Author Topic: 7 month old crazy night wakings  (Read 1470 times)

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Offline aelight

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7 month old crazy night wakings
« on: May 12, 2017, 14:27:18 pm »
Okay, this is my second child and I should know how to do this by now...but, alas. I used a lot of this advice for my first, and she is a GREAT sleeper at 5 (has been since 19 months), but I'm having trouble!! I know that I'm contributing to a lot of our problems, but I want to make sure I have a handle on her schedule before I start really working on independent sleep and keeping her in her crib.

She starts in her crib at night (around 7), and I can keep her there until somewhere between 2:30-4 when I'm too tired to go back and forth anymore.

I'll post the last two days, one terrible, one okay:

WU: 5:30
S: 9
A: 11:30  :o
S: 3
A: 4:30 (woke her up)
S: 7:30
WU: 8:15, 10:15, 12:30, 2:15 (took her to bed), 4:30, 5:30

WU: 6:05
S: 9
A: 10:45
S: 1:45
A: 3:15 (woke her up for school pick-up)
S: 6:45
WU: 9:30, 12, 2:15, 2:45 (took her to bed), 4, 6:05

We feed some solids, but not a lot. She is mostly EBF. She's a big (95%+), happy baby. Crawling, two bottom teeth just coming through, a bit of a cold right now. In looking at the suggested schedules, they seem to say 3-4 hours of daytime sleep and 12 hour nights, but that seems maybe too much? Should I be putting her to bed later if she sleeps 3-3.5 hours during the day? I feel lost with this part, and I just don't want to try PU/PD or shush pat if she is really UT.

Any thoughts? TIA!!!! I'm so tired!!!

Offline Buntybear

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Re: 7 month old crazy night wakings
« Reply #1 on: May 15, 2017, 14:25:36 pm »
Hi - Sorry your post has been missed, I shall bump it now for you x

Offline aelight

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Re: 7 month old crazy night wakings
« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2017, 14:58:20 pm »
Thanks so much :). We've had the MOTN party for the last three nights...1-2:30, 3-4:30, 2:30-3:30. Killer!! I did cap her naps yesterday and did 1.5 hours both times and will continue with that unless someone advises differently :).

Thank you! So sleepy!

Offline *Ali*

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Re: 7 month old crazy night wakings
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2017, 21:03:42 pm »
What are you doing at the night wakings? Eg feeding,  rocking,  replugging a dummy etc.?

How does she fall asleep for naps and bedtime?

Roughly what BFs is she having in the daytime? Are you feeding on cue or going by the clock?

Is the crawling thing new?
Cadan Dec 2009 and Colby Aug 2011


Offline aelight

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Re: 7 month old crazy night wakings
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2017, 13:38:18 pm »
Thanks for the reply :).

Things have been a little crazy this week, since she had an ear infection on Tuesday and regular sleeping kind of went out the window...

But in general:

When she wakes, I HAD been feeding her every time because that was the quickest. My goal is to only feed if she wakes 3-4 hours from her last feed, which is what I was doing before she got sick (just for a couple days). She COMPLETELY melts down about that, though, so for now, I am just trying to get her calm and asleep any way I can, which is usually rocking. I can put her down awake in the night, though, as long as she's fairly calm.

For naps, she is usually sleepy and wakes up when I put her down but easily resettles. At night, it's harder. She often gets mad the first time I leave her and I have to go back and resettle. I haven't been trying to put her down awake at night recently because I'm trying to hurry so I can get my older one to bed.

At this point, she's eating fairly regularly and also eating solids at least once during her A time. So she'll bf at 6am, 9:00, 2, 6:30pm or so. And she'll have some solids 3 times a day. Of course, if she's extra crabby, sick, hurt, etc, there could be extra b-fing in there.

She's been crawling for about 3 weeks, but now all she wants to do is pull up on stuff. Sigh.

Should I limit her naps to two 1.5 hour naps? Today, for example, she was up every two hours (didn't really go to sleep until 7:30pm) and then awake at 4:50am. Should I let her catch up a little or no? Should her days generally be 12 hours or longer?

Thank you!!!

Offline *Ali*

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Re: 7 month old crazy night wakings
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2017, 15:16:47 pm »
Sorry, so are you rocking her (almost) to sleep for naps? I'd aim at getting her to sleep with shush pat, ideally in the bed rather than in your arms. That's probably why she's looking for you every time she wakes, to recreate that experience of being held until sleepy.

You say you are trying to only feed her if it's been 3-4hrs but I notice in the day she is sometimes going 4.5-5hrs between BFs. That's maybe too long for her if she's wanting so many night feeds as well. It's hard for them to get the calories they need from solid foods and I see she's already on 3 meals a day which is quite a lot for her age. I'd consider adding in a couple of extra breast feeds, perhaps before the naps but not too close to the wind down. Tracy suggested finishing off solids meals with a milk feed so maybe that would work?

The developmental milestones like crawling and pulling up can definitely affect sleep. Make sure you give her plenty of opportunities to practise those skills in her awake time and it should just be a phase and the novelty will wear off.

Regarding the naps, I'd let her catch up if she needs it, after a bad night for example, but otherwise yes I think she might do better on 2 1.5hr naps. Many LOs don't do a 12hr day so I'd just be led by her when she seems tired after that second nap and depending on how long she sleeps at night.  No point trying to force a 12hr day if she only ever does an 11hr night, yk?
Cadan Dec 2009 and Colby Aug 2011


Offline aelight

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Re: 7 month old crazy night wakings
« Reply #6 on: June 12, 2017, 13:24:16 pm »
Sorry for the late reply! We've been dealing with one sickness after the other, and I think she's finally better. She's 8 months old now, though! Ha.

I would say the MOTN wakings are somewhat better...we're usually down to 1-2, with neither being a long waking. EXCEPT now she wakes at 4 or 4:30am and seems to think it's time to get up. Should I treat that as another night waking? I'm trying, but she'll stay up for at least an hour and a half before falling back to sleep for 45-60 more minutes. And then I never know what to do with the morning nap...our schedule for the last few days has been like this:

WU 4:30am
S    5:45-6:10
A
S    9:30-11:30
A
S    2:30-4
A
S    7:30
WU 11:30, 2:30, up at 4:30

I've been nursing her more often during the day as you suggested, which I do think is helping with the night wakings. She really doesn't eat MUCH for her three meals. Maybe a pouch over the course of the day. Honestly, I could probably deal with the WUs if she weren't getting up at 4am...

Thanks!!!

Offline *Ali*

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Re: 7 month old crazy night wakings
« Reply #7 on: June 12, 2017, 21:27:57 pm »
Oh dear that is early!  I'd look at cutting one of her daytime naps down a tad perhaps? But yes I'd definitely treat it as a NW.
Cadan Dec 2009 and Colby Aug 2011


Offline aelight

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Re: 7 month old crazy night wakings
« Reply #8 on: June 13, 2017, 13:48:01 pm »
Yes, I'm definitely going to start limiting at least the afternoon one - 4am is not a time to get up!! Thanks!

Offline *Ali*

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Re: 7 month old crazy night wakings
« Reply #9 on: June 13, 2017, 21:42:34 pm »
Good luck
Cadan Dec 2009 and Colby Aug 2011