Early wake for 8-month old

[Newbiemommy001]

Dache...good luck to both of us!!!

[Gosia M.]

hi Ladies!

I have similar problem of EMW with my 7.5mo lo. It started about 1m ago when I think his theething was waking him up. then it went ot a habit I guess. I tried W2S 3 days, break, 3 days and maybe it helped for 2-3 days but then again WU 5.20/5.40. he plays always for 40min and then he starts crying. Only a couple of times managed to fall back asleep I even started PU/PD today because 2nd day (of new wave) of W2S didn't work and he woke up at 5.30 anyway I had to do it for 40mins before 7AM and then started his day...

I tried to be very consistent with his day routine recently playing a bit with his BT (shortening morning nap to 15min and giving him CN of 15mins). He reacts quite well to OT (that's what I think) and has always been LSN so I usually pushed his BT forward closer to 8pm. For a few days it helped and he woke up at 6/6.20, but then again. His night was usually aroung 11hrs but started to shorten to 10:50/10:20 when he was 6mo. Today it was 9:30 which is definitely too short His days look like this recently:

5.30 WU
6.10 cry, sometimes calms down when I go to him but I try not to pick him up or start his day. I gave him water a few times and he drank 100-180ml
7.00 bottle (200-240ml)
8.15 breakfast (150g)
9.30 sleep (cap at 30min)
11.30 lunch (180g)
13.00 sleep (cap at 1:45)
15.00 bottle (240ml)
17.00 solids (170g)
19.00 bottle (200ml)
19.30 bath
19.40 bottle (150ml)
19.50 sleep

He eats a lot and I give him bottle twice by the end of the day to make sure he doesn't WU because of hunger. He weights over 11kg (4.35kg at birth).

Do you have any idea what I could do? I will try to give him 45mins today in the morning and then cap 2nd nap after 1:30. Do you think I should revert his routine to have long morning nap and short pm nap???  I don't think he'd have problems with going down for his 1st nap at 10am even though he gets up so early... He really doesn't seem extremely tired during the day with 11:30-12hrs of sleep total...!!! He's an IS and we don't use dummy since 5mo...

Please advise...

[dache]

Welcome to the club Gosia
If I understand correct,he has 2x30 minute naps? Or the second one is 1:45h?
From what you`ve posted, it doesnt seems like hunger. Still, 180ml of water sounds a lot.
I see you are doing cluster feeding and not a dream fed. Maybe try changing that.
I`d move the 7:00pm bottle latter (before bt) and instead offering the bottle a 7.45 give one letter at 10.00.
That`s the only thing I can think of. Hope I helped.

[*Ali*]

Unless he is extremely low sleep needs Marcin my first thought would be that he must be very OT on so little sleep. I really cannot imagine that he would be UT and need further capping of the nap. His day is so long and one of his naps is such a short cat nap. I wouldn't cap his nap to less than 45 mins which is one whole sleep cycle. A 5hr A time before bed is just too long I think. I don't know what you have tried in the past but I would try a much earlier bedtime and letting him nap for 45 mins in the AM and push his second nap later so it isn't such a long stretch until BT.

[Gosia M.]

Thanks girls for quick replies! Good to have support )

@ dache: I also tried DF instead to make sure it's not hunger but it didn't help... so I really don't think it's that. I'd rather say that he gets hungry as he plays since 5.20AM and after 40mins happy playing he's either thirsty (it's very hot outside for a few weeks now and his room temperature no lower than 26C) or hungry. I tried giving him bottle as soon as he started crying once but he took less than usually (110ml) and didn't fall back asleep (but yes, it was 6.30 almost).

@ Ali: his first nap is 30mins and second 1:45. Both capped... Today I'm trying 0:45 + 1:30 but not sure whether this will change something. He'll get up 3pm as well. And his sleep cycle had always been 35mins... I'm just wondering whether doing his naps long+short rather than short+long as we have for the past 2 months would change anything. We he was 3mo I let him sleep as much as he wanted for 3 days at times that he chose. And then he had 0:35 AM nap and 3hrs of PM sleep. I also tried very short CN around 5pm to let him make it to 8pm BT but recently he even started to deny it! He never had 12hrs NS so 11hrs is the most I would dream of:)

I'd like to try doing the same as 4 months ago to see how he would like to change his routing, but I'm afraid to let him sleep as much as he wants during the day since he wakes up at 5.30 for 7 days in a row now. If I had just 1 day starting at 7/6.30.... Arrrrgh

[Newbiemommy001]

Hi Gosia! Welcome! I don't have a lot of advise since I'm right there with you in this early waking nonsense! Lol! Reiterating on what Ali said, maybe try an earlier BT? That's what we're trying to do right now.

So far, this day is not going as planned. We tried an earlier BT last night and put LO in his crib by 6:45pm. He was pretty calm and quiet but he slept around 7:15pm. We checked around 5am and he was still sleeping. We checked around 5:30am, he seemed to be stirring. I couldn't really see well in his darkened room. By the time we got him around 6am, he was wide awake. So I'm guessing he woke up around 5:30-5:45. I tried pushing his first nap to 9:45am but he was melting down by 9am! I was able to put him to nap by 9:30 and within 5 mins he was asleep. Sigh!

