At End of Rope - 6.5 Month Old Sleep

[Lindsay27]

I would say latest 4:30 and then aim for a 6:30/7 BT

[Lindsay27]

How did you fair out?

[FrankiesMom12]

Hi Lindsay - not bad all things considered!  I saw your note regarding 4:30 at about 4:45, and that's when she woke up on her own.  I started trying to put her down at about 6:30 and ended up holding her to sleep at 7:15.  I think she was just way too OT to fall asleep on her own.  She only woke up once at midnight and then was up for the day at 6, so honestly not bad at all and WAY better than last week!  Thanks for checking!

[FrankiesMom12]

Hi Lindsay - we've had a few days of pretty crummy short naps, so i think I need to bump her a time to 3 hours and 15 minutes instead of the 3 I've been doing.  Any advice on how long to wait before trying a nap again after a short one?

[Lindsay27]

You are probably right, if naps start to become consistently short it's a good idea to bump again.  Do you ever try to resettle? For whatever reason my DDs PM nap is always 30mins but I am usually able to resettle it.  After a short nap I don't reduce by too much, I would maybe do 2.5/2.45hr, but I know my DD can handle OT fault well.

[FrankiesMom12]

Hi Lindsay -

Here we go again...everything has gone to heck in a hand basket here.  We are back to extreme OT, short naps, taking a very long time to settle, waking up screaming, etc.  I'm at the end of my rope again.  It all started late last week.  My husband had is wisdom teeth out, and I had to bring Catie with me.  Her nap schedule got all messed up that day, and it's been extremely difficult to get back on track.  It hasn't helped that my husband's recovery has not gone as well as hoped, so he's been on pain medication longer than expected and needs me to drive him places.  Catie also officially started crawling on Sunday and sitting up on Sunday.  So, she's trying to practice that in her light sleep, which sort of wakes her up.  I'm not kidding when I say that when I pick her up to hold her and try to settle her she's literally trying to do it in my arms.  We have night wake-ups of 2+ hours.  I honestly don't know what to do.  ANY advice is appreciated. 

Most importantly and in the immediate, how long a period do you recommend after her last nap of the day ends and I should put her to bed?  We have to makeup some sleep somewhere, and her naps have been painfully short.  (Although just now she finally fell asleep at 2:30, woke up SCREAMING at 3:20 and I let her cry in her bed and she fell back asleep at 3:30...my stomach seriously hurts from this, though.)  Thank you.

[Lindsay27]

Huge hugs Hun!  They always like to throw us for a loop don't they!?  Can you post what your EASY is looking like, even if it is just rough?  Also, how old is she now? I think our DDs are close in age?

Just for reference this is what we are doing more or less:

WU 5:30/6 (gross!)
Nap 9/9:30-11/11:30
Nap 2:45-3:30 - usually capped
BT 6:45

With developmental leaps does come crazy sleep at times, and I know it is exhausting.  I'm also wondering about teeth, any coming in?  I usually allow for a 3hr A to bed.

[FrankiesMom12]

Hi Lindsay - I'm sorry I didn't respond sooner.  Thursday we went to the shore for the day, and I knew sleep would be all over the place, and I used yesterday to try and get back on track.  Next week my husband is no longer on vacation, so our routine should improve...although my son has camp from 9 - 1 everyday, so I'm not sure how that will work out with Catie's naps.  I think things are getting better, and some of it was developmental, but we are STILL dealing with wild swings in terms of when she wakes up for the day.  I have realized; however, that when I put her down to sleep, she NEEDS to cry for 10 minutes before she can fall asleep.  I realized because even in my arms she was starting to do it, so that has helped me with my stress / anxiety over her crying at nap and bedtime.

7/8
3:40 am - nurse
7:00 am - awake for the day
7:25 am - nurse
8:30 am - solids
10:00 am - 11:20 am - nap
11:30 am - nurse
12:30 pm - solids
2:20 pm - pd awake
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm - nap (tried to settle...could not)
3:15 pm - nurse
4:45 pm - solids
6:30 pm - nurse / asleep for the night
8:20 pm - 8:25 pm - fussing / fell asleep on own

7/9
12:30 pm - nurse
5:15 am - awake
5:35 am - nurse
5:50 am - pd awake / played and fussed in bed
6:30 am - gave up, and got her up for the day

[FrankiesMom12]

I think I forgot to answer your question on age.  Yes, our daughters are very close in age.  Catie turned 7 months this week.  (I'm tired this morning.)  I also meant to mention thank you for posting your daughters EASY.  It helps to hear what others are doing!

I also thought of 1 more question.  Am I at the point where I need to put Catie down no earlier than X time regardless of what time she wakes up?

[Lindsay27]

Sorry I've been so long to get back to you, been away for the weekend.  Yes I tend to do that and not put DD down for a nap before 9am regardless of WU, we just try to push through and I resettle an OT nap if I need too.  The routine you posted actually seems pretty good, once you have 3+hr A times it is hard to have 2 long naps so we tend to do 1 longer and 1 shorter.  As for the crying, if she is mantra crying that is ok, but you don't want to leave her full on screaming alone, even if you are just there to reassure her it will help to not break that bond of trust.

[FrankiesMom12]

Thanks Lindsay - do you mind sharing what time you do milk and solids feedings with such an early wu?  I'm struggling with catie with that.  Also, should I try to put her down later than 6:15 if her last nap ended at 3:15 and she's waking up for the day around 5:15?

[Lindsay27]

Granted I'm not a whole pile of help with the EW as we usually battle that as well.  I usually do 4 bottles, but the 2 in the middle are close together as I tend to protect the BT bottle so she takes a good feed before bed, and this is the only real way I can arrange it around naps without having the last 2 bottles too close together.  I also feed at 7am regardless of WU as she doesn't take a good feed until then even though she's dropped her NF.  We are kind of on our way to dropping to 3 bottles per day.

WU 6am
E 7
Solids 8/8:30
S 9:30 - 11:30

E 11:30
Solids 12:30/1
E 2:45 (bottle - this obviously tends to be a smaller feed)
S 3 - 3:45 (capped)

E (Solids) 5pm
E bottle 6:45pm
BT 7pm

[FrankiesMom12]

Hi Lindsay - me again.  Any advice on extreme night time shenanigans at bedtime?  In the last few weeks Catie started to crawl, sit up, and most recently pull herself up to standing.  As a result bedtime is NOT FUN to say the least.  It's taking me about 1.5 hours to get her down at night.  It also doesn't help that dh has had after work stuff, so I'm on my own more frequently than normal.  I feel like our schedule is constantly off and she's always OT or UT, which is contributing.

If I put her down drowsy she ends up pulling herself up and SCREAMING until I go in and get her.  When I do get her she wants to play.  I typically start bedtime around 6:30, bit she's not falling asleep until after 8.  Any advice?  She'll be 8 months on August 6.

[Lindsay27]

How much day sleep is she generally getting hun? And what time does her last nap usually end? 

[FrankiesMom12]

I think the problem is the timing of her last nap of the day (and we are still all over the place).  For example, yesterday I waited to go grocery shopping after her morning nap.  Of course, she fell asleep in the car on the way home from the grocery store so I couldn't put her down for her afternoon nap until 3:15, and she slept until 4:45.  So, yesterday in total she got 2 hours and 50 minutes of daytime sleep, but was up at 5 am yesterday for the day.  Today, she slept until 6:45 but only got about a total of 1 hour of daytime sleep.  I had the same problem where she fell asleep in the car in between naps.  So, she slept until 2 pm in the car, and I felt like I couldn't put her down for an afternoon nap at home without grossly effecting her bedtime again.