Help...almost 6 month old not sleeping at all....sorry very long!!!!

[jomige]

My dd is almost 6 months old (11 more days!).  She has been a great sleeper and napper since I found BW when she was 7 weeks.  She has been on a 4 hour EASY since 11 weeks when all of a sudden she moved herself one day.   She is BF (but very distractable right now but more efficient so I think it is equaling out).
 
Over the past month she has had a few nights were she was getting up twice for feeds.  The second week of December it was every night...but she gained 1 lb in 5 days so I am attributing that to a growth spurt (she had only gained 3 ounces the previous 5 weeks).  After that week she would occasionally wake up twice at night to eat (on top of a df) and I was advised by the BW boards to try solids.  We gave her solids once and she was very fussy and woke up 1 hour after her bedtime and was up for 2 hours awake and fussy.  So we stopped solids and she went back to her normal schedule but still waking up for 2 night feeds. 

We gave it a week and started solids again.  She did great and a few nights she only woke once for a feed. So she now has been getting solids for about 1 week, once a day. 

In these same weeks she also started waking up any where from 30-60 minutes early for her df every night.  I would feed her and she would go right back to sleep.  I thought this may also be an indication that she needed solids. 

As for night awakenings she has only ever waken to be fed.  She uses a pacifier to go to sleep for naps but rarely uses it at night.  She is occasionally gassy and gas drops get her back to sleep almost immediately.  But otherwise she sleeps unless she is hungry.

During these weeks she was still taking great naps during the day and had the following  "ideal" schedule (occasionaly times for naps would differ but she usually got a 45-90 min am nap and a 60-120 minute afternoon nap and a 20-45 minute catnap):
E 6:30
S 9:00
E 10:30
S 1:00
E 2:30
S 5:00
E 5:30
E 6:30 (top off)
S 6:45
DF 10 or 10:30
and night feed between 2-4 if once at night (12-1 and 4-5 if 2x/night)



Now to the big issue....Thursday night she slept great, and woke only once.  On Friday, she took a 2 hour am nap and a 1.5 hour late afternoon nap.  She went down to bed great around 6:45.  She woke up at 8:45 (very early for her DF) and I fed her.  She was up almost all night.  We tried to settle her.  She mantra cried for awhile and would get quiet for 5 minutes and then scream bloody murder.  I ended up feeding her 2 or 3 times (I fell asleep once feeding her so I am not sure how much of a feed she got).  Saturday during the day she would barely nap...she took a 45 minute nap and a 1.25 hour nap and then a 30 minute catnap.  She slept great Saturday night waking only once to eat.  Sunday was the same....she would not nap at all.  She is screaming when I put her down and fussy when she wakes up.  She took 2 1.25 hour naps, a 30 minute cat nap.  Sunday night she went to be around 7pm.  She was up at 9:30 to eat and it took me 2 hours to get her to sleep.  She slept from 12-2 and was then up from 2-4.  I fed her at 9:30 and then again at 11:30pm, 2am, and 3:30am.  She slept from 4-5 and then was up on and off from 5-6:30.  I fed her at 6:30 and she slept until 7:30. 

Here was her schedule for today:
E 6:30
S 6:45
E 7:30 (attempt to get back on track but she would only snack)
E 10:30
S 10:45
A 11
E 1:30
S 1:45 (looked exhausted and went right to sleep)
A 2:00
E 3:00
E 5:30
S 5:45 (early bedtime since no catnap and looking tired)

she woke up at 6:45...I tried PU/PD (for first time) but she was so hysterical that after 45 minutes of nonstop crying (she never calmed) I fed her.  She took a full feed and is now asleep (it is 8pm here).

I was thinking maybe she was making the jump to longer awake times (normally she is 2.25-2.5)...Normally at 2.25 or 2.5, I can put her in her crib awake and she is sleeping with in 5 minutes with no intervention.  Now at that time she screams hysterically.  She went down for all her naps the past 2-3 days at 2.45.  I had looked at the schedules for 6 month olds in the EASY forum and this seems like an appropriate awake time.  Maybe she is moving there but unable to handle it well?  She has always made big jumps in awake time herself..but she is able to handle it also!

