5mo habitual waking?

[txaggiemama]

Hi! My 5 mo (almost 6mos) has started waking at 1 am and it has been taking an hour of paci and shhing to get her back to sleep. This has happened 4 nights in a row, is this a habitual waking?

History:

I had been feeding to sleep (only at night) around 7:30 then dreamfeed at 10:30 and she would wake every 2-3 hours at night and I would nurse her. She's EBF. I was at my breaking point with being sleep deprived so we started to change things up. I stopped feeding to sleep and we are stretching her A times out to 2.5 hours versus 2 (still transitioning on that). We also decided that since she can go 4 hrs during the day between feeds then I wouldn't nurse until 2:30, but preferably 3 so she can make it to her WU time of 7ish sometimes 7:30. Here is her EASY, which does vary slightly day by day:

E 7:30
A
S 10:00 (sleeps 1.5)

E 11:30
A
S 1:15 (sleeps 1.5)

E 3
A
S 5 (cat nap for 45 mins)

E 6:30 or 7
Bedtime between 7:30 and 8

DF 10:30

NW 1am

Feed 3am

WU 7-7:30

Any ideas? I'm completely fine with the fact that she still probably needs a feed at night since she's EBF. But this 1am waking is killing me, since once I get her down she's up an hour later for her feed. TIO

[Erin M]

I think you're on the right track but not quite there yet.  It seems like you're ready to drop the cat nap (there's some info on that here: All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months) so I'd persist in stretching those A times and see if you see some improvements.  The fact that she's wide awake at 1 AM would indicate to me that she needs some more A time during the day. 

[txaggiemama]

Thanks Erin! Her A times are getting better, closer to 2.5 hours each time now. Two nights ago she only woke for her feed at 3, which was amazing. Last night she woke at 1 but went back down pretty quick. Yesterday evening we were out so she got to bed late so I think that had something to do with her waking. Her naps have gotten so much better with the A time changes so I'm just hoping now that the nights will follow!

You mentioned more A time during the day. Do you think 2 hours between the catnap and bedtime is enough or should that be 2.5 also? We'll probably be dropping the catnap soon, but not sure how yet since she's not ready for a 3 hr A time (we're doing good to stretch it to 2.5). Thanks again for responding!

[Erin M]

2 hours should be fine -- definitely do a shorter A time after the cat nap as it's only meant to tide them over until BT.  If you get wakings in the early part of the night, I'd actually do an A time of even less than 2 hours as those types of wakings tend to be OT ones. 

A time is funny at this age -- sometimes it feels like you're struggling to stretch it a bit and then they do a big jump on you!  You'll get there soon enough.  When you get close and you run out of time for the cat nap, you can also put her to bed early -- early bed time is a really useful tool when babies start extending A times and dropping naps.

Sounds like you're making good progress!