Should I try an even earlier BT of 6:30pm? It's so difficult to push his first nap later.

[Gosia M.]

Hi newbiemommy Thanks! Keeping fx for you as well!

I'm not really sure about early BT to be honest... After a long weekend away where we had naps routine of 00:15 in the morning + 1:45 + 00:15 cn and BT around 8pm DS was waking up 6.20 for 3 days. When we came back he started refusing CN and managed very well since his afrenoon WU at 2.30/3pm-ish till his BT at 8pm. and then after 3 days he passed out at 7.10pm at his BT bottle (actually 1st of the cluster feed) - this happened 2 days in a row and since then he wakes up 5.20 again....

Any clue what's going on??

[Newbiemommy001]

Hi Gosia! These LOs are giving us a hard time, eh? The only thing I can think of in your case is that he's OT from his last nap to his BT. My LO can only last a max of 4 hours of A time and that it with a semi-meltdown at the very end. Maybe move BT earlier then push first nap later? That's what I'm trying to do as well...with minimal success as you can see. Lol! My LO also had a max nightsleep of about 11 hours. We had a 12-hr sleep once but was never repeated.

LO's first nap was 1.5 hours. He as awake when I went in to cap it. So...I'm not sure if the earlier BT worked in allowing him a little less daytime sleep? I plan to cap the second nap to 45 mins and try to push for a BT of 6:30pm. Gaaaahhh! I really wish they came with a manual sometimes.

[dache]

 

Gaaaahhh! I really wish they came with a manual sometimes.

YES! it would be so easy, wouldnt be?!

Gosia, I am just guessing here but maybe he is OT as Newbie said. Why not try and let him sleep as long as he wants during the naps (make sure its not more then 4h)and see how things go?

This was our last 24h.
Yesterday bt at 6, wu at 9 (bottle), wu at 2.00 back to sleep fast with paci, 4.20 bottle and 5.20 back to sleep with paci then
wu 7
bottle 7.10
breakfast 8.30
nap 9.30-10.15 (woke up after 30minutes went back to sleep for 15 more minutes)
bottle 11.00
nap 1.00-2.50
bottle 3.00
dinner 5.30
bath, bottle and in bed  at 6.30
She was showing sings of tiredness by 5 and she was OT by the time I put her down but she still managed to fall a sleep almost with no fuss. Still I expect her to have her usual OT waking at around 9-10

So as you can see early BT make a little difference for us last night. Ill see how things go tonight and Ill let you know

[Gosia M.]

I don't know, he might be OT. On the other hand he really makes it quite well till BT at 8pm for the past 4 days. Showing signs of tiredness only when being dressed up in PJs 3mins before his BT bottle... Today he even didn't fall asleep right after the bottle and was playing happily in his cot for 20 more mins and fell asleep at 8.10pm

Keeping fx for us and our LOs tonight!!!

[Gosia M.]

How did it go last night?

I eventually did w2s again (only moved DS a bit a he didn't even fully wake up) and he slept until 6.30! ) So today we're going to let him sleep as much as he wants (up to 4hrs total)... Let's see how this turns out!

[dache]

As I expected last night she woke up because of OT but not at 9 but at 8. Tried putting off the feed and fad her at 8.30.
She still woke up at 12.00 and 3 I think, I really dont remember well what times because Im so tiered.
But she want back to sleep easily.
The thing with her is that I think she still need one feed during the night for now, and that`s ok, as long as she sleeps well in-between.

However I do see progress. She goes back to sleep very easy and only stays awake if she is hungry.
And her first A time is prolonging, today her lasted until 9.50 before I put her for a nap.

Yay for you Gosia, happy that w2s worked. Hope you have good day today.

How are things going for you Newbie?

[Newbiemommy001]

Well, we're just starting our day. We put LO to bed at 6:30 and was asleep by 6:45pm. We thought that he woke up at 4am but he just switched positions and fell back asleep. He woke up around 5:45am so that gave us around 11 hours of night time sleep. I'm hoping that I could push his first nap to 10am today since he got a good night's rest. I'm hoping that by doing this, he'll start to sleep until 6:30 again. Capping the first nap at 1.5 hrs I think worked for us since he would nap for 2 hours the past week which is unusual for him.

Good luck to everyone!!!

[*Ali*]

Sounds promising ladies.
Newbie and Gosia I just wanted to check if you know about our birth clubs which are ongoing threads where you can all chat about the challenges and joys with other BW mamas with babies the same sort of age. The relevant one for you guys is here 7-9 months, part 36

[Newbiemommy001]

Thanks Ali. I'll definitely check it out.

We stumbled upon a rough patch this morning. We drove hubby to work and LO was falling asleep in his carseat at around 9am He slept for about a minute until I nudged his carseat and he woke up crying. I felt so guilty but I was determined to push his first nap. He lasted until about 9:50am when I put him down for a nap. He was asleep by 10am and woke up at 11:20am. 1hr and 20 mins is typical for him. I think I'll still cap his second nap at 45 mins and still aim for a early BT of 6:30-6:45pm. I hope to push his first nap to 10:15 am and go from there.

Ali? How long do I need to keep the early BT?