BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Night Wakings => Topic started by: lesliemarie on June 12, 2011, 13:02:39 pm
-
My 8 mo DD is waking multiple times a night. I need to figure out how to get these to stop. I am working on gradual withdrawal (she used to be rocked or bounced to sleep but now i just hold her) to get her to sleep on her own but if these NWs don't stop I can't keep this up. She stops crying as soon as I pick her up. She was just going right back to sleep but now is getting fidgety and I'm sad to say that because of her cold and mine I have been trying every kind of AP to get her to sleep. She will fall asleep but still keeps waking so it obviously isn't working.
Here is our EASY goes like this most days.
7:00-7:30 wake
7:30-8:00 solids
9:00 bottle
9:30 sleep (it is early because of DD1's school schedule)
10:45-11:00 wake
11:45-12:00 solids
12:45-1:00 bottle
1:45-2:15 sleep
3:00-3:30 wake
4:30 solids
6:30 bottle
7 bedtime
Those are aprox times but if she gets up at 3 she will need to go to bed early or have a nap. If she has a nap then it really messes p bedtime. After she goes to bed she will wake after 30 minutes and then that just continues all night.
What the heck is causing all of these wakings? I would appreciate any help or suggestions.
-
Any sign of teeth? My 8 month old is exactly the same at the moment and he has his top 2 teeth cutting. Is she using you as a prop to get back to sleep, or can she self settle?
-
She was teething badle last weekend but has since been better. Still no teeth though. This isn't a new problem though. I'm just really fed up at the moment. Every time we star to make progress it gets back to the same again within a week even if nothing has changed. She doesn't sleep independently yet and I'm working on it with the gradual withdrawal but after the past couple of nights I'm thinking that the gradual thing isn't going to work. She uses me to get to sleep again but I really think the reason she wakes so much is that she isn't tired enough to stay asleep. I just can't seem to get her to stay up longer than 3 hours during the day so she is going to bed too early. I think if I could get her day to be 13 hours and night to be 11 then we could make some progress but I just don't know how to do that.
-
Have you tried extending A time by 5 mins or so everyday? Do it really slowly if she is sensitive to it. Keep the extra 5/10 mins really low key, just walk around the house with her, give a change of scenary etc. Until you get the length of day you want. Sorry if you are already trying this.
I know how horrible all the wakings are, we are having the worst time since he has been born and it started a month or so before my return to work which doesn't help. My ds has a 2 hour nap am and half an hour pm which I suspect could be a problem but don't know how to change it!
-
Hi hun, btdt with my DD! She has never been a great sleeper either, but to give you hope, she has got better as she gets older. Just wanted to add that a wake up 30 mins after BT and then frequent wake ups early on in the night would usually mean OT. Looking at your EASY your LO isn't getting a lot of daytime sleep for her age either, is she low sleep needs do you think? My DD is still getting about 2-2.5h each day now and she is 12.5 months old. What do you think? Could she be OT by BT?
The APing won't be helping with her NW and she probably needs you to get her back to sleep. BUT as a Mum who still sits with her DD for her to go to sleep, I really can't comment!!! We are using GW too and it was going great until DD got a terrible cough. I am lucky as my DD has learnt to settle back to sleep despite my APing to initially get her to sleep. NW for us now only happen if DD's routine is off (OT or UT for whatever reason) or she is in pain (usually teething). HTHs.
-
fter she goes to bed she will wake after 30 minutes and then that just continues all night.
For us waking 30 mins after BT was OT, and part of the transition from 3 naps to 2. It may sound counter-productive, but for us early BT actually helped get over this hump. At the 30 min wakes could your DH try settling her in her cot? Sometimes I find my DS wants cuddles from me, but will accept Dad patting him back to sleep or just re-offering him the paci. If you suspect teething I would medicate, or you could try using bonjela (numbing gel) at the 30 min mark.
-
I was thinking it could be because she isn't getting enough sleep but I have no idea how to extend the naps. The first one is pretty much limited by the school run so she gets an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. Then the second one is usually only an hour so then she needs a CN and then she isn't tired by bedtime. I've tried giving her a CN at around 5 and then doing bedtime at 7:30 or 8 and I still get the wakings. ???
When she wakes in the evening before I have to go to bed she will settle for me if I just give her the paci and put my hand on her. Through the night though she needs me to pick her up. I managed to get her to sleep in bed with me from 4 to 7 this morning but she usually doesn't sleep there either.
