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SLEEP => Night Wakings => Topic started by: Knriley on July 23, 2015, 00:05:00 am

Title: 6.5 Months - Night Waking & the Early Morning Wake Up
Post by: Knriley on July 23, 2015, 00:05:00 am
Hi,

My baby is 6.5+ months old. We learned about the baby whisperer late in the game and have been implementing easy and using pick-up/put down to get him back on track. He was always a good sleeper but at 5 months we took a vacation and he got sick - we got way off track.

Pick-up/put down was successful but we are not all the way there. We are currently on a 4 hour feeding schedule with solids twice a day. Our days are smooth and routine. Our nights are still a struggle.

My question is -- what is the best way to stop the early morning wake-up? And how do we completely eliminate night waking (he still wakes 2-3 times but settles quickly with a pacifier). He is waking in the morning unhappy and struggles between 5-6/6:30, sleeping 5 minutes here and 15 minutes there before needing to be settled again. Ideally, I would like our days to run on a later schedule.

Here's what our typical day looks like:
w 6:15 wake/stay in crib
E 6:30 feed (breastfeeding)
A 6:50 play
   7:50 solids
S 8:30 nap
E  10:30 wake/feed (breastfeeding)
A 11 play/activity
S 1/1:15 nap
   2:30/3 wake
E 2:45 wake/feed (breastfeeding)
A 3:15 play
S CN - seems to need this - sometimes will fall asleep in stroller or I put him down for about 35-40 min max
E 5:45/6 solids
   6:35/6:40 breastfeeding
A ready for bed routine
S bed by 7:15/7:30
Asleep by 7:45

Night waking usually happens around 11:30, 3ish, and 4ish and only requires a hand or a gentle verbal "it's ok" and pacifier, at this point.

I'm wondering if I should be feeding him at 5 and putting him back to sleep or adjusting the schedule in some other way. We tried the dream feed and it did not make a difference -- with and without the dream feed, he was awake by 5 and struggling.  Basically from 5am to 6/6:30am, no one in the house is happy. We would all be a lot happier after 7 ;)

Thank you so much in advance for your help!!! I sincerely appreciate any and all input.

Cheers,
Kristen

Title: Re: 6.5 Months - Night Waking & the Early Morning Wake Up
Post by: Jess_C on July 24, 2015, 00:11:11 am
Do u think his night wakes are caused by a prop ie the pacifier ? Also his A time seems rather short here. Most babies are close to 3 hrs awake time at 6 months.
Title: Re: 6.5 Months - Night Waking & the Early Morning Wake Up
Post by: newkidontheblock on July 24, 2015, 04:22:16 am
Hello there and welcome
Jess is right - his A times are on the lower side for a 6.5 month old. We were on 3.20 A by that time. I do think that it might be necessary to drop the CN and move to a 2 nap routine. You could slowly start pushing out his A times by 10 minutes or so every few days. You want the pm nap ending at a later time, so that there is not too long a gap to bed. You could also go with an earlier BT to compensate for OT.

Another thing that might help is keeping your days to 12-12.5 hours max. Right now your total day length is very long. I know you don't want to accept such an early start but IMO, the best way to handle this would be to also put him to bed early.

You can read more about this transition here
All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
Early Waking
Hope that helps
xx
Title: Re: 6.5 Months - Night Waking & the Early Morning Wake Up
Post by: Knriley on July 24, 2015, 13:06:53 pm
Thank you so much for your replies! Yes! Yesterday, I extended his active times and he woke this morning happy and content. We started our day at 8 am so this should help with shortening the overall day too!

I'm actually kicking myself about the pacifier though and I'm wondering your thoughts on helping to correct this. Initially when we started to get him back on track, we stopped using the pacifier because it wasn't working. He can go to sleep without it. Although, lately, the pacifier has slowly crept back into our lives as we made "tired" middle of the night decisions and an easy pop of the pacifier send him back to dreamland. I realize however that we don't want to become "pacifier popping props."

What's the best way to work through this? The hand on the chest doesn't seem to do the trick and recently when we go back to pick-up/put down it sends him into a crazy tailspin of screaming and crying. 

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you again for your help! This is a wonderful community of helpers!!!
Title: Re: 6.5 Months - Night Waking & the Early Morning Wake Up
Post by: newkidontheblock on July 26, 2015, 03:39:06 am
DD never had a paci, so no BTDT experience, sorry. Maybe you could post on the props board? With my DD, any NWs were usually hunger, so we fed. But how about trying to soothe him with patting/ stroking and a key phrase repeated softly?