Early wakings getting worse and worse- really at a loss

[jmosery]

OMG Brooke, I'm siting here crying I don't know what to do anymore

We did 8pm for 4 nights and i was fine but he was only getting 9 hours of sleep at night. He really seemed okay with it though but i kept telling myself, that can't be right. its going to catch up with us and bite us in teh butt. right??

so yesterday we put him down at 6:30. now that he's staying up longer, its either we put him down at 6:30, or he would have had to have a cat nap and gone to bed at 8:30-9

well NINE hours later at 3:30 Mr. Mikey was up. Now he isn't waking for hunger at all. Becuae he woke up at 3:30, played till 3:50. at 3:50 he started crying. went in, patted him a little and he stopped crying. I walked out. he then played by himself again till 4:30. at 4:30 he became HYSTERICAL. I went in tried to ssshh him but sshhing doesn't work anymore once he starts crying. and PU/PD is a no no because its tooo stimulating. so now i've been up for an hour and he's hysterical and does NOT want to go back to sleep. So i'm thinking, maybe NOW he's hungry since he's been up for over an hour. So give him a bottle, lay him down and he goes to sleep till 5:30

5:30 he is HYSTERICAL and I dont' know why. i sssh him a little. NOPE! doesn't work. now i've come on here in serious despiration. and i think he went back to sleep on his own

So do i put him to bed at 8 and let him only sleep 9-9.5 hours a night?

do I put him to bed at 6:30 and work on the wakings? but how do I do that if ssh/pat and pu/pd doens't work. what other techniques are there??

i am so at a loss i don't know what to do.

jaime

[jmosery]

So he went to sleep about 6am and slept till 7:40 and so did I. I was OUT

so now we are starting our day at 7:40 and just going with it. I dont know what to do. If I put him down tonight at 8pm, then he'll be up at 5:30 tomorrow. its a vicious cycle. i need to get him out of waking 9 hours after he goes to sleep.

any suggestions??

do you think i shoud be giving him just water at that time?? but its not that he's waking for hunger necessarily. just that he's gotten used to it but if i do feed him, should i only be giving him water?? and a whole bottles worth(5-6 oz).

i'd like to keep 6:30 now then 7:30 when the time changes. its a perfect time. even 7pm now and 8 when the time changes but not if he's going to continue waking so early. you know??

BROOKE- totally ignored your other post. sorry. i was just frazzled

i think its great that you are getting out some and working part time. I think its definetly needed. I wish I had a passion for something. I would go do that part time even if it meant the money i made paid for the care of the kids while i was gone. But just to get some sanity.

and i think its great that Collin will be around other kids. even if they are older. I know mikey loves when we go places and their are other kids. I think he would really thrive in it but part of me likes the individual attention he gets at this age too. but a little of each is great. i just worry about naps and sleeping.

jaime

[texasmom]

I know, Jaime.  I am in the same boat, and I don't know what to do.  I HOPE our problem is still overtiredness.  Because if not, I don't know WHAT it is.  Is it possible that that could be going on with Mikey?  Is he sleeping a lot during the day?  Collin isn't.  Just regular naps mostly.  Collin was up today at 3:45!  This is our 4th bad night.  1st nap at 6:20!  1.5 hours.  2nd nap at 11:30.  2.25 hours.  I put him to bed at 6.     I didn't know what to do.  I hope this doesn't make it worse.  Well, I'll see, right?  I'm hoping this will get him back on track.  6:00 only gives him 13.5 hours for the day. 

You know what I'd do as far as bedtime?  I'd decide what time I wanted it to be, 7:30 or 8:00, and put him down at 6:30 or 7:00 (remembering the time change is coming AND so that it's not too late to get him overtired), and then I'd let it change when the time changes.  Just be consistent with whatever you decide.  Sometimes I put Collin to bed early, but mostly we stick with 7:00, and it helped.  At first we'd give him a 30min catnap and put him to bed and then he adjusted and he didn't need it.  Collin can go to sleep at 7:00 even if he slept from 5:30-6:00.  I wonder if Mikey could.  So you could give him the catnap to get him over the hump, and then take it out when he starts to do better.  If he even needs it.  Have you thought of anything since this morning?

I was thinking that it must be fate that we found each other.  It helps me just to talk about all this junk.  Can you ask your housekeeper to get up early with him sometimes?  And then she could take a nap when he does...  Or DH?  I mean, with you being preg and working, I don't know how you're doing it. 

Talk to ya soon.  I'll let you know what time he wakes up.  He zonked at 6, so I know he was tired. 

