Someone please help me

[daisymelan]

I apologize, this is likely going to be long.

My son has always had troubles drifting off at night.  All for different reasons, but we had it cracked for a bit.  Now things have gone sour again.... but not at night.

3 of the past 4 nights, my son has woken up around 4ish and then not gone back down.  He doesnt cry, just fusses for a long time.  Yesterday he didn't fall back asleep at all.  Last night it started likely around 5 and he didn't go back down.

He is almost 7 months and his routine is.

8:  bf
9: solids
10:30ish:  sleep
12:  bf
1:  solids
2:30ish:  sleep
4:  bf
5:30:  solids
7:30:  bf
9ish:  bed
11ish:  df

He has been sleeping through the night iwthout a feed for probably 2 months now.  We have never had a problem with night wakings before.  But he always struggles for an hour or two at night to fall asleep.  The past week started to swaddle again cuz he just moved so much I thought it would stop him from movign aroudn and rolling on to his tummy where he gets stuck and frustrated adn can't fall back asleep. (rolling for 3 months now or so).  Also, in the past week we started giving him a paci just for him to fall asleep at bedtime.  Well, that worked really well, but he always has the paci in his mouth when we go in for the df.  We never put it back in after the df..... and he's never really used a paci much, just usually in case of emergency.

So where do I start?  I am happy that he falls asleep so quickly at night, but I would rather him crank for an hour or two than wake up at awful hours and stay awake.

Can someone please help me?  I can answer any questions that you may have.  I'll do ANYTHING.

Another thing.  He's so tired now during the day because he's waking so early, it's making him fall asleep very early for his first nap.  Today at 8:15 I tried to give him his cereal and he fell asleep in his high chair!  So I can't stretch his A time.  So now he'll likely be napping for 2.5 hours, which is way too much.  But I can't force him up.

I try very hard to read cues and not to follow a rigid schedule.

Please, please help!

TIA!

[Critter]

Luke started doing that right before we found out he had an ear infection :-(  I know it seems that this is my canned response to everything, but it might be his ears bothering him.  Even if he's not fussy during the day.  I just noticed some subtle changes each time Luke got an ear infection and now I will know almost immediately when he has one.

Have you asked your pediatrician?  I can't remember if you have a good one or not....

[~Jency's*Momma~]

okay.  Jency was doing this last month so I think it is a developemental stage.  There are some babies on another forum I'm on that are a month older then Jency and they went through it the month before him.

I just did a pu/pd-pat/sh combo until he did fall back to sleep.  It was always at a different time of the night, never the same time 2 nights in a row.  It lasted for about 2 weeks and then he started getting hungry at 4am.  The reason I know is because he would wake at 3 and put him self back to sleep then wake at 3:15 and go back to sleep and this would continue until 4am.  I figured he obviously knew how to put himself back to sleep so he must be hungry.  So I started feeding him at 4am even though he had gone 2 weeks with out eating at night.  He is still doing the 4am thing (going on 2 weeks).  Next week we are going to work on cutting that out.
I don't remember how active your DH is in the whole thing but my DH helped out a lot.  We would take turns trying to get him back down.  He would wake up and then we would do pu/pd and pat/sh and he would lay there until he stopped and then his head would pop up and he would look around (tummy sleeper)  then roll over and want up!  So we learned to just go back to the beginning.  We would pat/sh until he went back to sleep andthen continue still until he was in deep sleep.  Now we have been having to work our way to just putting down and leaving but at least he isn't up for an hour in the middle of the night!!

I don't know what else to say except maybe put him to bed earlier.  Jency jsut keeps going down earlier and earlier.  When he was a newe born he went down at 9pm  then it went to 8:30 and then 8:00 and now it's between 7:30-8:00! LOL

This is Jency's routine just for refrense(sp?): (this sign - means between those times)
7:15-7:45 up and nurse
8:45-9:00 solids
he has a 15-30 min wind down time
9:30-10:00 nap
11:00-11:30 wake and nurse
12:30-1:00 solids
1:30-2:00 nap
3:00-3:30 wake and nurse
4:00ish DVD and puffs
5:30 solids
7:00 bath
7:30 nurse
7:45 bed
8:00 asleep (sometimes talks himself to sleep other times needs pat/sh)
10:00 DF
4:00am nurse

[alison toms mum]

Tom often fusses early in the morning. I discovered if i went in to him he would wake more and then cry when i left(i made the mistake of doing this the otherday... DH said he actually heard tom gigle through the baby monitor when i went in ... he also held up his arms to me for a cuddle!! i had to take him to bed with me in the end as i was so shattered!  ). Now i only go in if tom is actually crying not just fussing (when its a genuine cry it gets louder and louder) and he usually goes back to sleep on his own!! It was quite hard to egnor him at first.. but once i realised he wasn't upset... just grizzly as he wanted someone to polay with it made it easier.

