6 mo awake 2 hours straight every night - PLEASE HELP!!!

[tarella]

My 6 mo DD has always been a low sleep requirement baby. Even as a newborn she'd have long awake times during the day, and occasionally at night. She was a terrible catnapper early on but we worked on it and her day naps are fine now.

Recently she's taken to being awake for long periods at night, usually around 3am-5am ish. She has a dreamfeed at 10:30 then goes through till 3amish when she wakes and makes playful noises. I don't usually get up to her at this stage, but this can go on for about 1 hour. I usually get up to check on her after an hour, just to make sure she hasn't got herself stuck somewhere and has a dummy on hand (she uses a dummy but is quite good at putting it back in herself if she can find it). After the hour's up though she starts to get very frustrated and cries a lot more. The cries are very angry, and if I go in to help her it makes no difference. The cries rarely last for more than a couple of minutes straight, then she has a quiet patch for a couple of minutes, then cries again, and on it goes for another hour or so. I've tried staying with her and patting her, she has calming music on, she has a comforter, I've tried PUPD but she gets more upset when I put her back down again than she was before. More often than not I just leave her as she's no different whwether I'm there or not. The cycle's still the same. I'm only next door though and can hear every little noise, and I lie in bed just stressing about it.

She's recently weaned herself from BFing (which has made me sad but she was a breast refuser from way back). She doesn't drink a great deal during the day (around 200-250ml), but has approx 200ml for her evening feed and around 150-180ml for her dreamfeed. She's taken really well to solids and has recently got her first 2 teeth.

Her EASY routine goes a bit like this (most days)
7am - Wake & bottle (only 50-70ml) then A
8am - Solids feed
9am - Sleep (usually 1 1/2 - 2 hours)
11am - Wake & bottle then A
12pm - Solids feed
1pm - Sleep (anywhere from 1- 1 1/2 hours)
2 - 2:30 - A
3pm - Bottle
5pm - Solids feed
6:45 - Bottle then bed by 7pm

Any tips on how to stop this night waking would be greatly appreciated!!! TIA

[tarella]

Is there no one who can help??? Last night was an absolute nightmare with my 2 year old awake for 2 hours as well. I'm so completely sleep deprived. PLEASE HELP!!!!

[Tweakster]

Hi there, big hugs.  It's really hard and 6 mths was the worst sleep time for us so I can relate.

First, do you have any help at those NW?  If not could you maybe get some?  It's important to fuel yourself with some sleep before embarking on routine tweaking and/or sleep training. 

Secondly, you mention that she has two teeth...do you suspect any more are coming through?  They often come in 4's.  Finn got 6 of his teeth in the 6 mth period.  It was brutal.  Have you offered pain meds to rule out teething pain?

Looking at your routine, I think you may need to bump up her A time.  Most 6 mth olds are on 2 hr 30 and moving up towards 3 hours by 7 or so months.  If she's waking and playing, it's a reasonable signal that she is looking for more time to play.  Do you know what temperament she is and how she handles A time increases?  I would start with the morning A time and move her up to 2 hr 15.  If she's lower sleep needs I would aim to keep her 2 naps at 1.5 hours.  At 6 mths they are getting around 3.5-3.75 hours in naps and about 11-12 at night - lower sleep needs kids tend towards 14 hours in a 24 hour period, some even less.

The other thing is that she's not having a CN and has a really long A to bedtime, especially since it looks like her PM nap can be 1 hr some days?  Does she fight a CN?  I think until she can handle longer A times you need to get her a CN or have a much earlier bedtime.

[tarella]

Thanks so much for your response Wendy.


First, do you have any help at those NW?  If not could you maybe get some?  It's important to fuel yourself with some sleep before embarking on routine tweaking and/or sleep training. 

DH helps when he can but has been doing 70-80 hour working weeks so really can't take the time to help at the moment. He does go to our older DD if she wakes though.

Secondly, you mention that she has two teeth...do you suspect any more are coming through?  They often come in 4's.  Finn got 6 of his teeth in the 6 mth period.  It was brutal.  Have you offered pain meds to rule out teething pain?
Possibly, but she doesn't seem as grizzly in the day now as she was when the other 2 were coming through.

Looking at your routine, I think you may need to bump up her A time.  Most 6 mth olds are on 2 hr 30 and moving up towards 3 hours by 7 or so months.  If she's waking and playing, it's a reasonable signal that she is looking for more time to play.  Do you know what temperament she is and how she handles A time increases?  I would start with the morning A time and move her up to 2 hr 15.  If she's lower sleep needs I would aim to keep her 2 naps at 1.5 hours.  At 6 mths they are getting around 3.5-3.75 hours in naps and about 11-12 at night - lower sleep needs kids tend towards 14 hours in a 24 hour period, some even less.

I wondered if I should be waking her from her longer naps. I recall at 3 months she was only having 3 hours during the day and seemed to manage on this, but is having more now. So should I move her first nap back to 11:30ish, which would then mover her 2nd nap back as well?

The other thing is that she's not having a CN and has a really long A to bedtime, especially since it looks like her PM nap can be 1 hr some days?  Does she fight a CN?  I think until she can handle longer A times you need to get her a CN or have a much earlier bedtime.
I've only recently dropped her CN as I had thought this was why she was waking at night. She will take it if she's woken from her 2nd nap at 2:30ish, but she then wasn't very sleepy for bed and woke in the early hours anyway. Maybe if I give her longer A times by pushing her naps back longer and she has less time awake between her 2nd  nap and bedtime it might be better?

[Tweakster]

Please direct advice for this poster to the following post:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=163551.0