Christmas sleep disaster - HELP

[barneymcgroo]

I have a 10 month old - has never slept particularly well, but at my in-laws over Christmas, has become increasingly awful.

My husband is currently struggling to get him down for a nap - he'll go down okay for me, but only drops into the lightest of sleeps for him. Does anyone else have this? And if he does go to sleep, on a really good day I can get 2hrs - most often 1 hr.

Typical day looks like this: (in an ideal world)

7:30 up, milk
8:00 porridge
10:00/30-11:00-30 - nap, usually with milk after
1:00 lunch, milk
2:00 nap - usually only lasts an hour, tops, but he has done 2 hrs in the last couple of weeks, so I know he CAN
5:00 supper
6:00 bath
7:00 milk and bed

Night times - he'll only sleep for a couple of hours tops. Most likely 45mins, or co-sleeping with me and bf all night to sleep/keep him quiet, as I don't want him waking the rest of the house. And now awake from about 5 (though seems to be getting earlier every day).

Does anyone know of a miraculous way to help? Where's the reset button?! I keep trying to make his day sleep good, as I know if he's overtired, he won't sleep brilliantly, but it's getting beyond a joke. I won't do CIO or CC, but open to ideas.

The last few nights have been a sleep disaster in our house too. Already not a great sleeper but has got really bad now! 9 and a half month old,waking every hour on Christmas Eve then up at 4.45. Then last night,wouldn’t settle properly till midnight,then slept till 3.30am and was up for the day! Me and my husband took it in turns to try and get him back to sleep for 3 hours till 6.30 then gave up and all came downstairs.
No advice but we’re in the same sleepy boat and also will not do cc or cio so following for tips!

If baby did not sleep well last night / yesterday and you are better at getting baby to sleep than your husband, I'd suggest you do today and tomorrow sleeps. Your initial priority needs to be getting out of the over-tiredness spiral and so make sleep as easy and frequent as possible for 2 or 3 days.

In terms of longer term, I'd suggest naps earlier and less awake time.

1st nap 2h after waking
2nd nap 2-3h after waking from first nap

Then either...

3rd nap 2h after waking if both other naps were short. Limit nap to 45 mins max.

• bedtime 2h-3 after waking from this nap.

Or

• if both naps were more than 1h or 3h total then make bedtime 3-4h after waking from second nap.

Baby should ideally be going from fully awake to asleep in the cot, with support from you and DH.