Could she be thirsty??

[nododo]

My 9 month old (BF baby) is a habitual NWer, but we are currently in the process of gradual withdrawal and a change of routine, which seem to be slowly working.  Normally when she wakes she either sits up and needs to be laid back down again or wakes with her teeth, which is usually an hour of chewing and crying until the pain killers kick in and she can get herself back to sleep.  Both of these are easy to work out and I know exactly what to do, but now and again we have a different senareo.  She wakes up crying and sitting up and then won't go back to sleep and just lies there with her eyes wide.  Sometimes she sucks her thumb and sometimes she rolls around a bit and moans, but just won't go back to sleep at all.  I have tried every tactic I can think of but in the end last night I ahve her some calpol on the off chance that her teeth were hurting but she was just too tired to complain.  She sucked it out of the injector in one go (normally i have to squirt it in), and then fell asleep really quicky....

Could she be thirsty???  What do you think?

[yaya]

hiya!
Whats her routine like?

[nododo]

Just got onto a new routine which is working fab and has cut the night wakings down loads and made naps really easy.  It is only now and again that she wakes up and just lies there like this, I'd say probably 5 times ever, which is why it confuses me.  Her routine is

7am - wake up and boob
7.30ish - A (including solids at 8.30)
10 - nap
11.30 wake up boob
11.40ish - A (including solids at 12.30-1)
2.30 - nap
4- wake up and boob
4.10 A (including solids at 5)
6 - bedtime routine
7 - 7.30 Sleep (this is usually 7 but while working on the gradual withdrawal she sometimes takes longer to settle herself)

[yaya]

I'm wondering whether it'd be worth increasing her A time to 3.5hrs?
It could well be thirst like you said, or it could be what we often call crib party on here LOL Where LO is awake from being UT...often they wake in the middle of the night and stay awake and are quite content....often signifies a need to increase A or cut back naps (which i wouldn't do right now as they are greaT)
does that help at all?

[nododo]

I've only just increased her activity time to 3 hours in the am and after her morning nap and decreased the afternoon A time from 4-3 hours as she was really over tired at bed time???

[yaya]

hmmm maybe not then....have to dash off but will try to get back to you this evening X

[franchick]

Has your LO had a recent developmental spurt where she is more physically active than ever before? Just asking because I have read a few times that our older babies and toddlers *can* genuinely become thirsty in the night from lots of day time activity. In these cases, I have read to leave a sippy of water for the LO to help themselves to. However, I would think that your 9 month old might be a little young to figure out how to help herself to a sippy in the dark in the night and you may, of course, not be comfortable with this idea anyway.

In saying that, it sounds to me like she might just figuring some things out in her mind during these 'strange' NWs, you know, processing stuff from the daytime etc. Or..... and this is a contradiction to normal 'crib parties', but my LO had a long spate of 2.5 hour crib parties every single night due to OT, rather than UT (it was *very* confusing, because she only got upset at the end of the long NW when she became really OT). Kind of hard to tell. Hope you get some other ideas and advice that might be more helpful than my ramblings. LOL!!

Oh, just want to say, well done for changing up your routine to cut down most of the NWs - that is not easy to do - big pat on you and your LO's backs!!

[nododo]

franchick...thanks so much!  Changing routine is hard and its been a long slog and still getting there with the GW.  She did start standing and crawling in the last month so maybe it is thirst.  We had it again last night and it baffled me.  An hour and half of just lying there and nothing would settle her.  She is a bit little to be able to deal with a sippy cup on her own in the night, but maybe I should try giving her a little drink if it happens again.

Isn't it hte way that just after you start to get one thing sorted another comes along???

[yaya]

Is she actually crying during the time?
Are you going in to her?

[franchick]

Nododo - yup, as one thing gets sorted, another comes along! That sounds right on the mark to me!

I echo what yaya has asked about whether she is crying or not upon these awakenings - I used to go in and I definitely think that meant that our LO stayed awake longer than she might have done - if I had been 'able' to wait until she cried, then we might have got out of our 'rut' a lot quicker.....

[nododo]

Yes she cries until I go in...this is another problem we are dealing with though, as I am her sleep cue at the moment, hence why ia m working on gradual withdrawal.  I only asked about this seperately becuase it is not that often that she wakes like this and it isn't her normal process.  She normally sits up in her sleep and then wakes up crying and either stands up or waits for me to lie her back down and then goes straight back to sleep.  I think I am on top of everything else, its just this weird lying there which has me puzzled.

For ref the process we have been through so far since she was 6.5 months is....
1.She was using boob as a prop and had stopped napping, so established EASY and did PU/PU to get her into the habbit of napping and to learn to fall asleep without the boob.
2. Becuase of this she then started to see me as a prop and at the same time started to sit up in her sleep.
3. Started GW so that I went from having to literally pin her down for a nap, to hand on tummy till she went off...to hand on tummy till she settled....to hand hovering over tummy....to hand away...to me leaning on bars...to me sitting back in chair.
4.Tried to intoduce lovie as a prop instead of me but this just stimulated her
5. Did WI/WO but that set her back
6. REalised that she was now much older and routine needed changing so did that
7. Now working on moving chair out of the room.

[franchick]

Sorry, you had already explained that! Sorry, I am a bit stumped, but you could try a few sips of water on these odd occasions and see if that helps or not..... obviously if you find she is then waking for water you might want to change this idea!

[yaya]

That is almost exactly what I did with both my kids, very very gradual withdrawal. You will get out of the room eventually and you have chosen the GW for a reason so listen to her cues and your gut instict as to how to proceed and how quickly.
I'm not sure I'm really understading the sitting up/òaying down thing. Do you mean so usually needs you to sit her back down? Has she just recently started sitting? Or do you mean she is now just laying there but not sitting up and not cryin?
In the first instance I would personally try to stop the pd....just sit backa nd grit your teeth till she learns to do it herself. My DD at one point was falling asleep on the bars of her bed, fighting laying down but I stuck at it and eventually she gav e up and went down herself. If your LO cannot sit herself back down then you will most likely need to help her out till she can.
If she is just layign there crying I would soothe with words only or hand on tummy if you need to then go back to weaning that prop once she gets over this phase. If she is just lying there and not crying, definately leave her be.
HTH a little