New night wakings, 7 month old

[matisse22]

Hi Everyone!

I had a terrific sleeper, 7 hours at 5 weeks, 11-12 at 10 weeks.  Then around 5.5 months, she started waking early. I made some adjustments, and things went back to 11-12 hours.   But in the past 6 weeks, it's all fallen to bits.  At first it was just waking earlier for a feeding (she use to wake around 6, eat and then go back to sleep for an hour, and it has moved to a waking somewhere between 4-6).  Then, last week, she added a another waking. It's been random, and only one night did she go right back to sleep after I gave her her lovey.  The second night she woke I sent in daddy. But it was clear she wanted food.  Two nights ago, she literally woke at 11 and 5!  last night she had me up at 1 and 5.  So we seem to have added another feeding!  And I've been trying hard during the day to increase my milk and get her to eat more.  I know that since she is moving around more, she needs more food, and she is hungry at night, but I know she doesn't need food at night. She is capable of getting her calories during the day, so.....how do I break her of this new night feeding? I had thought it was just a growth spurt, but now it's been well over a week, so I know a new habit has formed 

I know to increase my milk, but what else?  Our schedule is roughly this:

4-6:Eat and then S
7: Up for the day
8: Nurse and feed solids
8:30-10: S
Noon: Nurse and eat solids
1-3: S
4: E
6: Nurse and eat solids
6:30 S

And now we have sometime between 11-3 E. 

I hate to do PU/PD. She is hungry, so I need to figure out how to change our schedule or get her to nurse more during the day. Any suggestions would be appreciated!


Also, I've never really done a 4 hours at 4 months with this or my second baby, yet, both slept great.  I also skip the dream feed, since these two babies were great sleepers from the start.

[PaulsMom]

Hugs for the nw's. 

I think I'd separate out her feeds if possible so that she gets milk after waking up and then solids about 1 to 1.5 hrs after that.  She may take in more calories that way.  Totally agree with not using PUPD at night,  if she's hungry, then feed her and put her back to bed. 

HTH

[Layla]

There is also the Gentle Removal Plan, which you could try using for the 1st night feed so that she takes less at night and starts taking more during the day.

Here is the link Gentle Removal Plan

 

[matisse22]

I started separating out the nursing and solids two days ago. last night she actually was waking every two hours. I'm hopeful she has a tooth coming in or something ;-)   I only fed her twice.

I tried to get her to wait longer this morning on her second feeding. I'm going to try to extend that one out, and gradually try to reduce how long she is eating at her first. Hopefully she will go back to sleeping good.

I remember my second waking after I introduced solids too. So much for solids helping babies to sleep! I think it just screws up my milk supply and then everything else!

[PaulsMom]

At this age, most babies are teething and it can disrupt sleep.  also for some los, teething will make eating more painful whereas for other, bf is soothing.  And as you mention, introducing solids doesn't always help babies STTN! How's her tummy?  Any constipation or loose BMs?

[matisse22]

Actually we had a serious constipation issue (she is one of those babies that had peanut butter poop, only going 1-2 times a week).  I've fixed it by giving her prunes in oatmeal for breakfast every morning. Her digestive system seems much better, but we have to avoid lots of things (apples, carrots, etc.) But she was a baby that had a lot of painful gas as a newborn, and it was especially bad around 4-5 weeks, but once that passed, she started sleeping really well at night.

I'd like to start introducing proteins, thinking it would help the hunger problem, but I'm fearful of what it will do to her digestion! I'm thinking of maybe trying her on some lentils.

[ZacsMumme]

Is she trying to crawl? - this developmental milestone can really mess with sleep for some LOs?
Your also heading into 8 month sleep regression territory - eek!

The over thing that is common is LOs hit e massive 6 mth sleep regression and wake for food, then never go back to normal YK?

As far as filling up with food, I have a baby intolerant to a lot of things but he coped fine with cannelloni beans, butter beans, chickpeas, kidney beans and lean chicken and lamb. Coconut cream is a good fat (not too much though) if your LO doesn't have intolerances then you can try egg, cheese and fish.

Oh to have had your sleeper As a baby! I'm very jealous

[PaulsMom]

I found my dd started to wake less when she got more protein in her diet.  I gave her lean meats, beans (she likes chick peas) and dairy (cheese and yogurt).  Try things early in the day so you can see how she does on the new foods. 

[matisse22]

Thanks, I think I'll add beans and lentils to her diet and see what happens.

it all started to get messed up when she was mastering rolling over, and then she had a growth spurt, and now it looks like we are just going to have a middle of the night feeding. The same thing happened with my second child. he too slept great from 5 weeks on until 6 months. I was so hoping my LO would keep on letting me get solid sleep, I need it with three 5 and under.

She is starting to learn to crawl and pull herself up, and she is trying to talk, she said mama three times the other day, so I know it's all developmental and it just comes with the territory, but something is going on! She screamed for 1.5 hours last night starting at around 12. She wasn't interested in eating, she didn't want to be held, but she just kept on crying. I kept touching her and saying my cue sleep words, she settle for 10 minutes, then cry again.  I feel bad for her. She not getting good sleep, and her morning nap is now only 1 sleep cycle, and yesterday's afternoon nap was short too! So now she is overtired!

[PaulsMom]

Oh, poor Lo!  If she's screaming for that long it's probably discomfort of some kind.  Do you think it's teeth?  Especially if she's off solid foods?  Would you consider trying teeth gel, powder or pain meds (if ok'd by her dr)? 

Developmental milestones will throw a wench into good sleep.  Give her lots of time to practice during the day and hopefully she masters these skills quickly!

[ZacsMumme]

Poor poppet ... The is a wonder week at almost 8 months. Made my boys a little crazy maybe that's part of the problem too? Otherwise it sounds like teeth

Hugs

[matisse22]

Thanks everyone,

 She isn't due for a wonder week for  a few more weeks, but I the wonder week book does say to expect a rough period around 29-30 weeks.  I think the next wonder week is 32....

in any case, she slept 12 hours last night! She hasn't done that in a very long time!  I changed up her schedule, and this helped: i separated our the nursing and solids,  and I started putting her to bed at night 30 minutes earlier!  As soon as i did this, she only woke once that night (around 3). I feed her, and then the next night when she woke at 1, she fussed for a while, but she didn't need to eat. Then last night she woke around 1:30, but after one little cry, she went back to sleep till 6:15. I feed her, adn then she went back to sleep. She's working on hour 13 of sleep! I do need to get her up, but I know she was slightly overtired from all her night wakings.

I also really upped my milk supply, and last night I added two extra ounces of solids to her dinner. I think the extra food and earlier bedtime helped big time.

[PaulsMom]

Wow, that's a fab update!

[goldmom]

Wow, can you post your new schedule. I'm looking for ideas. Also let us know how much solids you're giving, I'd love ideas to help my DD.

[matisse22]

Our schedule is this:

up at 7 Nurse
8 Solids
8:30-8:45-10:00 down for nap
11 Nurse
12 Solids
12:30/1:00-3 nap
3 Nurse
5:30 Nurse
5:45 Solids
6:15 bed

In terms of solids, she's teething, so sometimes she is really hungry, other times not. I give her 2 ice cubes of prunes with a tablespoon of oatmeal for breakfast, 2 ice cubes (ounces) of a fruit for lunch, and then at dinner i've been giving her 2 cubes of a veggie and 3 cubes of a fruit.