Hello,
I'm hoping this is the best place to post! We have a few different things happening, but the night wakings are the worst, and what I'm really hoping to fix! I have a 6.5 month old daughter, and we have been working on a loose EASY schedule for a week and a half now. Nights went really well for a few nights (nights 3 & 4) and then slowly the NW increased again, so that now she is waking every two hours until around 2:30, and she isn't resettling into a deep sleep after 2:30 unless I bring her into my bed (last night I cracked at 5 am).
Our EASY looks like this:
E- 7 am
A-7:30
S- 9:30 for 1h 15 (increased from 1/2 hr a few days ago with pu/pd)- nurse to drowsy then down in her crib
E- 10:45
A- 11
S- 1:30/2 depending on sleep cues- nurse to drowsy then down in her crib
E-3:30
A- 4
S- bed routine starts at 6-6:10, BF to drowsy, down between 6:30 & 7
The first few nights I did pu/pd at night, and night 3 of the routine she magically stopped waking except the times I BF her the nights before (11, 3, 5)- night 4 she only woke once. But then I messed up naps, and stopped doing as well with the schedule, and she began waking up more often at night again (now I know how important the routine is!!!). So, we started back to EASY two days ago, but nights are really not working for us at all still, and seem as bad or worse than when we started. I am still doing pu/pd or shhhing, but it is not helping the next night wakings like it did before. When she is waking up after around 2 am, she will go down after pu/pd or shhing (no pat, she doesn't like that), but will wake up the second I get to the door, even if I shhh for 1/2 hour or more. Last night I did 1 1/2 hours of shhhing, and she still woke up. I don't have anyone that is willing to help with night wakings (DH works shifts and is usually either not home or needs to sleep) so I am exhausted by the early morning and more likely to give up and bring her to our bed.
I'm not sure if she is napping enough during the day, if this might be an issue, or if her A time is off. We are also beginning to introduce solids, so this might affect sleep. She usually has breakfast of cereal and fruit/veggie, a bit of solids if I can get her to eat them at lunch, and maybe a tiny bit of purees around 4:30 pm (but she usually won't eat anything then). I BF her to sleep for naps and night time, but this hasn't seemed to be an issue- she still self-settles now (I have a video monitor I can watch to see), but I'm not sure if I shouldn't do this. I hate to not BF her when she wants it, as she is at the bottom end of the weight scale (2%), and it is important she put on weight.
I hope I put enough information in (and not too much!). I would really appreciate any insight anyone else might have- I'm exhausted and trying not to give up again, but it is really hard! Thank you!
