Author Topic: Hysterical at Night Wakings  (Read 817 times)

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Offline kelsshep

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Hysterical at Night Wakings
« on: March 03, 2015, 03:56:56 am »
Hi All - my first post here, so be gentle with me if I don't quite hit the routine :-)

My daughter is 8 months old. She was sleeping 7-8 hours a night from about 2 months until 6 months, when she got a double ear infection, went on antibiotics, got another double ear infection and went on antibiotics again. That cycle took about a month, during which her sleep because really poor, with her longest stretch going to 3- 4 hours, with 4-5 wake ups per night. She was miserable on the antibiotics, so we did whatever we could to help her sleep comfortably.

Once she was healthy again, I began to work on her sleep. First I separated nursing and bedtime, so she was no longer nursing to sleep at naps or bedtime. Then I got her out of the swaddle. Then I started putting her down awake. She does beautifully at bedtime with no fussing. She fusses for 5-10 minutes at naptime, but again, can put herself to sleep.

The problem being that her night wakings have not improved. If anything, she is more hysterical and distraught when she wakens. I try to soothe her by patting, giving her her blanket or PU/PD. She will cry hysterically for quite some time this way. The only way to calm her is to nurse her. If I nurse her I will I keep her awake and put her back in the crib to go to sleep, which she will do only after nursing.

I don't believe she is truly hungry, since her first waking is less than three hours after her bedtime nurse. There is no identifiable difference in her night sleep depending on her naps. Her basic schedule is this:

7am - awake
8am - nurse and solids
9:30am - nap (usually 60-90 minutes)
11:30am - nurse and solids
2:00pm - nap (usually 60 minutes)
3:00pm - nurse
5:00pm - solids
6:00pm - bath
6:15pm - jammies, diaper, nurse
6:45pm - bed

Occasionally, if her second nap is shorter, she'll take another nap around 4pm for about 30 minutes. If this happens, bedtime is pushed more towards 7:30pm. Right now she is nursing 3 times in the night.

Is there something I can do to help her eliminate some of these night wakings? I am not sure I want to night wean at this point as I want to keep my supply up so I can nurse through 12 months.


Offline katie80

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Re: Hysterical at Night Wakings
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2015, 05:52:28 am »
Hi and welcome to BW! :)

I wonder if she's going to bed a bit overtired and that may be part of the reason she struggles at NW.  It also sounds like you might have a nursing prop that has been reinforced by trying to settle and then ending up feeding.

If I were you, I'd work on evening out your day a bit first and see if that helps with the NWs.  At 8mo, the average A time is around 3-3.5hr.  She's only doing about 2.5hr right now in the morning and not always doing a full 1.5hr nap.  I'd start pushing that nap later by 10-15min every few days until you're consistently getting a 1.5hr nap.  This will likely push the second nap later as well, which should get you to bedtime without the long A time at the end of the day. 

If the NWs don't improve after working on the daytime routine, it will be a matter of sticking with resettling and getting her back to sleep without feeding, no matter how upset she is.  Typically, we recommend starting with an interval of 4hr for night feeds, which means when she wakes before 4hr, you need to resettle her back to sleep without feeding.  Even if you pass the 4hr mark while you're resettling, you need to continue to resettle until she's asleep rather than stopping to feed.  You can feed upon the next waking.  After a few days of this, you can move to 6hr, then 8hr.  At her age, she likely only needs one NF.