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SLEEP => Night Wakings => Topic started by: MiniNs on May 08, 2019, 14:33:00 pm

Title: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 08, 2019, 14:33:00 pm
Current EASY:

WU 6:15
S: 9:00-10:30/11:00
S: 13:30/14:00 - 15:15 latest (wakes for feed by this point)
BT: 18:30

We’ve recently seen a huge increase in NWs... 1-2 hourly from BT until WU.

Please help. One very desperate and tired Mama!
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 08, 2019, 17:46:40 pm
Hi there & welcome. Wakings soon after bedtime usually indicate overtiredness. I do think there is quite a long gap between the second nap and bedtime. Have you tried extending that nap? I think that might make all the difference. Do let me know how you get on :)
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 08, 2019, 20:29:48 pm
Thank you for your reply - it’s so much appreciated!

I have tried extending the nap but he generally only needs 1.5hours. He also finds it difficult to sleep past 3:15pm due to having a feed around 3/3:30pm. So the latest he goes is normally 3:20pm.

I was thinking about maybe bringing BT forward but then I’ll end up with EW and be in a vicious cycle I think.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: Katet on May 08, 2019, 23:35:29 pm
Wakings all night long can often indicate fluid in the ears making them uncomfortable.
Teeth moving around can also be part of them being unable to drift back between cycles.

If he's had a cold or runny nose in the last month I'd see a Dr to get his ears checked.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 09, 2019, 04:03:08 am
All good points by PP. You could try bringing BT forward to 6 or maybe gradually pushing your A times. He's already doing quite well on that front though. My son is 7 months old as well and he is doing 3.20 at the moment, so almost the same. We have been getting NWs because he is moving around like crazy in his crib. Do you find the same thing happening?
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 09, 2019, 11:48:59 am
Wakings all night long can often indicate fluid in the ears making them uncomfortable.
Teeth moving around can also be part of them being unable to drift back between cycles.

If he's had a cold or runny nose in the last month I'd see a Dr to get his ears checked.

He hadn’t had a cold etc but this did all start when his first 2 teeth cut through - I’ve waited for them to fully emerge before seeking help. It’s also happening regardless of pain meds which I think means more likely to be OT?

All good points by PP. You could try bringing BT forward to 6 or maybe gradually pushing your A times. He's already doing quite well on that front though. My son is 7 months old as well and he is doing 3.20 at the moment, so almost the same. We have been getting NWs because he is moving around like crazy in his crib. Do you find the same thing happening?

I think I’m going to try bringing BT forward to 6:15 and then if that’s no better, then 6pm. I’m worried about EW but I’ll take that if he’s more settled over night for now. I do need to stretch his A time too - he’s only just 7months this week and we’ve literally just stretched to 3hours A in the last couple of days and he struggles.

He doesn’t move around much at night tbh. He’s a very big boy and can’t roll yet :D But I remember having that problem with DS1 at this age!
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 09, 2019, 14:48:11 pm
Okay keep us posted. Crossing fingers for you!
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 09, 2019, 18:03:39 pm
Thank you.

Today hasn’t quite gone to plan but worked out like this...

(After another night with a lot of wakings, one of them pretty lengthy)

WU 6:15

S 8:45-9:00 (car nap on school run - which is 3 days a week - I cannot stop this most of the time and then when he goes back down for a nap varies hugely)
S: 10:15-11:15

S: 14:00 - 14:50 (resettled) 14:50 - 15:40

BT: 18:20

Very disjointed naps today, which haven’t helped, but I reduced the A time  before bed to try and combat any OT.

I’m hoping that if I can get a half decent cycle of overnight sleep in, for a couple of nights, then he will be better rested for me to start pushing his A times to a more consistent 3 hours. At the minute we’re doing more like 2h45 because he’s constantly tired.

*update*

So he’s been quite wriggling and moany on and off but we managed to get to a 22:00 dreamfeed with no NW, which the last few nights hasn’t happened as he’s been waking 2-3 times in the first few hours after BT. He waking up and starting to cry when I went in to do the DF though, but has settled fine after. Hopefully this means he wasn’t as overtired at bedtime and I’ve helped things by keeping his A times at 2h45....
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 10, 2019, 02:11:31 am
Sounds like a good start. We should wait for a day or two to evaluate. Let things settle down.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 10, 2019, 06:54:21 am
So after the 18:20 bedtime...

