Dropping dream feed causes night waking?

[BeeAnn]

Her routine if she wakes up early (like the last few days) is generally:

WU                    too early!!  (5.15ish)
GU and E (milk)  6am
E (solids)            7.30am
S                       9am - 11am
E (milk)             11am
E (solids)           12.30pm
S                       2pm - 3.20pm
E (milk)             3.30pm
E (solids)           5pm
E (milk) and BT  6.30pm (falls asleep at the bottle)

If she is awake later then I will either give her less A time before bed and / or slightly cap one or other of the naps.  An ideal bedtime would be 7pm for us.

She either naps for 1hr 20mins (which I think is under tired?) or I have to wake her - usually I don't let her go more than 2hrs 15 mins.  I have shown a short nap in the afternoon in the routine above but it sometimes happens in the morning if she is showing sleepy signs and I go against my better judgement and put her down slightly early!!  Some days she will have two long naps and bedtime is a bit later.

To be honest her days do vary more than they were doing before we dropped the cat nap!!  (or maybe I have rose tinted memories....)

I don't think she could go longer before her first nap....

She's woken up crying twice already since bedtime, the second time quite hysterically so we gave her some Nurofen.  I think her teeth must still be bothering her, I did wonder today if I could see the white of a second tooth (although it could just be another side of the first tooth still coming through!)  FX for the rest of the night!!

[BeeAnn]

Meant to say that she is 7 months in a week's time

[PaulsMom]

Yes, you can't really push that am nap out any more.  Is she going back to sleep between 5:15 and 6 am?  If she's not sleeping then that's a really long A! but she's giving you a good long nap. 

She either naps for 1hr 20mins (which I think is under tired?)

I don't stress too much about naps of 1 hr 15 and longer.  I suppose it may be a bit under tired but really I think you would just be pushing the A out by another 10 min.  It's when the naps are under 35 min that I start to worry that it's not enough (unless it's a CN and you have a short A until BT). 

If she's teething then this could be the cause of the EW.  If any pain meds were given at BT, they likely have worn off.  Further we tend to sleep lighter in the morning so discomfort and other "day time" noises (birds singing, more traffic, etc) will disturb sleep so she might be waking and then with all of the "morning cues", she's just up for the day.  You could try giving her another dose of Nurofen and see if she will go back down.  (Make sure you have good black outs and white noise on if possible).

[BeeAnn]

Thanks.  I do think that it could be a combination of noise / teething waking her early.  This morning she was definitely asleep at 5.25am and then 10 minutes later I heard quite a loud car outside and shortly afterwards heard her awake.  I went in and tried to give her bonjela and she did seem a little calmer than normal but didn't go back to sleep (she is normally not upset but kind of just rolls around and crawls up and down the bed).

She doesn't really go back to sleep before 6am but I have found that if I don't get her up and she is still in the dark (we do have black outs) then she can manage a more or less full A time from the time I get her out of bed. 

It could also be partly developmental I guess.  She started crawling and sitting about a month ago, and we have noticed that she is trying to climb up things (i.e. us!) more.  But probably more likely to be teeth.

Her teeth were definitely hurting her last night before we gave her ibuprofen, and I think I can feel a second one trying to come through.

I think we will just have to see what happens in a week or so (well hopefully till her teeth stop troubling her) and then if it doesn't get better think about the routine again.

[PaulsMom]

boo to the loud car!  Well at least she does well on her own in her crib until you get her and she can handle a full A.  That's a really good thing! 

Teething is such a hard thing to deal with.  Poor bub!  let us know how things go over the course of the week.  Hopefully the EW's go away!

[BeeAnn]

Just thought I would give you an update.  After Thursday morning last week when she woke up at 5am and wouldn't settle, I decided that we would bring back half a bottle at the dream feed in case she was waking hungry.  Since we have done that she has slept through till about 6.20am most days - which is just over 11 hours sleep.  She also seems much happier and more energetic in the mornings so I think she was thinking that she was hungry and therefore it was morning time.

We have also increased her amount of solids slightly and she has now started taking less at her 11.30am and 4pm bottles so perhaps she is more ready to drop that dream feed now.  However, we are going on holiday on Friday for a week so will probably leave it until after that - or else do a very slow weaning process.  Last time we reduced to half a bottle and then dropped it straightaway so not sure if that was too quick for her.

So seems as though my very original topic was kind of right after all!!

[PaulsMom]

Oh good. Glad things are working out.  Yes, don't change too much when on vacation if possible.  You can try a gradual weaning when you return either by reducing the volume gradually over a week or so or you can start to bring the feed time earlier and earlier.