8.5 month old suddenly taking short naps and having NWs

[roimata9]

Hi there,
My 8.5 month spirited boy was on a great schedule, but it has now all gone up the wop! He pretty much dropped the catnap himself by needing longer A times, and was having 2 good length naps during the day. This was his EASY for an average day with 3hr A time:
7am wake and take medicine
7:30 BF (have to wait 30mins after meds)
8:30 solids - cereal and fruit
10-11:30 Nap
11:30 BF
12:30 solids (whatever I'm having for lunch he has too usually, we're doing BLW)
2:30-3:45 Nap
3:45 BF
4:45 solids
6pm start BT routine (includes a top up feed)
6:30 sleep
10pm DF

Now he is taking short naps all of a sudden and is waking about 1-1.5 hours after bedtime and seems to think that was just a nap and gets wild when we don't take him out into the lounge.
This was his EASY yesterday:
7:30 wake and meds
8am BF
9am solids
10:30-11:40 Nap
11:40 BF
12:30 solids
2:30-3pm nap (only 30 mins! Tried to resettle for 30 mins then gave up as he wasn't calming down)
3:30 BF
4:30 solids
6 pm bedtime
7:10 awake and in a rage for 35 mins until he finally calmed down in my arms, I put him down and he went to sleep with the occasional howl, but would just cry out once then stop and be quiet for a few minutes then repeated that about 3 times before going to sleep.
10pm DF
He then woke at 2ish and 5:55, cried out once and went back to sleep by himself.

I'm not sure what the problem is, he had 2 nights when he woke about 8 and was really hungry. he had eaten lots of solids those days, so I fed him thinking he was going through a growth spurt. He's back to normal eating patterns and I've stopped feeding him if he wakes, is 2 days long enough to develop a pattern? The 2 days prior to yesterday, I tried giving him an early BT because of the naps, but he treated it like a catnap, was so over the top hysterical we brought him into the lounge where he played happily with his toys for ages, we tried to put him down a few times after that, but he screamed his head off until 3 hours had passed since waking when he went to bed happily like he normally does.

Today he only managed 2 hours A time in the morning before I had to put him to bed as he seemed so tired, but then he only slept 45 mins!

Could it be he needs his A time extended? He's only been on 3 hours for a couple of weeks. He has reflux but I'm sure that is under control, I think he's starting to grow out of it. Developmentally he has just learnt to pull himself up which he does over and over again all day. He can't do this in his bed though.

He goes off to sleep independently with no fuss, we tried PU/PD but that doesn't work for him as he spends ages screaming in our arms without calming down.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! It's so horrible hearing him scream so much at night (All 3 of us: me, DH and DS were in tears last night)  and I'd love to get a bit more Y time during the day!

[becj86]

HUGS! I was there a month ago... with my own then-8.5MO, now 9.5MO spirited DS.

I extended the A times further, made sure they were pretty active (esp. the first A time) and he ended up with one long nap in the morning and a CN later in the day, with a shortish A time to BT after the CN. Sometimes an early bedtime is necessary and sometimes a really short day with one nap just to get BT and wake time back to where they should be.

Some of the sleep disruption could be related to the physical milestone... they dream it and try to act it out in their sleep. The only fix for that is time and giving him every opportunity to practice during his A time.

Does that help?

[roimata9]

Thanks for your reply! We've had a couple of better days, 2 nights ago he had no NWs and last night he woke 1.5 hours after BT and took 15 mins to settle - half of what it took the time before!
I tried to push his A times, yesterday morning worked well, he did 3.5 hours and slept 1.5! But then we did another 3.5 hours and he only slept 30 mins.
Then this morning I just had to put him to bed at only 2 hours 10 mins A time because he was so miserable. He did that the day before yesterday too, then slept 45 mins, did another 45 min nap around lunch time, then a catnap later in the day, but then he went to bed happily after only 1.5 hours A time from his cat nap and didn't wake at all.
He used to be such a routine baby, which drove me crazy as he wasn't flexible at all, but at least I could plan around his nap times. Now I don't know when he'll sleep at all!
He's not crawling yet, what did you do to make your A time really active for your LO?

[becj86]

Sorry, not sure how to keep it active when LO isn't moving... DS was crawling a lot at 8.5MO and standing up on his own, but we had to be at the park so he'd be active and explore as the house was getting too familiar...

I just wonder if teething may be an issue.

[roimata9]

It could well be teething, he is dribbling a lot more than he usually does.
Fingers crossed for no wake ups tonight!!!

[~Sara~]

How did yesterday go for you?

I'm thinking the same as becj86 that teeth might be the issue here.  My DS was very, very textbook as a baby; but when he was teething, he always took 45 minute naps.  Then, after a few days--once the teeth broke the gums--he'd go back to his routine.

[roimata9]

The short naps haven't been his pattern for his other teeth - he has 4 so far, the only sign is grumpiness and dribbling. Yesterday was pretty good he had a 3.5 hour A time first thing then slept 1 hours 40 mins. Then he did a 3hr A time and slept 45 mins, then BT 2 hours 15 mins later and only woke up around the time of his DF.
Today his A times have been all over the place. He only did 1 hour 45 min first up! Then slept for 1 hr 10. He's back asleep again for BT after less than an hour awake since his cat nap from 5-5:30. I wonder if he might be a bit sick perhaps, although he hasn't slept overly, just under 3 hours sleep altogether.
He's so grumpy though and is getting so frustrated with throwing toys out of his reach and not being able to crawl over to retrieve them!

[becj86]

Could it be a mental leap coming? Or a physical milestone realy close to happening but just not quite out of the bag yet?