Night waking - nearly 8 month old

[wikowa]

Hello!

My nearly 8 month old has develop some strange night waking lately. He has been fine with night sleep for few months now therefore I really don't know what is the problem.  I've been here (forum) before and I know that you Ladies are brilliant in spotting the problem.

So here it is.

He has been waking up at the same time every night for the last 4-5 weeks. 

1) After about first 1,5-2h after BT he will wake up and we need to resettle him to sleep. takes about 10-15 min.

2) DF; takes it fine, appears to be asleep. We put him back to cot and after about 10-15 min the first awake will occur. He will have his eyes closed or opens them for a split second. Toss around in the cot for at least 45min to 1 h. Pat/ shhhh and falls asleep. 1 in 10 times he will start cry and the only way to calm him down is by rocking him to sleep.

3)Around 3-4am wakes up with a big moan, sometimes cry. Pat/shhhhh, rocking whatever to get him to sleep. Takes from 10min to 1h.
Now this was his NF time but he dropped it. I've tried to offer him milk but not interested.

I think we have a good EASY routine and he goes to bed for naps and BT happy.

Here is our routine. It's pretty much the same every day.

7.00ish wake up and Milk
8.30 E - solids
10ish S (usually 1.5h)
11.30 wake up and milk
13.00-14.00 E -solid
14.30-15.00 S that is usually 1h
16.30 E solid
18.00 - bath, massage, bed time story, cuddles
18.30-19.00 S until DF

So I suspect few things:

- paci issue at night; he will take it sometimes to fall asleep but he always settle down with a paci at  night
- Leap 6 wonder weeks;  he always been on the first sign week which would be a 32 , he is 35 now
- nap issue?
- BT issue; tried early BT and he would treat it as a Cat nap

Run out of ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can anyone see what is the problem here?

Thanks!
Mon

[katie80]

Hi Mon, I think you have some good ideas...  and also a really cute avatar!

paci issue at night; he will take it sometimes to fall asleep but he always settle down with a paci at  night

He's old enough to where he can start replugging the paci on his own, so it really doesn't need to be an issue.  Give him lots of practice during the day and start to guide his hand to it at night rather than giving it to him.  Place several around the crib. 

Leap 6 wonder weeks;  he always been on the first sign week which would be a 32 , he is 35 now

Yes, this could definitely be a part of the issue.  Is he doing other new developmental things, i.e. trying to crawl or pull up to stand?

nap issue?

Yes, I think your A times could use a bit of a bump.  Average A for 8mo is about 3-3.5hr, so push them (either both or one at a time) by about 10-15min for a few days and see if you don't get some longer naps so he's not OT by the end of the day.

BT issue; tried early BT and he would treat it as a Cat nap

I don't think BT is really the issue, I think getting two full naps will help that out on it's own.  I do however think you should try dropping the DF.  At this age, it can really disturb the rest of the night's sleep in some LOs and I think the fact that he's waking 10-15min after it is an indicator that this is happening.  He might still need a feed around the 3-4am mark until he's eating more solids, but it's probably better to do it then at this point, than as a DF.  As for feeds, I only see 2 milk feeds in your EASY, but I'm assuming you might have just left the others out.  Typically, it's recommended that babies have 4 milk feeds during the day until 1yr.

Hope that helps!