Need help - nights gone haywire!

[jdw18]

Hello, our 8.5mo DD is having a terrible time lately.  She had been sleeping through beautifully for ages, but nights have become very disrupted.  Started about a month ago when her 2 top middle teeth came through with a cold and ear infection to boot, we had a brief respite but now it seems we are back to several wakings a night and/or an early waking.  I have been trying to keep track and can't discern a pattern to her wakings at all, nor can I find a link to the previous day (eg she did not eat as much so she may have woken thru hunger).  Her bottom teeth coming thru seemed to bother her much less and we had no disruptions.

Below is her schedule - am wondering if there is another tooth about to come through or if her routine needs tweaking? 

Any suggestions gratefully received. 


Wakes somewhere between 6-7am, normally closer to 7 but lately has varied a great deal, even been as early as 5.15am
Milk feed at 7am (BF)
E - breakfast at 8am
Sleep 9am for about an hour

E - Lunch at 11:30am
A
Sleep 1pm for 1.25 - 2hrs

E - bottle at about 2.30/3pm
A
S - still sometimes has a cat nap at around 4.30pm/5pm... think she is phasing this out, am wondering if keeping it is contributing to the NW problem, but dont put her down in her cot as for her other naps - we just go for a walk and if she falls asleep in buggy then i let her sleep for about 20-30 mins.  On the days she doesnt have this 3rd nap she may fall asleep having her bottle and be asleep by 6.45pm, so she does seem to need it still.

E - dinner at 5.00pm
We have a rigid bedtime routine of bath at 6.30pm, wind down, bottle and bed.  She is still going down for the night without any problems and is asleep by 7/7.15pm. 

[Bryony]

Hello!

A few questions, then I will have a think about whether I can think of anything 

That morning sleep of an hour is quite short - do you wake her then, or does she wake up herself after an hour?

How many bottles (and how many oz) are you giving a day?  I could only find 3 in your routine - is she getting the desired 20-25 oz per day?

What is her final A time before bed, both with and without the catnap?

What do you do when she wakes up? 

If she's only having an hour's sleep in the morning I would imagine she does still need that catnap - if you can get her to sleep longer in the morning she may be able to drop it...

Bryony

[jdw18]

Thanks.

She wakes herself in the morning, and is happy/singing etc.  Sometimes its 1.25 hours, sometimes its more like 50 mins.

Yes, she only has 3 milk feeds a day, 2 bottles of 7/8oz and a morning BF.  She was having 4 feeds but sort of dropped one herself in that she would only take a couple of oz at the noon adn 3pm bottles, so now she takes the same amount but in 1 bottle at 3pm.  This happened gradually as she increased her solids lunch.  So its hard to say how much total, but I think she is getting at least 20oz a day.

She is awake from 2.30/3pm until a catnap around 4:30/5pm.  If she sleeps later - say til 3pm - she may skip the cat nap and go until bathtime at 6.30pm but then will fall asleep soon after her bath, say by 6.45 or 7pm.

When she wakes up I have been soothing her and trying not to pick her up.  She hasnt seemed hungry, just out of sorts.

Hope that helps...

[Bryony]

Well your routine looks pretty good to me - if you wanted to lengthen that morning nap you could try extending that first A time (very slowly - 5 or 10 mins very few days...) as it's quite short - but I know a lot of LOs need a shortish A time first thing.   My feeling is that you would need a longer morning nap if you wanted to drop the catnap any time soon.

The feeds sound fine if that's what she wanted to do - most are still on 4 feeds at her age, but it sounds as if you are following her cues so go with it.  And it doesn't sound like it's hunger thats waking her at night.

And it sounds as if you are doing the right thing in trying to calm her when she wakes up but not giving her chance to party...

The only thing I can think of - if she doesn't have a catnap, that last A time is very long. Do you think the NWs have been linked to when she started dropping that catnap?  I would be a bit worried about ovetiredness if her last A time was 3.5 - 4 hrs at her age.  Overtiredness is a common reason for NWs... 

I also find with Katie that a 20 min catnap isn't enough and that we have to have 30 mins otherwise we still get NWs...  but no idea whether this is the case for other LOs or just mine 

Bryony