Why with good EASY routine still NW/EW???

[momofclaire]

Oh my you sound like I did when Claire was 6 months. It was a really tough age for us and I spent so much time analyzing everything.  Hugs.

Like I said, Claire was always on the low end of the spectrum when it came to A time. At 6 months she could handle 2 hours in the morning and maybe, maybe 2.25 hours between naps.  She didn't do 3 hours until about 8 months or slightly older. 
Starting solids *could* have an effect on sleep but it sounds like you have started them gradually and only in the morning so I don't think that is it. 
Try to pay less attention to the clock and more attention to her cues.  Forget about the 4 hours as sometimes it tends to really get people worked up about times. Remember that central to the BW way is really listening to your baby. If she seems tired at 2 hours then put her down.  If she is in fact a touchy baby then you might be missing the window. It seems touchy ones have a short window so don't push for longer A times if she is telling you she's tired.
It sounds to me like she is going through a developmental thing to be honest.  But...are there any props I don't know about?  What do you do when she wakes early? 
One more thing.  It was around 6 months that Claire decided to be an early riser. I fought it and fought it until I just decided to get up at 6.  She did that for about 5 weeks and then slowly started to sleep a little later and we settled on a 7-7 routine for a long time.

Sorry if this is all over the place. I have had too much coffee and a toddler who is making me crazy with the "why?"

[G and G]

THank you so much! Hugs back!

I am so bad at reading her cues I think. I am hopefully getting better. It seems to me 3 yawns is it. 1 yawn it too early, 3 and better get her in bed!

When she wakes early from a nap, I leave her for 20-25 min and often she goes back to sleep. If not, I go get her and put her down earlier for her next nap - but this hardly works, she ends up OT for the rest of the day. She hardly wakes up crying from naps. She usually just babbles and coos. If she does wake up crying, I do PU/PD to put her back to sleep, unless it is the last nap of the day. At that point I try a car ride, and/or an early bedtime.

I find that is she goes to bed before 7pm, it is a 4am-ish wake up call. I've always fed her and she goes back to sleep for about an hour, and we have an early day! I've never had my husband go into her in the wee hours of the morning and try to soothe her back to sleep. I might try that tonight. She went to bed around 6pm because of her screwy non-napping day!

[momofclaire]

Do you think she needs that overnight/early morning feed?  I would bet she doesn't at her age and it might be creating a habit because she wakes and thinks "hmm, if I cry a bit mom will come in and give me a cuddle and some milk."

[G and G]

I do not think she needs that feed, but if I feed her she goes back to sleep.....

Here is an example - this happened last night.

DD went to bed at 6:05p. She was up for 2 hours from her last nap. It was an early bedtime b/c she had a bad day.
She typically had been an 11 - 11.5 hour sleeper.
Woke at 3:30, babbled for about 10 minutes and went back to bed.
Woke at 4:45, babbled for 20 minutes, I went in and fed her - just off of one breast, enough to tie her over, and she went back to bed til 6:25a. Now 4:45 is about 45 minutes earlier than her typical 11.5 hour sleep - I guess to be expected from the OT before bed.

She was only babbling for 20 minutes, and it was just barely starting to escalate to a mantra cry. I never know whether or not to let her go because by then she will be much more awake, and getting her to go back to bed will be much harder. So I go in and feed her. Especially since her last feed last night was at 5:40p. I feed her at 5:05a - so almost 12 hours. Does that makes sense?

I am not sure when to put her to bed this morning, but I will aim for under 2 hours.

This is so hard!

[momofclaire]

Hmmm, it seems like maybe you might be going in too soon. It is tough to know when to go in but if she isn't even really mantra crying you might be interfering with her ability to self soothe.  If she starts crying then I would do in and try to soothe her back to sleep without a feed, especially if you think she doesn't need it. 

It does make sense to feel like feeding her 12 hours after her last feed. By the way, it is GREAT that she is going that long.  Maybe she did feel a bit hungry this morning so you will have to be the judge but I wouldn't feed when you don't think she is really hungry because that will only start a habit that you will have to break later.
Are you writing down her routine?  Doing so may help you look for patterns.

Hang in there.  I know just how you feel. I called my mom crying more than once during month 6 and 7, it was a tough time over here.

[G and G]

Yes, I have been keeping a log and her sleep is all over the place! She seems to wake up early for a feed - and since I know she can wake and put herself back to sleep, I assume she is hungry because she is not going back to sleep. I can certainly try and let her go longer - again just afraid at that point she'll be SO awake he won't go back to sleep.
She often does sleep past 5:30a too - I really think it depends on what happened the night before.

[stagemanager2]

Dont' be too worried about the so awakeness you may get... ds woke two nights ago at 3am, giggled cooed babbled for about an hour... then woke at 5 and continued to babble for another 45min before going back to sleep.

Earlier in ds life he would wake and babble for HOURS.  I think it's just a way for them to tirethemselves out before they go back to sleep.

[G and G]

OK, Thanks to you both!

We had a better day today!

As far as letting her babble at 4:30am-ish - I can let her go longer, but if she does go for an hour, then it is 5:45 and we usually get up around 6, so I am nervous she would not go back to sleep? 4:45a is too early to start the day! That's my concern, and I'm wimping out on trying it!

The other question I have is this - today she was a good napper! I woke her from both naps as they were going over an hour and a half. Should I have let her sleep? She is going down for her captnap now, but maybe if I had let her sleep she would not need this catnap? UGH! I don't want to keep waking her and ruin her long naps.

I just know that around 7 months the catnap goes, so should I be working on lengthening her A time and her other 2 naps? She had slept one day for those 2 naps for 2 hours, and took a catnap, but was up half the night - hence what started my post, she had slept too much during the day.

I know - I'm all over the place!

[stagemanager2]

see what happens tonight... never know!

[G and G]

Yes, lets see what happens tonight! But am I being foolish by getting her up after a 90 minute nap?

[stagemanager2]

I go by the rule "no longer then 2hrs" and usually ds wakes 1.75hr nap.  Some babes need this strict schedule... my ds needed the sleep (and so did I!)! lol

foolish is not a word I would use.  You might want to see how long she'll go without you waking her one day?  never know she could me OT and thus that is the reason for nw?? Never hurts to try...

[G and G]

Thx. I will try tomorrow if she is going that route. She woke from her catnap at 5:05pm and started to yawn and rub her eyes by 5:45pm, so she was tired despite all the sleep! She was in bed, bathed, changed and fed ay 6:30pm.

Her first nap I woke her at 1 hr and 45 min. Her second nap she slept for 50, woke for 10, and fell back asleep, and I woke her after another 45. I hope I did not screw anything up! I'll see how tonight and tomorrow goes.

[stagemanager2]

fingers crossed for ya!

[G and G]

Well, she was asleep by 6:35p. She woke up at 3:30a - babbled for about 10 minutes and went back to sleep. You would have thought there were a chorus of babies in her room she babbled so loud! Despite the fact that it wakes me up, it is really so cute.
At 5:30a she woke again - 11 hours of sleep, typical for her. After babbling for 20 minutes, I fed her enough to tie her over again, and put her back to bed. I did not know if she was going to fall back asleep, but she did at 6:25a. I went to go get her 45 minutes later, but she is not stirring at all! She is zonked!

[stagemanager2]

that is great!!  Ya the loud babbles are one of those things that you can't get enough of but are exhausted and just want to sleep...