my 10 mo waking throughout the night! sleep regression??

[Eva2014]

Hi there,

My daughter used to be a great sleeper ever since she turned 6 weeks she was sleeping through the night. Since Dec she has been waking up at night. On friday night she woke up every 2 hours! she has no teeth yet and no signs of teething. We put her in her cot awake and pat her. She's easy to put to sleep but then she will wake up an hour later. When she wakes up we go into her room and don't talk to her, just pat her. She's tired but fidgety which means she can't get to sleep. When we do get her to sleep, she will wake up again maybe after 4 hours and so on.

Here is her sleeping routine in the day:

WU - 7:30
Nap am  - 10:30/11 - she will sleep for 1hr/1hour 30 mins
nap pm - 3:30/4 - she will sleep for 1hr/1hour 30
BT - 8/9pm

Do you think she's sleeping too much in the day? should i limit the naps to 1 hour each?

Thanks!!

[Eva2014]

I thought id update my post with today's activity.

WU - 7am
Nap am - 11 - 12
Nap pm   4 - 5:30 (i woke her up as I have a feeling  she may be sleeping too much in the day)
BT - 8:45PM

She's just woken up exactly an hour after her BT - does this mean she's UT or OT? It only took us a few mins to put her back to sleep again but why is she waking up? its like she's lost the ability to self-sooth herself back to sleep.

we are going away with friends this weekend so i really would like to resolve her sleep issues asap!

Thanks x

[Martini~]

Honey can you remember what changed in her routine when the NWs started? Like you moved her BT later, her WU changed, she started nursery, you stopped any feeds etc?

She can be UT with two 1,5h naps but your day is 13h long so I wouldn't say something is wrong here. You had a nice 2,5h day sleep yesterday and she woke after BT and that usually indicates OT and that would be my first very rough diagnosis.

In general was she a good sleeper before? How many h/24h was she sleeping and how it was divided between day & night?
Have you suffered from 4mo sleep regression? There is another one at 8-10mo so maybe that's what hits you. I don't think it's teething as it's going for a long time already.

[Eva2014]

H hun,

Thanks for your response! She woke up 3 times last night! Each time i was able to put her to sleep within mins but its just the fact that she is waking up!

I can't think of anything that we changed before she started these NW. She had a cold and that kept her awake at night and then the NW carried on since then. You mentioned she could be OT - Yday and today i tried putting her to sleep at 8pm and she just rolled around her cot for a while. in the end she went to sleep at 8:45pm today.

Before her NW began she used to sleep for about 3 hours a day and her BT was at the same time (8/9pm). She would sleep from 9pm until 7am every night and was such a good sleeper. In fact she was better at sleeping at night and harder to put down for her naps in the day.

I really am thinking that perhaps she wants us to help her go back to sleep. She did start suffering from separation anxiety from around 8 months so maybe this is the cause of the NW? WDYT? xx

[Martini~]

Ok Honey, so I would say it's rather a independent sleeping problem rather than OT or UT. She goes back to sleep quickly and when you tried to put her down earlier or cut her nap, neither helped. Do you always pat her to sleep? If yes I would say it's time to stop. Sometimes we start to do something to help them during cold or so and they get used to it and it seems they regress in sleeping abilities after illnesses.

Have you heard about GW (gradual withdrawal)?
Here is the link:
Walk In/Walk Out vs. The Gradual Withdrawal Method (HOW TO CHOOSE)
Would you be fine to start with this method?

[Eva2014]

Hi hun,

So a bit of a breakthrough - last night she woke up once after BT (went back to sleep after we patted her) but then slept until 6:30am! amazing! she only had 2 hours sleep in the day yesterday so do you think its because she didn't have as much sleep in the daytime?

I too agree with you that we need to stop patting her. Today for her pm nap i was trying not to pat as much and just rest my hand on her. I will look into doing gradual withdrawal. One thing with GW- would i have to sit in her room all night? So i would put her to sleep as normal (?) and then move the chair awayy? sorry i find it so confusing

Thanks! xx

[Eva2014]

sorry ignore my last message about GW - i assumed it was to do with moving the chair closer to the door but its a different adaptation for patting. I will start doing this from tonight. Maybe pat until she has the glazed look in her eyes and then keep reducing it for her naps tomorrow xx