10 month old- new nightwakings every 2 hours

[Twosweetgirls]

 My second daughter has always been a difficult sleeper. I am breastfeeding and she is 10 months. I finally have gotten her to a place where she goes to sleep relatively easily and i don't feed her to sleep and I don't rock her.  I just recently increased her awake time in the morning and she seems to be doing well with it.  She loves solids and is highly distractible even in a dark room so I find it difficult to feed her breast  milk.  I read on the forum that she could be waking because of filling up on solids and not enough milk so yesterday and today I have started to try harder to put milk in her but it seemed the same at night or worse. Ive been doing more feedings instead of by the schedule.  I feed her whenever I think I can get some in her! Still last night she woke up every two hours, give or take 30 min and one time found it difficult to fall back asleep, like she had extra energy.  I have been feeding her and putting her back down and she goes right back to sleep except for that one time.  Sometimes I have tried putting her back down without milk and she will fall back asleep but wake up 30 minutes later. She has a tooth that just came through and one that is close but she feeds so much I figure feeding would hurt if she was teething. Also, she sleeps in the same room as her 3 year old sister but her sister has learned to sleep through most of baby's sounds. I don't know what is happening and I can't even think to solve the problem myself. Here is the new schedule as of the last 4 days.  (i have been struggling to get her to sleep till 7 but she finally does!)
7:00 awake and breastfeed
8:00 solids breakfast
10:00- 11:30 nap
11:30 breastfeed
1:00 solids lunch
2:45 - 3:30 nap
3:30 breastfeed
6:00 solids
7:15 breastfeed
7:30 asleep


 

[Kellyjs]

Hi and welcome to the forums 

It sounds like you've done so much already, well done you!

How much have you increased the first morning A time by if you don't mind me asking? what A time was she doing before? Your new routine looks quite good hun, I'd be interested to see what you were doing 4 days ago though if you could post a rough outline?

Tbh, I do think that first A is still too short, but as you've increased it recently (I'd like to see by how much first), I don't want to jump in and ask you to increase again quite yet. Maybe in a day or two.

You can see from your new routine you only have a 3hrs A time in the morning, whereas you've got 4hrs last thing after a 45mins nap. It may well be that last A is too long after a short nap. I'm thinking with increasing the first A and decreasing the last one we might get somewhere. You're definitely on the right track with your new changes, I just think a little tweaking might make it all the better 

Wrt the NW. That sounds like definite teething to me. DD does that too, every 2hrs or so. Have you tried medicating at all? Ibuprofen usually works best for teething. Wrt BF, it looks like you're offering enough times during the day and always before solids, so that looks good hun. I'm thinking she might be using you more for comfort whilst teething rather than actually hungry. I think it's normal to maybe have one NF at this age, but any more you could end up with the opposite of what you're trying to achieve in that then she'll take all her BM during the night than day time xx

[Twosweetgirls]

So because she would wake up somewhere between 5 and 6 I would have a 2 hour activity time. At this moment she is sleeping more than 2 hours for her morning nap!

[Kellyjs]

I see. Unfortunately that short A time might be reinforcing the early wu too hun sorry to say. We've all been there. They use the first nap to catch up on the lost night sleep. It's their way of self regulating their A time. I think hold that 3hrs A for another couple of days as she's obviously sleeping well with it atm. I do think it'll need an increase soon so you can reduce that last A as I mentioned before xx

[Twosweetgirls]

THank you so much! So I think instead of putting it later, I might just wake her up from the nap and try and make the second nap a bit longer. Hopefully this is an easier change than putting her nap longer and risking overtiredness  Hopefully that works.  She was not great last night either but i'm going to go at this for another week.  Then I think I will have to come back here for advice on the next step!  I'm guessing night time will have habitual wake ups, and I really should stop my dream feed too.  I feel like night time is a big mess and after I untangle what I can with a change in schedule, I will need more help! Thanks for being here with help!  The people in my life either have no idea what to say, or just tell me "have you tried letting her cry"? Or "we let our child cry and they woke up fine in the morning!"  Thanks but no thanks people.  Anyways, THANK YOU for just being somewhere to figure things out. 

[Kellyjs]

There's no need to let a child cry on their own, I'm so glad you know that. It's their way of communicating. Those people will just end up with more problems in the lomg run.

You're doing so well hun, it really is amazing what you've achieved so far. You could definitely look at waking her earlier from that first nap. It's actually one of the ways to get through the 2-1 which you are in the early stages of.
Have you seen this link hun? From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older)

10 mo is a really yucky time for sleep anyway, but it does get better. Keep me posted ok? Xx

[Twosweetgirls]

So i'm back!  Well her nights seem to have gotten worse.  Its as if she can go to sleep without eating during the day but cannot at night.  She is teething but with meds she is still waking up every hour or so.  Its been a while since I've tried BW to fix wake ups.  Where should I start? 

[Twosweetgirls]

oh I should clarify.  She is teething but doesn't seem to be crying or in much pain during the day. 

[Kellyjs]

Teething does seem to affect them more at night, I found elevating one end of the mattress helps a little. I put a couple of towels under one end. Also medicate with ibuprofen as often as is allowed for now. It won't last forever hun, remember that. It just feels like it when they're up every hour like you said. A tweak in routine etc won't help or anything I'm afraid.

I would try and not feed at every NW hun, it may create a prop then you'll be unsure when the teething actually stops yk? I have always used ssh/pat (and still do with DD) for NW's. I go in and use my voice too. I repeat our sleepy phrase (very quietly to reinforce it's nighttime, no lights etc) and ssh and either hold her shoulder or stroke her hair. Using your voice at this age works wonders as they identify you're there and all is ok xx

[Twosweetgirls]

Ok thanks. This will help. I saw more teeth so maybe she's almost done? But I may just have made some bad habits. We will see!

[Kellyjs]

How many does she have now? If it's 4 top, 4 bottom, you might get a nice little break before the one year old molars come in!  xx

[Twosweetgirls]

Not all yet. She has three bottom and three top. But four of those came within 2 weeks or so. And now I'm trying to adjust her to the 2 to 1 transition. I can tell that's what's happening but getting the right combo is hard. Any ideas how to figure out it vs ut? 

[Kellyjs]

There's some key things to look out for for UT or OT. OT before BT leads to NW's in the early part of the night (usually easy ish to resettle) and can cause EW. UT can also lead to EW but you tend to get long drawn out NW's in the later part of the night. It really is difficult to tell more when they're teething as NW's and EW can happen just because they're uncomfortable.

How's the day looking now? Did you manage to reduce that last A to BT a bit? Xx