After 3 weeks of my lo first rolling over 100x a nite and getting stuck(he rolled over just fine during playtime, but not in crib), weaning of the woombe swaddle...BAD, BAD, BAD...HORRIBLE! Then to crawling all over the crib having parties all night long, things have finally settled down. I am in the process of sleep training w my 6 month old and weaning off of all the night feeds cold turkey except the DF (He is a very big baby, has 3 solid meals and 4 bf for 15 min. plus the df.)until he gets used to eating more during the day, I will then drop the dreamfeed.When he cried I went to the crib sat and used verbal reassurance, never left him but did pd, did not pick up, until asleep moving the chair every three days until out of the room.i didn't have to move the chair after 3 days, he just started sleeping thru except 1 or 2 wakeups. I didn't have to do this for naps just nightwakings.
When I dreamfeed around 10:30pm he wakes at 3;30/4ish ( 6.5 hrs after df) hungry. I know his hungry cry, this not just a nightwaking. I have tried dropping the DF and he wakes hungry 1am.(6.5 hrs. after bedtime feed at 6:30pm. I finally made the decision to do the dreamfeed at 10:30pm and wake him 1 hr. before his 3:30 nightwaking at 3:00 to counteract any habitual waking to start and feed him 8min for 2 nights, 6 min. for two nights ect...Last night I slept thru the alarm for the dreamfeed, and woke him 3am and fed him for 6min. and put him down,he rolled over went to sleep. I didn't hear a peep out of him all night. It was wonderful!! BUT....he woke at 6am. His normal wake time is 6:30. He woke and cooed, banged his head on the railing a couple of times and fussed. I tried to keep him in his crib until 6:30, but went ahead and started the day at 6am and fed him thinking he was prob hungry. He went to bed at 7:15pm last nite, and I know waking at 6am is pretty much 11 hrs of sleep, but he normally wakes 6:30.According to Healthy sleep habits healthy child book,a too early wake time causes too early or poorly timed naps and a very tired child in the late afternoon, then has to go to bed very early in the evening. Also,the morning nap rythym that is well developed is at 9am. This is when the biological nap begins. All about biorythms...so I try to get to that 9am nap time if possible, but I can't if he weakes at 6am. My question is because his nightwaking have reduced so much and he is getting more rest, is that why he is waking earlier? When he woke at 6:30am, he was having 2 or3 nightwakings. Or maybe he had too much daysleep yesterday? Yesterday our schedule was this:
woke at 6:40ish
6:50 bf
8:00 solids
awake time 2hrs. 08 min.
8:45-11:02 nap 2HRS.13MIN.
11:10 bf
12:10 soilds
awake time 3hr.14min( this surprised me because his awake for this 2nd
nap is usually 2.5 hrs. but I went with his cues and he was playing
happily until 2hrs. 50 min.)
2:13-4:00 nap 1hr. 47 min. (had to wake him for this one because he
was sleeping through his feed)
4:00bf
5:15 solids
Because his awake time was so long the catnap was dropped, don't know if this was a one time thing or he is dropping for good. I am hoping he is dropping it. I hate the third catnap, it was always hard to put him down for this one.
6:50 bf/top off
7:20 bed
He normaly goes down at 6:30pm if his third nap was very short or almost non-existant....like 15-20 min. Last night he was ready to go down at 6:45pm, but someone came to the door and made it later. From what I understand is when lo drop the third nap, the bedtime is moved up earlier until thay get used to having 2 naps.
So...do you think if I put him down at 6:30, drop the 3rd nap, because he is going down earlier that he may sleep later in the am? I just trying to troubleshoot as to why he woke so early. From hunger or was
he well rested?
And...should I drop the df (let him sleep, getting that big bulk of
sleep, I know at some point it actually disturbes their sleep more
than anything) and work on getting rid of the 1amish am feeding. Or
give him the dream feed at 10:30pm and work on getting rid of the
3:30ish am feed?
I forgot to add that he will be 7mos in 4 days.