5.5 month old waking 3+ times/night

[jd1981]

I've never posted before but I've found reading this forum quite helpful. Thank you to the people who diligently answer these questions. 

My daughter is 5.5 months and we've been loosely following E.A.S.Y since she was 7 weeks. I never really got her on the 3 hr E.A.S.Y. because her naps were only 30-50mins for a long time, but now she has 2 naps that are around 1.5 hrs and 1 nap around 40 mins long. I follow the 4S wind down routine (except she doesn't need shushing anymore) and she hardly cries going down for naps unless I got the timing wrong (under tired/over tired). Or if we are out of the house. I have the hardest time getting her to nap out of the house lately, and when she does fall asleep it's for 40 mins or less. If anyone has tips for that it would be great, but that's not my biggest concern right now…

So naps are going well, but she is still waking up around 2am and 5am to breastfeed, and she usually wakes up another time (anytime between 10pm-2am) but is settled back to sleep quickly with her soother. It's not a terrible amount of night waking (used to be much worse), but I'm a bit of an insomniac and have a lot of trouble falling back asleep after each waking and I really need her to wake up less asap.

I was exclusively BF until a month ago. She's always been gaining wt on the slow side of average and she's only 13 and a half pounds right now. I've seen a lactation consultant and there are no concerns but I decided to supplement with one bottle a day. We started on baby foods a couple weeks ago and she's doing well with that. Just a few teaspoons of avocado, sweet potato or cereal a day. Because of her size I think she still needs one feed a night, but I'd like to cut out the other wake up times.

This is what an average day looks like. I try not to vary the times by more than 15-30 mins, but life happens  .

6:45am - Wake up
7:30am - BF. Since she wakes to feed at 5am she is not hungry when she wakes up so I wait awhile so she'll take a full feed. This sets the feeding schedule off all day, I just feed her when she seems hungry during "A" time
8:45am - First nap
10:15am - Activity
11ish - BF
12:30pm - 2nd nap
2pm - Activity
2:30ish - Bottle of formula, then I might BF her later during this "A" time if she seems hungry
4:15pm - Catnap
5pm - BF then some solid food
6:45pm - Start bedtime routine: wash up (don't do a full bath at bedtime, it used to stimulate her too much so we'll try again when she's older), read a book, BF for 30 mins until she's almost asleep then change her diaper and put her in her sleep suit. She can usually settle herself to sleep then. If she starts crying I'll give her the soother or I pick her up for a few mins but put her back down before she completely falls asleep.
7:30pm - Asleep
10pm-2am  - Usually wakes up once but falls back asleep quickly with her soother
2-3am - Wakes up once to BF, falls back asleep while feeding
5am - Wakes up, falls back asleep BF

Question: If a baby naps longer than 1.5hrs would you wake them up to preserve the schedule or would you let them sleep? Now that she's actually taking longer naps I don't know what to do. Some days I've let her sleep 2-2.5hrs for the first nap, but then if she wakes up at like 3:30pm from her second nap I don't know what to do because there won't be enough time to fit in another nap before bedtime. If I've made plans to go out and she's already slept 1.5hrs I usually wake her up (she's happy and not tired after waking her up) but if I'm at home I sometimes see how long she'll sleep.

So yeah, any suggestions? Is the soother a prop even though she only needs it once a night? Should I cut that out? How do I cut out the 5am feeding? I haven't tried P.U./P.D. but it sounds pretty exhausting for that early in the morning. I'm debating trying that or another gentle Cry It Out method. Or should I just keep giving her the soother when she wakes at 5am and hope that over time she can cut out that feed?

I appreciate any help!

[dache]

No CIO, that`s the first thing. I thought Im going to do that but not a chance. Even after a few minutes of crying my lo looked so distressed and I think that although it works for some and the poor lo will learn to fall asleep crying its not ok to leave the baby to cry,no matter how short it will be.
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=233340.0

Waking a sleeping baby its ok. Going from short naps to proper naps I felt blessed for the me time,  but naps got too long and she got UT at night so we had night wakings, which improved once I regulated the naps.
Also, I`d move the solids in the morning, and add a dream fed between 10 and 11pm.
The 5am I weaned by diluting formula, it made her more hungry in the morning and it took me maybe a week or 10 days to do so.
You can do it by shortening bf time by a few minutes every few days.

[Skadiver13]

Hey Hun and welcome.  A few things of note.

The two breastfeeds are normal. I think the rule of thumb at this age is she can go the same amount of time at night which is at least 3 if not 4hrs between feeds. I wouldn't cut that second feed yet. My LO was still eating twice a night until 7 months then one night feed till 10months and that was on formula.

Is she taking a full feed at 3? If so maybe she really doesn't need the 5am and she is just waking out of habit? In this case I wouldn't feed her I would just resettle.

f a baby naps longer than 1.5hrs would you wake them up to preserve the schedule or would you let them sleep?

I think it depends on the child. 1.5hrs is a good nap but my lo HATED being woken up so I would let him go and then re adjust his day based on that. But yes I wouldn't let her sleep too long at this age as she probably still needs that CN before bt so waking her to preserve the day is ok if she's ok with it.

As for the soother if you have to replug it and she wont go to sleep or back to sleep with out it than yes it's a prop. Some people don't mind waking to replug but like you im an insomniac and have a very hard time going back to sleep so I weaned the paci at 4 months old and never looked back. So that is up to you.

 

I'm debating trying that or another gentle Cry It Out method

In BW we  don't condone any type of CIO so maybe you are thinking of something else and just using the wrong terminology?

[Skadiver13]

And yes I would move all solids to breakfast time. Any solids at the dinner will lessen the amount of milk she takes at BT and can cause her to get hungrier at night.