Nearly 10 months and sleeping issues x3

[cathyandivy]

Hi all - My first post and really hoping someone will be able to help.

My daughter is 10 months next week and has been on EASY since she was about 3 months old - sleeping through the night and self soothing wonderfully. This all changed a couple of weeks ago, around about the 8 month mark and I thought it was just a byproduct of her learning to crawl and cruise etc. however, here we are nearly two months later and she is still not sleeping through and has now decided to resist bedtime and wake early in the morning as well. Here is her typical routine - please let me know if you see anything obviously wrong:

Thank you

How old is your child?
43 weeks (almost 10 months)

What’s his/her daily routine?
Wakes up anywhere from 5.00am to 6.20am - we have had a couple of 4ams too
E - 6ozs milk around 6.30am
E - has solids around 7.00am
1st nap - 9.00am (will go for 2 hours if you leave her, we have been waking her after 1.5)
E - 2ozs milk + fruit around 10.30-11.00
E - has solids for lunch around 1.00pm
2nd nap - around 2.00pm ( will go for 45mins or 1.5 hours)
E - 3ozs milk around 3.30-4.00pm
E - has solids for dinner 5.00pm
Wind down from 6.00pm (story,bath, bottle, bed)
E - 5ozs milk 7.00pm
S - in cot 7.00pm

How many wakes per night?
On average 1-2 per night

What’s your LO like when waking at night? How long is he/she up?
Quickly distressed and then inconsolable - worse if you pick her up. We have resorted to giving milk - 3ozs because this appears to be the only thing that will settle her

She is very hit and miss - doesn't wake EVERY night but does resist being put down every night and wakes well before 7am every morning. On average it takes 30mins to put her down for bed - standing up, crying, moving around the cot.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance x

[Martini~]

How much does she sleeps during day? Can she sleep for 3,5h when two naps are fine or if first nap is long, the second one is shorter? Do you differ BT timing depending on how her nap end?

Wrt feeding - did her milk intake decrease when you introduced solids? Am I counting right that she is taking 16oz right now...? What so you offer her for dinner at 5pm?

Looking at your logs- can you see any coincidence of worse night with what she eaten or how long she slept during day?

Sorry for many questions, but maybe after getting some lore info, we will be able to help:)!

[cathyandivy]

At the moment her average nap total is about 2.5 hours (we have been capping the first nap at 1.5 in an attempt to stop the early wakings and increase her afternoon nap - not sure if this is the right thing to do?)

I always try to get her to bed after 3.5- 4 hours of activity time to avoid UT/OT

She is taking a lot less milk now she is on solids which my health visitor said was fine as she is not under or over weight -18ozs- 16ozs milk a day plus whatever she has a night if she wakes - normally we over 3ozs in the middle of the night

It is difficult to say when she sleeps better as we have had very few 'good' nights recently. She is definitely calmer at bedtime is she has napped well in the afternoon - 1.5+ but this rare

Hope that all makes sense?

[Martini~]

It will be difficult for me to advise you on naps so I hope someone more experienced could give you more advice but generally you are right. Apart from shortening first nap you may push it also a bit so her first A time is longer. If she wakes up ate 6:20 and you put her down at 9, her A time is less than 3h and she can cope with longer (3,5-4h you said?) so you may try. Some people go also for set naps so no matter your LO is up you put her down at exact timing, but I would say it should be a bit later than 9am. I would think that her tendency to nap longer than 2h in the morning may mean that she is catching up some lost night sleep. Was this nap always that long?

Regarding milk intake, I would say that her night wakings may be a result of hunger as usually LOs take most of their calories from milk until 1yo. Especially that you said that she was inconsolable rather than having cot parties. And she settled nicely after a bottle. Can you try to increase her milk intake during day? You may add another feed somewhere or resign from last solid meal so her BT bottle will be bigger. It should also prevent your DD from any tummy pains if you resign from solids close to BT. WDYT?

[cathyandivy]

Thank you so much for the advice - really appreciate it. It helps so much to have someone else have a look at your routine objectively 

I am going to try the following today and see if it makes any difference:
1. Extend A time this morning to 3.5
2. Add an extra 3oz of milk across her daytime feeds - this may mean adding an extra feed as she often leaves milk especially in the morning

Fingers crossed we see some improvement - she actually went for 10.5 hours last night with a few grumbles but I didn't have to go in and she managed to settle herself. After reading a number of posts on this forum, it appears that this is a very tricky age for sleep so I don't feel so alone anymore!

Thanks again, will let you know how I get on.

[Martini~]

With morning A, do it slowly so not to overtire her. You also will need couple of days to see some results. Regarding additional oz for night, try to feed her closer to bedtime. As I said, maybe moving a meal from 5pm should help on 7pm bottle.

FX for your success:)!