Author Topic: 8 month old long NW  (Read 1217 times)

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Offline Lavender26

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8 month old long NW
« on: July 29, 2013, 15:54:07 pm »
Hello, really looking for some help and advice please. DD is just over 8 months old and has been waking for 1 1/2 to 3 hours ITMOTN for over a month now. She is on 3 meals a day although does not eat a great deal and I do struggle to get her to drink her milk at times. Her weight dropped a percentile but HV was not concerned and told me to just keep trying. Plus she is very active. We are doing BLW and she drinks approximately 12oz a day not including BF which is first thing am and last feed before bed. She does not wake for food and I have not BF in the night since 6 months.

She has two bottom teeth and I think more are on their way although I can't see anything yet but gums are red and swollen in places. She has just started to crawl and can sit up no problem and babbles all day long. She is generally a very happy baby so no concerns with her.

Sleep was never great so we did PUPD which helped enormously (lots of support from BW site!). She STTN for a month then got a cold and regressed slightly. Sleep has never really been the same since. Long NW started around 4th June, averaging awake time of 2 hours! Sometimes meds worked almost immediately so I knew that was teething but no idea what is going on now! She wakes crying, I don't go in immediately as she sometimes SS but after a min or two I'll go in ssh/pat and she will try to settle. If I leave the room she screams so I go back in immediately and she will stop. Again ssh/pat, then she will start holding and hitting my hand, babbling and playing around, I will say our sleep phrase leave the room and she screams blue murder again. We do this for 2 hours! Sometimes she will be so tired and will only settle if I pat her constantly. Has this now become a prop? This is the third time this week for long NW. In between the rest of the week she can either STTN or cries out a couple of times but settles herself immediately.

I thought maybe a bit of SA plus a wonder week may be causing these but it's been going on for so long now. She is fine with other people and does not cry when I am out the room so doubting SA? Our easy for a good day (no NW) is

A 6:15
E bf 6:30
A play and breakfast 8:30 plus 3oz
S 9:20 -10:40 (sleep for 1hr 20 - she has never slept longer than this for a nap)
E try milk at 11:30 will take about 3oz
A play and lunch at 1:00 plus 3oz
S 1:45 - 2:58
A play
E dinner at 5:30
A bath at 6.00/6.30 then bedtime routine
E 50z plus BF (more for comfort I think)
S 7.00/7.30 then cried out at 9.30 but settled immediately, slept tp 6.30am

Naps are inconsistent, sometimes with three 30min naps although she still sleeps through with these cat naps. I'm not sure if these NW started when she started to sleep longer in the morning. Could this be the cause? I've tried to keep a diary but don't see any pattern to these NW at all. Any advice would be so greatly appreciated. Xx

Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 8 month old long NW
« Reply #1 on: July 29, 2013, 22:44:33 pm »
Hugs for the nw's.  what time of night is she waking?  Also, is it at the same time each night?  I'm wondering about SA although as you say, she's fine during the day which is making me question whether that is the problem.  The other thought is hunger, especially since she's not eating much during the day but is now much more active than she was at 6 months.  Have you tried feeding her in the MOTN? 

Wrt her routine, I'm wondering if she could handle a bit more A?  Perhaps only 10 to 20 min more.  It might help with some more consistent naps. 

HTH

Offline Lavender26

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Re: 8 month old long NW
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2013, 07:07:36 am »
Hi PaulsMom and thank you for the reply. She seemed to go through a pattern of waking between 3 and 4am so I started to think it was habit. But a couple of times it's been 1am and the previous night she woke at 10:45pm (finally settled at 1am).

I have fed her in the night a couple of times since but she didn't feed a great deal either times and still came off the breast looking around the room and chatting to herself so it didn't even seem to make a difference. I now offer her water and sometimes she'll take it sometimes she won't.

Last night she woke screaming at 9:00pm (almost gave me a heart attack!) she was inconsolable poor thing but eventually settled after 10min or so. Not sure if she had a nightmare or woke in pain? I had to settle her again at 10pm, this time she was on all fours so maybe trying to crawl. She then slept through until 6:30!

I will try and push A times a little and see if this helps with naps. X

Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 8 month old long NW
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2013, 12:02:06 pm »
Hugs.  Poor little girl!  I agree, it's not hunger that's waking her.  I do think that babies can have nightmares which may be what happened last night.  As for the other nw's, I'm thinking its a combo of the WW and SA.  Although there is a specific week designated as the WW, the weeks leading up to the WW tend to be the ones that are more challenging.  So you might see the SA type of behaviour for 4 weeks prior to the actual WW which may be what she's going through.

For SA, here's some info
Separation Anxiety. I'm not sure if you would want to sleep next to her to see if that helps. 

Offline Lavender26

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Re: 8 month old long NW
« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2013, 13:51:16 pm »
Thank you for your reply and the link. I agree, I think it's a mixture of SA and WW going on. I did sleep on her bedroom floor next to the cot a couple of weeks ago which helped a little so I may do it again for a night and see how we get on.

Not sure if its coincidence but I pushed her A time this morning and she slept for 1 1/2hrs! Her longest nap yet! Hope it doesn't come back to bite me tonight! Currently on her second nap but only 15 min in so hoping she'll have an hour or so. Will let you know how we get on! Thanks again for your support. Xx


Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 8 month old long NW
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2013, 16:02:18 pm »
Yay!  Great am nap!  Fx for the pm nap.  Hopefully tonight goes well.  Keep us posted.

