7 month old - very frequent night wakings

[OzziesMummy]

Hello, I have a 7 month old daughter who has only ever sttn a handful of times, but she always kept to the same routine for night feeds up until about 2 weeks ago. She is working on getting the top front teeth in and that may be impacting sleep, but I'd like to get some thoughts on our routine in case that is the cause. Here is a typical day:
7:30 - awake and nurse
8:30 - solids
9:30 - 11:30 - sleep (she can't seem to go past 2 hours A time here??)
12 - nurse
1 - solids
2:30 - 4:30 sleep
5 - nurse
6 - solids
7:30 - bedtime
9:30/10 - used to be a dream feed but she consistently wakes up for this now

She used to wake at 3:30 and again at 5:30 to nurse quickly but now the wakings are much more frequent. She's not very interested in eating and doesn't seem to be in pain. She'll go back to sleep easily with patting but is then awake again in 15-30 minute increments.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[lily_layne]

How many nights has she been waking frequently? Your daytime routine looks really good. My DS also had a short morning A time (and did until he dropped to one nap) so that's nothing to worry about.  I am thinking that she may be ready for a bit less daytime sleep or just to have her naps shifted a bit. Do you know how much sleep she needs on average? That's a good guide for figuring out if her naps need to be changed.

[OzziesMummy]

Thanks for your reply!
I'd say the frequent night wakings have lasted for about two weeks now. She seems to be a bit of a high sleep needs baby in general. Taking 2 2 hour naps and sleeping 12 hours overnight, if she gets any less she is a very whining baby.
Today she had two 1.5 hour naps which is very unusual for her, as her naps are either too short at 1 hour or a full 2 hours but never in between. She was acting very tired after the second nap though so I just had to put her down for a quick catnap so that she lasts until bedtime. She went to sleep right away. I always put her in the crib wide awake and she is great at putting herself to sleep. Last night she didn't wake until 3:30 so I was ok with that, (not ideal but at least it wasn't 1:30 like she has been doing lately) she easily settled and went back to sleep but then was up again at 4:30 so I nursed her. She was then up again at 6:30 and cried for a few minutes but went back to sleep, and I had to wake her for the day at 8.

[lily_layne]

Do you have a gut feeling on the cause of the wakings? Do you think it's prop related? Teething pain?

How was her night after the shorter naps? I always tend to go for an earlier BT rather than throwing in a CN - I just find it easier.

If you think it's routine related, I would recommend capping the first nap so it ends at 11 and then bring the second nap up to 1:30 or 2 and let her sleep as long as she wants. That would give her a bit more time awake before BT which may help with the NWs.

If you've got no idea about the cause, you could just try following her lead totally for a day or 2. My mom always encouraged me to do that when things went wonky with DS and it did help. There were some days he slept until 8:30/9 and I remember thinking it would make a bigger mess of things but he'd have a slightly shorter am nap, regular pm nap and BT and the NWs got better.