is this bad?

[Gage and Sophie's Mom]

My son is waking an hour after bedtime starts, and then wakes up a couple times more on some days. He has always woke up and hour later, but the frequent night wakings are new. I am thinking I am reinforcing this somehow. When he wakes I usually feed him. Tonight he woke after an hour, and I decided to sneak and check in on him. He was fine, so I decided to only go in if needed me (was hard). After an hour of sporadic grunts, he fell back asleep ( I think). Is that bad? The grunts always bother as I think he is struggling and needs me.

[albertasweetpea]

Hi Gage's Mom! I always found that when Molly was overtired she would often wake at the 45 minute - 1 hour mark after I put her down to bed.

What does Gage's schedule look like at the moment?
How long is he up from the last nap until bedtime?
Perhaps you could try putting him down a bit earlier?

[Glynis]

If he's not crying, I would leave him.  Samuel wakes up crying & hungry, you're lucky  :wink:

[Kimberly®]

No its deffinitly not bad. What your doing is great in my opinion. As long as he's not crying leave him be. He's learning to settle himself, which is great. The grunts are just him resettleing. When your LO wakes at night I'd recomend leaving him be for a few minutes (as long as he's not crying) and give him a chance to resettle himself. If he's crying then go to him and comfort him, feed him if thats what he needs.

Some nights when I put my LO down for bed she'll lay awake talking to herself or grunting for a bit (usually 15-20 minutes) If I go in at all then she starts to fuss and cry. If I leave her be she settles and goes to sleep on her own.

I also agree that if he's waking an hour after bedtime he may be overtired. What time to you put him to bed? maybe you could try putting him down half an hour earlier.

HTH...

[Kimberly®]

I understand the frustration of trying to put your LO down earlier.  For me it was a matter of finding the "Magic time" as I call it. Once I found it things improved. Your LO May be a later sleeper, that is needs a later bedtime. Thats ok. What we need to do is help you have a happier and more rested baby no matter what the time he sleeps is. Not easy to acheive and it means a lot of work and patients. I'll do what I can to help you out best I can but you'll need to be consistent on your end, and be ready for a few bumps while we find your path.

I've been going over this whenever I had the chance today and this is what I think, keeping in mind that your LO is a couple weeks older then my LO..

Your routine is a pretty good one, I think it may just need a few small ajustments.

OK So to start you say your LO is up at 7am thats great. Thats when you should maybe start your day.

Why not try your start of day routine at 7
ex. Get up say good morning be cheerful. That way your LO will know its a new day. Get your LO dressed, changed into day cloths. I'm not sure how you work things but for us we have day cloths and sleeping cloths. I started this as a way to help my DD know the difference in night and day as the clothing is different.
Feed him brakefast and let him play a little.
If he desides he need an early nap I'd let him. The first days you change to doing this may be hard. If possible try to keep him up for at least 1 1/2 hours.
9:30 try nap time (you can change this to suit your LO but this should give him enough A time and still have S time without being overtired.
Now as for the rest of your day I think you should keep to the same basic routine, however I woudn't wake him up from naps. If he needs the sleep let him. At least for the time being. He may just be a sleepy baby who needs more sleep.

you have a really good routine for the rest of your day. Your doing well
For your bedtime routine..
I suggest you do Bath, then stories or songs (usually just one at this age as you don't want to over stimulate him) Then bottle and bed.
I would also suggest that maybe if your LO naps till 5:50pm you try letting him have some activity for a bit (maybe 20 minutes). Then do your bedtime routin for about 6:15-6:30 dependent on his mood, and having him in bed for 7pm rather then 7:30 so he's not over tired when he goes down for bed.
hopefully  this will mean he wont be up at 8 or 9 and you can give him a dream feed right before you go to bed.
What do you think f trying these idea? I can't promise they will work but it worked for my DD and it just may for you.

Basically what you want to do is start your day at about the sametime everyday. 7AM or 8AM are good times to start.
Please let me know what you think, if you try it please let me know if it works for you.

HTH


Kimberly

[Mom2katiebug]

Gagesmom - Just wanted to quickly say that I think it's okay.  He probably knows by now that if he needs you and calls for you by crying, you'll come help. 