22:00 dreamfeed - but was beginning to wake up

3:30-3:50  crying and wouldn’t take dummy or resettle in cot - apop rocked 5/10mins (calmed quickly), put down when almost asleep and patted 10mins while he moaned and flung his arms around. Very restless on monitor after I left.
4:05 (not sure he ever fully went back to sleep in the first place) dummy run - this time not fighting sleep but trying to snuggle comforter etc. Restless again quite quickly.
4:30 little cry - self settle

6:50 wake up

Should I keep with 2h45 A times for a couple of days, based on this?
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 10, 2019, 10:01:25 am
It does sound like discomfort as well. I would suggest sticking to this A time consistently for a few days and then we can reevaluate. It takes a bit for things to settle down.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 10, 2019, 11:35:07 am
Great. I’ll stick to 2h45 A time as best I can today and over the weekend and will pop on our EASY and NWs each day as I go. Then perhaps any further advice in a few days time? I really appreciate it, thank you. X
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 11, 2019, 05:14:49 am
Day 2: 2h45m A time

WU 6:50
S: 8:50-9:05 (car - school run)
S: 11:00-11:30 (woken to try and keep some kind of routine?)
S: 13:30 (car, school run and then transferred to cot at home) - 14:40 (resettled) 14:50-15:25
BT: 18:10
NWs: 3:30 dummy replug & settled
6:00 wake up

(This is the best night we have had in a LONG time!) if it’s worth anything, he was really restless around 5:00am (so much so that his movement on the baby monitor woke me up) - lasted about 15mins and I was expecting a WU any second but he did eventually settle independently.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 11, 2019, 16:14:12 pm
Great!
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 12, 2019, 05:54:15 am
Day 3: 2hr50/3h A time
(felt like I had to push out his A time where I could in order to not end up with a 17:30 BT  after a 6am get up😬)

WU 6:00
S: 8:50 - 10:20 (self settled very quickly, resettled with a quick sssh Pat) 10:20-11:00
S: 14:00 (ssh pat needed to settle) - 14:45 (apop) 14:50 - 15:10
BT:  18:15 (probably not asleep until 18:20)
NWs: 22:00 DF, 05:10 dummy & quick ssh pat , 5:30 dummy
WU: 6:45

Should I be trying to get a more consistent WU time so that I can have more consistent nap times? WU has a 45mins window and it makes planning for naps a little tricky.

When I go back to work, in a couple of months, he will need to be up for the day at 6:15/30 so I was wondering if I should be waking him at 6:30 if he’s still asleep? To try and get a routine going?

Also, should I continue to keep pushing A time?

Thank you 😊
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 12, 2019, 11:03:14 am
Not a bad night, right? With regards to fixed wake ups, with my daughter, I was very particular about fixed wake up and fixed bedtime. She was very spirited and thrived on a set routine. Even 5 minutes here and there made a big difference. With by son, I let him wake up naturally and adjust the first nap accordingly. He is more of an Angel/ Textbook baby. So you will need to decide based on your LO's personality. You can always start with fixed wake ups when you eventually go back to work. At least you can grab a little extra shut eye now. Xx
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 12, 2019, 14:30:01 pm
no, not a bad night at all. I’m really so very pleased he’s stopped waking so frequently. Thank you for the support!

I have a 2.5year old who is up between 6-6:30am so no extra shut eye unfortunately 😀He’s definitely a spirited baby and I think perhaps we’d benefit from having set naps at maybe 9:15 and 14:00 or something. I probably need to push  him consistently to 3 hours A time before I do that though?

Today ended up like this;
WU 6:45
S: 9:00-9:30 (car nap - day trip) 10:40-11:20 (car nap day trip)
S: 14:00-15:40
BT: 18:20 (I had aimed for 18:30 with a later WU from second nap but he wasn’t interested in his feed at all and I put him down awake and he settled within 5mins)
NWs: 21:10&21:15 (dummy) - potentially getting hungry as only 1oz in BT feed.
DF 22:00

And that’s as far as we’ve got seems how it’s currently just after the DF. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we can have another more settled night.


