6.5 month old waking every hour

[cassiadawn]

For just about a week now, my LO (who is 6.5 months old) has been waking every hour at night. I put her down to sleep around 7-7:30pm, and she'll literally wake up every hour until her night feeding at ~3am. After that one, she'll sleep until 6:30 or 7:30am (depending when I got her to bed - if bedtime was 6 or 6:30pm, she's up at 6:30am. If bedtime was 7 or 7:30pm, she's up at 7:30am) . Each time she wakes I give her an opportunity to resettle herself, but she just starts working herself up and I end up patting her back to sleep. I was actually starting to think she was becoming dependent on patting to settle, but then we had an exception to the new pattern last night - I got her to sleep at 7pm without having to shush or pat at all, and she woke once at 8pm and resettled herself without needing me to go in the room. She then woke for her DF at 11 and went back to sleep, but then woke at 2:15am happy and babbling, fed her at 2:45am, and then didn't go back to sleep until 4am (and proceeded to sleep until 8:15am). Not great, but certainly tolerable. I had such high hopes that whatever phase she was going through was over.... however, tonight she's back to waking every hour. I've tried waiting a bit at each waking, but she's working herself up into a screaming fit quite fast (actually had to use the nasal aspirator on her the last time before I gave her a paci, as she made herself all snuffly and couldn't breathe through her nose).  She's only rarely going longer than an hour on her daytime naps lately, too (which is making her schedule a little wonky), though this morning she did a little over 2 hours for her first nap.

What is the culprit likely to be when a baby is waking every hour? She's fairly easy to resettle - usually just needs to be patted for 5 minutes, occasionally also with a pacifier (it's not a prop for her - she doesn't wake when she drops it, and doesn't need it every time). She'll seem to be fast asleep, but then suddenly wakes and gets upset. She DOES know how to resettle herself, so I'm not sure what's up with her lately.... before the every hour wakings started, she was frequently doing an hour or so after her NW feed at around 3am where she wanted to be up and active, which would then move her wake-up time to 8:30am or even 9am (I know, I should have woken her at 7:30am when that happened, but I'm running on so little sleep it was just too hard to give up that little bit of extra sleep! Especially on nights where she was up until 5am)


Here's her EASY, we've been doing this for about a month.  I know her first A is quite short, but she gets very fussy and sleep cues like crazy (hair pulling, ear pulling, eye rubbing) if I try to go much longer than that.

Awake at 7:30am
E: 8am
A
S: 9am (1hr 20min -2hrs)
E: 11am
A
S: 1pm (1hr 20min -2hrs)
E: 3pm
A
S: 5pm (30min - 45min)
E/A: 6pm-7pm (I nurse her 2 or 3 times here to try and fill her up)
S: 7:30pm
DF: 11pm (though she often wakes at 10 or 10:30, and I feed her then)
NW: between 2:30 and 3:30am, feed
EW: 6:15am - she doesn't always do this, but when she does she just talks to herself a bit in the bassinet, then resettles herself in about 1/2 an hr. I only know she does it because her babbling wakes me up.


I'd love to get rid of her 3am feeding, but I'm much too exhausted to cope with that right now! My husband works away from home, and is only home 3 nights a week (Fri, Sat, Sun) so the rest of the week it's all me. LO is exclusively breast fed, though will take bottles of expressed milk (DH did her very first night of pu/pd and shush/part (she was using nursing as a prop before) and has taken her for a night here and there). I'd started her on solids (baby led), but she's been 100% breast milk again for the last 5 days, as I was thinking maybe her system just wasn't ready for solids and an upset tummy was to blame... but it's been long enough now that that's looking less likely.

[ZacsMumme]

What is the culprit likely to be when a baby is waking every hour?

I would say discomfort, or serious OT/UT Any teeth?

hugs, as you say her A time is too short. She was likely UT through the day and isnt getting enough A time, therefore wants to party all night, and is getting tired in the am from the rough NWs IYKWIM....now if she is napping for only 1hr she is likely got into a bit of an UT/OT loop

I would push that first A time out to 2hrs min straight up and hold for three days, then increase the A time 15 mins and see if this helps that first Nap to increase to 1.5-2hrs.

If you get a good nap then I would increase that second A time too, closer to 2.5hrs. You can aain, do this gradually if you need too.

Cap the CN at 30mins, with BT 1.5hrs later max, or if your day gets long you can do an EBT after 3hrs A time.

Re solids, try introducing them 45 mins after her morning bottle, and just a wee bit of something gentle like pear or pumpkin. Both are very gentle o nthe stomach

What do you think hun?