I have tried medicating and it doesn't make any difference. I've also tried feeding and it doesn't work either.
I haven't been clock watching but I think that I'll have to start again. Her A time before the first nap is about 2 hours to 2.5 hours. I can get 3 hours out of her for the others. Today for some reason (probably lack of sleep last night) she slept for 2 hours this morning and then I had to wake her from her afternoon nap at 1.5 hours. Hopefully today that will mean we get a good night.
So if this does work and she sleeps better tonight what do you think I should do to get her more sleep? Wake her at 7 to make sure that I can get her to bed for 9 or 9:15 so that she has the opportunity to sleep until 11? She always wakes happy as well so its hard to tell if it isn't enough. DD1 was a low sleep needs but I don't think DD2 is. Up until 3.5 months she napped terribly but only woke twice at night to eat. Then she started napping better and then started waking often at night. Just not sure how to fix it. Willing to try anything though. :)
-
OK. So last night was sooooo bad. She went down at 7 and wasn't OT. Then she was up at 8:10, 8:48, 10:13 and 10:52. Then I stopped counting :( I thought I would try to get her to sleep in bed with me because the night before she slept there from 4 until 7. Well it seems that she won't fall into a deep sleep until 4. She would fall asleep but then be really fidgety and keep playing with the pillow or blanket with her fingers even while asleep. So it continued where she would wake every 45minutes to an hour and I would have to AP her back to sleep. So I realized that it isn't that she is needing the APing to fall asleep again I think she is just very unsettled and fidgety up to 4am regardless. This is somewhat new and I'm not sure the reason for it. Any ideas?
-
Aww hun so sorry for your awful night. First thing that jumps out on your normal day is that your DD is quite old to be having a CN still. I think most babies drop it around 6-7 months and it can take a while to phase it out. I know that we were having awful NW around the 6 month mark and when we dropped the CN, her nights got much better. Obviously it is hard for you to structure her naps around school runs, etc so I would get her up by 7am if that helps her to get a better sleep in the morning. You might also need to push her A times out a little bit to better fit her two naps in to the day. Have you looked at the sample routines and do they help at all to structure your day?
It is so hard to know why our LOs wake so frequently! How is she when she NWs? Does she cry or really scream? Does she settle when you walk in or PU? If feeding doesn't help at least you know it isn't hunger.
-
aw hugs lesiemarie. II agree about your day yesterday - it looked great. I really do think that the CN needs to go and those A times need to be stretched as pp have said. I found this really hard too with Zac has he was touchy and really wanted to go to sleep when he wanted to go to sleep (which was too earlyer A time ::)) phasing out that CN took us weeks...but it was worth it.
Seeing as you have the school run to contend with and cutting this nap shorter while extending that A may make her more OT you could maybe focus on the second A time and just try to increase it every few days, we had to start very slowly (5-10mins to start with!)and sometimes went backwards but in the end we got there. Once this one is up to about 3 hours you may find you can extend that first A a bit and risk the shorter nap if the second nap is substantial...and then you can drop the CN with some early BT??? :) what do you think? :-* :-*
-
Thanks for the suggestions. I've actually tried all of that :) We were at 3 to 3.5 hours of A time and then something happened. I have no idea what though. She went to only being able to stay awake for 2 hours. Today she got up at 6:30 and was sooooooo tired by 9 that I had to put her down. Not too bad of an A time though but she only slept an hour. Then I had to put her down at 2.25 hours after that because we had to go to the pead to see if this is reflux related. She slept for an 1.25 hours that time. So she has to have another nap today and probably a full nap since she was up by 1:30. She is so whiney and cranky during the day now too and I assume that could be because of the lack of sleep overnight. I just don't know what to do to keep her awake as I can't stand all the whining especially when I haven't had any sleep ::) Not to mention we have bought a house so now I have to get my whole house packed up essentially by myself since DH seems to always be at work.
On a normal day the second and third A times are 3 hours and a little more if I can manage but that doesn't seem to make a difference. I've also tried the earlier bedtime which didn't help as she would wake every 15 minutes because she wanted up.
