7MO waking after 4.5hrs of last feed!!

[sudhinautiyal]

Hello, i am hoping i will be able to get some help from this forum.  I have a 7MO who has so far been a textbook baby. SHe has been sleeping thru nights since she was  4months, sleeping at 11pm and waking at 5-ish. Now she sleeps at 8 and wakes up at abt 7am, and is then on an EASY routine, feeding every four hours or so and taking three short naps (the duration of each nap varies from 30mins to 1hour) during the day. In the night she sleeps at about 8pm with a  10-min bedclothes wearing / diaper changing/story routine. SHe is on breastmilk. DUring the day she normally feeds on one side per feeding, for about 10minutes. DUring the day she doesnt sleep while feeding but at night i nurse her to sleep. I would like to keep it like that if possible.
She was sleeping with us in our bed but 1week ago I have shifted her to her crib.

Problem : Over the past one week or so,  she has started waking up for 1.5hours at night after 4.5 hours of the last feeding. So the first day she slept at 7.30pm and woke up at 12am. I introduced a dream feed, now she gets up after 4.5hours of THAT feed. Dream feed at 10pm, wake up at 2:30am. Dream feed at 11pm, wake up at 3:30am. Dream feed at 12:30am wake up at 5am. Each day she still wakes up at abt 7am in the morning. PRior to her sleeping in the crib, she would wake up at 4:30am every morning, i would nurse her, and she would sleep in 10min.
But yes, even while co-sleeping she had started (a couple of days) waking and not sleeping for an hour or so.

Now whenever she wakes up, she plays with herself in the crib for about 30min. THen she starts to cry, after which I have been doing the PU/PD routine for the past three days. After PU I take her on my shoulder or in the cradle position. On day one of PU/PD she took 1hour to get back to sleep. Day 2: one hour. Yday was Day3 and she took 40min from start of crying to sleep. I am not taking play-in-crib time into these times.   
I am at my wits end wondering what i should do. Is she really hungry at the time or not, i have no idea. yesterday she sucked at my arms at PU and i have a bruise on each arm to show for it, she sucked so hard.

She has never used a pacifier. I tried to introduce one to her four days back and she spitted it out with a strange "what-on-earth-was-that" look on her face.

She stands up holding on to crib wall for support. She crawls well. No teething yet. She is a lovely, happy baby during the day and at night as well, it is just this new thing of waking up at night.... i just dont know what to do, pls pls help !!!

[Layla]

Hi there & welcome

Can you please tell me what her daytime schedule looks like? What time are the naps, feeds, etc....


Layla

[sudhinautiyal]

oops forgot to add that my LO is also eating solids thrice a day (banana/ apple/sweet potato/rice/ veggies etc) in addition to the b/milk. Should i increase the amount? will that help her to stop the night wake-up? HELP!!

[sudhinautiyal]

Hi Layla, Her schedule is:
She wakes up at 7am, b/feeds, plays, sleeps at 9:30am.
Wake-up at 10 or 10:30 (can vary). Massage. B/fast. Sleep at about 1pm.
Wake-up at  1.30 or 2pm (if she sleeps for 30min in morning then 1hr in afternoon and vice-versa). Bath. Lunch. Sleep at about 4pm.
Wake-up at 4:30~ 4.45pm. Dinner.
Sleep at 8pm, with breastfeeding prop. Dream feed -- I have tried feeding at 10/11/12:30 as detailed in my earlier post.


 Basically i maintain 4-hourly nursing with additional breakfast/lunch/dinnerof fruit/veggie etc alongwith nursing. I also put her into her bed after 2.5hours of waking up.

thanks/ sue

[sudhinautiyal]

welllllllllllll ... it is 5:30am here... and i had fed my 7MO at 12:30am. tonite was nite 4 of pu/pd... or it should have been. baby gave a whimper at 5:15am. i did pu and patted her and she WENT RIGHT BACK TO SLEEP. gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!! now i cant sleep i am so astonished. ze world iz spinning and i cant get back to sleep till someone tells me zat zis is for true!!!

[Layla]

I am sorry for the delayed response. Been having some issues with my lo as well & not able to be online as much.

