naps about 4 weeks ago. Night wakings had just about stopped happening completely, we were still getting some EWs at 5am but I would put the white noise on outside his bedroom door without going into his room, and he would settle back to sleep until 6.30-7am.
On holiday, he had some good nap days, some bad days, but generally he coped very well. He is a VERY touchy baby. His room has to be pitch black for naps, and so I think part of the EWs is to do with the tiniest bits of light creeping through the 2 blackout blinds we have up (and cardboard stuck around the door frame to block out that light!). When we were on holiday, with the later sunrise he was actually sleeping through from 7pm-8am most nights.
Teething - first tooth popped up just before we went on holiday. Second tooth has cut through this week (Thursday). He has been chronically teething for about 3 months, and not coped with it very well at all.
This past week back at home, we have had terrible nap days. I'm only getting 2 x 40 min naps usually. I'm wondering if he is OT again from holiday, and needs a few days with shorter A times to catch up some OT. I'm really confused as to whether he is OT or UT!
It used to seem like anything 40mins - 1hr 10 was UT for him, and anything under 40 mins was OT (the shorter the nap, the more OT he was - we have had some 10 & 20 min naps before!).
The last few days, our first A time and nap has been as follows:
Monday
WU 6.50am (had a 1hr 10 min NW at 1.20am)
A 2hr 40
S 9.30am 45 mins - grumpy and tired before, wouldn't eat much breakfast, cried to sleep, woke up crying. I think this was the day his second tooth started cutting through.
Tuesday
WU 7.15am (no NWs)
A 3hr 15
S 10.30am 1hr 15 - did PUPD 1 time and then he settled. Woke with a cry but happy once I went into him.
Wednesday
WU 5.50am (no NWs)
A 2hr 30
S 8.20am 1hr 20 - self settled
Thursday
WU 7.40am (NW of 1hr 10 mins at midnight)
A 3 hr
S 10.40am 50 mins - self settled. Woke happy and chatting to himself in cot (I think UT)
Friday
WU 6.55am (no NWs)
A 2hr 40
S 9.35am 35 mins - self settled but woke crying.
Saturday
WU 5am (no NWs)
A 2hr 45
S 7.45am 1hr 10 - PUPD for 5 mins. I then had to wake him up at 8.55am as we were going out for the morning.
Final bit of info - he used to self settle for all of his first nap of the morning, but recently has been crying a lot more. I think it might be the start of SA. When I do PUPD with him, he is pushing against me even whilst still crying, so he wants to be laid back down, but then continues to cry. As he is so touchy, if I am in his view then he won't settle, he starts to get overstimulated. If I crouch down out of sight though, I feel like he feels abandoned.
Edit: Forgot to say, I *think* fairly recently I figured out that his ideal daytime totals are: 2.5 hours daytime sleep and 11.5-12 hours at night. So two naps of 1hr 15 mins. BT of 7pm with WU of 6.30-7am.
QUESTIONS(!!!!)
1. Any thoughts on what his first A time should be now? I think maybe I need to aim for 3hr 15 as he has napped the best on this time last week, and seemed to have some UT naps when on a shorter A time. Do you think the Wednesday longer nap with a shorter A time was more to do with him having an EW, therefore he was still a bit tired from the nighttime?
2. What do you think I should do about settling him now? I literally used to be able to do our wind down, put him into the cot and walk out for his first nap. Now it seems like nothing I do is helping him to sleep! We only had 1 day of this kind of self settling this week and that was on Thursday when he was UT. Wind down consists of: quick nappy change, put white noise on, close blinds whilst singing Twinkle Twinkle and holding him, then laying him straight into the cot with his teddy and blanket over him. He used to put his head on my shoulder when I started singing and then lie down quietly and calmly. Now he seems to be crying whilst I am singing to him and doesn't want to go in the cot - is this another UT hint???
3. BT is now a bit of a nightmare. I think it might be because of getting in an UT/OT loop. With him short napping but only having 2 naps, we don't have time to squeeze in a third nap so I've been doing early BT quite a few days, but don't want to put him to bed earlier than 6.30pm because it is too difficult to fit in his bottles if he goes to bed earlier than that. I'm currently trying to get him down to 3 bottles of 9oz though as he hasn't been drinking all of his 11am/3pm bottles.
Thanks so much in advance for anyone's help, this board has been great!