So my questions:
1.  Do you think this is related to solids?
2.  Could it be related to her needing more awake time but not able to handle only 2 naps/day?
3.  Is it the 6 month growth spurt?
4.  Is my BF her at night a prop?

Any other ideas?? 

She is teething so we have been giving her Tylenol every 4-6 hours and also using Hylands teething tablets.  We giver her a dose ot Tylenol at bedtime every night.  She is not ill.  She recently found her feet so we have stopped using the sleeper bags because she was frustrated she couldn't grab at her feet.  She started rolling at 4 months so that is not an issue.  I've checked my BM supply by doing a yield and there are no issues there. 

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.  We miss our happy baby and great sleeper.  She was sleeping better when we brought her home from the hospital (within the first week she would go from 10p-4a!).

Thanks!

Jodi
 

[owelley]

I'm sure that it has nothing to do with your milk.  I think it is because she is in pain.  We do not Pu/Pd when our lo's are ill so let's wait till we are sure she is no longer teething to try some sleep training tools.  Meanwhile, she has sorta been trained that to get to sleep again, she needs to breastfeed.  Not your fault btw.  It is easy to whip out the boob but once our little one gets used to it, it becomes a prop.  She has learned to wake for her df.  It really defeats the purpose if she is awake for it.  I would either WAKE TO SLEEP or pu/pd but first, let's rule out pain.  It is a vicious cycle.  BAd nighttime sleep = Bad NAps.  Also, her develepmental milestone could also be affecting her sleep.  Usually after a week or 2, things do calm down.   

[jomige]

Thanks,
I thought that the BF was becoming a prop at night...it is just so much easier!

After I wrote the post, I did her df at 10:15, she woke again at 12:15 and I fed her.  Then she slept until 4:30 I fed her again.  All 3 time she took full feeds (do you think this could be a growth spurt?)  I was nervous that because of the early bed time that she would want to be up then but she went right back to sleep.  She woke at he normal time of 6:30a.  Her day was MUCH better yesterday.
E 6:30
S 9:00
A 10:15
E 10:30
S 12:45 (she was looking sleepy)
A 1:15 (45 minutes, unable to resettle but woke up happy and was able to do full A time afterwards, so maybe was put down too early)
E 1:30
S 3:45 (catnap)
A 4:30
E 5:00
E 6:30 (top off)
S 6:45

She woke at 8:45 and I fed her.  Because it was so close to her df I didn't feed her again.  She slept until 12:30 (I fed her) and then 3:45 (fed again).  Again she took full feeds at all of these feeds.

I think that she is teething, so we will continue Tylenol and hylands tablets.  I also agree that she is in the habit of being fed when she wakes up (day and night).  I will try W2S tonight.   At what time point would you recommend that I do it since she is waking up 2-3 hours after being put to bed (not at the 45 minute mark)?

Thanks for all your help!

Jodi

[jomige]

Okay, I just put her down to bed.  I gave her a dose of Tylenol right before bed and a bit of the overnight strength teething gel on her teeth (which she hated and made yucky faces at).  So keep your fingers crossed.  We also had a nice chat about only waking up once at night but no more than that.  Less than that would also be acceptable.   I am not going to do W2S tonight and see how the battle versus teething goes first before trying that so I don't put too much into the equation.

Quick question about schedules.  Now she switched herself from a 3 hour EASy to a 4 hour EASY at 11 weeks all on her own.  She is not one for for beating around the bush and has been known to make big changes to her A time all of a sudden and handle it beautifully.  I think that may be part of our problem.  Her A time had been 2.25-2.5 hours on the dot up to last Friday.  This weekend it was funky but she also wasn't sleeping at night. 

Today I put her down for her first morning nap at the 2.25 hour mark (as usual).  She went down easily but was up 20 minutes later.  She was smiling and giggling.  I left her in the crib for another half hour and she just giggled and played so I got her out.  I couldn't even do PU/PD to extend because she was happy. 

