7mo can't sleep from 4-5am

[Adelheid]

Just wondering if there is anything I can do to help my 7mo old get past waking up at 4am, crying drifting off to sleep, waking again, etc. Last night it went on and on until she finally slept for a whole hour 6-7am. No fun! She does not feed at night anymore and has recently dropped the dream feed too. I do think she is teething, but could teething affect sleep so habitually?
My husband has moved downstairs until further notice. Humph. Feeling a bit grumpy about that (but I guess that at least I won't hear him complain or offer bizarre suggestions at 4am

[trimbler]

Hey again Sorry to hear the nights are still a bit rough Can I check how the days are going? I know you've had some discussion about how much solids and milk she's getting during the day, what does that look like nowadays? Do you think there's any chance she might still be hungry at night? And how's her napping? If you could post a recent day's EASY for us it might help us to get a fuller idea of what might be going on

I'm afraid teething can play havoc with sleep, but not necessarily, it seems to affect some LOs more than others. It would make sense if she's struggling more towards the end of the night when her sleep is lighter than at the beginning - if she's in discomfort then that's more likely to wake her during lighter sleep, and she'll find it harder to resettle if she's already had the majority of her night's sleep. Are you medicating for the teething at all? Is she actually cutting a tooth right now, do you think? Even if not, the movement below the gums can still cause discomfort, and yes, disruption to sleep, too

[Adelheid]

Ok, as far as her EASY goes..... here's pretty much what happens everyday:
6:00 WU/BF
7:00 Solids
9:30 S (1-1.5h)
11:00 E
12:00 Solids
2:00 S (45-1.5h)
3:30 E
5:00 Solids
6:30 BF/ S

On average, she sleeps 2-3 hours during the day and will go to sleep around 6:30pm. I always BF right after she wakes up and then, an hour later she gets solids. She will eat an entire jar (190g) of baby food at a time and a handful of puffed snacks or cookies.
If she wakes up before 3pm, I try to do a catnap (with little success. I prefer to then just make bedtime 6pm).
After her afternoon nap, I BF then give her solids and then "top her off" just before she goes to bed (without letting her fall asleep nursing).

No feedings at night.

I still have her in her crib next to me in my room. We have slanted ceilings, so I wonder if her noise at night seems even more extreme than it is? I am dying to move her to her room.... with her 2 year old brother  but am not sure I want to run in there at 4am or have her wake him up.

What should I do?

NW 4am

[Adelheid]

I forgot to add:
I am TRYING to introduce a bottle with formula. But, she will NOT have it, no way!  Besides that, she loooves eating and does a good job nursing. I think. She nurses like 4min per side (and will only take the right via football hold. I hate doing that! So awkward in public).

[trimbler]

Ok thanks, that's helpful. No magic bullet I'm afraid, just a few thoughts...

How long has she been eating this amount of solids for? Just wondering if her little tummy might be finding it a bit too much, or whether there might be anything that she's especially sensitive to? Milk ought to still be her primary source of calories at this age, although of course there's a wide range of solid intakes at this age and it might be that she's coping with it just fine - just something to consider, perhaps?

Don't be afraid of a much earlier BT on days where she takes a short pm nap - 13h nights, or even longer, are possible. I know it's counter-intuitive, but an OT LO will very often wake early after a too-short night, and then the cycle continues... EBT can help to break that cycle, but I know it can be scary

Are you doing strict set naps, or do you adjust the time of the second nap depending on how long the first nap was? Some LOs can do well with set naps at this age, so I don't want to suggest differently if you've already found yours to be one of those. But if not, you may find she does better if you pull the pm nap a little earlier when she does a shorter first nap - again, to avoid a build up of OT. Some LOs need the A time after a shorter nap decreased as well, but others need to keep the same A time. If she does a shorter nap and you keep the time of the pm nap constant (ie set naps), then the A time increases and many LOs would find that too much and do a short nap (eg 45mins). Do you think that might be happening here, some days?

About moving her into her brother's room - I'm afraid I have no advice, since we still have our DD in our room as we're too worried about the same thing But I know many others have done this with no issues, I guess it partly depends on how light a sleeper your eldest is?