A bit confused - 6.5 month old

[kyleian]

Just a few questions as DD's EASY is a bit of a mess. Nothing too bad that can't be waited out but I'm a bit confused.

- E. She's eating (EBF) every 2 hours during the day. I've tried holding her off a bit because I really don't think she's that hungry every 2 hours, but if I don't feed her she gets mad no matter what I do (even a walk can't hold her off very long). I'm guessing it may be due to not really doing solids yet - we started but she's had digestive issues her whole life and her stool was green and mucousy from something. It's normal again so we're starting again.
It's really not that big of an issue but I do wonder if it's contributing to some of the sleep issues. She's gaining weight fine so neitrher the dr nor i are concerned about my supply.

- S. Again, not really that bad, but I'm just confused. We're doing 3:15 A times, which had been giving good A, S, and nights. But the past few days I can't tell if she needs more sleep or less sleep. During the day I think she needs more, as she'll get really cranky and/or fall asleep in the stroller (which she never does!) or in the light (also never does), and I'm always waking her up from naps so that she can have a decent second one or not be up too late at night. But then she's up at 6 AM. Whcih isn't as bad as 5 AM but I really need that extra hour of sleep between 6 and 7. In the past EW has always meant she needs a bump in A time, but she seems so tired during the day so I'm really unsure that's what it is!

Yesterday:
A: 5:55 AM (taking DH to work)
S: 9:10
A: 10:50 - I did have to tell her to lie back down and go to sleep at about 40 minutes, but that's odd. i also didn't have to wake her as our day started early).
S: 2:40 - here she started falling asleep nursing so started to play when I first put her down.
A: 3:45, I woke her.
S: 7:00
E: 1:20 (this S used to be closer to 8 hrs... not sure what happened)
S: 1:45
E: 4:35
S: 4:50
A: 6:04

I wasn't our most normal day, though. When nothing is wonky it's this:
7 - A
7:30 - E
9:30 - E
10:15 - S
11:30 - A, E - i do the waking 60% of the time
1:30 - E - i really try to push this to 1:45.
2:45 - S
3:45 - A, E - i do the waking 90% of the time here
5:45 - little E, though this varies if her other E times vary - this  isn't always there
6:30 - E
7:00 - S
Then up to eat around 2 and 4-5.

10:15 -

[jessmum46]

Sleep wise I think you may have ended up with some OT creeping in.  You are waking from both naps on a typical day and neither are long enough to be restorative really.  Usually we would aim for one nap to be at least 1.5-2h and then cap the other one if needed to preserve bedtime.  It's not unreasonable for the day to extend out to 12.5-13h either. 

So what I'd suggest is leave her to sleep for her first nap (I do wonder if some of the nursing is comfort due to being tired...) up to 2h and then wake from second nap if needed to preserve a sensible bedtime.  Bear in mind if you wake her from her second nap ie it's a short nap then she probably won't need a full A time afterwards.

Maybe something like:

WU 7
Nap 10.15-11.45/12.15
Nap 3/3.30-4.30/5
BT 7.30/8

Thoughts??

[kyleian]

Thank you! Monday morning she was no longer happy during EW, so the OT does make sense now - it wouldn't have before Monday because she was waking and playing for an hour. I had thought that an hour was considered a good nap and so had thought two one-hour naps were better than a long + CN.
Today nap 1 was late because of being out, but then it was just under 2 hours, and her second will be about 1 hour (she's sleeping now). She was MUCH happier and more independent during her WT this afternoon.
Still eating every 2 hours, but I'm not too concerned about that it's just a little draining. It's been going on for about 3 weeks now, before the sleep issues started.

Last night she woke at 1 AM and I decided to try to get her to sleep without a feed, and she didn't seem hungry but couldn't get to sleep, so I fed her at 2. She was up at 6:30, which was way better than 6!

[kyleian]

Last night was worse. I feel like we're in a vicious cycle... not sleeping well at night leading to OT during the day, leading to sleeping too much during the day, leading to bad nights... or she's just very very OT. But her sleep yesterday was a bit of a mess as far as timings.
 One thing that's changed is that her morning A time seems to be moving to starting from when she actually wakes, rather than when I get her up like it used to be. It's somewhere in between right now which makes it all confusing.

Yesterday:
6:30 - WU
7:00 - A
10:30 - S (late because I had an eye appt)
12:15 - A
3:00 - S (she was exhausted and very clearly needed to sleep)
4:30 - A
7:30 - S
12:00 - A, trying to get back to sleep
1:00 - S
2:30 - E
4:30 - E, A - happy
5:30 - S
6:30 - A, a mix of happy and trying to get back to sleep
7:15 - up.

[jessmum46]

I think OT was your culprit yesterday, that long first A time probably just led to accumulated OT across the day.  Wipe the slate clean and start again with a new day

[kyleian]

The last few nights were still really bad, until last night... but a tooth poked through yesterday so that may have been what started all of this - though I do think letting the first nap go longer also helped a lot.
Thank you!

[jessmum46]

No problem and yay for the tooth coming through!