8month old wakes up every one and half hours

[Daisy8680]

DD just turned 8month old and, since last week, she has been waking up every half hour, one and half hour or three hours. If i hold her, she would fall back to sleep and wake up half an hour later. She never SSTN. So I decided to try pupd.

Last night was the first night. 45 minutes after she went to bed, she woke up and it took me a good two hours and more than 30 pups to get her fall in sleep. 1am she woke up and I thought she would be hungry, so I nursed her and she fell back to sleep. 3:20am she woke again. This time took me an hour and half and a dozen of pups. She finally woke up around 7. My questions are:
 Should I feed her at 1am or try pupd at that time as well? I have been night feeding all  this 8 months and so think to keep the night feeding to a minimum. But would feeding confuse her because other wakings she doesn't get a feeding?
 I am afraid she would lose her voice tomorrow if I keep pupd tonight. Would her voice be OK?

Thanks in advance for any advice and suggestions.

[brittanyalice]

Hi there,
  First off I would not worry about her voice too much:) Second at 8mo she should be just fine with no night feedings, possibly a dream feed if solid food is not a regular in her diet yet. PU/PD at 8mo is going to be a little harder than PU/PD at 4-5mo so it may take a few weeks to get things going in the right direction. I would suggest doing the following:
1)Establish a good bedtime routine and a sleepy phrase ie: "Good night I will see you when the sun comes up" After that you place her in her crib with her paci/lovie or whatever she uses to go to sleep, and leave the room.
2) When she starts to cry/the first time she wakes up pause for a min to make sure that its not a mantra cry, and wait a min to see if she can settle herself. If after a min or so she is still crying and its the "i need you cry" go in and place your hand on her back and say the sleepy phase over again. If this is not working after about 5min or so start using the PU/PD.
3) Remember to leave the room as soon as she is semi calm, and to go back in as soon as she starts crying again(real cry) this will involve A LOT of you going in and out of the room! Depending on her personality it could take up to 10 days to see results but usually you will see a difference in 3-5 days Good luck if you have any questions let me know.

[Daisy8680]

Hi there,
  First off I would not worry about her voice too much:) Second at 8mo she should be just fine with no night feedings, possibly a dream feed if solid food is not a regular in her diet yet. PU/PD at 8mo is going to be a little harder than PU/PD at 4-5mo so it may take a few weeks to get things going in the right direction. I would suggest doing the following:
1)Establish a good bedtime routine and a sleepy phrase ie: "Good night I will see you when the sun comes up" After that you place her in her crib with her paci/lovie or whatever she uses to go to sleep, and leave the room.
2) When she starts to cry/the first time she wakes up pause for a min to make sure that its not a mantra cry, and wait a min to see if she can settle herself. If after a min or so she is still crying and its the "i need you cry" go in and place your hand on her back and say the sleepy phase over again. If this is not working after about 5min or so start using the PU/PD.
3) Remember to leave the room as soon as she is semi calm, and to go back in as soon as she starts crying again(real cry) this will involve A LOT of you going in and out of the room! Depending on her personality it could take up to 10 days to see results but usually you will see a difference in 3-5 days Good luck if you have any questions let me know.

thanks for your reply. she only took about 8 oz formula, 12-14 oz solids and two feeds of breastfeeding in a day. Is it nearly enough for her age? I am afraid that if i cut out the night feeding, she would be hungry. If I df, should it be around 10? Also we are sleeping in the same room in different beds. Do I need to leave the room completely or can I stay in?

[brittanyalice]

No she is getting plenty of food during the day, most NW at this age are out of habit.  If you giver her food at night she will eat it but its not out of need. Kind of like our version of a mid night snack. So she is getting 4 feeds and solids during the day right? If you are sleeping in the same room I would leave during the day when she is napping but at night you are going to want to sleep in your bed. Being in the same room def makes it much harder bc she knows your right there. Is it possible that she could have her own room?

[Bex09]

Hi I can see you have been getting great advice here, just wanted to post this link... http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=208990.0
It outlines exactly how to do PU/PD for each age group. Seeing as your DD is 8 months old you would actually try to limit the PU part and it is more just PD if/when she stands or pulls up in the cot. HTHs.