I try to remind myself that "less is more" sometimes and with the settling, I give Katie all the help she needs, but try not to overdo it, so that I'm not taking over her abilities to self-settle (which are, admittedly, very limited right now!)

[Gage and Sophie's Mom]

Hi ladies! Thanks for your replies. That is okay about erasing my postI am at my wits end! Gage has been up practically all night, and has had the most terrible days that we have ever had. I have decided today to just let him sleep as long as he needs, becuase he clearly can not function until he has caught up (if that is even possible). The poor thing clung to me all day, and whenever I put him down he cried :cry: He struggled for every nap. One of his naps was 30 min., and to make sure it was extended I rocked him and slept with him in the rocker for over and hour. I held his arms and his legs for each jolt.

It is really beyond that fact that I am exhausted, and the routine is falling apart. It is now soley about his well being. He is sleep deprived and not eating well. He has a normal temp., and I checked his body for any owees. As soon as he can feel better I will try again with the schedule. Do you think I am doing to the right thing with letting hime sleep or will this make it worse?

[Kimberly®]

I'd suggest leaving him sleep. He need the sleep and you need the time off.
Try to get some rest while he sleep.

[Gage and Sophie's Mom]

Hi there! Yesterday was great! Gage had about 7 hrs of day sleep and slept from 9:30 -4am last night :shock: He sure needed it. I have a question though. Today his he is going on 7 hrs again. He is still sleeping from his last nap. We are going on 2.5 hrs. Should I wake him or do you think he still trying to catch up? Or maybe fell asleep for the night? I dont mind putting him to bed later if it means he needs the sleep, however I dont want him to switch things around again. That is what got us here in the first place. What do you think I should do?

[Kimberly®]

7 hours of day sleep sounds like a lot to me, however my LO take 2 30 minute naps and a 2 hour nap, so its hard to say.

I guess as long as he's still sleeping as long at night let him. I would watch that and see what develops. If your night sleeping falls to pieces then I'd worry.

Congrats on the good day.

[FrasersMum]

Hi gage's mom

7 hour day time sleep is a lot. 

Have you looked at the sample EASY routines at the top of the EASY board?  They will give you an idea of how much sleep others LO's of Gage's age are having - keep in mind that these are just samples and that Gage may need a little more day time sleep.

Perhaps you need to wake Gage if he has slept for 2 hours so he can still have his A time during the day.  I gather that you are working on trying to reset day and night and in order to do so you will have to be consistent for a little while in making sure that he is not getting too much day time sleep.  Hopefully those sample routines may give you an idea of where to start.   

HTH and good luck
Jo

[Gage and Sophie's Mom]

I think I have a good 3.5 hr EASY (suggested by one of the nap mods) to start with. However, my prob lies with my son's inconsistent wake time. I have kept a log since birth and his wake times range from 5:30-8am. I would like him to get up at 8am unless 7am is where his internal clock is set, but it doesnt seem he has a set time. I dont know what to do if he wakes early. For instance, he woke at 5:30 to eat, and would not go back to sleep until 7:30. Well that is right in the middle of everything! He slept until 9:45. I cant help him go back to sleep as any interference makes him cry to be picked up.

His bedtime has become more consistent over the past few days though(knock on wood). He is usually asleep around 9:00pm, which is a little late but it sure is better than 2am! He also had his shots yesterday, and I read that the DTAP can make them sleepy (that is what happened last time), so I dont know what to do.

[FrasersMum]

Well yes, 8am would be a lovely time to get up in the morning wouldn't it  :lol:  Not many of our LO's are so accomodating though are they.  I know mine isnt.

I would suggest that you pick a time to start your day (probably around 7am is more realistic) and stick to that time for a little while to help Gage get used to "wake up time".  That means waking him if he isn't already up for the day at that time.  You are trying to set his internal body clock to start the day at that time - he's still working on getting his little clock sorted out.

The early wake up time is often a problem.  Personally I always fed at the earlier wake up time, and then spent until 6.30am or somewhere closer to "wake up" time (whatever is acceptable to you) trying to get him back to sleep.  And yes, if I only did get him back to sleep for 20 minutes or so, I would wake him at our wake up time so we had a consistent start to our day.

HTH
Jo

[Gage and Sophie's Mom]

Thanks for your help! I will give it a go.