-
Oh hun the lack of sleep is just horrible isn't it? My DD has reflux too and it is awful so huge ((HUGS)) to you. The NW could well be to do with that, is the reflux under control with meds? Does she seem in pain? I know that when my DD has a bad night with long/lots of NW then her A times the following day have to be really shortened to get her out of the OT. You sound like you are doing the right things and I think your NW issues really are to do with OT. Even if your LO doesn't seem OT at BT she may well just really need to catch up on that lost NT sleep. I think all you can do is just try your best to get her to sleep well in the day and maybe a 'slightly' earlier BT. Sorry I haven't got much else to suggest hun. :-\
-
She is medicated. Lots actually. 25mg of Losec daily plus 2.7ml of Ranitidine twice a day. It should be enough but not sure if she is teething or if it is reflux but something is bothering her. She is down for her third nap today. We had been doing fairly well with only two naps but still tons of NWs. I tried splitting her Losec today (10mg in the morning and then we'll do 15mg before bed). She previously got it all before bed but I wonder if it is upsetting her tummy to have such a big dose so late in the ay. We'll see I guess but honestly if this keeps up I'm going to move inter her bedroom and see if she will sleep with me just on the floor beside her. All the APing doesn't seem to be helping so maybe she just needs to learn to self soothe. It was at this point with DD1 that I resorted to CIO and I regret it so hopefully DD2 will learn quickly with me just being in the room. I don't know if it will make it worse if I'm just there and not touching her. I just wish I knew what to do. :-\
-
I just don't know what to do to keep her awake as I can't stand all the whining especially when I haven't had any sleep
oh hun I hear you! DS is a whiny bum when he is tired or teething or his reflux is flaring. DO you think this could be teeth related? Zac has never been a good sleeper, but sleeps A LOT just before and after his teeth pop through. For us the reflux flares when Zac teeths making for one unsettled boy. We are in a bit of an AP pickle too. I am sure I cave in to fast and pick DS up, but when you know somethings bothering them ie pain, it is so hard not too.
Maybe try riding this out for a few days and see if it passes. How long has this been going on for now? x
-
I'm beginning to think it is teeth and that could be causing a reflux flare. I got some of that gross baby anbesol (sp?). The stuff that numbs your whole mouth. So I'll try that tonight and I've also asked a friend to send some teething powder from England. We can't get it here and I have heard that it works much better as it has the paracetemol (sp?) in it so it gets right to the source of the pain. It is really annoying all of the things we can't get here >:(
The bad sleep has been going on since she turned 4 months actually. It comes and goes though. Before we got the reflux under control her days were crap with little to no naps but the nights were great once I finally managed to get her down (usually took 2 hours of waking every 10-20 minutes). Then the naps started to get better once we started with the proper amount of Losec and then nights turned bad. I know a lot of it was habit for her but the real issues have been in the last two weeks. She always used to settle when I picked her up but now she won't settle even when I pick her up. She isn't really crying just fidgeting and moving all over the place. Literally pushing off of me and tossing and turning all while I'm trying to hold her. I've had to resort to bouncing her on the yoga ball a few times and holding her really tightly to get her to calm down enough to sleep then the whole thing starts over again in an hour.
Once this passes I have to be aggressive with the sleep training. This gradual thing takes too long as we don't seem to have long enough between teething and reflux flares to make any progress. ::)
-
This gradual thing takes too long as we don't seem to have long enough between teething and reflux flares to make any progress.
(HUGS) I know what you mean, we are always 2 steps forward one step back. At the moment our PM naps are all AP, Im pretty sure I have created a monster but DS has been teething so bad, now has a cold and seems to have had a bit of a reflux flare up. I just want bear to see him in pain.
I can honestly say though, that for Zac anyway, the teething seems to upset him almost as much as the reflux did/does. It could be your LO is similar, just a rotten teether :(
Hope that stuff helps. We have bonjela, probably similar. wares off after 1/2 hour though. Good luck for tonight x
-
Last night was actually better. Still not great but not the hourly waking. I had given her advil at bedtime but she still woke 4 times in the first 3 hours. So I tried Giving her a big bottle of very thickened formula. After that she slept for over 4 hours (if I'm remembering the times right). thin she was up two more times.
