All the milestones together and more...

[kiwibrit]

My little darling is 9 months old and we have had a distrupted night sleep for the last month.  My main issue is that we were away visiting friends and relatives for 6 weeks over Christmas, sleeping different places all the time.  We returned 1 month ago and we have moved him into his own bedroom, i have just weaned off breast feeding(2 days ago), we got 4 teeth in 4 days (last week), we have learnt how to commando crawl (10days ago)and can now feed ourself.  Our daytime routine is:

6am milk ... goes back to sleep
wake at 7.30, breakfast at 8
Activity til 10am (may have a milk here too) Play around the house/watch baby Einstein
Sleep til 11.30
Lunch at 12
Play til 3 (bottle 2.30) (go for a walk or swim)
Sleep 3-4.30
Tea at 5 (great eater and has never refused a food)
Bath at 7
bottle and bed by 8 (play in the bedroom and have story time)

Now all is well during the day, but it all hits the fan in the middle of the night ... no set time to wake but hard to get him to sleep again.  It starts with mantra cry which develops into ‘I’m upset’ cry.  He wants to be held but I pop his dummy back in, lean over the cot and he strokes my arm and snuggles into my forearm when I ly him back down. I try and gently draw away when he is calm but as soon as i move away he cries and sits up. We repeat the process for upto 2hrs.  I have tried to intro a comfort blanket with a teddy bear attached but he does not seem interested.
I know that loads of things have happened but we have been consistent for 1 month now.  Any suggestions?

[Colin Macs Mom]

Oh my goodness, poor LO has a lot going on!!     

You are doing very well making such an effort to be consistent. Good for you!!!!    The teething, developmental milestones (crawling is HUGE), a new environment and weaning are all big things that can really affect sleep. Introducing the blankie is a very good idea - you might try sleeping with it yourself for a night or two so it smells like you. LO might take to it sooner that way. Aside from that, make sure that he gets lots of time to practice crawling during the day so that he doesn't wake to do it at night.

[kiwibrit]

Thanks for your input.  will try the trick with the comfort blanket.  But.... would you believe it, last night he slept all night (breif wake at 11.30 because he got his leg trapped between the wall and cot  ) and woke at 6am for his milk.  Just when you can not see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Hopefully we will have a few more nights like that!

[Colin Macs Mom]

No kidding, that's great!!