Author Topic: 7.5 month old with frequent NW  (Read 1024 times)

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Offline ForeverYoung

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7.5 month old with frequent NW
« on: July 08, 2013, 14:51:52 pm »
Hello. My DS is 7.5 months old and we have restarted with an EASY routine about a month ago after a lot of APOP during a long travel. So far we managed to work out a grood daily routine and get back on track with sleep training. We used shhh/pat and now he falls asleep independently for his naps. He also knows how to resettle himself at the 45min mark without my help. I can hear him blabber sometimes but just for a short while and he's back to sleep. BT is always a bit harder but I hardly ever have to pick him up. Even when I do, he still ends up falling asleep in the cot on his own. He has a lovie and uses a dummy but knows how to put it back in if it falls out so doesn't need me to re-plug him. Here is our schedule:
9:00am wake up and BF 1side
A 3h
10:00 solids (yoghourt or oatmeal)
12:00 nap1 (usually 1,5-2h)
1:30 wake up and BF 1side
A 3h
2:30 lunch (fruit or veg)
4:30 nap2 (usually 1,5h)
6:00 wake up and BF 1side
7:00 dinner (veg with meat or yoghurt)
8:15 BT routine: quiet playtime with dad with soft music, bath, nappy, cuddles with daddy
8:45 BF 1side (sometimes 2sides if he didn't eat much for dinner)
in bed before 9pm
...and that when all hell breaks loose. Before we restarted with EASY he was waking up once, max 2 times per night and was falling back to sleep straight after eating. Now he wakes up every 2-3h or even more often! In the beginning I was trying shhh/pat to resettle but that would only get me another 50min-1h sleep and he'd wake up again. When he wakes up he usually just blabbers in his cot but if I just let him be, he starts crying after 5-10min. When I try to feed him, he latches on but eats for maybe 2-3min and uses me as a dummy. Now I must say I gave up on shhh/pat at night cause I'm so sleep deprived I can't find the energy to do it! Sometimes he falls asleep fast with my breast in his mouth or sometimes I have to hold him in my arms for 20-30min (no rocking) before he doses of and I put him back in his cot. At 5-6am I usually give in and keep him in our bed as I'm dreading EW. I though that those NW were developmental as he was figuring out how to sleep on his side, but now he knows how to do it already and sleeps like that for the past week but the NW continue :( I go back to work in 3 weeks and need this to change! What do you think has possessed by boy? I will appreciate any input.


Offline katie80

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Re: 7.5 month old with frequent NW
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2013, 13:11:33 pm »
Hi there, (((hugs))) for all the NWs.  That sounds tiring!

I think there could be a few reasons for the NWs.  First would be that he's actually hungry (not every time, but frequently enough). I notice that he only takes one side per BF at each feed.  What happens when you offer the other side?  It could be that the one side is enough for him, but usually by this age, LOs are taking from both at most feeds.  I would try offering the second side, even if you need to give him a 10-15min break and see if the extra calories help him sleep better at night.

The other thing is that he could be a bit UT.  I think the routine looks really good, but there's a chance that by 7.5mo, he needs a bit more A time than 3hr.  You can start pushing it out to 3h15min if you think he's ready and see if the extra A time helps him sleep better at night.

The last thing is solids.  He is on the younger side of having a full 3 meals per day.  Has he been eating solids for awhile?  I'm just thinking that waking that often at night can often be a sign of discomfort, so am wondering if his tummy is hurting at all from the solids.

What do you think?



Offline ForeverYoung

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Re: 7.5 month old with frequent NW
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2013, 16:03:13 pm »
Thank you for your reply. It's really helpful to hear an opinion of someone who can look at the situation from the "outside".
After spending most of my Y time for the past 2 days reading posts in here about 7month old sleeping problems I think our biggest problem is UT. When he wakes up at night he is happy and playful (as long as he gets some attention). Today I am trying to extend his A times a bit and see what happens. I managed to extend the am time only by 5min followed by 2h nap and now the second A time was up by 15min and he's fast asleep.
As to BFing, I feed him only from one side per feed as I'm dealing with an oversupply. Also I'm trying to wean him of the second day feed as I'll be back at work soon and don't want to pump at work. Our problem is that he doesn't really want to drink formula, which makes dropping a feed hard. What I might do is offer both sides for the morning and evening feed and try to offer formula top up for others.
He started solids at 5,5months with tiny amounts of veg and fruit and did great with that. Since 6months old I started offering breakfast in a bit bigger portion and build up from that. We had no stomach problems since starting solids though after looking at his menu I might switch lunch with dinner and offer light fruit meal before BT instead of protein. This will be easier to digest and will eliminate possible additional reasons to wake up.
I'll try to implement all that into our schedule over the next days and see how it goes. Please keep your fingers crossed for us!

Offline katie80

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Re: 7.5 month old with frequent NW
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2013, 18:13:39 pm »
Sounds like a good plan... will keep my fingers crossed for you! :)

As to BFing, I feed him only from one side per feed as I'm dealing with an oversupply.
As for the oversupply, I guess I was thinking that you were probably feeding him more often than 4hrly before you started EASY, so where he was fine on eating only one side then, he in fact may need the other now.  Your supply may be naturally going down as you are feeding less, but I could be totally wrong too! ;) 

Also I'm trying to wean him of the second day feed as I'll be back at work soon and don't want to pump at work. Our problem is that he doesn't really want to drink formula, which makes dropping a feed hard. What I might do is offer both sides for the morning and evening feed and try to offer formula top up for others.
Does he take EBM from a bottle?  In the next week, you might start pumping for the daytime feeds you will miss once you're back to work and feed him with the bottle.  Then, you could start taking out 1-2 oz of BM and replacing it with formula to get him used to the taste.  Maybe by the time you have to go back, he would be more accustomed to the formula and be willing to take it.  My only thought is that dropping two feeds at once is going to be a big drop in milk for him and might affect your nights again, as milk is still a main source of nutrition until 1yr.