8 month 3 am wake up?

[MommytoJashn]

Hi ladies ,

need help , my DD has been waking up daily between 2 and 3 am every morning  for about a month now

earlier i thought it was hunger , and have upped her intake during the day but the NW continue. Though she falls asleep immediately after a small BF , may be 1 or 2 ounces ( i can only guess )

Here is her schedule :

E : BF any time between 5:30 - 6:30 back to sleep , have to wake her up at 8 .
A: massage and bath : 8:00 and 9 :00
E : Breakfast at 8:30 - 9 :30 after bath
S :  11:00 ( 45 mins to 1 hour ) ( trying to extend the A time to increase this , have not hit upon the right A time though)

E : 11:15
( solids )
A : 11:30
E:bf : 1:50
S : 2 : 15 ( nap for 1.5 hrs )

A : 3:45 / 4 :00
E: 4:30 ( solids )
S: depending on the naps ( 6 / 7 ) BF before sleep

Wakeu at DF : 10:30
hav n't tried elimenating it , cos there was hunger wakeup at 3:00 or thats what i thought.
Back to sleep after DF
Wakeup between 2 and 3 ( feed down ot 1- 2 ounces )
back to sleep while feeding
Wakeup again between 5 and 6 , bnack to sleep again after feed , wont wake up till 8 once also woke up at 8:30

am getting desperate now , this has been going too far now

TIA

[~ Vik ~]

Hi there, sorry you haven't had a response yet!

How is everything going now?  Are the wakings still going on?  Does she fall asleep while bfing during the night?  How does she fall asleep for naps and bedtime?  When she wakes up what does she do (fuss, mantra, whine, cry)?  Has she ever settled herself?  How quickly do you go to her?  Has your dh ever tried to settle?

And am I reading your EASY correctly, that you're only bfing 3 times through the day, then df and nw (so 5 times total in 24h)?

I do have some thoughts, but I want to make sure I have the whole picture first.  You may have a prop issue (feeding to sleep), it may have to do with hunger/milk intake (it isn't recommended to drop to 3 day time bfs until at least 10mo old), or you might just have a habitual waking on your hands, with no real 'reason' behind it (in which case a technique like wake to sleep could be helpful).

Sorry for more questions that answers, but hopefully we can help you get this sorted!

[MommytoJashn]

Hi ,

yes the NW continue ,

No she is not in the habbit of sleeping while BF , she was a couple of weeks back i have worked towards dissociating BF and sleep .

when she wakes up at night she begins to cry , like really loudly , and there is no other way than to just pick her up.
which is in the 2-3 am time frame. She will continue to cry till she is fed, there was once , that DH and I tried to calm her down for about an hour , but then finally gave in and fed her, she fell asleep while feeding.

Yes i BF 3 times a day plus DF , morning, afternoon, evening.

My prb is i am unable to add a feed , cos i am at work, and i have tried giving her milk in a sippy cup , but she has not taken to it , and fusses and refuses to feed from it.

some times i doubt if she is getting her 18 OZ of milk that is needed for kids her age.

[~ Vik ~]

Ok, let's see what we can do.

From your EASY, you are bfing between 530-630am, then 150 pm, then between 6-7pm, df at 1030, and that pesky nw between 2-3am.

I am wondering if she is reverse cycling her feeding.  This occurs when a baby nurses more at night than during the day, and can happen for various reasons (including babies who have their days and nights mixed up, refluxers, etc.)

From http://www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/reverse-cycling.html:
If mom is very distracted or busy during the day, baby may nurse more at night to make up for missed or shortened nursing sessions, or simply to get more uninterrupted time with mom.  Also, if mom is away from baby during the day, baby may take just enough milk (by bottle or cup) to "take the edge off" his hunger, then wait for mom to return to get the bulk of his calories. Baby will typically nurse more often and/or longer than usual once mom returns. Reverse cycling is common for breastfed babies who are away from mom part of the day, especially those just starting out with the bottle.

The reason I'm thinking this is that most babies of this age go for one long stretch without a bf:  through the night.  However, because of your work schedule, your dd's long stretch is between 6am and 2pm - that's roughly 8 hours without a bf!  So she's making up for it by feeding more frequently through the night - 2pm, 6-7pm, 10pm, 2am, 530-630am - on a pretty typical 4h routine.  Does that make sense?  Do you think that might be what's happening?

If that is what's happening, all you can do is try to up her milk intake during the day.  When you offer milk in a sippy, what are you offering?  Breastmilk/formula/dairy?  I wonder if it's the sippy she's rejecting, or what's in it...  (for example, if it's formula, it's much less sweet than breastmilk and has a very different flavour).  You may have better luck offering expressed breastmilk.  Have you tried offering the bottle rather than the sippy?  Though some babies are quite proficient with the sippy cup by this age, they seem to be the exception rather than the rule.  She may be more willing to take a milk feed from the bottle, though that will take some effort on your part too.  I did it though with my ds in preparation for my return to work a few months ago, so it is possible!

Let me know what you think?