I was going to post exactly the same question!!! DS (also 7 months -- though the problem started at 6 months) has gone to bed at 6:00 or 6:30 for three or four months now, but recently he has started waking up 45-60 minutes later, screaming. Lately it has shortened to 30 minutes later. We do pu/pd for an hour and a half, and then after exactly that period of time each night, he goes back to sleep no problem. I thought it was related to hunger, as feeding him again seemed to help last week. However, this week, that doesn't work.
So here are some things I thought might be happening:
Thought #1. He's overtired from the length of time between his afternoon nap and bedtime. (We're working on lengthening that nap.) Currently there are 3.5-4 hours between the end of the afternoon nap and 6:00 However, he falls asleep at 6:00 without any problem and sleeps peacefully until waking so it doesn't really seem like he's overtired even though four hours seems like a long time to be awake.
Thought #2. What was previously a 6:00 bedtime has now become the catnap. That would make sense because it fits with the routine outlined in Tracy's book, and he goes to sleep exactly an hour and a half later, also just like in her book.
As for our daily routine, we've recently shifted from three 45-minute naps per day, with the last nap ending at 3:15 or so, to two naps per day, the morning nap lasting about 2 hours and the afternoon nap still 45 minutes and ending at 2:15 or 2:45-ish. (Like I said, we're working on lengthening it.) So here's what our day look like right now:
7:30 wake, short bf
A
8:30 solids
A
9:30 nap
11:30 bf
A
12:30 solids
A
2:00 nap (1:30 if his first nap lasts less than two hours)
2:15 or 2:45 wake
A
3:30 bf
A
4:30 solids
5:30 bedtime routine, including bf
6:00 or 6:30 asleep
6:30 or 7:00 awake again - pu/pd for an hour and a half
8:00 or 8:30 asleep
So, I wonder if I should let him have the 6:00 doze as his catnap and then get him out of bed and do the bedtime routine at 7:00 or 7:30. Here are my concerns with that idea:
1. He wakes up crying, so it seems like he should just continue sleeping rather than getting him out of bed for more A time.
2. The bedtime routine at 5:30 really helps him get in the mindframe of sleeping so I don't know if he'll go down as easily for the catnap without that routine at 5:30.
3. If that becomes a catnap, does that get him in a bad habit, or will he grow out of it and eventually have a nice bedtime and stay asleep? Also, once I fix the afternoon nap to be longer, will he need the catnap and will I have established a bad habit that will need to be broken after that nap is fixed?
Of course, with his age, I've wondered about lots of other things that could be causing it: teething (except that would bother him all day, right? Not just at night?), separation anxiety, learning to crawl... The thing is, like OGD said, this only happens in the evening, not after naps.
Does that sounds like your lo, too, OGD? Does anyone have any advice?
