Waking over 5 times a night, almost 7 months old

[Barbara78]

Hi there!

My name is Barbara and I've been lurking through your forum for the past 6 months and also read and re- read Tracy's book which has been a great help with my daughter so far.

But here we go, out main issues is night wakings and settling at bedtime, this has been going on for the past 2 months and I'm now really exhausted...and pregnant again on top of it!
Here's a bit of background: she will be 7 months next week, she's now on 3 solid meals a day and 3 6ozs  bottles (doesn't take more, not even if I reduce solids' intake), she's healthy although she's been suffering with reflux but now it's all under control.

Here's our EASY:

W/U 7am although she sometimes wakes earlier but stays in the cot playing and chatting to herself 
E 7am 6ozs formula feed
E 8am milk w/cereal or fruit
S 9.30 nap (I normally don't let her sleep more than 1hr30)
E 11.30 Solids
E 13.00 Formula
S 13.30/14 Nap (I let her sleep but she never goes longer than 1h45)
E 17.00 Dinner, solids
A Play, Bath, Bottlle
S 19.00 Bed

She always cries when I put her down at bedtime, she normally settles with dummy and white noise machine but then wakes up screaming every 15/30 minutes and I need to go in to comfort and resettle. Sometimes her eyes are closed when she does this, and she doesn't look fully awake to me but she keeps crying and wriggling her arms and legs until I do PU/PD several times, with dummy and white noise to help. Sometimes I tuck her in with her blanket "sausage style" and this usually helps a bit but I want to stop doing this as she has now started to roll over and it can be dangerous having her arms blocked.
I need to go in 4/5 times before she falls in deep sleep and even when that happens it never lasts too long.
She usually wakes crying every 2 hours, it can be at anytime. Sometimes I just replug dummy and leave and she goes back to sleep, some other times it's a bit harder and I need to PU/PD until she resettle.
Sometimes I'm just so tired that I let her fall back asleep in my arms as this normally works quicker than PU/PD, I know it's wrong.

I really don't know what the issue is here. She sleeps well during the day and she easily settles herself to sleep for her naps, then why is bedtime/night such a nghtmare?

Sorry for the long post, you ladies are great...I hope you'll have some words of advice for me.

[PaulsMom]

Hi Barbara!  Welcome!

Hugs for the nw's.  it's soooo hard when you are sleep deprived.  Congrats on your pg.  That's exciting news.

A couple of things that I've noted from your post.
Routine - I see that your DD has dropped her CN but her A time is a bit on the low side (morning and early afternoon As).  I'm thinking that you could start to increase it gradually so that she's awake for closer to 3 hrs prior to BT. 

WRT crying at BT.  She might actually be OT at BT which may be why she's crying since her last A is actually quite long.  You have mentioned that she self settles for naps well on her own.  What routine do you follow?  Is this pretty much the same as what you do at BT?

WRT the nw's.  A couple of thoughts comes to mind....  the paci may be a prop.  (and)/or she has discomfort that is disturbing her sleep (and)/or developmental milestones. 

Do you think that she needs the paci to sleep?  If it is a prop, then you may want to get rid of it.  It will be tough for a few days but in the long run, her sleep will improve.

WRT discomfort - there's so much going on at this age.  Namely teething but she also has reflux.  If you think that she's teething, how do you feel about medicating her prior to BT? 

Developmental milestones -  lots of LOs this age start to practice crawling and other gross motor skills in their sleep.  the best thing to do is to give her lots of opportunity to practice during the day and in time, this will pass. 

HTH

[Barbara78]

Thank you so much for replying!

I will try to increase the A time,  we are already quite close to 3h but you are right, the last A time before bedtime is usually longer than 3 hours and I noticed that most of the times she starts crying at about 6.30 pm for no reasons, other than overtiredness I think.
The routine we follow is the same though, for both naps and bedtime: we go by the window and close the blind so it gets dark, then I put her to bed. She sometimes fusses a bit at naptime but it doesn't last more  than 5/10 minutes.

I believe as well paci may be a prop, but then again, during naps she doesn't have any issues if it falls off and she keeps on sleeping. At nighttime though, when she wakes up crying there is no way she can go back to sleep without her paci and the crying gets louder and louder if it takes me more than 2 minutes to go and give her the paci.

I sometimes give her teething granules before bedtime, I believe this helps with settling her but NW's are still there and it just doesn't seem to get any better

[PaulsMom]

Try to bring her BT forward so that it's occurring closer to 3 hrs after waking from her pm nap.  Hopefully she won't be too OT and there will be less fussing.  If it's not possible to bring BT forward too much, then try to keep the late afternoon activities low key so she's not over stimulated prior to BT.

WRT to the paci, it sounds like it is a prop.  With my DS, he was fine during naps - they were short enough but at night he was waking 5-6 times.  I'd stagger in and re-plug him and he'd go back to sleep.  Ultimately we weaned him from the paci, cold turkey and within a week he was sleeping much better.  How do you feel about weaning the paci?  If you do wean it, I would recommend that you introduce another comfort item so she can self sooth with something (eg. a lovie, small stuff animal, etc).

WRT teething....  it may be a minor component of the waking issue.  If you are going to wean the paci, let's see how that goes.

[katie80]

Or you could work on teaching her to replug the paci herself and placing several around the crib.  If she can replug herself it is not a prop, but a comfort item, just like a lovey.  It's often thought that the sucking action that a paci provides is helpful for a reflux baby, that's the only reason I'd be hesitant to get rid of it.   And, if she is teething, reflux can flare a bit.  My DD definitely had a paci prop and I took it away at 5.5mo, but I think if it were me in your case, I'd work on the routine and getting her to replug before trying to wean it.  Just my 2 cents!

[Barbara78]

Thank you ladies!

I'll try to teach her to replug the paci, or maybe buy some "glow in the dark" ones so it's easier to replug it without my constant help.

I heard about reflux flare ups during teething, it's really the only reason why I'm not too sure about taking the paci away.

She's a spirited baby, I believe she also gets overstimulated very easily so I will also try to work on her wind down routine and make it last longer...

[katie80]

Sounds like a plan. I know they make different things to help LOs find their paci... the glow in the dark ones or something you can attach several to, or just leave a bunch in there. I think you start by guiding her hand to it and saying a phrase. Then, you can just say the phrase and eventually she should do it on her own.

As for spiriteds, I think some like a longer wind down, some like shorter. It can depend. You could ask the ladies here... Sleep and EASY Support for spirited babies and likely get some great tips.