Author Topic: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help  (Read 3509 times)

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Offline ShannanB

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My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« on: October 27, 2014, 17:51:00 pm »
My 9 month old baby wakes up almost every hour of the night. When she wakes up I first try rubbing her back (which works maybe 1 out of every 6 waking) then I try rocking her if that doesn't work, and then nursing. Nursing always works, and usually she holds out until I nurse her because that's her (faultly) sleep association. I am beyond exhausted.

Our daily schedule looks something like this.

6:00am wake up
7:00am breakfast...something like bananas, kale, and hemp seed puree
7:45am Calm down time- change diaper, read books, sing etc
8:00am nurse/rock to sleep
8:15- 9:15 or 10ish Sleep
When she wakes we will play, go outside etc., run errands...
12:00 Lunch- I will first nurse her and then offer some sort of baby food
1:30  Calm down time- change diaper, read books, sing etc
2:00ish Nurse and/or rock to sleep
2:00-3:30 Nap
I will nurse her again sometime in this time depending on when she seems hungry
3:30-6:00pm Play
6:00 Dinner ...consisting of some sort of baby food plus a quinoa puree for extra substance
7:00 Bath
7:30 pjs books, wind down time
8:00pm nurse and/or rock to sleep
Then the wake ups begin....

She sleeps with a lovie and sometimes with a pacifier but doesn't rely on or NEED the pacifier.

please help. I know that we need to stop nursing to sleep but I am not sure how to begin breaking her (and me) of that. Its my lazy go to habit because I am so exhausted and its easy. Sometimes when I don't do it,  she is then awake for 3 hours in the night, so i try to do everything I can to avoid that!

We have a very busy schedule as I am a "stay at home mom" but am also a real estate agent but work part time so she is in the car often. I am guilty of knowing that she will take a good 2 hour nap if I go for a drive so after a hard night I will fall back on that.

She has a REALLY hard time putting herself to sleep and I know this probably our main issue but I don't know how to fix it. I have tried in the past to put her down awake and she thrashes around in her pack and play for hours. Its interesting to me because it is apparent that she is trying. She closes her eyes and holds her lovie up to her face as she always does when she tries to sleep but she just rolls from side to side and gets really frustrated. She of course has absolutely no problem putting herself to sleep in the car.

I also want to add that I don't think that she is nursing enough during the day because she nurses all night long so I think that at this point, we are reliant on those feedings. I am not sure how to break this habit!

Please please help!
« Last Edit: October 27, 2014, 22:01:33 pm by ShannanB »

Offline mommybear!

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2014, 01:55:11 am »
Hugs, that is exhausting.  I will try my best to give you some advice.  It's been awhile, my lo is about to turn two.  Right off the bat though, I'm not sure I had such a small gap with wake up to first nap.  You may just have to play with your active times a little or reference others at 9 months.  I wouldn't be so hard on yourself about nursing to sleep.  I still do it, just make sure to pull her off before she is fully asleep.  I did however stop through the night, which was a little rough.  It will take you longer to get her down and if DH can help, let him. If she is doing it at the same exact time every night, it's a habit not a need. You can try a technique of stirring her before she wakes.  Not enough to wake her but enough to reset the sleep cycle thus missing the time she usually wakes.  I would only try that though if it's the exact same time every night.  (sleep cycles last 45 minutes according to Dr. Ferber) Sounds like you are stuck in an overtired cycle though.  I would bump up dinner a little and bed time but keep wake up time the same.  An earlier bedtime has proven to help catch up on sleep so to speak.  Hope this helps. : ) hang in there

Offline deb

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2014, 02:18:29 am »
Any chance she's teething?

That night sleep isn't a long enough block - short bits of sleep looks like OT to me too.

Definitely send hubby to help her at night if you can; if she doesn't smell milk/Mommy she may go back down more easily with less resistance. He can try giving her a pacifier to see if that will settle her. When she nurses, does she take a full feed, or just suckle for a bit to soothe and then give up and go back to sleep? If the second, DH is likely to be a better bet to help wean from the night feeds. (Watch for engorged breasts in the morning tho!)

When she wakes at 6, are you nursing her right then? I'm wondering from what you have as her solids if she gets enough fats to fill her up during the day. It looks like most of her nursing is naptime or midday; when else is she nursing? Babies need plenty of high-quality fat for calories and for nerve and brain development, and breast milk is a huge source, even at this age?

Offline ShannanB

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #3 on: October 28, 2014, 15:49:15 pm »
Thank you so much for the responses!

She wakes up at various times during the night, not the same times so I don't think its habit.

When she does wake up she nurses for just a few minutes to fall back to sleep- doesn't fully nurse. However, I have always felt that my milk supply isn't great so i have always wondered if she is getting enough during the day. I try to nurse her quite a few more times than our schedule indicates but she just isn't interested. She is so easily distracted. I try to go in a quiet room etc and it may work for a second but then she sees something or just begins being silly. I bought some really good goat formula from the  UK and am trying to give that to her a couple times a day to fill her up and increase her fat intake. Do you have any other ideas how to do this? What else should I be feeding her?

