Nightmare sleep!

[gussie]

I am desperate for a good night’s sleep!! My 91/2 month old is sleeping worst than ever. He has never been a good sleeper, usually waking up after 3 to 4 hours but  on Friday night he sleep for about 10 hours solidly!! We were delighted but then on Saturday and Sunday night his sleep was back to being a nightmare! Last night he went down at 7pm after his bath and bottle, slept until 9pm, he woke and fussed but soon went back to sleep, he woke again at 11.30pm and was up on his feet crying, we tried the sshh – pat routine but this had no effect he appeared to be not sleepy so I left him as he wasn’t crying. At 12.30 he woke us up crying and for the next two hours we tried to sshh-pat him but to no avail. In the end we gave him a bottle and this pacified him. He was awake again at 3am and again at 6.30am!! As this was time for us to get up and go to work we started our day.

Please, please can anyone out there suggest something for us to try? We both feel at the end of our tether and zack’s night wakings are getting out of control!
 

[momofclaire]

Gussie,
I am sorry to hear you are having a tough time right now.  Lack of sleep can really make life rough. 


Welcome to the BW boards.
Let's see if we can help you figure this out. I have a few questions.
Can you post his routine for me?
Does he go to sleep without a prop? Independantly?
Has he just started to pull up? 
Does he have a lovey?
What is his windown routine?

Post back and I will get back to you.
Myia

[gussie]

Thanks Myia

his normal routine is:

6 - 7am wake & bottle (i stopped b/f when i returned to work in April)
7 - 8.30 wash and get dressed, playtime
8.30- 8.45 breakfast
9 - 10 sleep time
10 - 11 playtime
1130 - lunch ~ Zack is on solids
12 - 1.30 playtime
2 - 3 nap for about 30mins
3 - 4 afternoon snack & bottle
5pm nap 20 mins
5.45 - 6.15pm dinner
7pm bath, bottle, bed

He goes to sleep with a comforter and has been crawling and pulling himself up for about a month. Not sure what a lovey is..??!?  is it the same as a comforter..? we don't really have a windown routine as getting him off to sleep at 7pm is fairly painless..

let me know if you need anymore information..

 

[momofclaire]

Gussie,
I think Zach is probably overtired. At his age he needs 3 hours of sleep during the day, maybe even a bit more depending on the child.  Ideally that sleep would occur within two long naps. 
I would try for a routine that looks something like this. 
E- 7:00 wake and eat
A-until 9:30 or 9:45 and then start naptime windown (your solids can fit in here)
S-10:00-11:30
E- 11:30 wake and eat
A- until 2:30-2:45 nap windown
S- 2:45 or 3:00 until 4:30
E
A
S Bedtime at 7:00

Does that make sense?
You can fit solids in where you need to.  You should aim for a 12 hour day, so if he gets up at 6 he should be in bed around 6. 

A lovey is a blanket or something they sleep with for comfort.
At night, does he fall asleep with the bottle?

[gussie]

Thanks for the reply. He falls asleep with a bottle most nights but tonight he went down about 5 mins ago without one. what should i do when he wakes up in the night ~ the pu/pd and ssh pat didn't seem to work last night. the problem we have is keeping him asleep...

i like the sound of the routine ~ it will be difficult to implement as he is at nursery four days a week....

i appreciate your help on this...!!!

[momofclaire]

Falling asleep on the bottle is probably causing a good bit of this problem.  We all naturally wake at night and because he is used to falling asleep with the bottle he wakes at night and thinks he needs it again to go back to sleep.  I would try to not allow him to fall asleep on the bottle.  You might have to give it to him earlier and then do bath or read or whatever your windown routine is. 
Most times nurseries will work with a routine if you give them one, however I would try to implement it over a long weekend or over when you can be home with him.  Do you have 3 days in a row where you are with him? Or can you take a day off to give you three days? 
Can you explain how you have done pu/pd in the past?  I think it will be what you need to do to break him of needing the bottle but I wouldn't do that until you end the feeding to sleep and work on a better routine.  It is best to try to work on one thing at a time so you both don't get frustrated. 
Post back with your thoughts.
Myia

[gussie]

Hi

I have checked with the nursery and their routine is very similar to the one you have suggested, so i'll need to implement the routine at home, i have friday's off so i will three clear days to try it at home. when i have tried pu/pd in the past I have always picked him up when he is crying and put him back when he is calm however sometimes picking him up makes him cry more and when i put him down he cries even more. i tend to stick with the sh/pat routine as this calms him down, the problem with this tho is that he able to crawl around his cot now and roll onto his back making it difficult to pat him!

i think it is a good idea to tackle one thing at a time...hopefully your routine will yield some positive changes...

 

[Layla]

Hey Gussie. I just wanted to say that if you are still having a hard time with the pm nap... it could also be that she is having too long for an am nap. Some babies do well with a 1.5hr nap in the morning & still manage to have a good pm nap but some start resisting the pm nap.... its all got to do with them heading towards 1 nap.

If you get a chance, have a read through this link (from the naps board) which might expain thing a little better
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=95670.0

hth
Layla