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SLEEP => General Sleep Issues => Topic started by: Ilijansmum on October 23, 2017, 15:04:36 pm

Title: 5 month old frequent NW
Post by: Ilijansmum on October 23, 2017, 15:04:36 pm
Hello! I was wondering if you could help me do some "troubleshooting" to find out what may be causing my LO to wake up frequently during the night (at least 4 times) including at 5-6 am. I read and re-read almost all related resources and threads, ruled out everything, but maybe I'm wrong and could really use a pair of fresh eyes. My LO is BF and has been on EASY from birth, currently 4h. He falls asleep on his own in his crib and we managed to get to waking only once to feed between 7pm and 7am when he turned 3 months. In the past 2 months he started to wake more frequently, sometimes up to 8 times and his naps became shorter. Then with some great advice from this forum I tweaked his routine with more A time and 3 to 2 naps and things started to get better, but he still wakes up 4-5 times. I now feed him once around 10h30 (not a DF, we dropped that before he was 3 months because he was waking more often after DF) and around 4-5am. If I feed him later, around 6, he doesn't fall back to sleep and we need to start the day earlier than usual.
Title: Re: 5 month old frequent NW
Post by: creations on October 24, 2017, 09:25:01 am
Hi there
My DS had phases of multiple NWs where he needed a hand on him to resettle and it tended to be developmental or teething issues. Even the times when it was OT there was nothing I could do to the routine to make a difference, he just eventually settled down and the NWs reduced.

What are the NWs like?  What times and what is the mood like? How long do they go on and what do you do to resettle (do they all need resettling or does he sometimes do it himself?)?

Could you post your current EASY routine too please.
Title: Re: 5 month old frequent NW
Post by: Ilijansmum on October 24, 2017, 18:05:03 pm
Thank you very much for your answer! He usually wakes around 9h30, 10h30 when I feed him, 1h30, 4 I feed him again, 6 and finally 7. Most of the time he tries to fall back to sleep on his own, sucks on his thumb, tosses and turns, moves up in his crib, ends up stuck in the corner, can't get back and starts crying. I go in and pat him on the back or pick him up if he cries hard and usually he settles in 5-10 min. This is our usual routine:
7 - WU
7.30 E
7.50 A
9.45 S
11.30 E
11.35 A
14.05 S
15.30 E
15.50 A
17.15 bath and bedtime story
18 bottle
18.30 bed
Sometimes his naps are only 1h so I have to go in and extend with patting and if I dont succeed I put him on the breast while he's still drowsy and he sleeps 15-20 min.plus.
Thank you!

Title: Re: 5 month old frequent NW
Post by: creations on October 24, 2017, 19:00:03 pm
Have you tried to reduce that last A time?  It's quite long, looks like 3.30 - 6.30 so 3hrs. Whilst some 5 month olds do need that length of time, it is a length of A time more suited to a 6 month old.
It could just be that he is over tired before BT and needs a slightly earlier night.

Is there a reason to you don't feed at the first NW?  9.30pm is 3 hrs 30 since last E time, I'd probably just feed there and see if the 10.30pm NW disappears.
Title: Re: 5 month old frequent NW
Post by: Ilijansmum on November 09, 2017, 08:02:48 am
Hello! I've been meaning to write an update for a while but kept on postponing fearing it might jinx the nice progress we've made :) Thank you so much for your suggestions. My LO started to postpone his first NW and now on most (good) nights he wakes up at 2am to feed. He usually wakes one extra time around 5am and sleeps till around 6. Sometimes we have more NW, usually in the first part of the night but they're due to OT because with the daylight savings that started 2 weeks ago I try to push his BT to 7h30 so that WU will get back to 7. So far it hasn't been working, I even re-introduced a third CN but he still falls asleep at 6h30. I'll keep on trying and maintain 3 naps for now and hopefully things will fix by themselves :)
Title: Re: 5 month old frequent NW
Post by: Buntybear on November 12, 2017, 10:13:32 am
Good Luck, I hope things are settling down for you now  :)
Title: Re: 5 month old frequent NW
Post by: creations on November 14, 2017, 18:57:47 pm
Good to hear you had progress. Hope things are going well for you :)
Title: Re: 5 month old frequent NW
Post by: Ilijansmum on December 03, 2017, 19:44:24 pm
PLEASE HELP!!! The NW reappeared and this time it's much worse! We got to one wake up to feed around 2-3 and then all of a sudden he started to wake up every 40 minutes during the entire night starting 1h20 min after he falls asleep. Sometimes even more often! And it's been going on for 10 days! Sometimes he even screams for a long time and its impossible to calm him unless I feed him, but I'm quite sure it's not hunger because he doesnt take much and doesn't eat more during the day. And I don't think it's teething because he's fine during the day. DH has been trying to calm him for an hour doing PU/PD as I write this and it doesn't seem to work. I really don't understand what we did to deserve this, we haven't changed anything in what we were doing before :(
Title: Re: 5 month old frequent NW
Post by: creations on December 05, 2017, 19:03:26 pm
Sorry to hear you've had some rough nights.
It sounds like pain. My first guess would be teething unless there are signs of reflux or silent reflux or perhaps your LO is coming down with an illness, although a cold or virus probably would not give 10 days of NWs but reflux and teething could.  This amount of NWs are not usually associated with routine.