Waking in the night for no apparent reason!

[**Clare**]

Feels wierd being here!!

Ive never had issues with Finns sleep but the last few weeks he's been waking up from anywhere between 3 and 4 for sometimes an hour at a time, its not every night but has been for the past 5 nights which is what brings me here!!

He's just awake, not crying but quite noisy!!! I just cannot sleep while I can hear him so I have resorted to good old AP

Not sure what else to do, last night I was with him for an hour and he was wide awake!! I was debating on feeding him which I really dont want to start, hes not had a night feed since he was 6 weeks old. But we have recently stopped the DF (cold turkey) but he doesnt show any hunger signs and apart from the first night where I assumed he was hungry he hasnt had a feed until 6.30 am so he cant be that hungry!!

Sooooo

[Bryony]

Hi there!

Do you want to post your routine in case something needs a tweak?

What happens if you just ignore him - if he's not crying I would ignore as much as you can so that he doesn't get into the habit of half waking up and then expecting mummy to come....  I know it's tempting to intervene but it won't go away while he is used to you coming....

xx

[**Clare**]

Hiya...

He wakes at 6.30 goes to bed at 6.30
His A time is 3 hours, abit shorter in the morning
He still has 3 naps the first is 1 hour, second is 1 hour and third is 45 minutes
His meal times are roughly 8, 12 and 6ish (To have tea with the famly) has a snack inbetween those times
Bottles are roughly 6.30 am, 1 ish and 6.30


Is that enough information? Cant seem to put it all into an easy to understand routine and his naps are abit hit and miss regarding times as we have school an nursery runs at the moment!

[**Clare**]

Thanks Stacy, I was wondering the same... I just cant see him doing it, he is back to sleep in the mornings by 9 and wants to go before usually.  I cant get him to have more than an hour.  And then he's tired again by 1, he has an hour, I cant see how I would extend this, he seems fine when he wakes Hmmm.... If hes awake by 2 theres no way he'll go until half 6!! He's so grumpy towards nap times, I dont think hes ready for more A time.  I can try but I know for sure he will not make it past 9 am in the mornings, its a huge struggle to keep him awake for the school run as it is. So Im guessing I would extend the second A time if possible and hope for a longer nap?

I did feed him the first night we dropped the DF as I assumed he must have been hungry, he didnt seem hungry but I fed him and he went back to sleep... does this mean hes hungry?? He doesnt seem hungry and he does go back to sleep for a couple more hours... and then?? He drinks a measly 4-5oz of milk!!

[**Clare**]

Thanks Stacy, Im going to try it.  The waking started before the DF was dropped but it was random nights, niot every night.  Its been every night for the 5th night running, since we stopped the DF.  I was wondering if he was a touch hungry too, not enough to make him cry but enough to keep him awake for a while!

Im going to try tweaking the routine and see if I can get rid of that catnap, do you think we should aim for an earlier bedtime or not?! Its about half 6/7 at the moment, tonight was half 7 as we had a manic evening here

[Lex444]

Just to say, my 8 month old dropped the third nap a few weeks ago and we were having the same problem as you've had, also with the same A times. Very short in the morning, ending up with a too-long A time in the afternoon so my son was begging for a catnap.

I did what Stacy suggests and it worked, although the transition was bumpy and took a few weeks.

I managed to push the first A time just slightly longer (only 15 mins longer honestly) - my son wakes at 7am, first nap at 9am to 10am or 10.15am, then a little over three hours A time gets him to 1.30pm for his second nap. The additional A time pushed the nap longer, so he sleeps until 3.30pmish, which gets us to a 7pm bedtime.

The A times start to lengthen quickly from seven months, I found, but yes, we were in the same odd situation where my son really needed two and a quarter naps, or something. I couldn't push him longer in the morning, so he was having ridiculously early bed times and (oh no) early wake ups for a few weeks.

He went back and forth from 2 to 3 naps for a few weeks, with early bed times when necessary, and now we're solidly on two naps and it's far easier.

Most of the trick was to wait it out, and to push the A times slightly longer. You'll see he'll get ready to do it naturally. Oh, and also one other tip? It's a transitional time so expect it to be rough. I wish someone had told me that a few weeks ago! I didn't realise it would take three weeks to kick in for my son.

And now I've got nightwakings to deal with AGAIN - my son has had two colds in a row, sigh, so just when I think we're back on track, it all falls into a heap again. I'm just hoping I don't train him to wake up....

[**Clare**]

Thank you, that was good to read

Todays a wierd day, he was awake at 5.45 I left him in there until 6.30 then kicked DH out of the bed to feed him He was asleep by 9 but we had to go somewhere and he woke at 9.30 when we got him out the car, got back in the car and he fell asleep so he had from 11.20 to 12.20... he then had a bottle and he'll have lunch soon. Not sure of the next step... we have to go to school at 3 so its either before or after that... he didnt wake in the night but he went to bed late (7.30) so in therory he still woke 9ish hours after bedtime like he usually does, its normall 8 - 9 hours after bedtime.

I think it may work on a 'normal' day, the only issues I have is he cant sleep any later that 2.50 which means his A time late afternoon is always going to be long... I think Im going to try him on a normal day at half 1 after his lunch and see if I can get him to sleep until 2.50, that'll be 3.5 hours after his first nap wake up time. maybe 15 minutes earlier, we'll see, Im thinking if I can push him a little bit he's more likely to sleep over the hour - which is rare!!

Thanks ladies