early morning wakings....8,5 months old

[angelinagr]

Hi Everyone

This is my first post. So my daughter is 8,5 months old and we have adapted the E.A.S.Y. method since she was 4 months old. She used to sleep incredibly well. She went to sleep around 8pm, we  dreamfeed her and woke up somewhere around 6.30 - 7a.m.. It was amazing! During this time she was taking 2 naps (45 minutes) and one longer nap (2 hours) during the day. For the last month her night time sleep has gotten progressively worse. She is currently waking up  5:30-6:00 am and will not go back to sleep.
She doesn't seem to be hungry. She only wants to stand up. Sometimes she wakes up around 2 - 2.30 in the middle of the night, but she falls back asleep.

So the question is, how do I get my good nighttime sleeper back?
Anyone have a similar experience? Any advice?
Should I try waking up her about 4.30a.m. for 3 days?

[katie80]

Hi and welcome to BW! 

You certainly can try wake-to-sleep at 4:30am, but I think we should take a look at your daytime routine, as often there can be something in the daytime routine to cause an EW. Can you post your EASY?

You mentioned she stand up when she wakes, is that a new skill? Is she teething or doing anything else developmentally new? Those can be other reasons for EW.

Also, have a look at this link... Early Waking

[angelinagr]

Thank you for the reply...

Our EASY looks like this:
WU 6:3-7.000am
E 7:30
A 2.0hrs
S9:00-10.mm
E 11:00
A 1.5 hrs
S 1:00pm-3pm
E 3:00
45 min nap
E 7.00
A 40min
BT by 8
DF 11

I hope that it is a developmental change.... I don't know if it is teething. She has already 2 teeth. 

[katie80]

It looks like she's getting too much daytime sleep and thus she's waking at night or early in the morning. At 8.5mo, she should really be on two naps with an average A time of about 3-3.5hr. I'd start pushing your A times longer by about 10-15min every 3 days and ditch the CN.

A more age-appropriate routine would look something like this...
WU/E 7am
A
S 10-11:30am
E 11:30am
A
S 3-4:30pm
E 4:30pm
A
E 7/7:30pm
BT 7:30/8pm

Or, if you want to keep naps similar to how they are, you could just cut out the CN and bring BT a bit earlier...
WU/E 6:30/7am
A
S 9-10am
E 11am
A
S 1-3pm
E 3pm
A
E 6/6:30pm
S 6:30/7pm

Here are a couple good links for your situation...
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

[angelinagr]

Thank you for the response...

I've never thought that she is getting too much daytime sleep!!! I would try the first routine, because I cannot bring the BT earlier...

[Martini~]

Small pop in, hope that Katie wouldn't mind.
Totally agree with her advice and comment about two much sleep during day.

You can work on your current routine but just push the whole routine back.
So she can have two naps (45min and 2h) but both should be slightly later than now so you could ditch the catnap but put her to bed as you usually do. I don't think earlier BT will help as the sleep you take from day will go for night and we know already that that maybe a problem:).

[katie80]

You can work on your current routine but just push the whole routine back.
So she can have two naps (45min and 2h) but both should be slightly later than now so you could ditch the catnap but put her to bed as you usually do. I don't think earlier BT will help as the sleep you take from day will go for night and we know already that that maybe a problem:).

Oh yes, very good point!

[angelinagr]

It is a little bit difficult to push the routine back. Except from the naps, should I change also the times of the meals?

[Martini~]

Why you think it's difficult? Maybe let's see how your day looks like so we can propose some routine.
In general until on solid one nap, I think meals times are a bit wonky as naps move and they start to collide with meals:).

[angelinagr]

It is difficult to move back the first nap at 9.00 in the morning . Especially when she has woken up at 5.00. Then she is very cranky.
Although I noticed that she is going to have 3-4 new teeth.

[Martini~]

If it's difficult to move the first nap, you can just shorten it firstly. It worked very well at this house:)!

[katie80]

You could try giving meds in the middle of the night, say 3am, kind of like a dream feed (go in, squeeze in the meds and then help resettle if needed) to see if she sleeps longer in the morning. My DD was a predictable EWer with teeth.

I know it's hard to push the A time when they EW, but even if you can do it by 5min every few days, that might help. The problem is, if her body knows it's going back to sleep at 9am, it doesn't have a lot of drive to keep sleeping past and EW, iyswim. Hopefully, it might get a bit better on its own once the teeth are through, but that's just something to keep in mind.

[angelinagr]

Thank you for the replies!!!
It seems that we have solved the problem.... I managed to push the first nap at 10 o'clock. I also put her to bed at 3.30 pm and then she sleeps for 2 hours. By this way she is having 1 nap for 40 minutes and 1 nap foe 2 hours. I also change the bedtime at 8.20 pm (30 minutes later). Now she wakes up around 7-7.15!!!
Although she has started to wake up every night around 3 o'clock.

Our EASY looks like this:
WU 7.00-7.15am
E 7:30
A
S9.50-10.30am
E 11:00
A
E 3:00
S 3.30-5.30 pm
E 7.00
A
BT 8.20pm
DF 11

Does she need another nap in order not to wake up in the middle of the night?
I have tried to give her meds or gels for her teeth, but I didn't see any change. She is having 3 new teeth, but during the day she is not complaining or cranky. I think that she wants company....

[katie80]

Sounds like good progress!

No, she doesn't need another nap.  I think the second nap is actually happening too late and that's causing the disrupted night.  Could you try something like this...
WU 7/7:15am
Nap 1 10-10:40am
Nap 2 2:40-4:40pm
BT 8/8:15pm

[Martini~]

Yep, thinking the same. You have 5h of A between nap 1 and 2! I would go for earlier second nap so as Katie adviced:
- around 10 for 30/40min
- around 2:30 for 1.5-2h
And with BT not later than 8pm as her day is looong!