My LO is 10 months old. He's been a pretty awesome sleeper from the get go, sleeping thru the night (with dream feed) at 3 months old. Naps have always been great - we've had brief bouts with the 45 minute nap monster that I've defeated with routine changes/greater awake time.
However, starting at 5 months we've gone thru some pretty awful phases with bedtime and nighttime sleep. We were having 1-2 night wakings where he'd be awake for 1-2 hours. He doesn't cry much, except at first. The rest of the time he's just hyper-awake. I've gotten it down to 1 night waking, which generally occurs between 12:30-1:30 am, and lasts 45-60 minutes. The last 2 nights bedtime was pretty awful, with it taking about an hour for him to fall asleep (generally he takes less than 5 minutes!!!!).
I'm wondering what the heck is going wrong? He just finished getting 4 teeth about 4 weeks ago, and during that period we had lots of restless sleep, but not too many true night wakings. He's also getting over a cold, so he's pretty stuffed up.
I'm suspecting it is a routine issue - either not tired enough or too tired at bedtime. I truly thought it was overtiredness, so I moved his bedtime forward (in terms of awake time) by 20 minutes each day. However, I now think he's UNDERTIRED based on the last 2 nights where it's taken him so long to get to sleep. Usually that means undertired for my LO.
I'm really looking for some input from moms of babies the same age. He's been crawling fora bout a month, and is working hard at pulling to standing, standing on his own (for up to 30 seconds at a time), and learning to walk. So I know there's a lot of developmental issues going on. I just can't figure out why I can get him to nap so well, but bedtime and nights just suck so bad!!!!!
Last night, despite the long time going to bed, went pretty well considering the last week or so. Fell asleep by 9 (usually asleep by 7:30), got restless starting around midnight, but didn't fully awake until 1 am. Got him back to sleep by 2 am using a combination of PU/PD, shush/pat in crib. Also just spent some time laying on his floor and waiting for him to cry before I respondonded. I'm embarassed to say that what finally worked was swaddling him. We weaned at 7 months, but I use it sometimes when he's nutty. He'll often fight it now, but last night totally accepted the swaddle, and fell asleep immediately when I placed him back in his crib. He then slept until 6 am without a peep, at which point he became restless again (was making a poo, I later realized) but didn't wake until 8:15.
PLEASE give me some opinions/advice! I'm exhausted!
Here's our routine: This morning's wake up at 8 am was very unusual (probably due to late bedtime). This routine is pretty much what happens everyday, give or take 30 minutes.
7 am wake (normally - an 8 am wake-up is totally abnormal!)
7:30 bottle
8:30 solids
9:30/9:45 nap (1.5-2 hours)
12:30 bottle
1:30 solids
3:00/3:30 nap (1.5-2 hours - I try to not let him sleep past 4:30)
5:30 solids
This is where I've been experimenting, keeping him up anywhere from 2-3 hours after last nap. 2 hours is too little, but 3.5 hours is definitely too much. I'm having trouble finding the sweet spot!
6:00 bath
6:30 bottle, books, songs, bed
7:00/7:30 in bed
1 am typically wakes up all the way, can be up anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours!