[jmosery]

Hey BROOKE

thanks for the support. I was hoping you would come on today. We really ARE in te same boat

so Mikey didn't do too well today at all. he went to bed at 6:30 which i guess is okay as its the bedtime i would like right now so when the time changes it will be 7:30. figured thats perfect.

i don't know if Mikey can go back to bed right after a cat nap. never tried it

todays schedule

7:40-10:30 awake
10:30-12 sleep (but woke up after 20 min. i was told. so figured again, overtired)
12-2:30 awake
2:30-3:30 sleep (only an hour and i'm thinking because he's tired)
3:30-6:30 awake

he probably could have gone down at 6 but was really SCARED to put him down that early

he was so tired but played for 30 min. alone before fully falling asleep.

i hope he catches up with the sleep.

i'll let you know how tonight goes. good luck

jaime

[texasmom]

Hey Jaime,
Well my hypothesis was right.  Collin slept 11 hours last night.  He's been overtired.  Now I just hope we can get over it.  So he slept 6-5 last night.  Hopefully I can put him to bed 6:30/7:00 tonight, depending on how he does today. 

So maybe Mikey will sleep longer at night if you can get him good and rested.  Collin can't go his full A time b/c he's so tired. 

How was this morning for you? 

[jmosery]

Hey Brooke- glad Collin slept well

Mikey went to bed at 6:30-7, whenever he fell asleep and slept till 4:45. played by himself and at 5am he started screaming. Fed him but wouldn't go back to sleep. so we were up for the day at 5am

he's only sleeping 9.5-10 hours a day. he's not napping long just the norm but he isn't tired at all and he's  happy as a lark. no moodiness at all

i know its going to catch up to us. I'm going to continue to putting him down at 6:30 and hope that he catches up and sleeps.

he wasn't even that hungry when he woke up. He didn't down the bottle just drank it normal but i tried feeding him and putting him back to bed because I know 9 hours is not enough sleep

I had a doctors appt. this morning and the doctors doppler was in their other office so I got to have an ultra sound. it was just a regular ultra sound and not the level 2 that i have on tuesday but he said 80% that its a girl. the baby was really moving around so it was hard for him to see but he didn't see ANY boy parts. so yay!! that would be awsome if its a girl. We both really want a girl this time. we'll know better on tuesday but I like 80%

so kind of exciting. today is my birthday(29yo) so a nice birthday surprise

jaime

[texasmom]

Oh, happy birthday!!     Hope you got to celebrate.  That is so awesome that you might be having a girl.  Yay! 

Hey, what do you think of dropping that feeding in the morning since it's not working anymore anyway?  I try not to feed Collin till 6:30 or later just to make sure that he doesn't wake b/c he's used to eating.  At least I KNOW it's not for that reason.  Ya know? 

So are you saying he is sleeping 10 hours at night?  Not for the whole day, right?  What happens with Collin is that he does ok on little sleep for a few days, and then it bites us.  But then he sleeps a lot and does better. 

Today Collin woke at 5, 1st nap at 7:45 (not full A time), slept 1.5, 2nd nap at 12:15 (again not full A time), slept 2 hours (long for him - usually 1.25 if a 1.5 in the morning), then asleep by 6:30.  So we are working our way back up the mountain!  I hoping it works out again. 

I hope Mikey gets back going good!  Urg!   

Talk soon!

[jmosery]

Hey Brooke

If I dont feed him then we are up for the day because he is utterly hysterical and I have to take him out of his crib. Once he's out, he's NEVER gone back to sleep. I dont think that feeding him is why he's getting up, i think he honestly maybe only needs 10 hours of sleep a night? you think?

he's getting LONG "A" times during the day with no problems

yesterday

4:45(probably 4:30 when he first woke)- 8:00 thats 3 hours a A time- his normal
8:00-9:30 sleep
9:30- 1 awake
1-2:30 sleep
2:30-6:30 awake

he again probably could have gone down at 6, but i didn't want to put him to bed that early and if we did a cat nap, he would have been up too late but he DID NOT seem overtired. but do you think he's overtired. i mean he can go 3.5 hours during the day sometiems which he's been doing so another half hour on his last A time does't seem bad. usually they can go longer then but not sure

again, 4:45 up an dready to go. i fed him(before i read your post) and put him back to sleep. he's playing in ihis crib. maybe he'll go back to sleep, probably not

so what do you think i should do at 4:45? if we start the day, he'll definetly be hungry before 6:30. i'm assuming because i get hungry within an hour of waking. do you think i should just not feed him and start our day?

jaime

[texasmom]

Jaime,
Well Collin woke at 5 again, and I just put him to bed at 6:20.  3 naps b/c his first one was 45 min.  I wanted to put him down at 7, but I don't want him to get overtired again.  He fell asleep in 15 min.  I guess it'll put our bedtime at 7:30 in a couple of weeks if I can't get his bedtime back to 7. 

Collin and Mikey are acting very similarly.  How long has Mikey been waking THIS early and sleeping 10 hours?  I was wondering if he just needed to get back on track or if this is his new thing. 