[cassiadawn]

I agree that discomfort seems most likely, I'm at a loss as to what could be causing it though. She's not noticeably teething (she's been drooly and chewy since about 3 months but still no teeth. At her 6month appt the Dr said her gums could be a little swollen but they could go on that way for months). I've tried giving her a dose of infant tylenol (paracetamol) before, and it didn't seem to make any difference. She also resettles so easily and is happy when she's awake, plus she'll still often settle for a nap here and there with no fussing at all. And she just had that mostly normal night where she wasn't waking every hour... so I'm completely confused. My only guess is maybe a growth spurt? Not sure why she'd only be having trouble when trying to sleep though...

I'll try to implement the longer A times. It's hard when it makes her so much more difficult to get her down for her nap! Last night she was awake every hour until her 11pm feeding, then slept until almost 3am. Fed her again, and she was awake until about 4:45am. I have no idea how she can spend the first half of the night waking over and over, but still be rested enough to want to get up at 3am??
After that, she slept until about 8am today (probably sometime before, as she quietly took her swaddle* off before she woke me) and I got her to 9:50am before lying her down for a nap. She spent 10min doing what I call the "doze and wail", where her head falls to the side and she seems to be asleep for 10sec or more, then turns her head straight (eyes still closed)and wails a few times, then repeats (all this while patting her shoulder firmly. If I stop patting during a doze and wail, she just keeps wailing and escalates). After 10min I gave her the soother and she settled right down - she's been asleep (still sucking the soother) for 30min now.

Not sure I can find pumpkin that's not in a can at this time of year... I'll try some pear, probably sometime this weekend.

*I know she's getting old for the swaddle, but I've tried it without recently and she's worse. It doesn't seem to make her more comfortable to be without it, and she still does the doze and wail, but also wakes twice as often because her hands fly up to her face and she starts pulling her hair or rubbing her eyes as soon as she stirs at all. And it takes longer to resettle her after each waking. We actually hardly swaddled her at all between about 2 and 4 months, but I ended up reintroducing it because she began to startle and wake herself without it.

[ZacsMumme]

My only guess is maybe a growth spurt? Not sure why she'd only be having trouble when trying to sleep though...

COuld be a GS or developmental leap? These WW can mess sleep up somehting awful!
She is a little late for it, but doesnt mean its not the culprit - usually last up to 2 weeks
http://www.thewonderweeks.com/index.php/about-the-wonder-weeks/your-babys-10-leaps/mental-leap-5

I know the swaddle can start to cause problems at this age, it also is no longer really safe if your LO can roll. YOu mention your LO has a paci, I wonder if this is falling out before your LO is in deep sleep/ or every cycle and LO needs it to get back to sleep. If you wean the swaddle you can work on LO replugging on her own, thus not needing you throughout the night to do it for her THis is effectively moving a prop towards a comfort item that she can control.

[cassiadawn]

That link certainly sounds like her lately! She'll get upset sometimes if someone walks away from her. The timings about right, too, because she's been doing the 1hr wakeups for close to 2 weeks now, and she turned 28weeks on Tuesday.

She can't roll over without her arms free. Honestly, while she did spend a day rolling front to back and back to front awhile ago, she's completely lost interest in rolling now that she's mastered sitting unassisted. She'd rather lay their and complain until someone sits her up rather than bother rolling!

We have a video monitor, so I know she doesn't wake when the paci falls out. I gave her the paci for both naps today, it fell out at an hour (she actually 1/2 woke and spit it out on the second nap) then she went on to sleep for another hour both times. She doesn't need it every time, either, but it helps when she's particularly restless. Most of the time when I resettle her at night it's just with patting (no paci).... She resettles pretty easy most times, except when she thinks it's time to play!

[ZacsMumme]

We have a video monitor, so I know she doesn't wake when the paci falls out. I gave her the paci for both naps today, it fell out at an hour (she actually 1/2 woke and spit it out on the second nap) then she went on to sleep for another hour both times. She doesn't need it every time, either, but it helps when she's particularly restless. Most of the time when I resettle her at night it's just with patting (no paci).... She resettles pretty easy most times, except when she thinks it's time to play!

She wont wake when it falls out if it falls out while she is in deep sleep, but when she stirs she may need it to resettle herself.

Even if not it is a prime time for the paci to become a prop. .. Just something to bare in mind really. My LO learnt to replug himself around 6.5 months, but obviously LO needs to be out of the swaddle to do so.

Re the swaddle, I do think if you leave it - the longer she has it the more it will become a prop, and it will be harder for her to sleep. Have you tried gently weaning it, even just with 1 arm out for a while?