Based on other posts I thought that this may mean that she needed more A time.  So I tried for 2.75 for the next A time.  Even after a 20 minute nap she was able to do this and was not overtired or cranky.  So at 2.75 I put her down for her nap.  No fussing and she went right to sleep.  She woke up 40 minutes later....and we repeated the morning routine of being giggly and happy so I took her out after 15 minutes.  She was up and playful for over 2 hours when I had to run an errand.  I put her in the car and she fell asleep (she cannot stay awake in the car even if she just had a great nap....I think it is physically impossible for her...it just lulls her right to sleep!!!).  I think if we had stayed home she could have been up longer (but definitely needing a catnap).  So she got a nice 60 minute nap in the car while I was driving around. 

So do you think she is making a big jump to a 3 hour A time?? Maybe I will try that tomorrow.  I can always put her down for a nap earlier if she is looking tired.  I never have watched her sleepy cues (it usually means it is too late) and have always watched the clock and never had any problems with her naps. 

Maybe this would also help with her nightwakenings?  Any thoughts?

Also, at this age if they have 3 hour A times and 1.25-1.5 hour naps, do you let them sleep through a feed?  Maybe she would be hungrier and take more during the day if she did.

So this would be our new schedule:

E 6:30
S 9:15 (SHORTER A IN AM)
E 10:30 OR 10:45
F 12:00 solid feeding
S 1:30 or 1:45
E 3 or 3:15
E 6:00
S 6:30

How does this sound?  Any feedback would be helpful.

I also have some questions about using BF as a prop.  When she BF at night she may nod off but she always awake when I put her down and puts herself to sleep.  Can BF still be a prop if she does this?  I looked up info about gental removal plan but it seemed to have LOs falling asleep at the boob and then being transferred (but maybe I misread).  Or maybe it is a prop in the fact that she is so used to waking up and being fed that she automatically thinks that eating has to be part of the equation?

Thanks for all your help.  Here's wishing for a good nights sleep!!!!!

Jodi

[owelley]

What would happen if you did not remove her from the crib after she woke and just played??  It is possible that she could go to sleep on her own.  Usually, the amount of time they nap is an indicator of how long they can stay up.  I think that 3 hors is too long of an A time for her age.  I think maybe I should move this to the Naps board because they are experts on Naps.  Try to watch for sleepy cues.  Things like rubbing eyes, irritability is usually a sign of overtiredness.  It's rubbing the eyes that's the biggest indicator for me anyway.  The more overtired a child is, the harder it is for them to sleep. 

[jomige]

If she just plays she will stay up and play.  Only once has she ever put herself back to sleep (and that was a few months ago). 
I am going to watch her tired cues today and I will post in the naps board about her naps.

As for last night...She woke at 8:15 pm.  I had only put the teething gel on her bottom gums, so at this time I put some on her top gums.  She did not like the gel at all and started screaming hysterically.  I took her out and calmed her down.  It took about 5 minutes to get her to stop screaming.  After that I did PU/PD.  It took 3 times and only 10 minutes.  The third time she fell asleep right away and stayed asleep.  I did her df at 10:00 but she did not eat well (has never been a problem before) and woke around 1 am to eat.  So not bad...I didn't break down to feed her immediately when she was screaming and she wasn't really hungry....off to the next battle.

Thanks!

Jodi

[jomige]

So here is what happend today..

She got up around 5:30 am for a feed (after only getting up around midnight...so we are getting slightly better there) and wouldn't go back down.  I left her happily in her crib until 6:30 (she dind't sleep at all). 

I watched her cues all day and here is what her schedule looked like:

E 5:30
played happily in crib/occasionall cried out for pacifier reinsertion (weird since she has given it up for sleeping the past week or so--and she had only used it to relax before sleep and then spit it out)
E 6:30 (snack to get on schedule)
S 8:30 (1.5 hours)
E 10:00
S 1:00 (1 hour)
E 2:00
tried to get her to nap around 4:30 to maintain normal 6:30 or 7pm bedtime....no luck
E 5:45
S 6:00

She napped SO well, ate better than she has in weeks, and was a mellow happy baby all day!  Plus she went down so easily tonight!  I know 3 hours is a lot for her age but I am going to see if it works for her and how it affects her nights!  She was doing 2 hours A time long before she hit 4 months so she may just be an awake type girl!

Wish me luck!!!!!

Jodi