7 month old waking every hour

[Vickyr79]

Hello. I really hope someone can help me as I don't think I can cope much longer 

My baby boy is 7 months old. He has been waking every 1-2 hours since he was 8 weeks old. He has managed to sleep for a four hour stretch twice during this time.

He is breastfed and has a small amount of pureed vegetables during the day. I did try him on a more food during the day  but it didn't help his sleep and gave him constipation.

I try to keep his routine  the same but it changes depending on how he slept during the night. I've been keeping a record of his sleep for a few months. An example is

8.35 - awake

10.15 - 11.15  = 1 hour nap

13.35 - 15.05 = 1 hr 30 mins nap

17.30- 18.10 = 40 mins nap

Bed time
21.00 - 21.15 = 15 mins

21.35 - 22.40 = 1hr 5

23.05 - 00.25 = 1hr 20

00.40 - 1.45 = 45 mins

2.00 - 2.03 = 3 mins

3.15 - 4.30 1hr 15

4.45 - 5.40 = 55 mins

5.50 - 6.40 = 50 mins

6.55 - 7.25 = 30 mins

7.35 - 8.35 = 1hr

He is breastfed during the day approximately every 3 hours and has some pureed vegetables mid morning.

I breastfeed him to sleep for his naps and after 3 hours during the night. Wakings before 3 hours, I cuddle him to sleep. He does not seem to feed much overnight. I have tried feeding him at each waking but it makes no difference.

He sleeps in a cot which my husband has attached to our bed.

In between his naps during the day we play with his toys on the floor.

I really don't know what to do. Any advice would be appreciated. Sorry for any typos, I'm a bit tired x

[lolsyb1982]

Hi there hugs as sounds tough 

Ok there's a few things which I think will help to improve your nights. 1 will be making a few tweaks to his daytime routine and the other is to work on some independent sleep.

So by 7 months most babies have dropped their 3rd nap or are well on the way to dropping it. Here is some information to help you All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months. To be able to achieve this you will need to push his A times slowly (usually 1 at a time and in small increments of 15 mins) until you get to around 3hrs. As the A times increase you start to shorten the 3rd nap more and more so that BT doesn't get too late.

Here is another link which is a really handy reference to show you average A times Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!

It looks like he's never been able to fall asleep by himself, is that right? If you could work on that he will be able to resettle himself better when he wakes during the night. There are a couple of methods that Tracy mentions in her book. Here are some links to have a read through to see what you think might suit you best.
Pick Up/Put Down (PU/PD) - Everything you ever needed to know!
Shush-pat - How to

Sorry I've bombarded you with info here, have a read and come back if you have any further questions or need further support x

[Vickyr79]

Thank you for your reply. Should I do the pu/pd with naps or just at night? Also, at the moment when my baby wakes he doesn't cry, he just crawls over to me. So would it be better to put him in his proper cot or can I still do pu/pd when he is in a co-sleeper? x

[lolsyb1982]

I would go for naps as well. They might even be the best place to start if you don't feel ready to tackle everything in one go?
I think if he's in a co sleeper it would be more difficult to do pu/pd. How do you feel about putting him in the cot instead? Or is your co sleeper one you can unattach from the bed and zip the side up so he's still right next to you?

[Vickyr79]

His co-sleeper is a normal cot with one side removed. His proper cot is in his bedroom which is never used. There wouldn't be enough room in our bedroom for the cot attached to our bed and his cot so I'd have to be 100% commited. Would it confuse him if I tried to get him to nap in his cot in his bedroom but keeping him with me at night?

[lolsyb1982]

If you could put the side back up of the one in your room that would be fine but I don't think it would be a problem if he napped in his bedroom and slept in yours at night. It will be practice for when he does go into his own room 

[Vickyr79]

Starting tomorrow I'll try his naps in his cot on his room.

I'm having a lot of trouble getting him to go to sleep tonight. He had two naps today, one for an hour at 12 and another for two hours which was 5pm - 7pm. I put him asleep in his cot at 9.45pm but he woke after 30 minutes and is now wide awake. It's like he thinks it was just a nap! Maybe he isn't ready for just two naps a day yet?

[Vickyr79]

He finally went to sleep at 23.40 and woke up 15 minutes later. It's now midnight and he's still awake 

[lolsyb1982]

Hi sorry you've had a bad night.

3hrs of day sleep is a good amount. There was a huge gap between the two naps though if I'm reading it right? Awake from 1pm until 5?
He was more than likely OT come the end of the day which caused the mayhem.

Stick with pushing for 2 naps and keep A times no more than 3hrs between naps and BT. You may need to go a bit less to begin with.

[Vickyr79]

Last night was awful. He had a total of 4 hours sleep, the longest stretch was 1hr 15.

It was a long gap between his naps yesterday. I had got him to nap at 3.30 but a wally let off a firework which woke him up after 10 minutes. I couldn't get him to sleep after that.