What’s the best way/order to push to 3 hours A? Push one nap at a time? Does it matter which order? When would you advise trying it, given the results we’re currently getting on 2h45 and the fact that he was literally just 7m/o this week?
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 12, 2019, 21:14:01 pm
Sorry, just realised I signed off there with a barrage of questions! Just keen to get some advice on where to go from here, and when! ☺️
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 13, 2019, 05:26:43 am
So after yesterday’s post we didn’t have a great night 😖

Dreamfeed at 10pm. Awake at 3:00, needed rocking & holding until 3:45. Awake 5:20. Up at 6:20.

He’s then napped 9-11 and then I tried to stretch until 14:00 for pm nap but he was beside himself by 13:45 and I had to put him down for a nap again.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 13, 2019, 13:20:21 pm
Many hugs! They really do keep you guessing, don't they :-*

So if you want to push A times, I would suggest keeping your A time very low key, especially for at least half an hour before the nap and then just try to keep them up a little longer - walk around singing, go outside etc. And be consistent, hold at that time for a few days before evaluating the effect.

Are any more of his teeth coming in?
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 13, 2019, 14:14:54 pm
Thanks - I feel like this is already what I’m doing to get to 2h45, especially in the afternoons. But could perhaps try and extend the mornings to 3h A for now. Tricky with the school run as that falls at 2h30 and he tends to have a CN. It’s never straight forward is it?

His pm nap today was 13:45-15:10 so I’m going to try and do 3h A time to BT to avoid to much of an early night. We’ll see how it goes 🤷🏻‍♀️ no more teeth coming in - I keep checking in the hope that there’s an excuse for the wakings and not just me failing!
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 13, 2019, 14:51:35 pm
You are not failing! Don't think that for a second :-* With my daughter, I was so obsessed with getting it right. Right now, I'm just taking each day as it comes. Because there is always something. The first year is just full of phases and we just need to get through it with as much grace as we can muster up :)

So EASY is basically just a sequence of events to follow. You can work your routine around it according to what suits you. For instance, with my daughter, we only ever got 1 long nap of 1.5 hours in the morning. No amount of pat-shush etc could ever help us extend the others. So she did 1 long nap and 2 cat naps for the longest time. So since you have a school run, you can plan for a sling nap at that time and work the rest of the day around it.

Also another point to note, is what kind of an A do they need to bed. My daughter couldn't handle a long A at all. She did loooong As through the day but she needed her shortest before bed. Whereas my son needs a long A to bed. Does he settle independently?
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 13, 2019, 21:20:40 pm
He is self settling, mostly yes. He sometimes needs sssh pat but I think that’s when I’ve not timed it right, a majority of the time he just wriggles a bit and falls to sleep and I’ve seen him do this on the monitor at night too.

When we are home all day he tends to do a longer nap in the morning (1h40-2hrs) and then a shorter nap in the afternoon (1h-1h20) - sometimes I can extend with ssh pat but mostly not, and even when I do it’s only normally another 20mins before he wakes again. He’s defo not shown to be coping very well with a long A before bed. 2h45 is definitely his max there and could probably happily go shorter. On the night where we’ve done 2h45+ he’s struggled to drink his bottle because he’s spent the entire time rubbing his eyes. However, the best night we had, so far, was one of those nights...go figure!

I sometimes think I could push his first A time, but as he naps so well there sometimes I’m scared to haha, and also that’s the nap that is disrupted by the school run (in the car) 3 days per week and becomes 2 catnaps - one at 8:45 and ten another around 10:30/11ish when I quite often have to APOP to get him back down for a bit before lunch. Is that ok or confusing his self settling though?

We are still having good and bad nights. Sometimes he’s still waking around 9:30pm (I dreamfeed at 10) and then again at 3ish, sometimes again around 5am. Some nights he’ll only wake at 1 or 2 of these points.

Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 14, 2019, 05:37:19 am
So yesterday ended up like this;

WU: 6:20
S: 9:00-11:00
S: 14:00 - 15:10
BT: 18:10 (probably not asleep until 18:15/20 though as not very well settled)
NWs:
21:30, 21:55 (did dreamfeed here), 2:45-3:10 every 5mins, 5:15, 5:25 - ended up rocking and it needed to be constant, for half an hour before He has fully settled.
WU 6:30.   (When, I’ll be totally honest, I just woke up and cried)
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 15, 2019, 05:14:34 am
Things just seem to be going from bad to worse now.

Last night was-

Bed: 6:10
NW: 7:30pm
Dreamfeed 10pm
NWs
2:00., 2:20, 2:25
4:20, 4:30
5:30- wouldnt resettle so rocked constantly until 6 but didn’t go back to sleep- dozed for a bit at best, so todaybwas am EW WU of 5:30 I guess.

I am still sticking to 2h45-3h A and his naps are between 1h20-2hrs long.

I’m exhausted and also have a 2.5year old so can’t ‘sleep when baby sleeps’ either.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: Katet on May 15, 2019, 08:42:29 am
That many wakings to me say that teeth moving under the gums maybe the reason rather than routine. My DS2 used to be terrible for a week or so before you even saw a tooth.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 15, 2019, 09:40:32 am
With his first two teeth he was waking a lot for a few days nights beforehand - but his cries were different, like painful cries. At the time I thought he was perhaps constipated or had tummy ache, but then a few days later we saw the first shine of a little tooth. Same happened again with the second one a week later.

These current wakings don’t seem to be following the same pattern. But I have been rubbing meds’ on his gums at BT just in case.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 17, 2019, 03:11:16 am
I agree with Katet. I don't think this is just routine related. We have had one horrible night like this and later I realised it was a growth spurt but I don't think that is the answer when it is so many days. Does he wake for the dreamfeed? If not, you could try not giving and then just giving it to him when he wakes up to see if that makes any difference at all. We recently started realised that the DF was unsettling baby through the night. Just another idea. What do you think?
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 17, 2019, 05:40:35 am
I’m not sure there is much more I can do with his routine at the moment. He is napping at around 9am and 2pm most days, totalling between 2.5-3.5 hours over the two (depending on whether he’s napped at home) I am going to keep trying to stretch more consistently to 3h A but I definitely think 2h45 works better for him, especially before BT.

Yesterday’s EASY:
WU: 6:00
S: 8:45-9:05 (car school run) & then 10:30-11:20
S: 14:45-16:00 (I tried twice from 14:15 to put him down but he wasn’t tired at all!)
BT: 18:45
DF: 22:00- refused
NWs: 1:30 (needed APOP), 5:00 (dummy and ssh Pat)
WU 6:00

Today’s EASY so far:
WU 6:00
S: 9:00-11:00
And I’m aiming for a 14:00 S this afternoon with an 18:30 BT. Although the last 2 days, he has resisted going down at that time and has ended up closer to 15:00!

It’s funny, I was thinking about the dreamfeed myseLF last night.

He used to wake for it around 10:30, I brought it forward to 10pm to be able to wake him myself, and he started to sleep better afterwards.

The last 2-3 nights when I’ve done the DF he has at maximum had half of the feed, last night he wouldn’t take it at all. I started to wonder if perhaps he doesn’t really want it anymore and I am therefore just disturbing him for no reason.

After not DFing, as he 100% refused it, he then woke at 1:30 & wouldnt resettle in his cot. I picked him up and held him for a minute to calm him down whilst I decided if I was going to make him another feed up, and he fell back to sleep. He then woke again at 5:00 for his dummy and was up at 6:00am, taking his WU feed at 6:10.

So I might not bother with the DF now, but would you then feed on his first wake up beyond 10pm? Even though he hasn’t been having night feeds?
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: *Ali* on May 17, 2019, 20:01:57 pm
Reading through your earlier posts on this thread my first thought was that he sounds hungry when he won't settle later in the night. I'd definitely try feeding when he wakes. Most babies are having night feeds at this age. Even if they've slept without nfs before, growth spurts, developmental leaps or a particularly active day can mean they need feeding at night again.

