Night wakings continuing

[dbj]

Hello,

Just looking for some advice on my DD's schedule (Just over 7 months).  There is just something that is not quite right, and it seems like no matter what I try, it still feels off.  She has at the very least one night waking where she needs my assistance (rarely), but these days it averages about three times.  There are also times when I hear her wake and she may cry out, but soothes herself back to sleep.  She has also been having trouble falling asleep for bedtime, which had got better for a while, but has started up again.  At around 6 months (probably related to growth spurt) she started feeding at night again.  She has just recently dropped it again about 2 weeks ago.  She started scaling it back a bit so I was reducing the minutes of the feed slowly, but she dropped it herself when we got to 4 mins so it's not hunger that are causing her current night wakings.  I think it's part schedule and sometimes part other factors like heat/humidity, pooping etc... that is causing her to wake.

Our current schedule is as follows:

Has recently been waking at 7 - 7:30
8:00: BF
8:30: Solids
10:30 - 12:00: Nap
12:00: BF
12:30: Solids
2:30 - 4:00: Nap (Sometimes 3 - 4:30)
4:00: BF
5:00: Solids
7:00: BF (right before bed so varies a bit with whatever time bedtime is)
Bed (have been experimenting with bedtime between 7 - 7:30 - trying to watch her cues for getting tired, but it just always seems like something is off - had previously tried keeping her up later, also to get a better feed in, it worked briefly but then also seemed off, maybe time to try again?)

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

[momofclaire]

Hmmm....
Have you considered milestones as the culprit for the waking, or teeth? Is she rolling or about to do something new?  You routine looks pretty good.  I wouldn't attempt putting her to bed later. 
Have you tried anything other than feeding to settle her when she wakes overnight?

[dbj]

Hello,

Thanks for the reply.

When she does wake now, I don't need to feed her.  We do use a paci at night, but I don't feel that she is reliant on it, as she can fall asleep without it at times and she doesn't wake when it falls out.  I've been wanting to wean the paci, but was kind of waiting to get NWs under control.    She is also at the point where she can put it in/take it out herself.

She is rolling, but that's been going on for a couple months.  Sometimes she has rolled up to the top or has a limb stuck out of the crib.  She has also started sitting up a few weeks ago.  It's just that it has just been going on for so long.  Even when I was feeding once at night, she was still waking up additional times and previous to that it was she was waking at least a few times a night as well.  I don't know.  It's been going on since about 4/4.5 months.  I feel like I'm failing at this, no matter what I try.

I don't know what has happened with bedtime though.  She's is now taking at least 1/2 hour to fall asleep, sometimes longer. 

[momofclaire]

For what it is worth this age was really tough for us as well.  There seems to be so much going on between 6-8 months. 
Is it possible that her A times are a bit long?    At 7 months my dd was only having 2.5-3 hour A times.  Some babies can obviously do more.  Maybe you should take a look at some sample easy routines for her age.  Here is that link.
 https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=10386.0
Thoughts?

You are not failing at this.  You are obviously a caring and attentive mother.  It's a tough job. 
Hang in there.
BTW, your daughter has a great name...mine is spelled Myia.

[dbj]

Yes, a great name all around!

Thanks for the link to the sample routines.  It does look like ours is similar to the others.  I have been working on A times.  She's actually recently been able to stay up longer in the morning (though now she's been waking early which is also throwing a wrench in the works), before she was napping at around 9:30 and now she usually goes down between 10 & 10:30.  Well all around really, she seemed to take a bit of a jump in her A times to stay up a bit longer. I've been trying to watch her cues for naps and it does vary a bit from day to day but she usually is doing between 2.5 & 3 hours.  It is a bit longer right before bed, but wouldn't it be too early to put her to bed before 7:00pm?  Our ideal wake time is 8:00 (not that she's doing that right now), but would that be too long a period to expect her to sleep in the night? 

Thanks!

[momofclaire]

Ideally, you would put her to bed 12 hours after she wakes for the day.  I found that Claire did a bit of early waking around 6-8  months.  I just went with it and after a couple of months we were all sleeping in a bit later.  I think it is just the time and the milestones.  I have had other moms say their baby started waking early around this age.  If you are having trouble at bedtime I would do a longer windown.  Some babies need a little more time to calm down enough to go to bed. You can read, sing, cuddle or whatever you want but doing the same thing every nightis a good signal to her that it is bedtime.  Our windown at that age lasted about 15 min, maybe 20.