So what I changed yesterday was putting her down after only 2 to 2.5 hours of A time. I just went by her cues. She still only slept less then three hours during the day. I also split her Losec dose so she has 10mg in the morning and 15mg in the evening instead of all of it in the evening. Not sure if it helped but strangely she woke with hiccups which used to happen before the reflex was under control. It didn't really seem to bother her but I had to help her back to sleep. The last thing was to give the bottle of very thickened formula at 11. I'm going to follow her cues again today and keep up the other changes to see if pit makes a difference.
-
Interesting about the hiccups, we are getting them again too and little spills which look curdled. I really think that teething makes the reflux worse (for us anyway) Sounds like you have got things moving in the right direction. I am going with DS cues at the moment too as well, he seems to need less A time while teething.
-
Hi ladies, C also needs less A time when she is teething and she also gets clingy and OT really easily with it. I always go by her cues when she is teething and OT as her A times sometimes need to be hours shorter than normal! It usually works great to get her out of being OT though, so sounds like you are doing the right thing. Hope tonight is better again.
-
Thanks for the positive responses. I really hope it will be better as well. She is really rubbing her mouth today and her nose is running. She is also biting everything in sight.
-
So last night was decent. There were 5 NWs compared with the hourly waking. I did feed her twice but it did help her sleep afterwards so I think that she was actually hungry. Last night I thought that she was UT when I was putting her to bed because it took so long but then she slept the best in the early evening that she has in months. I'm really not sure where to go from here. It is really hard to get the CN in because sometimes I can't even wait 2.5 hours between the last nap and the CN but if she doesn't have it then she would have to be in bed by 5pm which doesn't work. Any ideas?
-
Hi hun glad you had a half decent night. If it makes you feel any better my DD is teething and has been that unsettled even with pain meds that she has spent the past two nights in our bed!!!! Oh dear AP nightmare alert! I just can't stand the constant up and down to her room every few mins and no sleep for any of us otherwise.
Anyway, from what you have said about your DD being more settled in the first part of the night when she was less tired really makes me think she is normally OT. The frequent wakings you normally get early in the night are classic signs anyway aren't they? What you do about this when she is already on short A times hun I really don't know. :-\
-
I know. It really is a struggle. I think I was waiting until she was too tired just to stretch the A times. Today she gave me just over 3 hours for her afternoon nap but then only slept an hour. Only just as well. So now bedtime will be at 6:15 :( and that is if she can do another 3 hours.
-
For what it is worth, if my DD gives me a 1h nap then it means UT. I know all LOs are different though, why do you think that was, any ideas? I know I said OT before but you can easily get into the dreaded OT/UT loop can't you? So what is your EASY looking like now? Maybe if you post it we can spot something.
Also does she wake happy or crying and can you extend naps in any way? The way DD wakes early from naps always gives me a clue as to weather she was OT or UT. When she has done 3h A time how is she? Is she grumpy, sleepy, happy? Sounds like I am listing the 7 dwarfs here!! LOL. :D Does she then fall asleep easily and quickly or not?
-
She seems to do a 1 hour nap regardless of whether she has been awake for 2 hours or 3 hours. I know that if she wakes happy then I can't extend. So for example yesterday morning she woke after 30 minutes and was crying so I was able to extend and actually ended up having to wake her up at 11 for the school run. That was an hour and a half. Then later in the day she did 3 hours of A time and had just barely an hour. But then was in a great mood and she actually stayed up for 3 hours and 40 minutes. I knew it was a bad idea but she was happy and just chewing away on a teething cookie for a good hour before bed. I actually had to put her to bed and she didn't seem tired. Then she woke 7 times between 7 and 10. So I finally had to take her into my bed and go to bed for the night. The positive thing here is that I know that the frequent waking in the early evening is OT. After I took her into my bed she slept until 1 which never happens, then had a bottle. I put her back in her bed where she only slept an hour. Then I brought her back to my bed where she slept until almost 6. My room is too light for her so I just bounced her a little then and she slept in her room for another hour.
All that being said I don't really have an EASY to post as it has been different the past three days. I'm going to attempt to only do two naps again today but put her to bed earlier. I just wonder if it will work out timing wise. Of course DH was out last night and tonight and I have to get DD1 to bed as well :-\
-
Oh hugs hun, figuring out sleep is just sooooo hard isn't it? Your DD sounds just like mine in that if she is UT she wakes happy and you can't extend naps and if she is OT she wakes crying and you sometimes can extend. It sounds like she has quite a small window in which is the perfect A time for her so as not to be OT/UT. Finding it is the problem hey?!
