Author Topic: 7.5 month old night waking..used to sleep perfectly through the night!  (Read 2090 times)

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Offline clubrano88

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Hello! I am new to this but really need advise on a couple of issues. We have been using the EASY routine since day one with our LO. He is now 7.5 months old and had been sleeping through the night from 1 month until 4 months old. Then I switched to the 4 hour and everything seemed to go down hill from there. He started waking at night and wanted more to eat. We introduced solids at 4.5 months old (we're in Italy and that is what they do here) also to help increase calories during the day. He is BF by the way! He slept better but still not great..didn't need/want to eat but still woke. Around 5.5 months, he started screaming every time I would put him down for the morning nap, so after debating it, we just took it out and let him do a nap in the afternoon and a little CN before dinner. This just made him so fussy all the time. So for the last of couple of weeks I have really become a stickler about getting the morning nap in and one in the afternoon. Cut out completely the cat nap. My thinking was that not having the nap in the morning was making him way OT..fussy..etc. To balance activity time with rest time. We got the naps to last a little longer finally the last 2 days. When I started again with the morning nap, he was sleeping only 30 minutes. Now he sleeps from 1-1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5-2 hours in the afternoon. Great, except he still wakes at night.

Here is our routine:
A  7:45 Wakes and has BM
E  8:30 cereal and fruit or yogurt
S  10:00 BM, story, then Nap for about 1 hour
E  11:30 Veggies, cereal and fruit
A
S  2:00 BM, story, then Nap
E  4:00 wakes and has yogurt or fruit
A
E  6:00 Dinner with veggies, cereal, etc
A  7:45 BM, Story wind down
S  8:00 bedtime

When he wakes at night, I just have to turn him on his side, give him his pacifier and then he generally goes back to sleep. It seems like he hates to sleep on his back and if he moves onto his back at night, it wakes him. This happens starting at around 11-12 and he wakes every one or two after that. He goes to sleep on his own. I just lay him in his bed on his side (he usually rolls to his tummy) and leave and he just talks for a minute or two and then we don't hear another peep out of him until 11 or 12 when we can hear fussing. I don't go immediately to him to allow him a chance to get resettled on his own but it usually escalates and I go in immediately when he starts to cry. I should mention he sleeps in our room in a separate bed. If we are already in bed, then I always still give him the chance to try and resettle before intervening.

Today I have started to lay him on his back from the beginning during naps to see if that will help. I am also considering getting rid of the pacifier. I know we made mistakes (taking out the morning nap, pacifier still, problems adjusting to the 4 hour easy, etc) but would like to help him get through the night because he wakes up tired. Any ideas as to why he's waking? Maybe the paci falling out? Hates sleeping on his back? We would really appreciate any advice! thanks!

Offline Buntybear

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Re: 7.5 month old night waking..used to sleep perfectly through the night!
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2017, 18:22:51 pm »
Hello there and welcome to the forum  :)

So sorry your post has been missed - I shall bump it now and ask for some help for you x

Offline FPT23

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Re: 7.5 month old night waking..used to sleep perfectly through the night!
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2017, 18:26:35 pm »
Hi and welcome to the forum! I apologize for the lack of response to your post! I'm here to offer a few suggestions and see if it may help out :)

Many hugs during this hard time! I know it can be tricky. I do have a few questions: how often is he waking at nights? Is it right off the bat a big cry or is he unsettled and then can't fall off to sleep.

I do want to make a few suggestions. First, your absolutely right! He does not need 3 naps anymore at his age. However, you have a super long stretch to BT. His daytime sleep needs to look pretty well. A total of about 3 hrs daytime sleep should be good... but what can cause a problem here is that long stretch to BT. Can cause some OT which in return can cause NWs at times. What I would do is push A times gradually. I would start with his first nap since it's a little short. Generally a "good" nap, is about 1.5, at least. So you can push that first A by 15 mins every 3/4 days. It's a little short for someone his age anyhow. You set him down after only 2hr 15 mins of awake time (accord to ur EASY)... at this age you want between 3-3.5... a good balance of this. For example my LO is 12 months next week and has A time of 4 hours in the morning but lower afternoons of about 3-3.5. Tweak that first A time slowly and see if you can't get a longer nap. Push your day further and you can still get a later BT but not such a long stretch to it, make sense :) ?

With the PACI, is he not capable of reinserting it yet? Do you think this is the problem- as soon as he drops it he needs it to be plugged back in? I think a paci is a matter of preference. I can't tell you yes get rid of it or no keep it. KWIM? I do believe a paci is a prop, yes.. but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing or he won't ever sleep. Soon he will be able to replug so if you want to keep it and avoid the weaning at this stage... that's a personal choice. But at this point I would let him hold onto it unless you feel it's causing more problems than not.

Xo :)
Fabi