Night wakings and feeds in a 9 month old....am I doing this right?

[4isstillnighttime]

I have had amazing help with my little guy and as a result I feel like we are in a pretty good routine....but we are still having a lot of NW. I am working on a few things but want to make sure I'm doing ok.....

Firstly sleep training - we have just moved him to his own room and although he was self settling before he has now stopped  . He's getting pretty upset when I put him down and isn't being soothed by shhh pat. Yesterday in the end I picked him up and then put him down when he had calmed down and carried on shh pat. It worked ( in the end) but he woke a lot in the night and was v hard to resettle. And it just took me 10 mins to settle for his nap and he woke up after half an hour distraught and I couldn't resettle him. I'm right there sleeping next to him so it's not a separation thing and he is still in his sleepyhead....where do I go from here? Do I just carry on shh pat? Do I do PUPD and if so, how? Aaarrrggghhh!

Secondly, he is having 2 NF (11 and 4) but last night missed the 11 one. Should I now just stop feeding before 3 or something? I would love just one NF!??

Thanks in advance for the help!!

[lily_layne]

We hit a bump in the road at 9 months and it turns out our BT just needed to be tweaked. Do you want to post your routine and I'll take a look for you?

When I wanted to stop feeding DD at night (around 8 months), I just patted and rubbed her back without picking her up. She screamed for most of the time but she knew I was there. After a 3-4 nights, she was waking less.

[4isstillnighttime]

Thanks!

There's a bit of variability as we have to fit round twins stuff, but yesterday went like this:

WU 6:15
BF 6:30
Breakfast 7:30
Nap 10-10:45
BF 11
Lunch 12:30
BF 1:45 (his idea, didn't eat much breakfast or lunch so I went with it but usually this feed is after the nap)
Nap 2:10 - 3:30
Supper 5
BF 6 (while twins having milk) and 6:45
Bed 7

NW 9 (OT from not great naps I think) midnight (shhh pat), 2 (BF one side only), 4 (into my bed for cuddles), 5:30 (BF other side as v uncomfy).

The thing is I would quite like to keep one NF for a little bit longer....but only 1! And no other NW. What do you think? Is this a ST issue? He has a dummy but can replug and he isn't waking for the dummy as it is usually in his hand and he gets cross when I put it back!

[lily_layne]

My first guess would be OT if his days are usually something like that. I found with DS that a few days of an earlier BT often sorted things out. Any chance you could pop him into bed a bit sooner?

[4isstillnighttime]

Would you mind having another little look? Things are MUCH better from a NW point of view but he is now waking early and not going back down. I stopped capping his naps to let him catch up the OT so instead we have had....

WU 5:30 (and won't go back to sleep, will have a token BF but obviously not really hungry)
Nap 9:30 - 10:45 (real struggle to get there, starts showing sleepy signs about 8!!)
Nap 2:30 - 4
BT 7:30

NW (last night) 2 (fed), 5:30 up for the day again.

So the night is MUCH better (thank you thank you thank you) but he is waking early and is really tired. If he was happy i would just go with it as the clocks change soon but he obviously does need more sleep. Earlier BT is really difficult because of fitting around the twins.....

Any thoughts?

[lily_layne]

My DS did a stint of early wakings around that age too (also after his NWs got better). I just left him in bed as long as possible and I did put him down a bit earlier for his am nap (30-45 minutes). He usually napped longer meaning he woke at his usual time so that put us on track for the rest of the day. The EWs got better after a few weeks. I'm thinking that even if he does wake earlier from the morning nap, it lets you bring the pm nap forward a bit and gives him a bit more A time before bed which may help with the EW.

[4isstillnighttime]

ok, he fell asleep in the car at 8:30 and I just couldn't bear to wake him - he was almost beside himself with tiredness all morning after being woken at 5:30 and it doesn't seem fair! We have a doctors appointment at 10 so he will have to get up then. If I need to I will add a CN to get us up to BT.

Yesterday he slept 9:30-10:30, 2:15-3:30 (couldn't resettle) then fell asleep in the sling at 4:30 so I let him sleep til 5. He then went to bed really easily at 7:30, woke at 00:30 and I shh patted, then didn't feed til 3. So should I try and not feed til 3 then as a beginning of night weaning? He had a really good feed then rather than messing around which was nice!

[lily_layne]

I think sh/pat for anything before 3 is a good idea. That's how I night weaned my DD.

[4isstillnighttime]

Lily  you are my hero!! He has slept til 5 for 2 nights now, which for him is
STTN because he is a rotten early bird. But I don't care, by 5 I'm fresh as a daisy and so is he!!!!!

Thank you so much!!!

[lily_layne]

I'm so glad it worked! I should've taken my own advice with DS. I still just default to nursing him when he does wake at night and at 15 months I think it will be a lot harder to break the habit.