The time has come for us to hopefully ‘fix’ ds’s sleep issues once and for all (or at least until he’s next teething, or sick etc).
A bit of background: ds turned 1 last week, and has never slept through the night. I have done all the usual ‘wrong’ things, feeding him to sleep, rocking him, bringing him into bed. We have also moved a lot in the last year – we lived in Edinburgh until he was 8 months, but lived in 3 different apartments, we went back to Australia for a few weeks when he was 3 months, at 8 months we moved back to Australia, stayed with family for a couple of weeks then into an apartment, but 3 months later we came back to the UK again. We’re staying in serviced apartments at the moment, but are moving into a house this weekend, and will be there for the foreseeable future. So we have decided that this is the time to attack sleep!
At the moment our day looks like this:
6.30/7 wake – usually has a bf in bed around 5.30/6am
8 breakfast
11.30 lunch
12.15 nap – about 1.5 hours
2.30 bf
5 dinner
6 bath
6.30 bf
7 bed
He usually wakes in the night at around 10.30ish (possibly because dh and I wake him coming to bed) but goes back to sleep pretty easily with a bit of patting/hand holding. Then between 1 and 3 am he wakes and bfs. Then he wakes again around 5 or so, at which point he comes into our bed and I usually bf him again so he’ll go back to sleep. He sometimes wakes more than this, but these wakings are pretty consistent.
For his nap, I know usually more than 1.5 hours would be recommended, but that’s more day sleep than he had when he had 2, or even 3 naps. We’ve only been doing 1 nap for 10 days or so, he stays awake til midday without getting grumpy. He was having a 30 minute first nap and then refusing his second nap but being cranky all day. He’s much happier with this schedule.
Props: At bedtime and during the night he falls asleep feeding. If he doesn’t feed to sleep, he has to be holding my hand to fall asleep. I’ve tried to introduce a lovey, but without success – he flings anything else across the cot. He does suck his thumb, but also needs my hand.
I’m not quite sure how to proceed, but maybe I can start by putting down what I’m thinking so far and asking a few specific questions:
I thought I’d initially get him to fall asleep without holding my hand, but with me still right there next to him, so do a gradual withdrawal kind of thing. I’ve started that already. I guess the next thing to work on is the feeding to sleep – I’m thinking of moving the bedtime bf to between bath and stories, and doing it in a well lit room. Then doing PD as necessary to get him to sleep at bedtime and the first night feed. For this second stage, I’m thinking I should wait until we’ve been in the new house a few nights, so he’s used to his surroundings, what do you think?
Also, ds will be getting his own room for the first time – I thought I’d sleep in his room for a few nights and then move out, maybe stay in there with him until the worst of the PD is over, what do you think?
That’s all I can think of for now, sorry it’s so long!! TIA for any advice/suggestions/questions!