OK, so you have tried 2h and 3h A time and still get about 1h sleep, 3h 40 gave you OT early NWings. So have you tried 3h 15mins? Maybe you could try adding 5 mins each day and see what happens? Some babies take a good while to get used to a change though so maybe only increase every few days. Do you think that would work to extend her naps and then eventually drop that CN?
Also I think taking her into your bed is also not helping. I say this from my own experiences as we have been doing this due to teething the past few nights. So last night the tooth has popped and she was medicated before bed and all seemed fine. BUT our DD kept waking all the time, I would settle her with just a hand on her and then leave and she would wake again. This went on and on so I caved and she came into our bed where she instantly snuggled up to me and DH and fell flat out asleep! There was clearly nothing wrong she just wanted us and our bed. She is staying put in her cot tonight no matter what! ;)
-
Well I'm going to do the 2.5 hours before the first nap because she woke at 7 and if I don't get her down by 9:30 then she won't have the opportunity to have a longer nap because she has to be up for the school run at 11. Thankfully school is done in a few weeks. Then I guess I'll have to go from there to figure out what A time to do depending on how long she sleeps for. I am going to try to go back closer to to maybe 2.75 hours and see how that works. I'll try reading her cues again but we saw how well that worked last night ::)
As for bringing her into bed with me I only did it because I couldn't keep going back in constantly. I also didn't actually think it would work. Last night was the first night that she has slept OK in my bed. What I'm planning on doing is putting her crib mattress flat again (it is raised because of the reflux) because she slept fine in my bed. I'm also going to put the really padded bumper pads on the rails in case running into that is causing a problem. In my bed she rolled around a lot but in her crib she always ends up at the bottom of the bed so maybe it will help. I only wish I could climb into her crib and that way she is still in her bed :P
Oh and last night teeth were definitely an issue. She was rubbing her mouth so much yesterday and when I brought her into bed with me she was whimpering a lot and I think me being there to put my hand on her and kind of shhh her back to sleep helped her not wake. I had given her tylenol at bedtime and then oragel (numbing stuff) and finally advil at 10 and that allowed her to sleep but the stupid tooth is still not through. She doesn't have any yet but they are bothering her so much.
-
So she went down at 2 hours and 40 minutes of A time and fell asleep in less than 5 minutes. I wonder if that is the perfect time for her. It has been an hour and a half and she is still sleeping and now I have to wake her to go get DD1. :) We'll see how this afternoon goes.
-
Great progress! :)
-
That is great! Sounds like 2h 40 is the way to go. If you can get decent naps like that on that A time I would stick with it, if she is OT from NW then a long nap like that should get her over it too and set you up well for the rest of the day. Brilliant! How did the rest of your day and BT go hun?
-
Well for the second nap she had an A time of 3 hours and was harder to get to sleep but still it took less than 10 minutes. She then only slept for an hour, well probably more like an hour and 10 minutes. She had 3 hours before bed but I took her up to bed at the 3 hour mark and it took 20 minutes for her to get to sleep. She was eating her last bottle though because we couldn't fit it in before. She was almost asleep after that but just kind of played with her blanket for about 10 minutes. I tried to put her down but she wouldn't settle so had to hold her until good and asleep. It's now been 20 minutes since bed so fingers crossed.
I'm having a hard time getting her to drink all her milk during the day so sometimes have to feed just before bed in her room. Although I did that last night and she was up a ton so maybe that is part of the early evening wakings. Who knows ::) I guess I'll find out. Does anyone know or remember how much their LO was drinking a day at 8 months? And if there were any night feeds? I really don't think she needs them but the past few days I'm finding that a bottle does seem to help her settle and sleep longer sometimes but it isn't consistent.
-
So yesterday went well hun, hope your night was as good? I think C was still on 4 7oz bottles a day at 9 months but pretty soon after she dropped to 3. She was doing 7am, 11am, 4pm and 7pm (or whatever time BT was) then she dropped the 11am one first. So then we moved to 7am, 2.30pm and 7pm, she is about to drop the 2.30 bottle now though as shows little interest in it anymore. Are you bottle or breast feeding? I know that we were warned about feeding a bottle right before BT by our reflux pediatrician as it can cause reflux probs lying straight down after the bottle, but TBH it made no difference to us and it was a really nice and important part of our BT wind down so we still do this. But you could be right, it could be causing your NW just after BT.