[Daisy8680]

she is not pulling up yet. I read the article already and just have some questions. I can only get her eat 4 oz formula or 4 oz solids at one feeding. She does not take both solids and formula in the 2 and half hours she is awake. Does that mean she has a smaller stomachÉ

I actually really enjoy sleeping with her in the same room and kind of worry about her throughout the night if we are in different rooms. That is why we are together. Do I have to be in a different room while doing pupdÉ

[brittanyalice]

Durning the nap I would try being in a different room but at night its compleatly up to you, its a personal choice and everyone is different so I say do what makes you feel comfortable:)

[Bex09]

Totally agree it is a personal choice hun. Some would say that you may disturb your DD during the night when you move, make noises, etc in your sleep and this can cause NW, but if you are happiest with her in your room then that is what is best for you both.

With your DD not pulling up you would carry out PU/PD for the 6-8 month adaptation.

As for your DD only taking small amounts for her feeds, can you post your EASY, including when she eats solids and has milk feeds and approx amounts too? Do you feel that she is genuinely hungry when she wakes in the night?

[Daisy8680]

Thanks for the advice. Last night was the 6th night of pupd. She still woke up every 2 hours or so but I only had to pupd once every time and she went back to sleep. I fed her around 11pm. Should I still pupd if she nw now since I only had to do it once or just let her cry and put a hand on her back? There was no light in the room, most of the time her eyes are closed when nw. How would she know to open her arms for me to pick her up?

Her days depend on her naps. Some times she has two naps and some times three naps. But totally 3 hour naps in a day. Yesterday went like this:

Wake up: 6:15/
E:7:30 4oz formula
A: 6:15 to 9:00
S: 9:00 to 10:00
E: 11:00 5 oz solids
A: 10:00 to 1:00
S: 1:00 to 2:00
E: 3:10 4.5 oz formula
A: 2:00 to 4:45
S: 4:45 to 5:30
E: 6:10 5 oz solids
A: 5:30 to 7:45
bed time routine: 7:45 to 8:30
S: 8:30 didn't fast sleep until 9
Woke up this morning at 6:10. I tried to give her formula when she wakes up from naps and offer solids two hours later but she would only take several spoonful and started to spit the food out.

Thanks very much for any suggestion or advice.

[Daisy8680]

up 

[Bex09]

Sounds like you are making great progress. Sorry it has taken a while to get back to you,my DD is not well at the minute. Will be back soon when she is better to look at your EASY. How are things going now?

[Bex09]

Ok hun looking at your EASY I think that you could do with slowly trying to push that first A time out to 3hrs and see if that will lengthen the first nap to 1.5hr. I think that the CN so late in the day at your LOs age could also be causing NW. I know it is hard with shorter naps but I would try to make it shorter if you have to give it. The spacing of bottles and solids seems fine. Have you seen the sample routines in the FAQ section on the EASY board? Can't post a link as I am on my phone! That would give you some ideas of what you are aiming for. When you feed at 11pm is it a DF or is DD waking for this?

[Daisy8680]

Hope your DD feels better now/

I tried to get DD only take two naps a day and she went to bed around 6/7 those several days and woke up around 9pm, 12am for feeding. One night she slept until 6am and last night she slept until 5am. Then she started to toss and turn for around 2 hours until she finally woke up. In those two hours, she could only slept 15 minutes at a time and sucks on her thumb and turn on her tummy for a while. Does this mean she is hungry around 5am? I am afraid that, if I nurse her at this time, she wont take her breakfast. Should I try to increase oz for her daytime meals gradually? I tried one time: give her an extra oz two hours after her morning feed, she took it. But she took one less oz on her following feeding after waking up from nap. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[brittanyalice]

Hi if she is tossing and turning but not crying I would leave her, she is learning to self settle and that is great! As for feeding her do you watch her cues? What I mean is that maybe she is not hungry enough when you begin a feed, I am only guessing since I don't know you guys but it could be that adding a half hour between feed times will make the whole thing go much smoother. What do you think?

[Bex09]

Hi still following along. Totally agree with PP about the self settling, if she isn't crying leave her to it and don't jump in. If she was very hungry she would cry to let you know.