7.5 MO Waking Up 2-3 hrs after BT

[theu.s.lees]

S has been waking up a few hours after BT for the past week or so. I feel like no matter what I do, she still wakes up and then struggles to go back down. We've been increasing her A times as we had figured that she was low for her age and she was having a few NW. That has helped, for sure, but now we have this NW really early at night. Days don't feel "typical" right now, but in general her schedule is something like

WU/E - 7:30
E - 9 Breakfast
S - 10:30-12 (sometimes until 12:30, though today was 11-12)
E - 12:15
E - 1 Lunch
S - 3-4:15
E - 4:30
E - 5:30 Dinner
E - 6:15
BT - 7

She is BF. She does well on solids. Somedays she can't quite do 3 hrs (though I think I'm misreading that as today she did 3.20 for her first A, and then only had a 1.10 nap followed by another 3 hr A). I have tried anywhere from 2.5-3 hrs A time to BT. It seems like she gets OT and fights BT a bit, or just gets so upset as she rubs her eyes heavily. But there is still waking a few hours later. It is like she's just napping or something.

TIA for any help!

[Erin M]

The early wakings at night are often overtired wakings -- we had them a lot at this age, I could never get him to nap for long enough to keep him from being OT at bedtime.  That being said, he did settle into it after a few weeks and the wakings just more or less went away on their own.  It could just be that as you're changing her schedule around (and A time needs change super fast at this age anyway) that she just has to grow into her schedule a little.  Is she easy to put back to sleep, or is it a battle to get her back sleeping?

[theu.s.lees]

They usually take an hour or more to get her back down. Yesterday we had a better night overall (1 NW at 3:30), but it was a struggle to get her down and she had two short naps, 1.10 and 1.15. That just doesn't seem like enough sleep for the day. I did another 3.15 min A time this morning and still only got a 1.15 nap for her first nap today. I'm afraid that she's going to just get OT and have multiple NWs after a few days of this. I'm not sure if I should just keep her at the 3 hr A times across the board or what.

[Erin M]

After a 1.15 nap you might want to shorten the second A time -- what's your sense there -- is she waking happy or crying?

[theu.s.lees]

I will try shortening it today. Yesterday her first A was 3:15, then a 1.15 nap. So I did 3 hrs for the second A time and she did just under 2 hours for that nap. Of course the night was horrible, with numerous wakings from 11:30-3:30! I think teeth was the culprit on this one as I nursed twice but once I finally gave some tylenol she slept.

She seems to wake up happy from the first nap. The second one, however, she was very fussy and upset. She seemed still tired, though once I took her out of her room she was fine. I did try to resettle her even though she was near 2 hours just because she seemed tired still, but she wouldn't stay down. What do you think about that?

[Erin M]

Could be the teeth making her grumpy when she woke up.  Could also be that she did need some more sleep, althoug at that point, it would be hard to resettle since she did sleep for almost 2 hours.  Sounds like you did get the right A time for that second nap (maybe even a tiny bit shorter, though that's hard to judge) -- maybe try teething meds before bed to see if you can rule out (or in!) teething as a cause of wakings for sure.

[theu.s.lees]

The teeth could def be affecting her. DH hates to proactively give meds, though if we have another tough night, I'm sure I could convince him otherwise!

Last night was a major struggle to stay asleep. But we had dinner plans for my mom's bday so I tried to put her down for her second nap after 2.5 hrs A time. Of course, she only napped for 45 min, and then she had a long A to BT with a tiny CN in the car on the way home. So I'm sure that was it. We only had 1 NW, but I'm not sure exactly sure what time as the monitor was set to only M's room and I woke up to her screaming (I felt so horrible that I just nursed her). I don't think that it could've been for too long as I'm pretty tuned in to listening for the kids, but still. She then slept until 7:30 and I fed her around 1. So a better night. But would she get OT and have more bad nights if she only had 2hrs of sleep each day (that's less than M who is 2!).

Today I did another 3.15 first A time, so we shall see how she naps for this one. Then I will aim for just 3 hrs for the second one (2.5 is too short for sure!) and to BT.

[ZacsMumme]

Hugs Hun. We have 1 NW after BT too..it's been going on forever usually now it's 1 hr in. We also get random long NW at 11 or 4 which I think are constipation related or discomfort but could be OT
I member with Z we had this and they just went away

[Erin M]

DH hates to proactively give meds, though if we have another tough night, I'm sure I could convince him otherwise!

I do too, but sometimes the need for sleep wins out!

I think you're doing a good job tweaking to try to find the right A time for her -- I had a similar experience to Sara (I think I mentioned that already) where we fought that OT wakeup not too long after bed for awhile and then it just went away.