OK tonights the night-gradual withdrawal but should I cold turkey dummy too?

[Loube]

Hi There,

Can't believe I'm still going through this nightmare of not sleeping through! DS has never slept though (naps are ace though) and has probably slept through less than 20 times. Our routine is below. He's a textbook / touchy baby so I've decided on gradual withdrawal method. Thing is he actually goes to bed fine. The trouble starts around 11pm then pretty much every 2 hrs after that. I've broken down a few times and brought him into bed with me for the last 2 weeks now. We went through this before when he was poorly (Feb) and also when he had SA and he went back to his own bed no prob.

Should I sit in the chair next to his cot each time he wakes at night?

Should I go cold turkey on the dummies too (he has 2 at night)?

Should I carry on getting him to switch 2:1 naps?

This is going to be tough, but I'm ready!

Loube

[Loube]

Oops, forgot to post routine.

A 6am (used to 7am)
E 6.30am (7oz bottle)
A
E 7.30am (breakfast)
A
S 9am (this used to be for 2 hrs at 10am)
A 9.40am
E 11.30am (lunch)
A
S 1.30pm (this used to be for 1hr at 3pm)
E 3.30pm (snack)
A
E 5pm (dinner)
A
E (7oz bottle)
A
S 7.45

[mari]

I do think htat you should bring bedtime forward as it seems a little late.  am I right in thinking that she wakes from her nap at 2.30?

Do the gradual withdrawal, sit or sleep next to her cot and gradually move closer to the door.  Does she have a dummy in the day?

[Loube]

Hi Mari,

His naps are 9am til 9.40am which is the nap I will make shorter every week until he can manage with 1 nap. His other nap is 1.30pm til 3.30pm. I start his wind down around 7pm and he's usually fast asleep by 7.45pm.

He didn't come into bed with me last night. But he did wake at 9pm, 2.30am and 4.30am and woke at 6.30am this morning. All I did last night was pop the dummy back in and he went off straight away.

He has a dummy for naps but usually spits it out after a couple of mins and doesn't need it again. Where as at night he tends to need it more to go back to sleep.

Its always been this way. Not sure what I should be tackling to stop him waking at night.

Loube.

[mari]

I would try to stop the dummy in the day to start with.  does he have it other than to sleep?  When I stopped Alex's dummy I did it firstly in the daytime and did sh-pat, when she was less dependant on it during the day (it took 3 days) i decided that she would be able to sleep without it during the night as well, it took 2 further nights and that was that.  She was 9 months old.

I really think that if you ditch the dummy you could work better on the nightwakings as at the moment he is waking and he needs it to fall back to sleep, he doesn't need it to sleep, but he needs it to settle.  We all wake, babies, children and adults, but we can usually put ourselves back to sleep, but if we have props to fall asleep initially then we will need it again when we wake during the night.  (am I waffling again??? sorry!)

I also think that you should start working on an earlier bedtime if you are starting the reduce the morning nap as he will need to go much earlier than 7.45 when he is on 1 nap.