6.5 mo still night waking. Any suggestions?

[Soriah]

Hi there!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my LO's night wakings.  After following your advice to reduce the number of times she ate solids, she started sleeping for longer stretches, waking only 2 or 3 times instead of 6 or 7.  Unfortunately she is back to waking up several times throughout the night and I'm really not sure what's going on.  I've been breast feeding her more frequently throughout the day (so the EASY below reflects her routine as of about a week ago) to increase my milk supply to rule out hunger and introduced a bottle of formula before BT.  She as also been cat napping several times which leads me to believe that she might be OT but then again there are days that she has good naps (today, for example, she took a CT in the morning a 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon and another CT at 4:30).  Some days she cat naps, other days she has good naps and yet other days she has both, like today.

Her EASY goes roughly like this:

A 7:30
E 8:00 (solids followed by BF)
S 9:30
A 11/11:30
E 11:30
S 2
A 3:30/4
E 4
E 7:00 (solids followed by BF)
S 8/8:30

Any suggestions?  Thanks so much in advance!

[becj86]

Generally we suggest doing milk feed, then solids an hour later so as to ensure that milk intake is not reducing - milk is higher in calories than any solids offered at this stage, so really solids is about tasting and fun.

Feeding more frequently in the day is not necessarily going to get more calories into her (though it will increase your supply) - if she's never really hungry, she's not going to take a full feed and so is snacking and may then be hungry at night.

Are you doing the 2-3-4 A times for a particular reason? It works really well for some babies but can reinforce wakings in the early hours of the morning having a nap 2hr after wakeup and I'm guessing that's the one she catnaps most and then the rest of the day goes to pot? If so, I'd push that A time out closer to 3hr and even them out and see if that helps

[Soriah]

Great, thanks for the advice!  One thing:  I've been writing down the times she wakes up in the middle of the night for the past few days and I just realized that although the times she wakes up isn't necessarily consistent, she wakes up exactly every hour and a half.  Does that mean anything?

[becj86]

When the waking is that frequent, its usually discomfort - is she hot/cold? teething? refluxer?

[Soriah]

Hmm...I really don't think so.  I gave her tylenol for the past few nights just in case and the temperature seems to be fine.  Could it be habitual waking?  I'm really at a loss for what to do...  Thanks!

[Soriah]

Also, for the past few days she has been taking good naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon but she is still waking up as many times as before.  She usually wakes up wanting to nurse back to sleep.

[becj86]

She usually wakes up wanting to nurse back to sleep.

Cold? (milk is warm and increases core temp quickly) Not seeing you as much during the day? Thirsty (is she breathing through her mouth? a cold could cause that)? Hungry? what's her milk intake in the day?

Can you settle her any other way? It could be a prop if she can't get back to sleep without nursing... is she relying on it to get to sleep any other time?

Maybe shift her second solid meal to being at lunch rather than dinner?