Sleepless at Night, baby's sleep pattern changed

[jasonguinn789]

Hello,

My wife and I were very lucky to have a perfect sleeper. She would go to bed after her bath at 6:30pm, get a feeding around 11pm, and then wake up at 5:30 to 6:30am the next morning. It was great and we were pretty much the envy of all the new parents around us who couldn't believe we got a 3 month old baby to do that. Now, at eight months, things have gone sour. I'm not sure if its teething, growing spurts at night, or just a craving for milk, but my daughter's sleeping pattern has changed drastically and the wife and I are at our wits end. Here's her current schedule:

* Bath/Eat 7:00-7:30

* Sleep 8:00

* Wakes up slightly at 8:45, but falls back to sleep on her own after one or two minutes

* Wakes up against at 9:30/45 for feeding

* Wakes up again at 12:00-12:30 am...typically is sitting up and crying when I get her. After drinking some water, she goes back to sleep.

* Wakes again between 2 and 3:45 am--can't be comforted except when drinking milk. Sleeps after.

* Wakes again around 4-5:30 am. Needs milk.

* Wakes again at 6:30 or 7 to start her day.

This has been the norm, I would say, for about 2 going on 3 weeks. Everything just changed and we're not sure why. Everything was perfect until 71/2 months. During the say she typically has a nap in the morning for one and half hours and then an afternoon nap for 45 minutes to 1 and half hours, depending how lucky we are. I'm not really concerned about my sleep, I can take it, but my wife and the daughter are suffering, so if anyone can give me some suggestions about this that would be great!

Thanks in advance

[Layla]

Hi Jason,

Would you be able to post your daytime routine as around this age babies start to cut short their pm nap or miss it altogether...leading up to the 2-1 nap transition and unfortunately if the pm nap is missed or too close to bedtime it can affect night sleep too.

[jasonguinn789]

Typically gets up and starts her day around 6:30am or 7am. The wife breastfeeds her, we get her cleaned and dressed and then take her out for a morning stroll--typically from 7:15 to 8:30 depending on the weather. She comes home, drinks a little more, and then takes a nap between 9/9:30am and then will sleep either 1 hour and a half or 45 minutes.

She gets up, eats lunch and plays until around 2:00pm where either she'll take another hour nap or refuse to sleep all together until the night cycle begins again. My daughter's sleeping pattern has become extremely random! On top of that, she's crying so much now that her voice has become strained!!!

[Layla]

If you have ruled out teething and pain then it may be a routine issue. From a routine point of view, some babies skip of take a shorter afternoon nap if their morning nap is too long and if they are then awake until their "usual" bedtime hour, then night wakings will start from being overtired. If you guys are finding that she's fighting her afternoon nap on days she takes a longer morning nap (say up to 1.5hrs), then I would try either keeping the morning nap short, to ensure she is tired enough to have a decent afternoon nap and isn't so overtired by bedtime. So aim for something like this:

6:30 - wake
9:30-10:15 - morning nap
1:30-3 - afternoon nap
7pm - bed

I would make bedtime a little earlier too and try not to let her be up longer than 4 hrs from the time her afternoon nap ended (so in bed and asleep by). Then what I would suggest is to stop feeding her as much as you are and try and apply the rule of how many hrs she is fed milk during the day to night feeds. So for example, if she's having a milk feed every 4hrs during the day, try to stick to the same at night. If she's up before 4 hrs, try and settle her without feeding her. If she's up after 4hrs, then feed and back to sleep. About 2 NFs at this age is fine, imo.

This is a link to the pu/pd method, which is what I would try to use if she wakes at night: How to PU/PD (inc age adaptations)

She may be going through some separation anxiety also, in which case I'd do a longer windown routine, lots of cuddles and kisses before she's put down at night.

Also during the day, offer milk before solids as milk has more calories and should still be the main source of food up to age 1. So you'd do milk feed and then breakfast or lunch or dinner to follow (might be an hour before she has solids after milk feed).

Is she constipated at all? Try and think back to when the NWs started - when the 3rd nap was dropped? when afternoon nap was missed? when solids were introduced?

Here is a link to explain the 2-1 nap transition. Yours is still too young for that but as I mentioned before, it is still important that she takes her afternoon nap and her missing it may be the cause of some of these night wakings.

10/ 11mo sleep gone wonky? Read this first! (2-1 switch)

Let me know what you think and how you go