Author Topic: walking milestone or time for sleep training!?  (Read 939 times)

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Offline AJK

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walking milestone or time for sleep training!?
« on: May 04, 2016, 05:00:40 am »
Hi there,
Well.. I KNOW I need to change my sleep routine/habits with my son. I just don't know how.
Currently he is solely breastfed (plus food of course) and he is 13 months. My typical day looks like this...

630-Awake
7-feed breakfast (I have cut the morning breastfeed, I am currently wanting to wean him slowly)
11- nap, usually he will go down but the last two days he has been ballistic! Often I will go in to feed him as I can not settle him any other way. But up until about a week ago he would go down fine.
11-1230 has been his max the past few days. Before he was doing a good 2-3 hour nap
1230-Lunch

Sometimes he will go for a second nap if his first nap doesn't get him to 2pm. If he gets to 2pm then I will put him to bed around 630pm for the night. Breastfeeding before bed.
If he goes down for a second nap it's around 430/5 and I wake him after half an hour or he won't go to sleep well at night.
He is breastfed around 3pm unless he doesn't settle and I have to feed him.

It was not this messy before and now I think he is becoming dependent on breastfeeding. He ALWAYS falls to sleep, or gets very drowsy, and always has no matter if lights are on, if I'm out of the room, etc.

So... before this mess of a few days. He was sleeping 10 hours at night, waking around 3am and I feed him. He settles back to sleep. He would sleep a good nap mid day for 2.5-3 hours OR he would do 1.5 hour morning and .75 hour nap afternoon.

I am struggling to get him to take regular cow's milk. He doesn't seem to like it, but drinks water well from a sip cup. I haven't tried to pump and give in a sip cup but my milk supply is also quite low so I save it for the night times. I don't think I'd have enough to pump now anyway.

He is really learning to walk now and it's all he wants to do. I know that can mess up sleep. For example. Today, he woke at 630, but didn't nap until about 12 which was late because i had to pick up my son from school. Then he only slept 45 mins. Then he was awake from 1245-430- fell asleep in the car for 30 mins. Then I put him down for 8 but he was NOT tired or he was too tired. Anyway he screamed bloody murder and I tried to do the checks, but he wouldn't settle. I had to get him up and then played until 9, fed him a bit again and he settled. But then woke at 10 and for the past hour (as I write this), I have been in and out of his room trying to settle him and he is SCREAMING!!! I have given tylenol incase his teeth are bothering him, I have tried to rock and soothe him. He is kicking and arching and so upset. I tried to give him water, his diaper is dry, I tried to give him FOOD... thinking perhaps he was hungry, but I think he's just overtired and MAD that I won't just take him out of his room. He doesn't want to breastfeed or soothe.

I'm at a loss. I need to totally revamp my routine and I really could use some help. My husband is not around and so I'm doing this alone and will have to combat the sleep training alone as well. I had him sleeping well twice, but two horrible sicknesses came into play (roseola and then hand foot mouth).

Thank you.

Offline Buntybear

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Re: walking milestone or time for sleep training!?
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2016, 17:19:41 pm »
Hi there -well this could well be a yearly regression combined with him learning a new skill.

WRT the nap have you tried it a bit later? He could have had a jump on A time? You're doing the right thing by offering a catnap to get him through to BT. This is what we had to do for around a month until he finally went to 1 nap completely.

The 2 to 1  nap dropping is a messy time I am afraid!

Offline jessmum46

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Re: walking milestone or time for sleep training!?
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2016, 19:32:43 pm »
Hey, just popping over from your other thread :). I wondered a bit about the sleep training method you have been using....I think you said on the other thread that he went mad with you in the room so you've been doing a sort of controlled checking?  Just wanted to clarify that we can't support any sleep training method here of a CIO/CC type because that goes against the BW philosophy.  I'm not sure exactly from what you said what determined when the 'checks' happened?  In Tracy's WIWO method, you do go in and out of the room but crucially your going back in is based on LO needing you, so escalating cries or (in an older one) a verbal request e.g. "Mummy".  It's only a method we would recommend for LOs who already have independent sleep skills.  There's some information about it here: Toddlers: Walk In/Walk Out vs. The Gradual Withdrawal Method (HOW TO CHOOSE) It may be that perhaps more of a gradual withdrawal method would work better for you?