[daisymelan]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your help.  Amy, I will be more aware that maybe it's an ear infection.  I surely hope not as I've had to watch you go through it with Luke, but I dont' havea good relationship with my dr.  But I'll watch for it now.

Alison, owen does the same.  If we go in in the morning it makes it worse.

Adria, sh/pat doesn't work for us anymore... o gets way too stimulated and luckily dp does share the responsibility.  Thanks for posting your EASY, it gives me something else to compare to.

He slept better last night and I don't think anythign was different.  In fact, he did wonderfully last nighta nd the only different thing was a bit earlier of a df.  Maybe I'll try that agian tonight.  But if tonight goes to pot, I am going to cry a lot I think.... 

Thanks again ladies, I appreciate your help like you can only imagine.

[CaedensMama]

Well - my first thought was try and earlier bedtime - he might be up at 7 instead of 8, but it may make for better sleep all around. If I read your schedule right he is up from 4 or so till 9 - this would be really hard for Caeden I know - if he catnaps and wakes between 4-5 he will still go down just fine between 7-7:30 - if no catnap (which is usually what happens) he is down between 6:30-7. It makes it rough sometimes because DH will go a couple days w/o seeing him but he has realized it is better for him and it won't be forever.

Our day is something like this - everything is give or take 15-30 minutes
6:30 - Wake and nurse
7:30 - Solids
9:00 Nurse and quiet play
9:30 Nap
10:30 - Wake and nurse
12:00 Solids
1:30 - Nurse and go down awake
1:30-3:30 Nap - this is my goal, not reality yet
Nurse when he wakes
5:00-5:30 - Solids
5:30-6 Bath
After bath we nurse and play quietly till bdtime between 6:30-7:30 depending on his mood and naps

If he gets a catnap it is in the car on our way home usually between 4-5
He is getting better without it though

Pat/Shush isn't working well here either - I am trying to figure out how to get him back to sleep at naptime now - I think I am going to stop nursing before the nap too - I was hoping it would help him get thru the nap and not wake up hungry but it doesn't seem to be helping.

[LeslieG]

Jodie,

I too wonder about an earlier bedtime...like Jency, Abbi is going to bed earlier and earlier. At first I was really worried that she would wake earlier and for the most part she doesn't. I have put her to bed anywhere between 6pm and 7pm for the last week or two and only once has she got up before 7am.  It shocks me but it is true.  I think that the two naps a day make them want an earlier bedtime.  Just a thought.

Plus if he is rolling a lot it could just be a phase and he needs to work through it.  I know when Abbi's first tooth came through she was also beginning to do more moving about and sleep was disrupted for a good 4-6 days.

Sh/Pat doesn't work here either. Abbi just gets more and more mad if I try. 

Leslie

[daisymelan]

In regards to his bedtime, I could try and make it earlier.  My only problem is a few months ago he woudl lay in bed for an hour or two fussing constantly.  A sleep mod suggested I put him to bed later adn instead of fussing for 2 hours, he just sat up with us and played.  I maybe will try again to see if he's maybe changed. 

He ususally does have a cat nap in the evenings,  but while he's nursing for the last time that night.  I have to keep waking him, but the 5 minutes he naps is enough to keep him going.

Anyway, I will try the earlier bed time and see waht happens.

Last night he went down around 9 and woke up by himself around 7:15.  so I don't know, I'll let you know how we make out.

Thanks again for all your suggestions!!!

[CaedensMama]

Don't move it all at once!
Try just maybe 30 minutes earlier for 3-4 nights and then move it again  - see if that helps!

Sometimes we confuse them when we try something totally different all at once! 

Then again,maybe leave it alone for a couple nights, maybe he was just going thru a phase and it's all over!