How is his solids intake? Could any food be cause discomfort or gas do you think?
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 17, 2019, 20:32:33 pm
Reading through your earlier posts on this thread my first thought was that he sounds hungry when he won't settle later in the night. I'd definitely try feeding when he wakes. Most babies are having night feeds at this age. Even if they've slept without nfs before, growth spurts, developmental leaps or a particularly active day can mean they need feeding at night again.

How is his solids intake? Could any food be cause discomfort or gas do you think?

You see, I was told by 7-8months he should be looking to drop the nightfeed AND dream feed, which is why they’ve been stressing me out so much!

His solids intake is good - he’s a big boy and enjoys his food. He’s struggled with gas in the past, when we first started weaning, but my gut instinct is that it’s not bothering him currently.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: *Ali* on May 17, 2019, 21:33:39 pm
It's the biological norm for nannies to eat little and often including through the night. Society often pushes for longer stretches of sleep but it's actually health for babies to wake to eat at night.  It's this frequent rousing that's thought contribute to reduced risk of SIDS.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 18, 2019, 05:15:36 am
So yesterday’s EASY ended up as:

WU 6:00
S: 9:00-11:00
S: 14:30-15:45
BT: 18:35 (had aimed for 18:45 but everything ran a little early)

I decided to try without a DF, as he doesn’t always want it and I think I’m just disturbing his sleep. I decided that if he woke up and wouldn’t resettle/woke frequently within a certain timeframe then I would night feed instead.

NWs:
21:30 (resettled quickly with ssh Pat)
23:00 (resettled quickly with ssh Pat)
4:45 ( considered a feed here but wasn’t sure if it was almost just too late/would reinforce EW? He also resettled pretty quickly with ssh pat)
5:30 -  (took a little longer with ssh Pat, but I was aware he was now probably hungry and wanted to keep him going until 6 if possible)
5:50 - unable to resettle, even with APOP so we got up at 5:55 and he had his bottle at 6:00

Does this mean that he probably still needs a DF, even though he doesn’t drink it very well anymore/still wakes frequently and sometimes EWs when he *does* have one.
I’ll give it a couple more nights and see if the same pattern happens I guess.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 19, 2019, 14:08:39 pm
I think this thread has petered out but just wanted to post and day we are still struggling.

Last couple of nights he’s been waking every 1-2hours again and has stopped self settling for most naps - particularly the afternoon one.

He has started with a cold and a really sniffly Nose in the last 48hrs but things were bad before that anyway.

Our approx current EASY is

WU 6:00-6:15
S: 9:00/9:15 - 10:30 (sometimes 11:00 but that is less often now)
S: 13:30-14:45
^^^ this is where we struggle, I have tried pushing the nap to 14:00 and sometimes can get to 13:45 but in those cases he often wakes after 45mins. I do resettle but often he wakes again after 30mins or so and this pattern repeats until 15:15 at the latest, because I think by then he is also hungry.
BT: 18:15
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 20, 2019, 16:40:45 pm
Hey. I'm so sorry for disappearing. Had a lot going on. So I just looked at your last day - with a second nap ending that early, I would definitely squeeze in another nap before bedtime. How was the night though? Do you think you could post your routine with the E included? Just in case it helps. Also, from one mum of a 7 month old to another, we are still very much getting NWs and we do have NFs as well. My son was waking up for the DF every single day until very recently and  even now if sporadically doing so. One night out of three, we have a NW at either 1.30 a.m. or somewhere between 5 & 6 a.m at which I feed. I know it doesn't help exactly but I just thought it might ease your mind that it is normal :)
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 21, 2019, 08:23:49 am
I’m sorry - I didn’t want to sound like I was cross about the thread dying...I understand everyone had their own children to keep alive! I think the last few days have been a real low point for me.

Little man has now developed a horrendous cold and a bit of a cough so we are up every hour of the night, doing some APOPing and  co-sleeping and as he’s struggling to nap very long with his congestion we are also back to 3 naps rather than 2. I’m doing what I need to do to survive and hopefully it will clear in a few days and we can try and get back on track, without me having built a rod for mine own back too much.

