My 7 month old is waking 5-6 times a night, please help me with my EASY question

[jwainwright]

My 7 month old baby girl is waking several times at night. We have had her on EASY for the past several months and had got to the point where she was only waking once around 5am for a feed. Now she wakes up several times at night and I am not sure how we got so far off track. Her daily routine has been as follows:

Her activity times are spent doing 1 or 2 of the following: Moving around in her walker, sitting on her activity mat, singing and playing patty-cake, reading, going for a walk in the stroller, going to the children's museum, playing outside on a blanket, having a bath.

7:00 AM- Wake and Eat. She eats approx. 1-2 oz of solids (rice cereal and carrots or other veggie), and drinks (2-3 oz) of formula (we have a hard time getting her to eat more than that in one sitting).
7:30- ACTIVITY-
9:00 - 10:30: Nap (We still swaddle her and she goes down for naps really well and sleeps between 1.5 and 2 hours)
11:AM Eat: She eats approx 1-2 oz of solids (rice cereal and carrots or other veggie), and drinks (2-3 oz) of formula. She sometimes drinks appox. 1 oz of water.
11:30- ACTIVITY
1 PM- 2:30 NAP
3 PM Eat: Drinks 4-6 oz of formula
3:30 PM: ACTIVITY
5 PM- 5:45PM:  CAT NAP
6:00 PM: EAT- Solid Foods: (2-3 oz)
7:00 PM: EAT- 2-3 oz formula
7:30 PM: Bedtime
10:30 PM: Dream feed (she eats anywhere from 2-6 oz)
Her night waking is very inconsistent- some nights she will sleep until 3 am, other nights she is up at 1:30am and then 2:30am.... she will wake up and fusses and if we don't go in she will start crying. At that point we go into her room and give her a pacifier and most of the time she turns her head and goes right back to sleep. When she wakes up after 3:00am she won't go back to sleep without being fed. We give her 2oz of formula while she is still in her crib and she usually sleeps until 6:30 or 7am.

I just don't know what to do. I know that sleeping has everything to do with her schedule during the day and it makes me wonder if we should be feeding her differently? Also, I know that we shouldn't have started giving her a bottle in the middle of the night, but I felt like she wasn't getting enough during the day and didn't want her to go hungry. She is in the 95% for height and 75% for weight so I know that she is not starving, but I am having a hard time denying her a bottle with her eating so little during the day.

I keep reading that she should be sleeping at least 6-8 hour stretches at night and I don't know how to help get her to that point. Please help me!

Best,
Jaclyn

[Tweakster]

Hi there Jaclyn, have you tried increasing her A time?  Most LO at 7 mths have ditched the CN and are doing around 3 hrs A time pre-naps.  She may be looking to play at night?

What about teething?

Tracy also felt that at some point the DF became disruptive to night sleep, right around this age in fact.  Have you tried leaving the DF out to see what she does?

[jwainwright]

Wendy,
Thank you so much for your advice on this! I am going to try increasing her A time and doing away with the CN. I was wondering about the DF and only kept it because I was worried she wasn't getting enough food during the day. But I think I will try removing it and see what happens. Maybe it will encourage her to eat more at daytime feeds!

I really appreciate your response and am excited to try your suggestions!

Thanks!

[kylieangelina]

Jaclyn,

My DD had major eating issues, and wouldn't eat much more than a couple ounces in one sitting, and usually only if she was really tired.  We found out she has MSPI (milk/soy protein intolerance) and severe acid reflux (GERD).  Google it and see if that sounds like your DD.  Once we figured that out, and got her on the right formula and medication, its been easier to take care of her and get her to eat well.  Sleeping is still hard, but its better as well.  Hope that helps!

Kylie