Do you think your DD increases her A time as the day goes on? C always did, I used to have to increase the A times after each nap and her shortest A time was always the morning one. When C's first A time was 2.5h her next A time would be 3h. So if your DD's first A is 2h 45 and she has a good nap have you tried 3h 15 A time before the next nap? Just a thought. Also I have learnt that the time it takes C to go to sleep is a huge clue about how tired she was, if I have got her window right she falls asleep instantly. If she is UT it takes much longer for her to fall asleep. What do you think?
-
Well she went to bed at 6:30 and slept for almost an hour before waking up. Usually its only 30 minutes if OT. She then woke up a bunch of times between 7:30 and probably 9:30. So when she woke at 7:30 I just had to give her the soother. Then she woke again really quickly but more of a whimpery kind of waking. She really didn't want to be awake. So I gave her some tylenol but she woke again a couple more times and would suck on the soother and then cry then suck and then cry so I tried the numbing gel. The poor thing was just whimpering and still mostly asleep. Then she still woke another couple of times so I tried Advil. I really hate to do that. I know that you can alternate between the two pain killers to provide relief if necessary but it is a lot of meds for a little baby but after that she slept right through until 1am. Then I fed her and she slept till 3:30. I have a feeling that the pain meds had worn off by then so I just tried some of the numbing gel and she slept until 5:40. She seemed to want to get up then so I APed with a bottle and she slept until 6:45.
So I know that the teeth are really messing everything up and I really wish I could do something more for the poor thing. She is just rubbing her mouth constantly but only seems upset by it when sleeping. Still no teeth though.
So for today I'm going to try to put her down at the 2:45 minute mark for the first nap and see how it goes. Then maybe I'll try 3:05 or 3:10 for the next nap as long as the first is good. It's funny DD1 was the same with needing a much shorter A time before the first nap. That carried on until she dropped it completely. I think she was 2.5 hours from the time she was about 6 months until she dropped it at just about a year.
She is bottle fed. She is on Neocate and a thickener. Her milk has a gel like consistency but it seems to help with the reflux :-\ Whenever it flares I thicken it even more and it seems to help.
She used to drink 7oz at a time but now i'm lucky to get 5 in. 4 is more likely. So what I've been doing is offering 5oz at approx 7-7:30 unless she has had a 5 or 6am bottle, then 11am, this is where it gets tricky. If I offer another bottle at about 3 or 3:30 then she will take less and then she has dinner at 4 and then I'm trying for another bedtime bottle and she just plain isn't hungry for it. That means that if I'm lucky her daytime milk intake is 17-18oz. This is from the girl who used to drink 45oz a day ::) Oh well, just not that hungry for milk anymore.
-
Well less interest in milk is a sign to drop a bottle isn't it? Does she do well on solids and eat a lot? Did you say you were feeding in the night? If so that is probably why she isn't as interested during the day. I would say by 8 months she really doesn't 'need' the NF. But I know we all do whatever we can to get some sleep. :)
-
I thought so as well. I don't think she needs any at night but at the moment while I'm trying to get rid of the CN I am feeding at 5 or so if I can't get her back to sleep. I also try to just get her back to sleep at night without a bottle but if she keeps waking every 30 minutes then I feed assuming she is hungry. I really wish she could tell me what she wants :)
As for the naps today I went with 3 hours for this afternoon's nap and again got an hour. The difference this time is I went up at 2 hours and 50 minutes so that she could be asleep by 3 hours and she was just over. 3 hours and 5 minutes but still the 1 hour. It doesn't seem to matter what A time I do I still get an hour in the afternoon. So she was up by 3:05 so I guess that means a 6pm bedtime and likely another 5am wakeup :-\ This morning's nap was 1.40 and I had to wake her for the school run again. I think she would do 2 hours in the morning and an hour in the afternoon easily if I could just stop it with the stupid school run. grrrrrrr
-
OK. So the last few days haven't really been any better. She doesn't seem to be teething as badly though. Friday night was horrible. She was just so unsettled she was up almost hourly. She was up early on Saturday and only slept for just probably only 45 minutes but I kept her in her room for another 15 trying to get her back to sleep. Then was so tired and miserable that I put her down again after only an hour and a half and she slept for nearly two hours. Go figure. Anyway I don't remember the exactly times but I was working on her tired cues and she had a lot of NWs in the early evening but once I medicated her with teething gel she slept from 11 to 1am then I fed and gave her reflux meds, antibiotics (for a minor infection of a bug bite) and more advil. Then she slept until 6:15 when the power surged and her white noise turned off and her music came on >:(
Then yesterday we had just about an hour for the first nap and I APd like crazy for the second nap and managed to get her 2.5 hours (I was sure she needed it). She went to bed well and woke much less during the first few hours of the night and then it all turned and she started waking more often. She was whimpering in her sleep and so I gave advil again at 12:45 with a bottle and she was up at 2:30 for a cuddle and then at 5:45 where I fed her and she went off to sleep until 7:15.
