Ok, hopefully I can explain my problems without getting too long winded.
Here's the info...
7 1/2 months
breastfed since birth. On EASY since birth. I think he's mostly angel/textbook but the sleep thing has always been a bit rough
Started solids at 5 1/2 months...going well except maybe upset stomach with bananas and papaya
Ok here's the routine of late...
6-6:15 wake [this used to be 7 and got earlier and earlier]
6:30 or so feed [about 5 minutes on one side] I usually try to stretch this out to 7 but just go on his hunger cues and feed him earlier if he's hungry
7:30 or 8 breakfast, cereal fruit, etc.
1 hour nap [this is the problem...it seems that if he's been up since 5:30 or 6 I need to put him down by 8 or he's a mess and overtired]
11:00 feed
12:00 lunch, veggies
1:00 [ideally] nap...again, I feel he's so overtired if I wait more than 2 1/2 hours from waking from early nap so sometimes this is sooner
and this nap is getting shorter and shorter lately, sometimes only 1/2 hour! Argh!
3:00 feed
5:00 dinner, veggies, fruit, protein
6:15 bath
6:30 breastfeed
6:45, story, song and bed [he goes down very easily for bedtime even though he's usually very over tired since having early afternoon nap]
11:00 dreamfeed
So he's been waking at night and we've been having a rough time at it. Usually he's up for anywhere from 1/2 hour to 1.5 hours. It has seemed at times he's just so hungry, tries to suck on me, has the breathy thing even when I walk in the room like he does before nursing. Other times he just wakes and seems like he's just in pain and just screams. Other times, he'll just be going back and forth from crying to completely quiet and still but awake. We've done pu/pd a lot and it just doesn't seem to work consistently. As far as I know we're being consistent with it. I just want him to be able to sleep at the earliest until 6:30 so the whole rest of the day isn't messed up. He is crawling and just today I came in in the morning and saw him standing in his crib for the first time. I'm fairly certain it's not teeth. he has 2 but doesn't show any signs of getting the top ones yet. He also sometimes wakes up before the dream feed, like between 9:30 or 10.
I have tried to extend his afternoon nap by doing pu/pd when he wakes up at 1/2 hour or 45 min. but he just gets incredibly mad and will not even stop crying. Sometimes if it's really early waking from his nap I'll just get him up and put him down again in another hour, but even that doesn't always work. Also because of my older son's needs to attend to at that time.
He has always slept through the night except for teething and a little hiccup surrounding a vacation with a 6 hour time difference. But now it's been a few weeks and we are just worn out!
Some say that better naps will improve nighttime and better nighttime will improve naps...where do I start?