Before he was ill, this is what our full EASY looked like (approx, obviously):

WU 6:15 (sometimes 6:00, we were also sometimes getting an EW of 5:45)
E: 7:00 bottle (sometimes earlier if he showed hunger  signs, but I try to otherwise hold out)
E: 7:30 breakfast solids (I know this would be ideally done later on but we all eat together before the school run with DS1 at this time)
S: 9:00-10:30

E: 11:00 bottle
E: 12:00 lunch solids
S: 13:45/14:00 - 15:00

E: 15:00 bottle
E: 17:00 dinner solids

17:45/18:00 bath and bed routine
E: 18:00/18:15 bottle (he has started losing interest in this bottle, presumably because I’ve jad to bring BT forward and it’s too close to dinner?)
BT: 18:15 (18:30 if he’s slept a little later than 15:00 on his nap)

I used to DF at 22:00 but I’ve experimented with not disturbing his sleep and just doing a NF at around 12/1am. But this has clashed with him being ill so I’m unsure which has worked better.

We were then getting several NWs - a few in the couple of hours after BT (OT?) and then every couple of hours from midnight onwards.

I had dropped him from 3 naps to 2, because he was fighting the catnap and I was having to spend 10mins rocking him and it was getting later and later. But he’s also not coping well with 2?

Sorry for the essay!!!
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 21, 2019, 08:32:16 am
Also, from one mum of a 7 month old to another, we are still very much getting NWs and we do have NFs as well. My son was waking up for the DF every single day until very recently and  even now if sporadically doing so. One night out of three, we have a NW at either 1.30 a.m. or somewhere between 5 & 6 a.m at which I feed. I know it doesn't help exactly but I just thought it might ease your mind that it is normal :)

Ps: Thanks - I see so much online and from friends about babies who don’t NF at this age, it does help to hear that. Especially seems how DS1 dropped DF and NF by 6 months!
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 22, 2019, 05:10:25 am
So the last 2 nights, I’ve given him a catnap between 4-5pm, as his other naps (in particular the afternoon) were broken/short and I knew he wouldn’t last until BT. On those 2 nights he has slept much better. Obviously I know he’s been ill and is also now starting to feel better which helps. But on both these days he had only 2hours A until BT (at 18:45), and I’m not sure if that made the difference?

Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 22, 2019, 18:38:02 pm
Just as an update, today I didn’t manage to fit an early evening catnap in because his afternoon nap finished at 15:45 (slept 1:30-2:15 and then resettled 2:30-3:45)

I did BT at 18:30 and he was rubbing eyes on his bottle at 18:20 and then woke up crying at 19:10 and needed ssh pat.

He *is* still a little sniffly from his cold and has now devloped  a cough but this is no different to last night where he slept much better.

Perhaps I’ve been trying to cut him down from 3-2 naps too early? But he is 7months now and a lot of days I can’t fit the third catnap in - I only manage it on days where one of his other 2 naps has been cut short and therefore timings all move earlier.

Any suggestions?

He seems to cope better on 2hrs maybe 2.5hrs before BT. When I push to 2h45-3h I seems to be getting OT wake ups.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: Katet on May 23, 2019, 05:45:54 am
I seriously think it took both my boys 2-3 months to transition to 2 naps, in part because teething and illness got in the way and because they are more mentally alert and so sometimes got tired earlier than others.
I was never one for an exact bedtime, in part because DH didn't come home at exactly the same time and he liked to spend time with them, so we erred on three naps and later bedtime. With DS2 he did catnaps either side of a big nap from being a small baby (which was great with a toddler) so I think he was about 9 months before he went to 2 naps and he was LSN and mostly only went 8pm to 5.30pm at night until he was 7years old when he started doing more like 9pm to 6am... He was so different to his brother who also was at 3 naps until past 8mo, but slept 7 or 8pm to about 6.30am )woke 6.30 ish even if he went to bed at 6pm or 8pm.

