Could that really be enough?

[joshiesmum]

My son is fifteen months old and transitioned to one nap at 12 months. Typically with the exception of teeth and colds he had slept 8pm - 7am with a nap at 1pm - 3.30pm everyday since. He started to walk three weeks ago and is cutting two eye teeth at the moment . This week has been a mess he is fighting bed time and even went without a nap completely. When i have been able to get him to nap he will only have an hour tops but wakes up crying. Teeth have caused night waking but the nap has never been affected. Just wondering if he may be over tired now that he is moving more any suggestions.

[Harrisonsmummy]

I'd put my money on overtired too (seems to cause 90% of sleep problems as far as I can tell!) I would get an earlier nap in for a few days (h wakes after 55 mins when overtired - as he is in a pram I can rock him back off - can you wait and do pat/shush as soon as he stirs at 55 minute mark?) and bring his bedtime forward as much as possible until he has caught up. (Normally once his naps go back to normal length!)


I would also give a pain med 1/2hr before bedtime to help him settle for a few days.

HTH

Justine

[Florencia]

Sounds exactly like my ds at that age, when he cut 4 molars at once. It went on for about 2 months and the worst part of it included what you described in adition to 2+ hour nightwakings... not fun! I used to wonder what had happened to my awesome sleeper? just when i thought i had given a round to sleep training i seemed to be back on it.

What i did was using pain meds before bed, ask the ped for stronger combos (he ok'd using both, tylenol and motrin on awful nights) and be super attached to my schedule. Your prior crisis schedule sounds great to me and you have to repeat to yourself that you're not doing wrong and that things are not gonna get worse. I was often disturbed and afraid of what was about to come, was my ds gonna forget how to sleep properly? was he going to be waking in the middle of the night from now on? The truth is that with the correct routine and intervention, a sleep trained little guy can't forget how to get back on track. Yes, it might take a while and things might seem cloudy for a couple of months, but it gets better.

Molars do that kind of things to little ones, they seem perfectly happy and joyful during daytime but come bedtime and they become bears and then crankiness due to lost sleep and overtiredness shows up to the mixture and you have one messy household.

By all means and as much as you can, try to extend the nap whenever he wakes cranky or crying. That means he still need his sleep but can't keep going. Sometimes molar pain prevents lo's from deep sleep. Is not a torturing pain but more like sand in your shoe... it bothers, you know it's there and you can't be comfortable but it's not like you're going to die from it. For that kind of pain, I have found that longer winddowns (say, adding5-10 mins to your usual routine), extra cuddles, being there when they're fussy during their sleep, help them get more relaxed and hence, getting to the deep sleep phase they usually reach without much help. Just like you need a hug or a cup of hot tea after a bad day.

Let us know how you get on with this tips and if there's anything else we can do to help you. We've all been there and will be happy to help!.

Good luck!

[joshiesmum]

Thankyou so much for your replies!
Well things have gotten a little worse. One of the eye teeth has come through and i had two days of bliss twelve hours overnight and two and half during the day. Now the other eye tooth has started and i have been up nearly five hours a night with him! I have had him to the doctors as his nose seems to be really blocked through the night this has gone on for nearly seven weeks. Nothing seems to work. Does anyone know if the eye teeth are somehow conected to the nasel passage? Anyways we are sticking to the pain meds and lots of cuddles and fingers crossed we come through the other side soon.

[Florencia]

Don't know if there's a connection with nasal passage but there's certainly a connection with defense /inmunological system: pain lowens the defenses hence the "opened door"for infections and colds. That's why so many lo's get knocked out with stomach/ear/throat infections when teething.

If it's congested nose during nights, have you tried inclining his mattress in a 20 degree angle? you can do it rolling a towel or a small pillow. You can also try saline drops all along during daytime (sort of a "nose washing"), just squeeze the dropper and let the fluid come down. That will keep his nose moistured and less likely to get congested because it dries up.

Let us know how you get on and if we can do anything else to help!