So I've got a couple of questions.
1. Since she is having her antibiotics for the next 3 days and needs a dose at about midnight I was thinking I would continue the bottle because I can put it in the bottle along with her reflux meds and advil if needed. Then I was thinking of cutting it out and seeing if just reflux meds and advil will keep her asleep. What do you think?
2. If she continues to wake early am I right in thinking that she is waking from hunger because she will go back to sleep for at least an hour afterwards? Although, the other day I managed to get her back to sleep by bouncing her on the yoga ball and she slept for another hour.
I'm going to try extending her A times again today to see what I get. Last night she was about 3 hours and 15 minutes before getting into her room for her wind down and she was crying and being miserable. I'm thinking that I have to start at 3 hours and go from there. It is so frustrating though because every day is different and I'm not sure what to do. She used to be so predictable with the amount of time she was able to stay up. This school run really has messed everything up. When she was only doing 2 hours of A time it was no problem. Even 2.5 hours of A time would work but now that she should be able to stay up more she can't or else she won't be able to nap. At least it is only another two weeks but then we have a ton going on. We are going on vacation on July 16th (just DH and I) for a week and the girls will be with Grandma who seems incapable of keeping track of time (ex. when she got up so she has no idea when she should be ready to go down, etc). Then a week after that we move to our new house. Then I go back to work on September 8th and DD1 goes to full day school (yay!!!) and DD2 will be in case with a daycare provider and her little girl who is just a week younger than DD2. That should start a whole new problem with naps. grrrrrr
-
Hi hun sorry I haven't been around the past couple of days. Not sure I can be of any help but will try! How are the NWs going now? Any changes since you increased your DD's A times?
I would def try to drop that bottle once she has finished her antibiotics hun yes. Think we said before she really doesn't 'need' it does she? But if she is used to having it now I am sure she will kick up a fuss to get fed, so be ready for that one! ;)
As for her EW being out of hunger it could be if she goes straight back down after a feed. How much does she take? This is usually a good indicator. If she has a full feed and then sleeps it was probably hunger but if she only takes a few oz it is probably not.
-
I think a lot is habit. I know now that when she is waking hourly it is pain from something. But over the past few days I've realized that when she wakes frequently in the early evening it is probably just habit. Then she consistently wakes at 1 and between 5 and 6. So at 1 (the other night it was actually 2:30) she will drain a 4, 5, or 6oz bottle (I put more or less in depending on how much she has had in the day) and then right back to sleep. Sometimes will sleep straight to 5 and other times will be up in an hour or so. So I'm thinking that sometimes it is hunger and other times it isn't. Not that that really helps ::) I would say it would be time to drop a bottle but one day I tried only giving her three bottles during the day to see if she would drink more than 4 or 5oz but she still wouldn't. I think it just made her more hungry at night. She just doesn't seem that interested in the bottle during the day or it could be that more than that will cause her to reflux more so she just won't take it. Who knows. At this point I'm OK with one feed at night. I'm pretty sure she doesn't need it so if I can get her sleeping independently and she stops waking then I'll know for sure. I've now got a thread going about the next steps for gradual withdrawal on the props board so if you would like to follow along there that might help. I really don't think its related to her EASY now. It is just so hard to know for sure.
Tonight I actually climbed into the crib with her and just lied there to get her to fall asleep without me holding her. It worked but only after an hour and 15 minutes. Today was really messed up sleep wise though so she may not have been tired enough to go to sleep. It probably only took 10 minutes for her to fall asleep once I climbed in though. Who knows if it will ever work again. :P