My point is 2 naps at around 6mo is an 'average' so it's I'm to look at his needs more than the 'books' and as someone who volunteers with a hospital centre for babies and sleep (run over 10 centres across our State and just opened a centre in China) babies in the second 6months of life *do* wake at night even with textbook routines, the waking at night is actually the 'normal'behaviour, the western expectations that they won't is the problem. So even if you get the day working to an ideal it quite possibly won't be a perfect fix for the night sleep.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 23, 2019, 09:19:13 am
Thanks, I think he works better on 3 naps - seems to wake less (I’m not expecting him to STTN- DS1 didn’t until 15months  :o :D , but I’m sure most would agree that waking 6+ times a night isn’t normal) but im struggling with the timings from a 6:00-6:30 WU (which by the way is totally fine, well  6:30 is fine) I dropped to 2 naps because he was waking from his second nap at 3ish and then not wanting a CN at 4-4:30 and was fighting it. We had a couple of successful days/nights on 2 naps but seem to be suffering with a lot of OT now. I’ll keep working on it I guess.

Maybe I’ll try:

6:00/6:30 WU
S 9:00-10:30 (he’ll sometimes sleep 2hours here. Maybe I should cap it at 1.5hours to allow time for the third nap later/stop him consolidate an EW - we are sometimes seeing 5:15/30/45 lately too)
S: 13:00-14:30
CN: 16:30-17:00
BT 18:45/19:00
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: Katet on May 23, 2019, 10:39:54 am
6+ waking says to me it's not a routine problem, rather hes uncomfortable at night, teeth moving or fluid in ears or solids upsetting him.
If he settles on his own for naps and at bedtime and can do 2 hours he has the skills but something is causing him to fully wake at night. With my DS1 we discovered later on he had mild sleep apnoea and fluid in his ears... GP never saw it but an ENT said he had fluid without infection so the classic redness wasn't there....it's speculation that it was there at a younger age as it was found at 5yo but the ENT said it was likely as he had spells of poor sleep then reasonable sleep, then poor sleep until he got tubes and he was a champion sleeper after that. 
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 23, 2019, 17:11:04 pm
Well, I tried the routine above, with a CN today and he totally refused the CN - he didn’t even fight it, he just wasn’t tired and was playing with his comforter and smiling at me and when I tried to apop he just was too difficult. So second nap was 13:00-14:15 and I ended up doing early BT at 18:00 to compensate - and he yet again barely drank any milk, like 1oz.

This is what was happening before, hence why I tried to drop to 2 naps. But he struggles to even get to 2h45 A time really and we were finding he was going to bed OT and we were getting much more NWs.

I feel like I’m stuck in a complete limbo with this transition. I’m not sure what timings to aim for or what to do.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: Katet on May 23, 2019, 22:00:14 pm
Yep sounds like what I remember, you kind of spend 2+ months with every day being different and it was then I reached the conclusion some babies aren't clock watchers and they don't get broken by having changes.
For the first 3 years of my DS2s life I said it felt like he needed 23 hours in the day, he was (is) LSN but only coped with textbook awake times, so a 24 hour cycle never seemed to work.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: Mum2lucy on May 24, 2019, 07:38:19 am
I just wanted to say that my 7 (nearly 8 month old) still has a night feed between 3am-5am whenever she wakes - I figure she’ll grow out it when she needs to. x
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: MiniNs on May 27, 2019, 22:35:27 pm
So, we tried a few days with a CN but realised he really just doesn’t want/need it.

We’ve now settled on something approx like:

WU 6:30
S: 9:30-11
S: 14:00-15:30
BT 18:30/45

We are still getting some night wakings, but not as frequent as we were. And he’s still needing a feed in the night, but I’m finding it hard to know when he’s truly hungry as he’s often awake a few times beforehand.

Thanks for all those still here and listening. Persevering with the A times and stretching them out seems to have helped us a little. Hoping that nighttime’s will settle down more soon.
Title: Re: 7m/o frequent night wakings.
Post by: newkidontheblock on May 29, 2019, 18:17:30 pm
Keeping my fingers crossed for you (and please do the same for me with my NWs & NFs ;D)