Author Topic: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times  (Read 1375 times)

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Offline keggoff

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9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« on: July 30, 2013, 19:51:24 pm »
I am not familiar with posting on this board but will do my best...

My daughter will be 9 months in another week.  She knows how to fall asleep independently and transition into new sleep cycles.  In my opinion, she is quite sensitive to becoming overtired. She is breastfed and also takes solids.  The solids are not given consistently since she seems to get constipated quite easily too.

She usually wakes anytime between 5:30 and 6:30 and usually goes to bed by 6 or 6:30.  She does well at night as long as she doesn't go to bed overtired. 

Here is where the problem comes in...  She will last only about 2 hours or 2 hours and 15 minutes.  I'll put her down for a nap and she will take a good hour and a half nap. Today the nap was from 8:15 to 9:45.  Then, in another 2 or 2 hours and 15 minutes, I'll put her down again and she'll take another good 1 and a half hour nap.  This second nap ended at 1:30pm today.  And then I have until 6 or 6:30 until bed time which is way more awake time than she is used to.  I have to really really work to get a 3rd nap in.  And many times, even with the 3rd nap, she is overtired and difficult to get to sleep at night.

The other strange thing is that she will wake up happy in the morning but then start falling asleep when I nurse her.  When I've tried to get her to go back to sleep in the early morning, I haven't had much success.

Any suggestions would be so appreciated!
-Katie

Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2013, 10:47:47 am »
Hi there!  Welcome to BW!

I would agree that her A time is way to short for a 9 mo old.  These are the average A times Average A times- BOOKMARK ME! . Most 9 mo olds are awake for 3 to 4 hrs.  To increase her A times, I would do this very gradually by adding 10 min to each A and then hold that A time for 3 to 4 days to let her adjust.  Then add another 10 min again to each A.  It will take several weeks to bring her A up to where it should be.

As for the ew, likely it's because her am nap is too close to wu so she's treating it like a continuation of nt sleep.  The increase in A times will help with that.

HTH

Offline keggoff

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Re: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2013, 14:28:20 pm »
Thank you so much for your reply!

One other thing I can't figure out: If she becomes overtired at some point during the day, how do I compensate for that?  Or do I just ignore it while trying to adjust her schedule?  I understand that adding only 10 minutes at a time to all the A times should prevent OT but this morning I already messed up (before I read your reply) and kept her up an extra 20 minutes which resulted in an hour nap and an OT baby already at 10am.  :(

Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2013, 17:01:23 pm »
When you say she's OT, is this based on behaviour?  Or just due to the shorter nap?  Usually I would consider a 1 hr nap to be UT.

For her next As I'd try to keep at least to the A that you were doing before (2 hr 15 min) if she's really fussy.  Keep your activities really low key (eg. Look at books, go for a walk) and try to minimize time with activity tables, etc that have lots of lights, music, etc that can be over stimulating.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2013, 17:05:23 pm by PaulsMom »

Offline keggoff

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Re: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2013, 17:43:39 pm »
I think she's OT based on behavior (crying, not wanting to be put down to play, being more difficult to settle before naps, etc). 

I think the naps are confusing b/c she was doing great hour and a half naps with only 2hr or a bit more awake time.  So I thought this meant that that was a good amount of awake time for her b/c her naps were good; but then the afternoons were bad b/c she would be hard to put down and would then be OT by the end of the day which translated into poor nighttime sleep as well.

I underestimated how long it would take to get her to sleep for the second nap today; she ended up being awake for 2.5 hours, took a 45 minute nap and woke up crying.  At this point, do I work harder to try to extend the nap (PUPD?) or do I get her up and try again after she calms down (Half hour?)?  I know that if I can't catch her up on sleep before the end of the day, it won't be a good night...

Also wondering about the start of the day--  I nursed her at 5:30 when she woke up and she slept on and off until 6:30.  Should I just nurse her and get her up for the day at 5:30 (or whenever she wakes) or should I start her awake time at 6:30 (using today's example)?

I really appreciate your help!  I am exhausted, she is a mess, and things feel too much out of control for my liking.

Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2013, 21:32:13 pm »
What temperament is she?  Here's the link to the quiz The BW "Know Your Baby Quiz"

Although babies this age may still need 3 hrs of sleep, she is getting to an age where too much DT sleep will start to mess with nt sleep.  If she short naps, try to extend her nap but if that doesn't work, then get her up and try to keep her up but keep the activities low key. On a bad day, then do the third nap if you absolutely have to (eg. Go for a drive if she sleeps in the car.  This CN doesn't have to be a full nap so just go for 20-30 min). 

Wrt the start of the day, if it's 5:30 am, I think that's too early!  I would treat it like a nw.  So for my dd, that would mean a feed and back in bed.  When she woke for the day, I'd do a top up feed to put her back on track.  Does that make sense? 

Offline keggoff

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Re: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« Reply #6 on: August 01, 2013, 01:09:03 am »
Temperament is textbook (with a few answers for angel and a few answers for touchy).

What you said makes sense for the start of the day. 

So for a short nap time that I am unable to extend, I still try to keep her up for 2 hr and 15 minutes before the next nap.  I don't try to compensate if she seems OT by putting her down earlier?  And do I nurse her when she wakes after 45 minutes to "reset" or wait until the 4 hour feed?

It was tough getting her to sleep tonight but at the 3 hour mark, she was easy to resettle so I am hopeful for tonight... :)

Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« Reply #7 on: August 01, 2013, 11:21:36 am »
If she's really tired then put her down but with such a short A time, she does need to get used to something that is more appropriate for her age, iykwim? 

Wrt feeding, I would wait at least 4 hrs to avoid falling into the trap of snacking. 

The other alternative to a short nap is to get her up for 20 to 30 min (keep it very low key, just cuddles, looking out the window, etc)  then try for a nap again with wind down, etc.  I've done this a few times with my dd when she was a bit younger and couldn't handle a long A to bt.  Sometimes this was easier than trying for a CN which she start to fight tooth and nail.

Offline keggoff

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Re: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2013, 17:49:54 pm »
Here was Wednesday:

Woke up 5:30, nurse
Slept on and off until 6:30
Nap 8:40-9:40
Nap 12:15-1
Nap 2:45-3:30
Asleep for night at 6:15

Thursday so far (woke twice during night but was fairly easy to resettle until 5)

Woke 5, nurse
Slept on and off until 6:30
Nap 9-10:15
Nap 12:45-1:15

I will try your idea of putting her down in 20 minutes after she woke from short nap.


Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« Reply #9 on: August 01, 2013, 21:16:25 pm »
Good that her A time is 2.5 hrs.  try to hold this for a few days.  her naps may lengthen as she gets used to the time.  Looks like her am nap is better than her pm nap. Keep us posted on how things go.

Offline keggoff

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Re: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2013, 11:16:54 am »
I could not get her back to sleep after 1:15 yesterday afternoon!

Tried winding her down after a half hour and putting her down for a nap again.  Tried getting in the car.  We did have an errand yesterday afternoon and I think that made it more difficult to keep things low-key.

After being up for over 4 hours, I decided to put her to bed for the night and she fell asleep at 5:40pm.  It was a horrible night, many wakings. I ended up nursing quite a bit to try to settle her.  She woke up at 5:40am for good.  I thought she would sleep over 12 hours since she needed to make up sleep but there was no getting her back to sleep after that.  So discouraging!

She is playing contentedly on the floor now at 7:15am.  I'm wondering if I should be going by the clock in the morning rather than awake time?  Put her down at 8:30 for a few days, then 8:40 for a few days, etc.  If I go by awake time today, I'll be shooting to have her asleep by shortly after 8 for her morning nap!  Then again, maybe I just need to help her catch up on sleep again??

Offline PaulsMom

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Re: 9 month old wakes early and has short awake times
« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2013, 14:26:43 pm »
Hugs for the nws.  OTness will unfortunately do that.  I think she has her body clock set to sleep at certain times so that's what will have to change.  At 5:40 did you get her up and let her play or was it low key.  If low key activities, I would keep her up for a bit longer so her am nap is not so early.  Making these changes will be tough.  Do you have good black-out blinds or curtains in her room?  Do you use white noise?  Day light as well as regular day time noises will cue her body to wake at certain times so if you can minimize these types of stimulation, it would be helpful. 

When trying to get her to nap, how long do you try for?  At home, I wouldn't do more than 20 min or else it gets frustrating for both of you.  Hugs.