7MO waking after 4.5hrs of last feed!!

[anyamom]

ok, so i am doing something wrong... i guess i didnt feed her properly or something? no idea what i did wrong, but baby woke up TWICE last night. once at 12am and then again at 5am. i fed her both times, just to see how hungry she was... she did feed well at 12am but at 5am she hardly nursed. her sleep/ feeding schedule yesterday was like this:
wake-up 6:45
BF - 7am
nap - 8:40 - 10:15
bf - 11
solids- 12
nap - 1- 2:30
bf - 3pm
lunch- 4pm
nap - 5:35-6:10
bf - 7pm
bf- 8pm
sleep - 8:30pm
DF- 11pm


and then she woke up at 12am and i fed her. and again at 5am. between 12 and 5 she kept making these uncomfortable noises and kept moving from one edge of the crib to the other.

this morning she woke up at 6:20am. i breastfed her at 7:20am and both of us slept for a while. i was so groggy, i had no idea when she woke up again and my husband took her out of the bed so i am just going to put her for the morning nap at 9:15am.

wonder what i did wrong? i shouldnt have fed her at 12am? pls do advise! thanks a ton/ sue

[anyamom]

HUGE amount of fuss in morning nap. kept at it from 9:15 to 9:35. 20 min of fussing instead of the normal 7-8min.
we seem to have gone back a few steps!!! will let you know how the rest of the day goes as well...
ok, so there are some good times and some bad times...

[Layla]

How are you doing? I was also thinking that she might be ready to drop the catnap. Do you think she would be able to handle more A time time in the afternoon... so something like this (I already posted this a few posts below):

7am - wake & BF
8ish - breakfast
9.30-11.30 - morning nap (or it could be 1.5hrs long)
11.30 - BF
lunch
2/2.30-3.30/4 - afternoon nap
BF upon wakening
7ish - BF & bedtime

[anyamom]

hi layla,
i am following the first schedule posted by you with two 1.5hr naps and one 30min nap. it is a fight to make baby sleep for 2hrs twice during the day. also she is verrry sleepy about 5pm and i would like to take advantage of the same

i have added one bf at 7pm (to substitute the third lot of solids that i have now stopped feeding to her as advised by you) and a df at 11pm.

but i have done something wrong, anya has been sleeping at 8pm and waking up at 5am yesterday and again today.
pls advise should i bfeed her at 5am as well? or just pu/pd?

her normal waking time was 6:30 and i would feed her at 7am, letting her play in the crib for 15min and then potty time for 15min. now... i just dont know. she is not teething yet, i see no special irritation / swelling/ crying. i have no clue why she has changed her sleeping pattern. i do hope we are able to get back onto track.

having said that, it is SUCH a relief to have her sleep 1.5hours twice during the day. i just lie down next to her crib and read, while she sleeps. that is my quiet time... if i could conquer the nights, ah i would rule the world!!

thanks / sue

[Layla]

2-1.5hr naps & 30min catnap is perfect. If she is not fighting the catnap & her bedtime is reasonable then keep those naps for now.

What have you done for the last 2 days when she woke at 5am? I would probably do pu/pd rather than feed her. Or you could feed her but not the full meal so she is still hungry at 7am. Ideally she "should" be sleeping through with a DF at this age so I would do pu/pd or shh/pat (whats working for you)

[anyamom]

hi layla,
baby woke up THRICE during the night yesterday. we were late getting her to bed she slept at 8:30 finally.

 i read elsewhere on some other post that sleep time should be 12hours after wake time. do you think that i should try putting anya to bed at 7tonight? she normally sleeps at 8pm. if yes, should i prepone the bed time in instalments of 15min or straightaway prepone to 7pm tonight?

well , the past two days i have fed her at 5am. yday df was at a reasonable hour of 11pm. i didnt feed her at the other two times that she woke up (12am and 3am), just shh/pat and pu/pd combo.

do let me know what you think abt an earlier  bedtime. i know our problem is not very drastic , but i do want to help baby sleep thru the night, which is what she had been doing till about a month ago!

[Layla]

If she is taking a catnap from 5-5:30 then she needs to go to sleep at 7pm. The av night sleep is about 11hrs with 3 naps. Try putting her down at 7.30pm over the next few days & then 7pm. All depends on when her catnap ends. Try not to keep her awake for any longer than 2hrs after catnap... that is, in bed by the end of 2hrs.

