Hi There!
Thanks for responding.
Daycare has actually helped him sleep better, thankfully. He actually slept right through the night last night, first time in about 3 or more months.
What frustrates us is that once he's improved sleeping, it's short lived & goes back to waking LOTS.
He's 13 months old with NO teeth. I swear this child has been teething for 8 months now. But I do feel there are nights where yes, this bothers him and we will give him Advil when needed. It however doesn't always help & then we think maybe it's some thing else?
His routine is as follows:
6am - Wake
7am - Breakfast
9:30am - Nap but he's transitioning over to 1 nap a day most days. He only naps in the AM if he has been up since 5:30am or has had a horrible night.
10am - Snack
12pm - Lunch
1:15pm to 3:15pm - nap - he naps well at daycare. At home he wakes and needs us to be with him or hold him to finish his nap. This developed when he had a three day fever a couple weeks ago. Now, he won't finish his nap on his own at home.
4pm - snack
6pm - dinner
6:30pm - bath & bed routein
7pm - bed time.
As for what variation of CIO - we basically have tried to go in, soothe with or without picking him up (trying variations of what helps to calm him down) then either back in the crib, give him soother or wait until he's calmed & leave the room. Most of the time we need to leave the room with out having spoken to him, pat him on the back & try soother (lately he's been spitting it out & refusing which is again, not common for him. soother used to do the trick instantly), leave the room - he will likely cry out for us. We give it a few minutes to see if he settles - if he doesn't and it escalates, we go in and try soothing again. We let him "CIO" so long as its not distressing/hysterical or sobbing cries.
There have been some nights we've let him try to put himself back to sleep. He wouldn't be sobbing or in hysterics and some times he can settle himself. We only go into his room if it escalates. At which point it takes effort to get him back to sleep on his own. Soon as he hears the creaky footsteps on our wood floor, he wakes again to cry...unless he's fallen into a deep enough sleep.
What we're struggling with is why he will improve sleep for a week and then go back to being a terrible sleeper for weeks on end. Once we believe he's actually improving, he falls back to waking multiple times. Also, soother used to work for him within seconds so it was never an ordeal. Now, he refuses, tosses it away, blows it away from his lips. He just WONT sleep through the night - even when sleep is good, he's waking at least once. Usually same time every night. Around 4:30am.
I don't know if the soother is working against us. He's just started daycare and I dont want to take it away from him just yet until he's comfortable with his new routine.
He started Daycare at the beginning of January & he has been sick a few times so we understand those are setbacks. His health has improved and he's getting used to Daycare and seems to be loving it. So we know there are changes and the illnesses. In general however, these sleep issues have started since he was about 9 months old - months before these changes happened.
Thanks!
Barb
