7 month old waking 3-4 times/night

[RitaBobcat]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping you can help since I'm running out of steam these days.
My 7 month old is not able to turn from stomach to back and usually repositioning him helps him fall back asleep quickly but the last few days he starts crying very hard whether I turn him or not. I've also noticed that he wakes up around the same time so I don't know if it's become a habit to want to be turned at that time. I tried WTS a few times but it didn't seem to help. I don't know if I should ignore his cries knowing that he wants to turn and only come in when it's a full wail or what. Also, we're in the process of slowly dropping the DF but it doesn't seem like he is hungry at night since he goes back to sleep eventually and I did increase his feeds during the day to make up for it.

Our routine is as follows:
6:30am wake
7am bottle
9am nap (usually 1-1.5 hours)
11am bottle
11:30am solids
1pm nap (usually 1-1.5 hours)
3pm bottle
5pm nap (usually 45 min)
6:30pm solids
7pm bottle
7:30pm bedtime routine
asleep at 8pm

Another question that may or may not be related is that I turn on white noise for bedtime which helps him fall asleep and I keep it on low all night so is it possible that it might be bothering him during the night (from past experience, he tends to wake up earlier if there is no white noise) and does white noise count as a prop?

Thanks very much for any advice! Between these wakings and my insomnia, I'm going on very little sleep.

[Beweakley]

Hey there! I was in the same kind of jam you're in at seven months.  So, I definitely sympathize with you!  I'm new to this site also and my boys are 9.5 months.  One of my twins, Elijah was like this....only he hated being on his back.  So if he rolled on his back in the MOTN then he would wake up wailing! I used shush-pat to calm him and if that didn't work then I'd rock him.  He was also struggling to put himself to sleep and that's only recently improved.  I can say that I also tried CIO, and it was hard on both of us.  I won't do it again and it didn't help any of us STTN.  I don't know that I really have much advice other than to say, hang in there!

Oh, and I also use white noise.  It's a must at my house.  Especially now that my boys are going to bed just after 7:15ish.  I don't see it as a prop because I just recently moved one of the twins into my bedroom where there is no white noise and he's doing fine without it.  Hopefully he'll be going back into the bedroom with his brother soon where the sound machine is.  Without it, my boys would wake at every pin drop.  I'm not an authority on this, but I don't see it as a prop seeing that it doesnt help my boys fall asleep.  Instead it helps provide my boys the atmosphere needed to sleep.  Others may disagree.

Hang in there!  And hopefully we'll both get a little more sleep tonight. 

[PaulsMom]

Hi There,

Hugs for the nw's.  Developmental milestones will usually disrupt sleep, unfortunately.  I would recommend that you let your LO practice rolling during the day so that he can roll tummy to back on his own at night.  What time(s) is he waking?

thanks for posting your routine.  I noticed that his A is a bit low for his age. Most 7 mo olds are awake for 2.75 to 3.15 hrs on average so I'm wondering if your A's should be pushed out a bit.  Around this age, a lot of bubs are dropping the 3rd nap.  if you are concerned about your LO being OT at BT, you might want to try a slightly earlier BT. 

WRT to white noise being a prop - I do think that some LOs need it to fall asleep but depending what type of device is being used to create the white noise, I don't think it should be an issue (ie. if you don't have to re-start it, then it should be fine). 

HTH

[RitaBobcat]

Thank you for the replies!

I'm glad to hear the white noise isn't a prop (it's on continuously), it definitely helps block out extra noise.

PaulsMom, he wakes at 4am and then at 5:30am with 1 or 2 other random wake ups.

My understanding was that the baby will decide when to drop the 3rd nap and just won't sleep around that time. Is that right? My LO still goes down willingly at 5pm so I guess he still needs it.
Since you mention that I should increase his A time, does that mean he's UT at night and wakes up from that?

Thanks!

[PaulsMom]

It's possible that too much DT sleep can start to cause nw's and ew's in particular.  Dropping the CN usually coincides with a longer A time.  You could start to push out one of the A's and keep the CN but you might need to cap it to preserve bt.