8mo NW & EW??

[Ayesha19]

Hi all, looking for some advice for my 8m 2w old daughter.

She has been waking at 5/5.30am every morning for a while now,sometimes she can go back to sleep but often not.

I have just extended her awake time from 3hrs to 3hrs 15mins a few days ago but the last 2 nights she's been waking in the night every hour!    And still up at 6am.

Her routine is like this usually:

WU 5.30
E 7 am 6oz bottle (she can wait for this otherwise doesn't drink it)
E 8am cereal
S 9am (after 3.5hr A time so nap not too early) -2hr sleep
E 12pm lunch (veg & meat)
E 2pm 6oz bottle
S 2.15pm ( normally 45mins/1hr sleep)
E  5pm dinner
E 6.30 8oz bottle
S 7pm ( slightly earlier if really tired or up at 5am)

No sign of any new teeth. She has a dummy and  comforter to go to sleep but still struggles sometimes to settle (crys a lot)

I hope all that makes sense, thanks for any help  A

[newkidontheblock]

Hi there and welcome to BW

My daughter is around the same age, so hopefully I can help you out. The first thing is that it is best to keep your day to 12 -12.5 hours max. So on days when she wakes at 5 or 5.30, it might be better to go for an earlier bedtime of 6. I do feel that these EWs are caused by OT - that is what 10-10.5 hour nights meant with my DD.

You might wonder how she could be OT when she is doing good naps. The thing is, she probably needs a certain amount of sleep in 12 hours. And while 2.45/3 hrs is fine on a normal day, when your day stretches to 14 hours, it is not enough and the OT is accumulating.

One sure fire way to get ahead of the OT is good day naps. I think it would be best if you kept both the A times the same - so increase the one before the pm nap to 3.5 hrs too. After the long 2 hour morning nap, she seems under tired (UT) for the pm nap as she is also doing a shorter A before it. That is why you are getting a shorter nap. And then she is OT by bedtime due to the long As in the day. Does that make sense? So increasing that second A would probably give you a longer second nap and that should do the trick.

Hope that helps:)

[Ayesha19]

Hello and thank you for getting back to me so quickly.

Yes that does make sense I will make both A times 3.5hrs tomorrow.

Thing is today she has had two naps of 45 mins (no matter how hard I tried to get her to sleep no luck) I put her to bed at 6pm but she was majourly OT! So I know tonight is going to be bad.

Thanks x

[newkidontheblock]

I hope that your night isn't too bad. Hugs

[Ayesha19]

Ok so my question today is what shall I do if she only has a 30min nap today? How do I stop this OT?
Nap 1 was 30mins (I tried wake to sleep at 20min mark) tried to resettle & she was wide awake.

Thank you x

[newkidontheblock]

A 30 minute nap could indicate OT. How long was the A before the nap? How did she spend that A time? Is she an independent sleeper? After a 30 minute nap, I would reduce the next A by 10-15 minutes. Any more and I usually end up with a UT nap:S  You could also go for an earlier bedtime to compensate

[Ayesha19]

Yes she is definitely OT and these 30min naps aren't helping.
She had an A time of 3hrs before the 30min nap (was tired after a bad night)
She has just learnt to crawl so spends most of her A time practicing that & playing with her big sister.
I did manage to get back some nap time with 2he nap in the afternoon but still had a horrendous night with 1.5hrs of constant crying between 2.30-4am!
She has been an independent sleeper (has a dummy which falls out soon after she falls asleep)

Will try reducing A time after short naps x

[newkidontheblock]

Developmental milestones do throw a spanner in the works. We're having similar trouble right now. FX for a better night tonight