I'm so confused, where am I going wrong?

[Dela]

Hi folks,

Logan is now 8mths and a big boy who eats well and, in general, sleeps well too. He has been on EASY since 10wks and we have got on quite well with it.

His schedule is similar to many on the thread for his age range

Wakes at 6.45

E - 7am BF, cereal & fruit 45mins later
A - plays, dressed & trip to MILs
S - 9.30 for 1.5hrs
Y
E - 11am 7oz bottle
A - plays, lunch 12.30
S - 1pm for 1.5hrs
Y
E - 3pm 6oz bottle
A - play, picked up from MILs
- dinner 5pm
-play
- bf 6pm
6.30 bath, massage, pjs, story
7pm wind down & bed

(currently working on bringing 4oz dreamfeed bottle back to 9.30 and 3oz etc etc)

The problem is when I put him down to sleep at night he just won't settle even though he is giving me all his sleepy signs (rubbing eyes and nose, fiddling with ears, yawning etc.)
MIL follows easy and puts him down awake etc (I know, I'm so lucky!)

Am I trying to put him to bed too early or too late or something?? He ends up screaming , climbing the bars of the cot and pu/pd has never worked for us, just makes him more upset so I sit in a chair by the cot and put my hand on him.

I'm so confused and feel so alone, I am responsible for bedtime routine as dh is at work.
Any help would be so much appreciated. I really don't want to let him CIO and I won't, but I don't know how else to solve this.

Cordelia

[mickymuscles]

it could be possible that he is overtired.  Can you try extending second A time to 1:30 or 2:00pm so that by the time he wakes he doesn't need to go more than 3-3.5 hours of A time before bed?  Just a suggestion.  it seems like the second A time is a bit short but the third A time is really long. HTH.

[HeatherC]

My thought was exactly what mickymuscles said.  He could probably go up to 3 hrs of A time at this age between his 2 naps, but you would want to adjust it gradually.  Screaming and climbing the clib slats suggests overtiredness to me, too. 
Is this a recent occurance or has it been coming on lately?

[Dela]

Thank you so much, I thought this was the case but just wanted to check

We are just getting back on track after he was pretty ill so the whole thing went out of the window as he couldn't eat solids etc and I was bfing morning noon and night on the advice of the doctors. He's fine now though but its been a bumpy ride.

He is also waking every half hour between 3am and 4.30am to be turned over as he's rolled onto his front and got stuck but that will pass I suspect and as soon as I roll him over (don't even lift him) he goes back to sleep.

I re-read a bit of BW book which mentioned that waking up half an hour after going to bed can suggest overtiredness too so that would reinforce what you say about him being overtired. DH seemed to think it was the opposite way round so I'm pleased to have backup on this!

I've extended his middle A time to 1.30 today and will see if that helps a bit.

If he seems tired later on will putting him to bed early knock out his night sleeping then?

[HeatherC]

I hope the adjustment with help his sleep.  You sound like you're right on track.  I'm not sure what you meant about putting him to bed ealier and knocking out his night sleep.  If you meant would it disrupt it, I wouldn't think so.  Once you get the cycle of overtiredness under control, he should fall into a new sleep routine.  If you meant will it help with night-wakings, I think so.

[Dela]

Just an update...

I stretched his afternoon A time to 1.30 and he only slept for an hour but caught 15mins at 4.30 coming home in the car. Went down really easily but woke up crying exactly 30mins later, dh settled him really quickly and (fingers crossed) he's still sleeping now (8.30pm)

Thanks for the advice and fingers crossed for a whole night's sleep like we used to get!

[obi1d]

Don't want to gatecrash, but my dd was doing the same waking in the early hours, turning over and unable to turn back, lots of crying thing.  She was about 6.5 months and it ended up lasting about 2 weeks and then suddenly went back to thru the night again - hoorah!!!  You're absolutely right on the overtired cycle, as LO wouldn't settle for naps she was too overtired for sleep and the situation just got worse each day, so I broke the cycle by putting her in the pushchair and walking for a several hours, she had a great sleep that day and it broke the cycle, she wasn't too tired by the time we got to bedtime and things have been great since.  I don't advocate the whole pushchair thing, but whichever way you know they will get a GOOD sleep, then it just breaks the whole cycle.  Well it did for us, hope it does for anyone else!!?

Hope things are getting better.

Karen