6 months old, sleep regression?

[Missxiii]

My LO turned 6 months last Friday and that same night she started waking up at nigh, very weird because she has slept through the night since very young. I've tried resettling with no success, until I feed her. She drank full 6oz, very weird too cuz the must she ever drinks is 5-5.5oz during the day. And this has happened for the last few nights. So, I've concluded that she is waking up out of hunger, but I can't get her to drink any more during the day. Specially, the morning feed, now she doesn't want to drink anything, she must be full from the NF.  She feeds very 4 hours: 7am, 11:00am, 3:00pm, 7:00pm, and DF at 10:30. She is also chronic short napper (45 min-1 hour ) but lately has been taking 1 long nap (1-1.5hour). Any advise? Please. I'm desperate. Thanks a lot,

[jessmum46]

There is a HUGE growth spurt at six months and so yes it could be genuine hunger. You can't force her to take more in the day than she wants to so it may be that you have to go with the night feed for now until she is established on some of the more calorie-dense solids. Have you started weaning yet?

[Missxiii]

She is bottle fed. We have started solids but nothing serious. Just a little bit here and there. You think that should help?

[jessmum46]

If it is hunger then once she is properly established on solids at this age it should help.  Not saying that to encourage you to rush solids - in fact I'd say the opposite.  Solids should just be for fun before one, but they do provide extra calories once you introduce things like meat, protein, dairy.

It's worth considering if other things could be the issue though - do you want to post her typical routine to see if we can help?

[Missxiii]

She wakes up around 7:00am
7:30 am E. about 5oz followed by a bit of rice cereal
9:30-11:00 S  ( only the last few days. She used to sleep less before)
11:30am E about 5oz followed by some vegetables
1:15-2:00 pm S
3:30pm E
4:30-5:15 pm S. Sometimes a bit later.
7:30 pm. E. And sleep.
10:30. DF. About 4 oz

Thanks for your help

[jessmum46]

You may well be hitting the 3-2 transition - All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months. I notice that her A times are fairly short for a 6 month old and that might mean she is tired enough to sleep soundly at night. 

As your first nap is currently good I would work on extending your second A time, aiming to get a longer second nap which would be finishing around 3/3.30pm.  If you can manage that you can skip the CN and go for an EBT of 6/6.30pm instead (around 3h from nap WU).  On days where one or both naps are short, you will still need to offer a third catnap to get her through to BT without being too OT, but I would keep it short, less than 45 mins.

What do you think?

[Missxiii]

Sounds good, but she has been a short napper since birth (30-45mi), never been able to extend it, I'm lucky to have one long nap a day. Wouldn't even know how to extend the second one. Yesterday she took a late cn from 5:45-6:15, so I pushed her bedtime to 8:30, and slept until 5:30am. The only problem her DF was only 2oz.

[jessmum46]

I think you may have more success extending that second nap with a longer A time

[Missxiii]

I did that yesterday and I got 1 hour, nap, better than 30 min. I will extend the A time a bit more today to see what happens. Thanks

[jessmum46]

How are you getting on?

[Missxiii]

She is sleeping though the night again!!! Yeah!!! 7:00pm- 6:30am. But her first nap went back to 45min, after I've tried extending the A time, but her 2nd nap is 1+ hour and we still struggling with the end of the day. That's why I'm putting her down so early. But I don't mind as long as I get a full night!!! Thanks for following up. I'll keep you updated

[jessmum46]

Glad you're getting your night sleep again . Makes the short naps easier to deal with doesn't it?

[Missxiii]

Yes it does, but yesterday she had 3 very short naps (about 30 min each) making the end of the day really challenging. Could it be affecting her early waking (today she woke up at 5:00am) and didn't go back to sleep until 6:15am(she was obviously tired so I put her right back after her bottle). Let's see how it goes today

[jessmum46]

Yes definitely poor naps could cause EWs - the build up of OT stress hormones causes unsettledness in the early hours.

Hope today is better for you