Pretty down about my nearly 11 month olds night wakings

[Katy Doug]

I have posted here before about my dds night wakings and I found it really helpful.  With some advice I tweaked her daytime routine/naps and she was great.  She still would wake once a night, and yes, I fed her, something people tell me I just shouldn't be doing anymore    but for me feeding her that once in the night, to know that she was going to go straight back to sleep and wake around 7am made sense to me and also kept me sane.

This week, since Sunday has pretty much been a disaster.  We had one good night on Wednesday, she went down at 7.15pm and didn't wake until 4.40am for a feed.  She then woke at around 7.15am.  Other than that, we have had a very unsettled baby.  Going to bed around 7.15pm, being unsettled with little cries until about 1.30am.  At that point, I know she is definitely awake and I have fed her.    She has then woken another couple of times around 4am and 5am.  I go in and put my hand on her chest and gentle shhh her until I know she is settled again.  I'm utterly exhausted now and on the verge of tears most of the time because I'm self employed and struggling to concentrate properly on my job.

I don't know if she's waking early because she's starting to become more mobile and she's excited to get up and get going with her new found skill or she's OT due to 3 days of nursery (mon/tues/fri) and not getting long enough naps.  Is it the very little gap in the blackout blinds letting in light.  Or is she too hot/too cold.  I currently have her in a thin sleepsuit with no feet and a 2.5 tog sleeping bag.  As you can tell my mind is working overtime as I'm so tired.  Just to note, we had her christening on Sunday, I hoped that she would nap well in the morning but only did 40 mins.  The christening landed on her second nap, so I managed to get her down for 30 mins beforehand but that days was pretty bad in terms of naps.

I'm just so exhausted this week and am feeling pretty down as my DD will be one soon and I'm very aware of the fact that I now nearly haven't had a full night sleep for a year    I never thought I could still be getting up every night at this age.  I realise that that was very naive of me 

Any support or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[anna*]

She does sound OT or maybe teething? Have you tried an early bedtime?

[Katy Doug]

She does sound OT or maybe teething? Have you tried an early bedtime?

Hi Anna,  Thank you for your quick reply.  I will certainly try an earlier bedtime tonight.  This is her currently routine, not factoring in the early wakings -

7am    -  up and FF

8am  - Breakfast

Play

10am - Nap.  Can be anything from 45mins to 1hr 30 and at that point I feel I should wake her?!

12 noon  - Lunch

Play

2pm  - FF and nap for 1hr 15mins usually

4.30pm  - Supper

6.30pm  - Bathtime

7pm     - FF then bed.  She has no problem settling herself at bedtime or naps, its just the night wakings that are a problem if they don't involve a feed.

If she wakes super early should I be bringing her nap time forward that day or should I stick to the usual pattern?  And do you think I should be waking her from her naps if they hit the 1.30mins mark?

I don't think she is teething.  She recently had two upper front teeth come through, but they are fully through now and I haven't seen signs of anymore yet.

[Katy Doug]

She does sound OT or maybe teething? Have you tried an early bedtime?

Hi Anna,  Thank you for your quick reply.  I will certainly try an earlier bedtime tonight.  This is her currently routine, not factoring in the early wakings -

7am    -  up and FF

8am  - Breakfast

Play

10am - Nap.  Can be anything from 45mins to 1hr 30 and at that point I feel I should wake her?!

12 noon  - Lunch

Play

2pm  - FF and nap for 1hr 15mins usually

4.30pm  - Supper

6.30pm  - Bathtime

7pm     - FF then bed.  She has no problem settling herself at bedtime or naps, its just the night wakings that are a problem if they don't involve a feed.

If she wakes super early should I be bringing her nap time forward that day or should I stick to the usual pattern?  And do you think I should be waking her from her naps if they hit the 1.30mins mark?

I don't think she is teething.  She recently had two upper front teeth come through, but they are fully through now and I haven't seen signs of anymore yet.

What I should probably be adding in here Anna, is that at nursery she only manages two naps of 30-45mins each.  This is a monday, tuesday and a friday.  These days I should probably be putting her in bed at 6.30pm? Do you think?  The other issue at nursery is that she refuses her 2pm bottle.  She does eat well there though, so I always feel she needs that night bottle particularly after a nursery day.  Maybe I'm wrong though?

[anna*]

Have you read this link: From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older) you'll be starting this transition, gradually now. 3 hrs A time is really on the low side for her age Average A times- BOOKMARK ME! so it's hard to tell what's going on. I'm going with OT because she's waking frequently in the early part of the night but its possible you may do better with having one long nap, one shorter nap, and an earlier bedtime. Something to think about anyway.

Bad naps at nursery are a pain but totally common. I would put her in bed at 6.30 at the latest on those days, maybe even 6pm. She'll be extra tired not only from the lack of naps but from all the stimulation. She's nearly a year old so I don't think she necessarily needs an extra bottle overnight, since she's eating well.

[Katy Doug]

Have you read this link: From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older) you'll be starting this transition, gradually now. 3 hrs A time is really on the low side for her age Average A times- BOOKMARK ME! so it's hard to tell what's going on. I'm going with OT because she's waking frequently in the early part of the night but its possible you may do better with having one long nap, one shorter nap, and an earlier bedtime. Something to think about anyway.

Bad naps at nursery are a pain but totally common. I would put her in bed at 6.30 at the latest on those days, maybe even 6pm. She'll be extra tired not only from the lack of naps but from all the stimulation. She's nearly a year old so I don't think she necessarily needs an extra bottle overnight, since she's eating well.

Thank you Anna, this is really useful.  Just looking at the Average A time I realise hers is low, as you say.  I will start to gradually make these longer for her.  Interestingly, the one decent night sleep she had on Wednesday, she wouldn't nap in the morning in her cot, so we took her for a walk in the buggy.  She eventually fell asleep at 12.45pm for 50mins, then she went down for a catnap between 3-3.45pm.  That was the day she slept from 7-4.40am.  I know these naps were still fairly short but its just interesting to see that she was awake for such a long time in the morning and still slept nearly 11 hours solid that evening.

Thank you for saying that bad naps at nursery are common.  It really stresses me out but there isn't anything I can do about it sadly.  I will certainly bring her bedtime forward on these days.

I'll have a good read of the 2 - 1 nap transition and see if this is maybe something else I need to start working on.  I thought she'd be too young but perhaps not.

Thank you for being so helpful.  You've brought me out of my panic :-)  Have a lovely weekend

[anna*]

you too