Offline Lavender26

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Re: 8 month old long NW
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2013, 15:01:14 pm »
Looking for some more help please! My dd is now 9 months old and we still keep having long NW. Last night she started crying at 1:30 but settled on her own only to become fully awake again at 2:00 and eventually settled at 4am! Our longest NW yet. This is the second one this week.

Developmentally she is crawling and standing, when she wakes she always sits up in her cot and I have to go and lay her back down. The past few nights she has pulled herself to standing so I lay her back down and leave the room. She absolutely screams and just stands up again so I go back in and repeat. If I stay in the room she starts playing and talking! What is the best way to deal with this? WIWO? These long NW have been going on for 3 months now so can this still be a milestone thing?

She has another tooth on the way but even meds don't help with these long NW.

 I tried to put her down for naps but she just kept fighting me and pushing me away. I decided to wait until she was showing tired signs and then try which made going down much easier. A times are normally 4hrs for the morning nap. She sleeps anything from 30min to 1.1/2hrs. Afternoon A time is 3hrs. We never get more than 30min for afternoon nap. I tried to push this A time to 3.5hrs but still resulted in 30min nap! We then have a very long A time before bed which I think contributes to these NW. I just cannot figure this child out! I am seriously losing patients and find myself crying the moment she starts stirring!

Please help, any advice would be so much appreciated.

Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 8 month old long NW
« Reply #7 on: August 24, 2013, 00:54:59 am »
Big hugs for these nw's and the frustration.  Some one messed up when they didn't give us instruction manuals for these babies. 

I think ot is contributing to the nw. I would actually back off on her morning A by 15 -20 min and then she might be able to handle 3.5 hrs mid day.  Also can you so an early bt if she short naps in the afternoon?

To address the nw, you can try WI/WO.  Or have you tried a modified pd where you just lay your hands on her chest and legs until she relaxes?

During the day, give her plenty of time to practice.  But she may need a good wind down before naps and bt. 

What is her temperament?  The BW "Know Your Baby Quiz"
« Last Edit: August 24, 2013, 01:05:50 am by PaulsMom »

Offline Lavender26

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Re: 8 month old long NW
« Reply #8 on: August 24, 2013, 10:03:37 am »
Thanks so much for your reply PaulsMom. I tried to put her down a little earlier this morning as she was so tired but as soon as I left the room she cried, I tried to resettle her but she ended up babbling and playing. No energy today so I just took her out, let her crawl around for a bit and tried again. So 4hrs A time and she's currently sleeping going on 1hr10. Shall I try for 3.5 A time this afternoon? Last night she took ages to go down. I ended up doing WIWO as she kept playing/crying again but eventually settled with me continuously lying her down with my hand firmly on her back so I will try this again next time and see how it goes. I will also try a good wind down as suggested. she slept very well last night, only cried at 10 and 2am but settled on her own. she was however up at 5.50! She was definately a spirited baby but I do think she has relaxed a lot more with age if this makes sense? She is a mix between spirited and textbook I think. Hoping for another good night tonight!

Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 8 month old long NW
« Reply #9 on: August 24, 2013, 11:07:05 am »
Yay for the better night and naps!  If she's spirited, I would increase the 2nd A but do it slowly (only in 5-10 min increments ever 3-4 days).  You will likely see the spiritedness come out more when she's OT.  For her A, I would structure it a bit so that she has her "free play" or the "exciting or novel activities " early in the A and then start to do more calming activities closer to your nap time so that she's not over stimulated (eg. Reading books, go for a walk or look outside).  Then begin a long wind down so she's drowsy and then nap or bt. For her A before bt, I would try to make it low key if possible, especially if she short napped.  At this age, you need to find the balance between letting them explore and get enough physical activity and then not becoming over stimulated.  Usually if they get enough physcial activity without becoming OT and/or OS, then they usually sleep better.

I hope last night went well.

Offline ALmom

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Re: 8 month old long NW
« Reply #10 on: September 01, 2013, 11:58:51 am »
We're having the same problem with our 8.5mo (it started about 1.5 months ago).  It's not separation anxiety - daddy cares for him during the day, and I'm the one who gets up during the night.  He'll wake almost every night at least once somewhere between 1am and 4am.  Sometimes he'll go back to sleep with a little shush-pat, other times it takes a few minutes, and then some nights he's standing and wailing and it requires a few rounds of PU/PD. 

Last night, of course, ended up being a 2 hour marathon where he just wouldn't settle even after 16+ rounds of PU/PD, DH finally suggested he might be hungry, I fixed a 4oz bottle which vanished, and while I was deciding if I needed to give him more (I'd put him back in his crib) DS finally fell asleep.  I just can't keep going on like this.  DS's tired from losing sleep each night which he never seems to make up in naps, I'm even more so - I often can't fall back asleep because I'm listening for him - and I'm worried it's becoming a pattern and that he'll get overtired.

We just recently did cold turkey paci removal, because he was starting to reach for it during A periods, and after the first day naps were fine; he's doing more chewing on his lovey, and might be teething (can't feel anything), but he's not in pain because he stops crying the moment I lift him up and starts again the moment I start laying him back down.

Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 8 month old long NW
« Reply #11 on: September 01, 2013, 15:16:03 pm »
Hi Almom

Hugs for the nw's.  let me know if you want to start a new thread.