14 month many and long night wakings!

[Zomeo]

Hi!

My 14 month old is usually a great sleeper.  But starting a few months back she starting waking again in the night.  I would usuaully just go in and pick her up for a minute or two then put her right back down (still awake) and she would go right back to sleep.
But lately the night wakings are becoming more frequent and now it will sometimes take me an hour to get her back to sleep!
She will randomly give us 4-5 nights in a row of no NW but then the last two nights she was up 4 times!  Last night one of her wakings took an hour to get her back down. 
She won't let me rock her, I have to stand.  I usually don't nurse (although I've given in a few times with that but that doesn't always seem to work either).
Going down for her naps and bedtime is hit and miss.  Today she went down right away no problem.  Yesterday it took 4 tries of laying her down to go to bed.
She has always been a good self-soother, putting herself to sleep and back to sleep from an early age.
I've wondered if this is all related to teething but it's been months of this.  Last night she wouldn't even take any meds from me and most of the time when I give her meds before bedtime she STILL wakes up.
This made me wonder if it was hunger.  She starting rejecting a bottle at around 11.5 months.  So she just gets her milk from a sippy and I nurse twice a day.  I know she is hardly getting around 10 oz. of milk which seems like not enough for her (she is small for her age).  But I just don't know how to get her more milk!   
Could this be hunger?  SA? 
Very exhausted!  Your help is appreciated!!

Our day (a good one) looks like this (she transitioned to one nap at 12 months)...
7:30am: Wake
12:15pm-2:30pm: Nap
8pm: Bedtime

Example of last night's wakings...
12:50, 1:50-2:15 up, 2:30-3 up, 4:15.

[*Becky*]

bumping up x

[clairebear79]

What is she doing when she wakes?  Crying?  Chatting/wanting to play? 

How quickly do you go in to her?  Are you giving her a few minutes to see if she resettles by herself?

Is she teething at the moment?

How long has she been on the 1 nap? 

Sorry for all the questions but it might help us to understand more clearly what's going on.

With you speaking of her fighting her nap & having long NW's I am wondering if she might be a wee bit UT & need an A time increase.  From your EASY it looks like she is doing 4.75hrs before her nap, so I am wondering if it might need upping a bit to 5hrs.   

[Zomeo]

When she wakes she is crying or moaning.  I try to wait to see if she will settle down.  Sometimes she can but most of the time she won't.

I had thought she was teething but I can't tell for sure.  When I give her meds at night she still wakes up.  So part of me thinks there is a combo of things going on (teething, UT/OT, etc).

She switched to one nap pretty early at around 12 months.  Lately I've been wondering if it was too soon since the night issues started around the same time.  Sometimes her awake time will be 5-6 hours so I'm maybe she is OT?

She can definitely handle 5-5.5 hr of A time but I do notice that some days she seems tired at 3 hr mark.

[Zomeo]

Hi all!
So things just aren't getting better.  I played with her awake times and nap schedule but it just didn't seem to help.  Her daytime routine goes well with just the one 2-2.5 nap and 5 hrs. awake time.

Last night she was up two times (around 1:30 and 5:30).  I have such a hard time figuring out if it's hunger or SA.  I tried picking her up then putting her back down and she fussed for a bit.  Then picked her up again, layed back down and she fussed a little but then put herself back to sleep...I did nurse one side too;(

Any suggestions on what to do?  I feel like this has been happening way too long for it to be just teething related.
Maybe I need to try WI/WO?

[clairebear79]

Hiya - so sorry I seem to have missed your reply somehow!

Can I double check - you say sometimes she is doing 5-6 hours  A time, but the EASY in your original post is:

Wake: 7.30
Nap:  12.15-2.30
BT:     8.00

That's an AM A time of 4.75hrs and a PM A time of 5.5hrs.  So can I ask - is this what she is still doing? 

If not, can you post her current EASY - I need to see what times she is waking, napping & going to bed.