Ok, looking at the schedule, I think she might be a little overtired & needs more daytime sleep. You want her taking 2 long naps or 2 1-1.5hr naps & a catnap. When she wakes 30mins later what is she like? crying or just laying there? Also you say she is BF every 4hrs but your routine only shows 2 feeds & the lunch & dinner. Is she having milk at lunch & dinner as well? She needs to be having milk feeds 1st (every 4hrs) & then if there are any solids they need to be given about 1hr later after the BF. So ultimately try to aim for something like this:

7am - wake & BF
8-8.30 - solids
9.30-11am - morning nap
11am - BF
12ish - solids here or at dinner
1.30-3pm - afternoon nap
3pm - BF
5:30-6pm - catnap
8pm - BF & bedtime

If she is taking 2 naps then:
7am - wake & BF
8ish - breakfast
9.30-11.30 - morning nap
11.30 - BF
lunch
2.30-4/4.30 - afternoon nap
BF upon wakening
7ish - BF & bedtime

At 7 months, she really only needs 2 solid meals & if you give her solids 3 times a day that could be interfering with her milk intake, thus causing her to wake at night & be hungry. We only went to 3 solid meals at around 8-9 months. So I don't think you need to increase solids, in fact I would be working more on her feeding less solids (or at least reduce to 2 meals) & to take more milk in. Does she take both sides?

Let me know what you think

[sudhinautiyal]

hi layla,
thank you for your response and i do hope you are able to work out issues bothering you..
well, baby doesnt seem to want to sleep for longer than 1 hour at a stretch during naps. she wakes up fresh and smiling from them.
she usually takes three naps a day. one is 1hour long and the other two are 1/2hr each. should i still work on increasing them? pls do advise, thank you very much.
re: solids. i give her fruit in the morning (pureed apple or banana or mango) then some veggie in the afternoon and then some fruit again at dinner time. yes i do bfeed her about 45 min before each meal.

she rarely takes both sides while bfeeding. only one side and that too for abt 10minutes. but during the night she takes both sides for a total of 20-25minutes.

a million thanks for your responses..
sue

[sudhinautiyal]

hi Layla, I have fed baby two solid  meals today , one at breakfast and one at dinner. BF before mealtimes and 4-hour intervals as well. I must say, however, that I constantly felt she might be hungry still.  I will DF her again at 12:30am today, like i did yesterday.

pls do let me know how and when i can work on changing the time of the DF-- i would like to prepone to 10~11pm ideally, if possible.

I also made her sleep for 1.5hours in the afternoon and a short nap in the evening. The morning nap i couldnt extend though. will definitely do that tomorrow.

fingers crossed and hope she doesnt wake up tonight.

[Layla]

Thats great that you were able to extend her afternoon nap... 

DF - well most at this age are weaning DF's so I would let her sleep until she wakes & feed her then (if its been 5-6hrs later). You could try to lessen the amount you give her so she takes more in during the day.

I would work on feeding every 4hrs so she takes more milk in.... & work on naps.

How did last night go?

[sudhinautiyal]

hi layla, well last night (night5) was not as good as night4. i fed baby at 12:30am and she woke up at 5:30. it is 6:30am now, and no sleep or any chance of it at all. she has woken up bright and shining for the day. should she now sleep at 8am or at 9:15~9:30am which is her usual time for first nap?

noted abt the DF, however she was waking up 4.5hrs after whatever time i had fed her (DF i.e.) which is what brought me to this forum in the first place. i will tonight DF at 11pm (baby sleeps at 8 pm with bfeeding) and see how it goes and report back to you tomorrow, hopefully singing alleluia.

i will work on naps from today. re: feedings she never stays on for more than 10min per feed except at night before sleeping. wonder if that is enough for her? i am already feeding her on a 4hr schedule.

thanks once more.... sue

[Layla]

10mins is a good feed. At night is she really feeding when she is staying longer or does she just keep sucking & using the breast as a prop???

The morning nap - try somewhere in the middle so about 8.30-8:45am.

[anyamom]

success with the morning nap!! 1.5hrs achieved!!!!
it wasnt as difficult as i had thought it would be. i put her to sleep at about 8:40 and then kept patting her down everytime she started to wake up once she had crossed the 45min sleep mark. once she had completed 1.5hrs of sleep, i let her wake up! so that is that. i will continue like this till she naturally sleeps the full 1.5hrs on her own. ditto for the afternoon nap as well.

the night feed... well i am not too sure. tonight i will make a note and let you know tomorrow morning. but i will df tonight at 11pm and then cross my fingers and toes...

and again, many thanks. it is such a relief to know that there is someone who speaks my language and understands what i want to be done and is guiding me along the way. it is a huge huge HUGE support. you cant imagine how much i look forward to this feedback from you... many thanks again.

[anyamom]

oops.. this is me.. sue .. and that is my daughter anya !! have forgotten the password for the other userid, so have created a new one...

[Layla]

Sue - excellent on extending that nap. Try not to pat her to sleep at the 45hr mark too often... sometimes stand back so that she doesn't get too used to it... but I think what you did you did today is GREAT!!!!

Longer naps & a better rested baby often means good nights

Keep me posted

[anyamom]

goodiee !! thanks !!    all noted !! will get back to you tomorrow morning now!!