Author Topic: 5.5 month old was great sleeper and now having multiple NWs  (Read 1214 times)

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Offline calgal22002

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5.5 month old was great sleeper and now having multiple NWs
« on: September 16, 2014, 15:58:19 pm »
We had some great successes over the last month getting DD to sleep independently. She was sleeping through the night and she was falling asleep really well on her own (maybe too well, I will get to that).  This last week has been really challenging. She has been waking at fairly random times at night, and having a great time playing, yapping, cooing, you name it. I leave her as long as she is not screaming, but inevitably 1) she keeps me awake as I am a light sleeper and 2) she ends of screaming eventually and by then she has been up for 30 minutes.  This also gets in the way of her daytime sleep as she has now gotten better at playing in her crib at naptime as well. 

2 night ago she was up 3 times at night, then ended up having a marathon nap from 9-12 in the morning to make up for the lost sleep and then hardly napped all day as she was playing instead (she had a 20 minute nap in the car) so was exhausted by bedtime.  She fell asleep midway through her bedtime bottle and then was up at 2:00, 3:30 and 6:30 last night. I fed her at 2:00 and at 6:30 (those are not atypical for her - if she does wake up it is often around 2:00 and she often wakes for the day at 6:30).  She fell right asleep at 6:30 after gulping down her morning bottle, which she only does when she has had a rough night. She woke up for the morning at 8:00 and I just put her down for her nap (9:30 - she often naps 1-1.5 hours after she wakes up).

The reason that I said she used to fall asleep too well is that I always watch for her sleep cues and when she gets tired, she starts to suck her thumb. It used to be that no matter how long her A time was, when the thumb moved to her mouth, I would put her in her bed and she would fall asleep in under 5 minutes.  I think the result of this is that she got onto a very short A schedule (so maybe 1 hour A, rather than 2).  I think that this had a negative impact in that she was a bit disorganized on her EASY routine - she would wake, eat, play, nap, play, sometimes nap again, eat, rather than eat, play, nap.

So please give me some pointers on 1) what to do with the middle of the night party in her crib, 2) what to do about the multiple wakings and when I should feed vs. when I shouldn't feed and 3) what should I aim for in terms of daytime routine?

Here is a better day:

6:30 wake and bottle
7:30 nap time
9:00 wake
9:30 bottle or solids
10:30 nap
12:00 wake
12:30 bottle
2:00 nap
2:45 wake
3:30 bottle
5:00 sometimes nap
6:00 solids
7:30/8:00 bath and bedtime
2:00 sometimes bottle

OR

6:30 bottle and back to sleep
8:00 wake
8:30 solids
9:00 nap
11:00 wake and bottle
12:30/1:00 nap
1:30 wake
2:00 bottle
3:30 nap
4:30 wake
6:00 solids
7:30/8:00 bath and bedtime
2:00 sometimes bottle

On worse days, there are more 45 minute naps that are broken up by play periods, rather than nice 1.5 hour naps (so nap for 45 minutes, play for 20 minutes, nap again).

Offline grumpkin

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Re: 5.5 month old was great sleeper and now having multiple NWs
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2014, 16:33:17 pm »
Hi Calgal, certainly no expert here as we've just started with BW. But I noticed your daughter seems to be getting a bottle on average every 3 hours. Have you considered trying to switch her to a 4 hour routine at this point? We did so quite abruptly last week and our daughter seems perfectly content with 4 hourly feedings (she breastfeeds, and seems to be getting more to eat now that we extended the interval). Again I'm quite new but everything I've read suggests switching to the 4 hour routine can help with both daytime nap routines and nights. Hope you get some more complete advice from an expert. Good luck!

Offline calgal22002

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Re: 5.5 month old was great sleeper and now having multiple NWs
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2014, 16:45:58 pm »
Thanks for the suggestion - I hadn't even thought about it. I will have to see if we can do that. I am just so used to a 3 hour feed routine, but you may have a point. She only take 5oz per feed at best, so maybe lengthening the feed intervals will get her eating more per sitting too. 

Offline grumpkin

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Re: 5.5 month old was great sleeper and now having multiple NWs
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2014, 16:49:34 pm »
Yes she may very well take more per feed. My daughter was only nursing 5 minutes per side ("snacking") prior to the switch. I'm definitely still having sleep issues though so can't vouch for any impact on that yet.

Offline Kristin.S

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Re: 5.5 month old was great sleeper and now having multiple NWs
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2014, 16:43:56 pm »
Hi! I'm at basically the same point too. My son went from sleeping through the night at 3-4 months to waking up at least once per night (usually for about and hour and a half!) for the last month. He's one week shy of 6 months now. I would be sure he doesn't sleep too much during the day....max time for a nap should be 2 hours, so if you are letting him sleep for 3 he may be getting too much daytime sleep. I'm working on that too. Also at 6 months some can drop the afternoon cat nap and just go to 2 naps of 1.5-2hrs each. I don't feed him at night after the DF, so if he wakes up, he can play in his crib but doesn't expect to eat until he wakes at 7. Occasionally if he wakes close to 7, he is really hungry and I just feed him early, but usually it seems that he just wants to play. So I'm right there with you, working to extend A time to at least 2.5 hrs each period, ensure naps are no longer than 2 hrs, and work to drop the catnap in the next few weeks. Good luck! K

Offline calgal22002

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Re: 5.5 month old was great sleeper and now having multiple NWs
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2014, 18:27:35 pm »
DD must be the exact same age as your LO (March 21).  She had another party in her crib last night (from 12-1:15). I finally gave up and held her until she fell asleep. She slept until 5:15 when I fed her, which I am not thrilled with, but better than feeding her at 2:00am like the previous night. 

Today I tried to extend her A time, but it went on for ever.  Today , she woke up at 8:30 for the day. I fed her a bottle around 9:00. I gave her some solids at 9:45 and then she was up until 11:30-11:45. We were out grocery shopping and she was not screaming, so that is a good thing, but she fell asleep in the carseat and when I transferred her to her crib she woke up and is now playing in there again.  That basically amounts to a 30 minute nap?! I am leaving her in her crib for now with hopes she might resettle, but she sounds like she does at night - playing and yapping.  She is due for lunch anyway, so she will probably only have the 30 minute nap all morning, which is obviously WAY too short for a 6 month old.

Uggghhhhh...

Offline Kristin.S

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Re: 5.5 month old was great sleeper and now having multiple NWs
« Reply #6 on: September 18, 2014, 02:26:33 am »
Yes, he was born March 25 :) Hopefully she caught up with a longer afternoon nap...that's tough because they usually don't want to go back to sleep again even if it's a short nap! My DS woke yesterday after only an hour and I tried for 30 min to extend and he just got more and more upset. It can work if you catch it soon enough and you can do shh/pat but sometimes you have to just give up for that nap. :) My son does great with shh/pat in general, so I rarely have to use PU/PD which is great because neither of us like that very much! My reco for your LO is to let her play around in her crib at night until she cries or gets really fussy, then do shh/pat to help her go the rest of the way to sleep. My DS could put himself back to sleep before he starting rolling over, so she may be able to do the same. If no, go for a little shh/pat in the crib and if that doesn't work, then PU/PD. I would try to avoid picking her up and holding her till she sleeps, because she'll get used to that and you'll become a prop. Then take a look at your daytime routine to identify the source of the NW....sleeping too much, not eating enough, etc. good luck! K