If she is still doing the above routine, then IIWM I would increase her A time in the AM a bit.  Perhaps start with 5hrs and if she's not ready to sleep try 5.5hrs i.e. nap at 1pm  I found that as the nap went later & the AM A time increased, the PM A time actually reduced a bit & BT stayed the same.    I also had to start capping my DS's nap at 2hrs max at around 15/16 months old b/c we got early waking if I let him nap for longer.  It might be something to consider if the later nap doesn't help.

So your routine might eventually look more like:

Wake: 7.30
A =     5.5hrs
Nap:   1.00-3.00pm
A =     5hrs
BT:     8.00pm

Can I also ask if you nurse to sleep at every night waking?  And can she settle to sleep independently at nap/ bedtime

[Zomeo]

Thanks for the reply!
Her routine right now is...

Wake-7:15am
Nap-12:30-2:45/3pm
Bed-7:45pm

She is great at naps and bedtime.  Puts herself right to sleep independently. 
I have been giving in (mainly out of exhaustion I think) and feed her most of the time at night.  Last night I just did one side.  She has gone down without needing to be feed before with just a little hold. 
But lately she screams and screams until I feed her.  She hardly drinks any milk during the day so I get paranoid that she is straving!

[Kay Dee]

Hiya, that's a super long nap! BUT it could be robbing from your night so I agree with Claire about capping at 2hrs to see if it helps. Or push out the A times but with such a long nap that makes bedtime quite late.

So you could try:
Wake 7.15am
Nap 12.30-2.30pm
Bed 7.30pm

What do you think?

x

[Zomeo]

yea.  she always can sleep so long.  i have to wake her every day because she could keep going!
i'll try the 2 hr. nap and see if that will help with her NW. 

she has been waking earlier the past two weeks (her normal routine used to be 8pm-8am).  Two days a week I work until 8pm so I would put her to bed when I got home (she has a hard time letting Dad put her down-another issue to deal with....).
so if she is waking at 7am it makes for a long day and it sets a OT cycle in motion.

i will try shortening the nap and let you know!

[clairebear79]

I have been giving in (mainly out of exhaustion I think) and feed her most of the time at night.  Last night I just did one side.  She has gone down without needing to be feed before with just a little hold. 
But lately she screams and screams until I feed her.  She hardly drinks any milk during the day so I get paranoid that she is straving!

Honey it might be that this is part of the problem.  Her routine looks quite good now, although her nap is pretty long & *may* be causing the earlier wakeup, so capping it a touch might help with that.  However, I am doubtful that its the nap that's causing the regular NW's.  If you have been feeding her at the NW's, then she will come to expect to be fed at the NW, and hence why she screams when she doesn't get fed IYSWIM?  If she's not feeding much during the day it may be because she's getting all her calories at night IYSWIM?

What you do about it depends on whether you want to do something about it & whether you are prepared to do some form of sleep training.  I think you will find that if you cut the night feeds out, she may wake less at night AND take more milk during the day.  Its not something I've done myself so TBH I'm not best placed to advise you how - but can try & get some more knowledgeable eyes on here if you would like some help with this.
xx

[Zomeo]

so some things are getting better.  i cut her nap to only 2 hrs. and she has been sleeping in longer in the morning! 
i also stopped nursing at night when she wakes but we are still having a hard time getting her back to sleep.
i had some questions about what method to use and to make sure im doing things right...

right now i go in and pick her up and settle her for about 1-2 mins. then lay her back down.  she usually cries again and i wait and count.  then pick her up again for another minute and tell her her sleepy time phrase.  this usually works fine and she goes back (lately she will wake a half later though...)

last night was a bust because after the first time of laying her down she went crazy and was inconsolable and dry heaving (i backtracked and nursed just to calm her down).

i don't think im doing things correctly.  am i holding her too long between cries?  if i don't pick her up and just lay her back down (she is standing in crib always), then she gets even more worked up and harder to calm.

any suggestions?