When the night feed becomes an early waking...

[pumpkinpie1]

For a long time my 8 month old woke for her night feed around 4-5 and got back to sleep easily. Now she's waking at 6 or 7 and doesn't want to go back to sleep. We're aiming for 7:30 pm - 7:30 am. The last few days have gone like this -

Woke at 6, fed her, she fussed for 30 minutes before going back to sleep for 30 minutes
Woke at 7, just counted it as her wake up for the day
Woke at 7, counted it as her wake up for the day
Woke at 6, fed her, fussed for 30 minutes before going back to sleep for 15 minutes
Woke at 6:15, tried not feeding her to see if she'd go back to sleep, she fussed for 45 minutes before starting all out crying so I went to her

Help! I don't think she's tired enough to get back to sleep. Do I just stay the course and see if she'll get used to waking/eating at 7? She's almost exclusively nursed so I can't add ounces to her daytime bottles.

Our schedule yesterday -

6:00 Woke
600 - 6:30 "night feed"
6:30 - 7:00 fussed
7:00 - 7:15 slept
10:40 - 12:15 nap 1 (she needs long awake times, she won't go down earlier)
3:45 tried to put her down for nap 2, fussed for 30 minutes
4:15-4:45 nap 2
7:45 bedtime

Thank you!

[Skadiver13]

Hi hun it sounds like she could be OT? Could you post what you want your easy to look like and then another day or two of what its been?

[pumpkinpie1]

Hello again! For a while she went back to waking for her night feed around 4-5 am again.

But the past two days she's gone back to sleeping straight through until 6:45 again! Yay! Except it's just too early. Help? Yesterday's schedule -

6:45 am wake
10:00 - 11:30 nap
3:30 - 4:00 nap (we were caught out and she doesn't like sleeping in the car)
7:30 pm bedtime
10:00 dream feed

She slept through until 6:45 this morning. Ate 6:45 - 7:10 or so and was wide awake! She used to sleep 7:30 - 7:30 but now it's like she's just not tired enough to fall asleep again.

Thanks for your help!

[Skadiver13]

Hi that's not a bad day honestly. It's not ideal but if she's happy at 645 and she went to bed at 7:30 that's normal.. What would you expect your easy to look like? or rather want it to look like?

[pumpkinpie1]

Do you think? I was hoping for 14 hours of sleep a day. She's not a big napper but I was hoping she'd do 7:30 pm - 7:30 am. How can I encourage that? Am I being greedy? 

[Skadiver13]

Am I being greedy? 

Yes and no LOL.. I never got a 12hr night until my son went to on nap and even then it was more 11hrs. I only really got a full 12hrs when he dropped his naps completely. He held on to his nap for dear life and only just recently at 4 dropped it.

[michaeljacknnugg]

Yeah, I'd be happy with a night like that. If you average out her sleep over a week, how much does she generally get over a 24hr period? That's an indication of her needs and will serve you better than any book or website.

[pumpkinpie1]

Haha thank you for the reality check! 6:45 is not that bad but sometimes she's waking up at 6:00! Other times she wakes at 4:00 to eat, goes back to sleep and sleeps until 7:30. It's putting our 4 hour EASY and daily schedule all over the place.

[pumpkinpie1]

Yesterday was rough 

4:00 am Woke for night feed, back to sleep
7:10 Woke for the day
10:40 - 11:50 Nap 1
3:30 - 4:00 pm Nap 2
7:15 Bedtime (she was exhausted!)

5:50 am (this morning) woke, fed her, put her back down
6:10 - 7:20 awake, moving around the crib, sometimes talking
7:20 - 7:50 slept

I think she was overtired from yesterday. She's never been a good napper and rarely goes down without a little whining, regardless of awake time. This is such a mess!

[Skadiver13]

Remember there is an 8/9month sleep regression, there is a whole heck of a lot of growth both psychically and mentally right now. Also Teeth could be in the equation. I think she was UT for the first nap and because of the shortness OT for the second.