She is teething but unfortunately this lovely "stage" has been going on since she was 4 months. Before then she was sleeping 9 hours straight!! So while I am sure that isn't helping, it can't be fully to blame :)

When she wakes up at 6 I do nurse her right away but she is ready to play and will not go back to sleep. I know this isn't enough sleep her for little body. I did try putting her to sleep last night at 7:00 and she did a little better and still woke up at 6:00, so that's a start!


Offline deb

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #4 on: October 28, 2014, 17:13:57 pm »
If she's not getting a solid afternoon nap (and even if she is), that last big A time is pretty long - it's really 3:30-8PM! I'd aim more for a 6-6:30 bedtime if she's waking that early.

Are you in the US or UK - when is/was your time change? You may be able to use it to shift when she eats and sleeps relative to the clock.

Offline ShannanB

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #5 on: October 28, 2014, 17:23:02 pm »
You are right...that is a really long time. I always hear to stretch them...while also hearing to put them to put early. All advice is so conflicting, but obviously stretching wasn't working :) So I will keep trying to move her bedtime earlier. We are in the US, so we fall back this weekend.

Do you have any advise as to what other fats I should be giving her?

Offline deb

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #6 on: October 28, 2014, 17:32:04 pm »
Natural sat fats - like from dairy (if she can tolerate that) and meat - are good (it's the trans fats, the hydrogenated ones like Crisco, that you want to avoid like the plague!). Coconut oil is awesome, as is olive oil. If you're giving chicken, go ahead and use dark meat as it has more fat. (They need these for brain and nerve development). When she's old enough, eggs are good too. Oh, and fish oil and flaxseed oil (those are only for cold/room temp, though, not for cooking, but are great in dressings and dips and spreads) are high in Omega-3's.

But for now, if you can do it, breastmilk has a good fat content too. If she gets distracted nursing, can you pump and give it in a cup, or mix with the other food she's eating? My older nursed well till a bit over 15 months, but my younger decided at 8 months that even at 3 minutes (she was pretty efficient!), the breast was still too slow - but she'd drink expressed milk from a cup with a straw in 20-30 seconds - that was more her Spirited speed!

It's probably better to stretch in the mornings when they're relatively fresh if they let you, but too much stretching in the afternoons is when you're more likely to get an unsettled OT night sleep since they're running on adrenaline by bedtime.

This weekend might be a great time to try shifting things since the time is changing; you don't need to have any qualms whatsoever about putting her to bed an hour earlier or even more starting any time now, since starting Sunday that time will be an hour off on the clock. If you start now, perhaps you can shift her AM wakeup so it's not 5AM come Sunday morning! LOL I'd go a shorter playtime before supper, and a short time between supper and bed for maybe 90 minutes earlier, and see what happens. A longer winddown if she lets you might be good too, in her room in the dark, maybe quiet music or a sound machine if you use one.

Good luck! Hope something in there is helpful.

Offline ShannanB

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #7 on: October 28, 2014, 17:44:17 pm »
Thank you SO much! I really appreciate it! I am going to give all of that a try!

Offline ShannanB

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2014, 03:32:48 am »
Another question...what do you suggest I do when she ends up napping from 1-2? What time do you think I should put her down for bed?

Offline deb

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2014, 10:50:24 am »
I think that would depend partly on what her AM nap was like; I might try for a 3rd nap - catnap - mid-afternoon, unless she seemed really tired and out of sorts.

My second DD was (IS!) quite Spirited and we used to joke that for her first 2 years, no 2 days had the same sleep schedule: she'd wake at different times, nap at different times for different lengths of time, go to bed for the night at different times, NW at different times....really kept us on our toes. We faked it a lot. LOL

Offline ShannanB

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #10 on: October 30, 2014, 21:51:03 pm »
Welll night 3 of early to bed and we have transitioned from waking every hour of the night to just 3 times the last 3 times! Thanks for the suggestions!

Offline deb

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2014, 02:14:00 am »
YAY! Fingers crossed it keeps improving! :)

Offline ShannanB

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2014, 14:27:02 pm »
We were doing so well and then something happened and I am not sure what. She has been waking up at 4 for the last 3 mornings and only taking 1/2 hour naps during the day and is then fussy alllll day (She is also teething- her top two teeth are about to pop through). During the night she is doing better, she is waking up at 11, 2, 3, and 4...and is then up for good.

Most importantly, what do I do about this early wake time?

Thank you!

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2014, 15:38:11 pm »
If she's teething, is she getting pain meds just before sleep time? If you get one that lasts long enough for her to get some restorative sleep, the EW might resolve itself if she's not in pain at that time.

Offline ShannanB

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Re: My nine month old is waking up every hour...Please help
« Reply #14 on: November 04, 2014, 16:17:37 pm »
I am not big on pain meds but she is wearing a amber necklace and getting homeopathic teething tablets. Hopefully it is just due to her teething...I just hope its not her new habit!

Ever since we started our new schedule, she has been waking up at 11 and 2 which seems to be her habit. I do nurse her at these times and she just nurses for a minute to put her back to sleep.... how do you recommend I break this habit....Do you think this discontinuing to nurse her will help?

At this point in time, I am so beyond exhausted after not sleeping for 6 months that I am lazy during the night and prefer to nurse than walk around and wake myself up even more. :(