[anyamom]

hi, will do as per your advice below. last night's performance:
bed at 7:30pm after BF
DF at 10pm
BF at 1am
wake up at 5:45am

between 10pm and 1am baby kept tossing and turning, even ending up banging her head on the crib walls a couple of times. 
once i fed her at 1am, she was a little less fidgety in her crib. i didnt pick her up after that, only shhh from my bed (her crib is at one end of our room) a few times.

why do babies toss and turn at night? could it have been gas? a couple of times she cried and even sat up.

[Layla]

Yeah, thats very common. They usually have 3-4hrs of deep sleep at the start & the rest is usually lighter sleep where they toss & turn & then the last hour or 2 is deep sleep again

[anyamom]

hi layla,
yday baby took two 1.5hrs naps (9:15to 10:40am and 1:20 to 3pm) and then just refused to sleep for the evening nap, even though she seemed to be sleepy.

but i put her to bed at about 7:20pm. she woke up at 8-ish to finish the feed that she had slept in the middle of , so i fed her.
then no DF. she woke up at 3am and i fed her at that time. then she woke up at 6:15am for the day.
i will again put her to bed about 7:30pm tonight and see how it goes during the night...

thanks for your help/ sue

[Layla]

Sue, if she's not taking the catnap try to put her down for the night earlier - her being awake till 7.30pm is too long (if her nap ended at 3pm)... try not to let her stay longer than 3hrs... so I would have done a bedtime of 6/6.30pm

Good luck tonight

[anyamom]

hi layla,
thank you for your advice, all well noted...  todays naps have been like this:
nap 1 : 9:15-10:45am
nap 2 : 1:30 to 3pm
nap 3 : 5:30 to 6pm

i will put her to bed around 7:30pm today and hope all goes well.

i went back all the way to the start of this thread... and noticed that one achievement has been that thanks to your advice, baby has now started to take two 1.5hr naps everyday!!! so thanks a ton for that.

just for my info, here are three more questions (!)
1- are two 1.5hour naps (9:15 to 10:45 and 1:30 to 3pm ) ok if i put her to bed for the day at 6:30pm?
2- will she not wake up earlier than 5:45am if she goed to bed at 6:30pm?
3- when should i bfeed her after putting her to bed at 6:30pm?

many thanks/ sue

[Layla]

Sue, if she is fighting the catnap for a few days in a row.. then you will have to temporarily do an earlier bedtime but as well as that you need to increase her A times so naps are stretched out. The earlier bedtime doesn't always mean an earlier wake up time.... when transitioning from 3-2 or 2-1 naps you need to do a temporarily earlier bedtime.

If you constantly put her down earlier then she might start waking up earlier... do you think she could handle more A time during the day? 2.5hrs in the morning & 3hrs in the pm & 3hrs before bedtime???

Here's the link to dropping the catnap - https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64837.0

Well if you do a last BF at 6.30pm then as previous you either do a DF or wait for her to wake naturally & feed her when she wakes. I would still wait at least 5-6hrs before feeding...... How is she doing with the 2 solid meals? Do you feel like she is drinking more milk now that you have cut down one of the feeds?

[anyamom]

uufff this sleep and baby is no less than rocket science, add some minutes there, reduce some here..

today baby decided to stand my "schedule" on its head...
wake - 6am
sleep - 8am (against 9:15am over the past few days)
wake - 9am
sleep - 11:45am(against 1:30pm)
wake - 2pm (against 3pm)
sleep - 6:30pm

sorry i just couldnt get her to retire for the day earlier than 6:30!! and she didnt seem in the mood for evening nap either.

and yes, you are right (yet again) --- the DF seems to disturb her and makes her wake up more during the night than if i was to just feed her when she wakes naturally. so DF has gone out the window.

tomorrow i will try and stretch the A times... i understand from the link that i need to do that 10min at a time.

she certainly is drinking more milk now that one solid feed has been cut down. thanks and thanks again/ sue

layla -- THANKS 

[anyamom]

hi layla,
i put baby to bed at 6:30pm yesterday and she was up at 4:50am today!!!
she also woke up at 12am last night. i fed her at 12am and again at 5am, although the 5am feeding was a small one. she is in her crib right now, it is 5:20am. i will pick her out of there at 6am. so plan for todays naps is as below:
nap 1 : 8am-9:30am
nap 2 : 12:30 to 2pm
sleep : 6:30pm

that doesnt seem quite right... could you pls advise if any correction can be made here?

thanks/ sue