I don't know what you should do in the morning, but after trying everything, I decided to just get Collin up b/c nothing got him back to sleep.  He'll usually play about 25 min after he wakes.  When he was younger, he'd play up to 2 hours!  Can you believe that?  Should have appreciated it more instead of stressing that he woke so early.  Anyway, if he won't go back to sleep right away, I'd just start the day.  But you know Mikey, and if feeding him gets him back to sleep, yeah, I'd definitely feed him.  If it doesn't, I'd wait. 

Some advice I recently got on this website is that I might want to start taking away daytime sleep if I start to have issues at night.  Like in 15 min increments...  That's why I was asking how long Mikey had been doing that...  I didn't know if maybe you needed to do that.  I'd say only if this has been going on for a week or so and you've been being consistent. 

You said this:

he again probably could have gone down at 6, but i didn't want to put him to bed that early and if we did a cat nap, he would have been up too late but he DID NOT seem overtired. but do you think he's overtired. i mean he can go 3.5 hours during the day sometiems which he's been doing so another half hour on his last A time does't seem bad. usually they can go longer then but not sure

If he can go that long being awake, it doesn't seem like he would be overtired.  Collin can go that long too.  What did you mean, "usually they can go longer but not sure?" 

I think you're doing the right thing by putting him down at 6:30.  Sometimes I do put Collin down early - to make sure he gets enough sleep for the day.  That's why I put him down at 6 the other day.  It only gave him 13.5.  Today 13.5 too.  I know that is even less than what they say is average.  But anyway, putting him to bed early (just that one night) actually made things better. 

Talk soon!

[texasmom]

Oh man, I am having anxiety this morning.  I barely got any sleep last night.  DH is in Nicaragua (since Tues - coming home today), but my parents have been here the whole time.  They left yesterday.  I guess I was anxious about being alone (?) last night.  I don't know, but I couldn't sleep.  Finally asleep around 12:30ish, and Collin cried out at 3:30.  I got a paci to take to him, but by the time I got there, he had gone back to sleep.  I think I fell back to sleep around the time he woke up - 4:20.      He played for about 15 min and then started crying.  Tried rocking him, but he was wide awake.  So now here we are, playing in the living room.  Waaah! 

Ok, trying to be positive...  it could be worse, right?   

I guess he is overtired again?!  He woke from those short naps, crying, so I THINK so.  Why is he so succeptible to that? 

Well I do hope you had a better morning...   

[texasmom]

Well here's how things panned out...  got him up at 4:35, played, took a bath (we do it in the morning b/c his poop smells so bad!), ate at 5:45 (super cranky most of this time - tired!?), back to sleep at 6:00.  Obviously 4:20 is not the time his body needs to wake up.  I'm going back to bed now.  Grrr... 

[texasmom]

Well, I just wanted to let you know that he slept 1.75!  After only 1.75 of being awake!  TIRED!  OVERTIRED!  Argh.  On with our day.  Hope you got to sleep in today.   

[jmosery]

Hey Brooke

Oh, god, I SOOOOOO hear you

ok, yesterdays schedule:

4:30-7:30 awake
7:30-9 sleep
9-1 awake (my housekeeper i think kept him up, what can i do)
1-3 sleep (guess he needed it
3-5:30 awake
5:30-6 sleep
6- 8:30 awake

i told her she couldn't put him down at 6;30 because I was going out last night and I didn't get home till midnight. so i could not get up at 4:30

so get home at midnight. at 3:00- Mikey is HYSTERICAL. i try to console him. nthing finally had to give him a bottle. didnt' know what to do. even gave him tylenol. finishes bottle. still crying. take him out on teh floor. HE WANTS TO PLAY. i am like NO way. so after 5 min. i put him back in bed. he plays for a while alone(gave him some toys) and back to sleep at 4:00 am

slept from 4-6:30 and at 6:30 up for the day

he went down for a nap at 9- (at 8, i wen t back to bed and just woke up with him at 10:20)

we are going out again tonight, so I want him in bed late

probably not the best idea, but i need some sleep and its alreayd all messed up

but he's not cranky at all which i don't get. happy go lucky kid. WTH??

hopefully with the time changes we'll get some relief somewhere. i hope so i really do

(((HUGS))) to you. i'll let you know how today goes

seems like things are getting worse for us not better. is COLLIN cranky from being overtired, or is he okay? other than knowing he probalby needs more sleep

jaime

[chell]

do I put him to bed at 6:30 and work on the wakings? but how do I do that if ssh/pat and pu/pd doens't work. what other techniques are there??

i am so at a loss i don't know what to do.

jaime

Hi there, I haven't checked in on your posts recently.........sorry to hear that things are still really hard going. I couldn't remember, but have you tried walk in walk out?
Chell

[jmosery]

No, i haven't done walk in walk out. I dont know much about it. i have to look it back up in my book

is their somewhere on this website that talks about it?

thanks a lot