30 week old (7months) waking at night and early morning

[Annie34]

Hi all, any help/advice would be appreciated!

My little girl is 7 months a week today and since January she had been having a feed at 10.45pm and sleeping until 7am-I know, it was amazing! However, since early February we have been having issues with waking again in the night and early mornings, which I know is common. Particularly, in the past week she is also struggling to do any naps over 1 hour when we thought we had finally cracked that pesky 40 minute sleep cycle!

Her routine is as follows:
Wake up approx 7.20/7.30am
BreastFeed 7.30am
Awake for maximum of 1hr 20/1.5 hrs and then usually down for a sleep from 8.50am until usually 10.15am
breastfeed 11am
Solids 11.30am
Nap usually from 12.30-2/2.15
Breastfeed 2.30pm
Nap 4/4.15pm for 30/40 mins
Breastfeed 5pm
Solids 5.30pm
Bath 6.30pm
Breastfeed and bed by 7pm
Feed at 10.30/10.45pm

She has started waking around 4ish when I started feeding her again and usually she settles but sometimes she will then wake again at 5/6 etc but we just go in and out Euan the sheep on and usually she goes back under for a little while. She's usually good at settling herself to bed/naps in her cot by herself with just Euan on.

We started weaning her approx 4 weeks ago so I'm not sure if this has something to do with it, whether it's a developmental thing or something with her routine that needs tweaking! So hard to know what to do and really thought we had it cracked!

Any advice greatly appreciated!

[newkidontheblock]

Hello there & welcome to BW

I think all your issues are related to one thing -- her needing an increase in A time. The current A that she is doing is of a much younger baby. She can probably stay awake for around 3 hours now.
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!!
So basically, she is not tired enough at nap time, leading to shorter naps:) Also, with that increase in A times, you are heading into the 3-2 transition, where babies drop the catnap and manage with 2 naps of 1.5 -2 hours.
All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

You can increase your A gradually till it gets to the point that the naps lengthen out. After you push to a new time, stick to it for a few days to let her body adjust. Go slow otherwise it could lead to over tiredness.

Hope that helps!

[Annie34]

Thanks very much for this and I did think we should be moving her activity time longer but didn't realise how much! Would you suggest changing each activity time by 10/15 mins every couple of days or start with one, such as first awake time for a few days until get to new time and then next awake time for a few days and so on?

The first awake time is always the shortest, so this may be the hardest one to extend.

Thanks again for your help.

[newkidontheblock]

Yes, you can increase it slowly by around 15 minutes each day. You would know best how much she can handle. Even we kept the first A the shortest but that changes as they grow. While extending, you might find her showing signs of sleepiness at the old A time. Avoid putting down at that time as you know it will simply lead to a UT nap. Instead keep A time absolutely low key after that. Quiet play, walking around singing/humming/quietly talking are a few ways to extend without over tiring or over stimulating her

[Annie34]

Well we had a terrible night,slept fine until I woke her for feed at 11pm and then went back to sleep where she woke at 12.40 and needed white noise on. She then slept til 4.40am where I frd her and then again at 5.30am,she then woke off and on until we woke her at 7.30am.

I tried to extend her A time this morning but she was shattered and crying after 1hr 25 mins,so asleep by 1.5 hrs after waking and then just woke from her nap at just under one hour mark. She generally seems wingy today! Should we be waking her at 7am rather than 7.30 as usually her bedtime is at 7pm.

Should we still be doing the feed at 10.30/11pm?

I'm going to try and extend activity time over next few days as cannot carry on like this at night!

Thanks for your help so far.

[newkidontheblock]

Sorry to hear the night was bad. It can be tough to extend A when your LO is already so tired. Maybe you could go very slow with extending the first A but push more before the pm nap as she would be quite rested from her morning nap?

It's odd that she woke at 12.40 after the DF. Is something else wrong do you think? teething, room too hot/cold, gas etc? We are in the process of weaning the DF right now at 9 months (yikes) as it seems to be disrupting her sleep. Whether to continue is up to you. If she is feeding enough during the day and you don't feel she needs it, then you could discontinue.

Also, I don't think you need to wake her any earlier.

Goodluck with extending the A:)