Today I'm struggling to get him to go more than two hours between naps

[lolsyb1982]

Oh that does sound a bad night. I would catch him up on sleep and then start again tomorrow.

[Crispysage]

You poor woman! Hang in there! I know exactly (more or less) how you feel as I read your post because it sounded similar to my problem. (Although I do get a touch more sleep than you, so that makes me feel better but so sorry for you!) I have been trying to stretch awake times as I got all the same advice. I know it's a very tough job when they are just so tired from waking up all night - I have been "working on it" for about 2 weeks and I am still more or less sitting with a yawner at 2.5 hrs (for the recommended three awake hours) and the schedule is all over the place because of early waking. Anyway let me try and make some helpful comments... I have found that not only for sanity, but for baba, it seems to help sometimes if someone else can try to settle during the night? An option for you? (esp because of the bf). Last night I was at my wits end of little open eyes for what felt like hours on end. DH came in and after 5 mins of some excitement all was quiet till 3hrs later  I also have the constipation problem, (BAD) personally I wouldn't avoid solids because of constipation - perhaps the transition to solids will be hard whenever you start? My boy is very big and very hungry so maybe your situation is different. (For constipation I use inert osmotic laxatives like sorbitol, lactulose and pegicol /movicol in water - If he wont drink it out of a cup or a bottle I use a syringe then he drinks it like a little bird  I used this paed prescribed (but otc) meds with my first LO and he is a star pooper now with no dependacy on any meds. Look up osmotic laxative.) I hope your situation improves and more experienced mums on here can help you! I'm sending an internet hug because I know how hard it is!

[Vickyr79]

Thank you crispysage. To be honest I've given up hope. I tried the pick up put down  but he was hysterical and was sick. He is very rarely sick and certainly never from crying. So I'm never doing that again. He's now started waking every 45 minutes.

My husband has tried to settle him when he wakes but he cries and will not settle.

I just have to accept this is how it is.

[Crispysage]

Oh gosh that sounds aweful! Big hug and peace to you. I know not all methods work for every baby - I never used shh pat I just rubbed the back and sang. And when it came to the time for pu/pd my husband hated it and felt like your feeling, like it doesn't work. BUT for me pu/pd is more about slowly weaning them onto independent self calming. So it's something you can introduce slowly and you really should give it some time.

So what I mean is you pick up and hold until calm, then put down and you can pick up right away - sometimes on the way down you can feel it's not going to work already! But sometimes LO is squirming and I pd and he actually wanted to be put down! But if he's hysterical I would hold him till he was calm and just keep trying. It takes a lot of patience do be easy on yourself because we aren't at our best without sleep!

Do you think it's a tired cry or a pain cry? Maybe there is an underlying thing like silent reflux or teeth or ear infection or even kidney stones!!!? If the crying is constant I would certainly investigate. If it's an Over tired problem you just have to keep trying and trust that there IS light at the end if the tunnel! My LO is also struggling to stay awake- he just did 1.5hr awake time. after a too short nap and another rotten night.

Don't give up on pu-pd just dial it back a lot - even if LO  falls almost mostly asleep in your shoulder then try to the next time put down a tiny bit sooner and so forth very slowly. Good luck!

[Crispysage]

Thinking of you!

[Vickyr79]

When he wakes up he doesn't cry, he just taps me to let me know he's awake. I normally pick him straight up and either feed him back to sleep or just hold him.  I'd imagine he cried so much because he was scared. He was in a different cot and not able to touch me. He's definitely not in pain.

He's back in his co-sleeper now as I hated him being in his cot. I also don't like ignoring him until he cries so I puck him up straight away.

I thought I might try gradually  decreasing the angle I'm at when I pick him up so eventually I can just put my arm around him, if you know what I mean?

I  will try the pick up put down method again when he's a bit older x

[Newbie mum]

Hi Vicky,
I just read your post after posting a question myself. I have a 7 month old too and am not one of the resident baby whisperers so definitely don't have all of the answers but as a fellow mum of a 7 month old thought I would write something.

I recently moved my son into his own room, he was in a cot in my room (previously having been in my bed in a sleepyhead) and I felt distraught..I was sobbing that he was gone, silly I know. I think your plan of lowering the angle sounds very good. I would definitely take things gradually for your sake and his. If you feel he is frightened by not being able to reach out for you then you are probably correct. Would putting something that smells of you in his cot help? laying him on your t-shirt/dressing gown? or a comforter that you have cuddled?
Perhaps aim to get him to sleep holding your hand, rather than being held/breast fed?
I am going to start working on getting my son to go to sleep in his cot without being held, more so because he is getting very heavy to hold. At the moment I feed him and then there is a 30 or so minute gap between his feed and going to bed (because he suffers from wind so better for his digestion). Then we have a big cuddle, I walk him around his room in a very dim light and I sing his bedtime song. Sometimes he will go down into his cot very slightly awake and otherwise he is already asleep. I would like to get to the point where we have a cuddle then he goes into his cot semi awake and I read him a story to sleep..fingers crossed!

How have the naps gone today?