Author Topic: 5 Month Night Wakings  (Read 1366 times)

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Offline mhatlas

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5 Month Night Wakings
« on: April 06, 2015, 13:35:01 pm »
My DD has frequent night wakings.  She keeps waking up around 3am, 4:30, 5:30, 6:30 most days.  I've had her on an EASY schedule for nearly 4 weeks now and it is as follows:
7:00a - Eat (between 3 and 5 oz) and some baby food (cereal stopped her up, so we give vegetable baby food)
7:45 -A
9:00 - S (She usually falls asleep easily, wakes after 45min to an hour, but goes back to sleep with minimal shush/pat or PU/PD)
11:00 - E (between 3 and 6 oz)
11:30 - A
1:00p - S (She usually falls asleep easily, wakes after 45min to an hour, but goes back to sleep with minimal shush/pat or PU/PD)
3:00 - E (between 3 and 6 oz)
5:00 - S
5:45 - A
6:30 - Bath, Bottle (8oz), Diaper, Book
7:30 - Bedtime
11:00-12:00 -Wakes up for a 6oz bottle (My pediatrician advised against a Dream Feed and said it was preferable to wait until her hunger cues woke her up.

We've been not giving her a bottle until 7:00am after that last bottle, until last night.  We gave her 4 oz, but it didn't make a difference to her night/morning wakings and she was a more reluctant to eat her first bottle.

She typically will settle back down with either shush/pat or PU/PD, so she's never up for long.  It's just frequent.  Also, we use a pacifier, so sometimes it's a matter of replacing it.  We still swaddle; she does not have a lovie.

I really feel like I've been very consistent with the BW EASY schedule and methods.  She's MUCH better than where we started, although she can only put herself back to sleep about half the time.  The other times I have to shush/pat and replace the pacifier.  She's not teething.

The other issue is that I have no idea what a mantra cry would be and I'm not a fan of CIO methods.  If she's just talking to herself, I leave her alone.

Thanks in advance!
Melissa

Offline mhatlas

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Re: 5 Month Night Wakings
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2015, 21:15:58 pm »
Also, I should mention that eating never really goes that well. I recently changed her to larger nipples (Dr. Brown level 3) and that seemed to help for a week or so.  She has never been a good eater first thing in the morning.  But she's off and on the nipple.  If I give her a couple of ounces and take a break, she might take more.

I just tried adding a cereal feeding at 4:00 (an hour after her 3:00 feeding).  I'm open to any suggestions.  Please help!

Offline Kellyjs

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Re: 5 Month Night Wakings
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2015, 06:25:59 am »
Hi sweetie, 5mo can be a little bit tricky in terms of sleep as many are starting the 3-2 transition. We too are not a fan of CIO and don't support it at all, so you'll never be advised to do that here. What you're doing sounds perfect, if she's happy chatting away to herself, I would just leave her be. I never fully understood my DD's mantra cry either so don't worry too much.

I would consider maybe upping your A times ever so slightly to see if that helps. If she waking at the. 45mims point she's obviously trying to transition to the next sleep cycle so it could mean the A times are very close to where they need to be. Maybe just adding 10mins onto the two A times before the 2 longer naps? Wdyt? Then I would look at capping that last CN down to 30mins and that should still give you the same ish BT. Want to try and see and let me know how it goes? I'll be back in a mo to post a link for you x

All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months



Offline mhatlas

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Re: 5 Month Night Wakings
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2015, 18:46:10 pm »
Thanks!  After reading the 3-2 post, I'm hopeful that this is what's happening.  It's funny, I worked so hard to get her on the 4 hour EASY schedule only 3 weeks ago, I didn't think we'd have to change so quickly! lol

Her naps are definitely frustrating this week.  She sleeps 45-60 minutes like a boss, but then wakes up and continues to wake up every 5-10 minutes for the rest of the nap.  I've added a second feeding and nighttime diapers, but she's still waking up at 3:00, 4:30 and periodically after 6:00. (She's like a snooze button).

I will start by waking her after 30 minutes for her catnap this afternoon and try to extend A time tomorrow.

Have a great day and I'll let you know how things go!

Offline Kellyjs

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Re: 5 Month Night Wakings
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2015, 06:02:13 am »
Good luck today hun. It's nuts how quickly it all changes isn't it?  If it's any consolation when DD was 8mo she jumped from 3 hr A time to around 4.5 in a matter of a couple of weeks!!

Waking in the later part of the night can signal UT and a need for a jump in A time, if it doesn't resolve, don't worry there are other things we can try. Oh and have you checked to see of any teeth are on the way? X



Offline mhatlas

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Re: 5 Month Night Wakings
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2015, 14:05:58 pm »
I have checked... well, she loves to chew on me and no teeth yet.  However, I'm thinking the pacifier is a prop and is contributing to the issue.  She's currently on her first nap of the day with no paci and one arm out of her swaddler.  This is HUGE!  It only took 20 minutes of PU/PD to get her to sleep.  I also started to put her down 10 minutes later than normal, so we'll see!  Thanks so much for your support.

Offline Kellyjs

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Re: 5 Month Night Wakings
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2015, 15:41:19 pm »
My pleasure hun, keep me posted xx