Advice please - some progress but where to from here

[hayleystar]

Hi all, my 6 month okd was waking hourly ll night and I was feeding her back to sleep. I decided I had had enough so wanted to only do one night feed at 3am and then my plan was to slowly push it to 4, then 5 etc. I used pupd the first night every time she woke but after this first night I only have to pat her chest gently and use soothing words. She usually settles within 5 mins. I consider this great progress except that she is still waking a lot (every hour or so), so I want to know have I just created a new prop? Or should I try and continue with this and hope she will start to sleep longer. It's been five nights now since I started. She's also started waking early (around 5.30) which puts her whole routine out for the day. But I usually keep her up 2.5 hours, however at least one of her naps is usually 30 mins so it puts her whole day out. Any advice welcome! Thank you

[anna*]

Sounds like it could be a prop - make sure you're only going in to her when she is properly crying, and you only soothe her until she is calming down, not all the way to sleep. Have you ruled out discomfort? Even for a prop issue I wouldn't expect waking to be that frequent. Does she wake as frequently after her feed as before it? Does she do any longer stretch at all?

[LovelyLilyandJack]

I'm afraid I don't have any BTDT advice, but I wanted to say well done for stopping the feeding to sleep  - I imagine that was pretty tough.  Someone else may be able to advise on whether you should keep doing it or not.  Personally I think I'd try to gradually talk or pat less, so over time you're just walking in and giving verbal reassurance, and then hopefully she'd stop waking for it. But like I say, I've not BTDT myself so others may have better suggestions!

Oops!  Posted with Anna!

[hayleystar]

Thanks for the replies. I'm unsure about the discomfort it all started after a tummy bug, she started waking twice a night for a feed, then three times then four etc. I did take her to the dr after it but everything checked out and she's not teething. She does seem to squirm around when she wakes and after lets out a big fart or two so I do wonder if her tummy is causing trouble? Last night she did a four hour stretch after her feed which is amazing for her, that was after her feed at 3am, before that she was waking a lot but wasn't hunger as she had a full feed at 10pm at her dream feed.

[becj86]

Yeah, often there's not something a Dr needs to treat but LO is fighting off something and sounds like you might be getting to the tail end of it now. I usually say that the more frequent NWs etc. that go with illness seem to continue for up to a week after they 'seem' well.

Just out of interest, I presume you're burping her properly after the DF? Have you had the 6 month growth spurt hit yet? Its possible your milk is a little more plentiful at night than she's used to or can cope with if her gut's not quite up to usual standard and she's having trouble with gas which can have LOs waking quite frequently through the night with pain.