Getting so frustrated. Baby waking every 40 mins at night.

[sydneyrose22]

I don’t understand what’s going on with my baby. He naps during the day fine. He gets through sleep transitions during the day just fine! Then it comes to night time and he wakes up EVERY 40 mins. I can’t figure out if he is OT or UT or what. I’ve been keeping a log for the last week and nothing seems to make a difference. I know he is in the 3-2 transition. I’ve tried keeping the catnap when he has two good naps but then he absolutely will not go to sleep until he has been up for his whole A time, meaning he is up until 845 and then still wakes up a million times at night. I have tried skipping the cat nap and putting him down after an 11 hr day, and he still wakes up a million times at night. I’m losing my mind. If it were up to my husband he would just put him on the other side of the house and let him cry all night. He is almost 6 months adjusted (8 months actual). I do nurse him to sleep at night, but I do that at naps too! So I don’t understand why he can’t sleep more than 40 mins at night.

[creations]

How long has it been like this?
Every 40 min sounds like discomfort or pain, is he teething? Any reflux?
Often things such as pain (teething or reflux) are somehow ignored in the day and LOs can still nap through quite a lot of it but night sleep is disturbed.

[sydneyrose22]

Its been awhile now. At least two weeks, maybe closer to a month or more. I can’t tell if he is teething. I definitely don’t see anything close to the surface. And he has always had reflux, but hasn’t ever been fussy because of it. He was a preemie and we knew he had reflux because he would desat, but he was a very calm and easy newborn. He used to fall asleep on his own with a binky, but then he started waking up whenever it fell out and then flat out refusing to take it. So with the binky he used to sleep 5-7 hr stretches each night. I will write down yesterday’s EASY, the night actually ended up being a little better, he only woke up 5 times (yes, 5 times is better).

W.U. 8 am (we usually start the day around 730 but we all overslept)
A 2hr20m
S 10:20-11 (had to wake up to go get older kids from school)
A 2hr35
S 1:35-3:35
A 3hr25m
BT 7 pm
NW: 7:40, 8:20, 9, 1, 430, 730

[Katet]

Im looking at those wakings 7.40, 8.20 and 9 and excluding them its really 2 night wakings. Which if you BF is very much in 'normal range'
So if you are BF I wonder if he's not in a growth spurt and needing to cluster feed to improve your supply. My cousin had 5 and she used too say she quite enjoyed the 8-10pm time as she had a baby on the breast watching TV as they all seemed to just want to feed lots in that pre 10pm time.

Waking constantly at night was always a sign of fluid in my DS1s ears. He almost never had a true full blown ear infection but enough of a pain from fluid to be unsettled. Since it was viral there was little other than pain meds that solved it. And in my experience its rarely routine issues that cause multiple wakings like that rather discomfort and sucking tends to help ear pain and teething pain thus why they do.

[creations]

As well as the ideas previously given it could also be some OT causing those few NWs in the early part of the night, your last A time is longer than the others and perhaps too long for LO at this age?  It's an hour more which is significant in a little baby.  Maybe try an earlier night, closer to the 2hr 30 length A time and see if that makes any difference.

[sydneyrose22]

I definitely don’t think it’s a supply issue as he doesn’t really eat when I latch him on, just sort of suckles. He probably only takes a full feed one of those times. I suppose it could be ear or teething pain, but wheeeen will it end? As I mentioned that was actually a better night than we have had lately. I suppose the wake ups themselves aren’t necessarily the problem, or they wouldn’t be if he would just feed and go back to sleep. Iit is that he fights sleep after I feed him. Last night he woke up 5 times as well, two in the early evening, but from 5-6 am he was just wide awake. Tonight he went down at 8 with a 2hr35m A time since his last nap, and he woke up at 9:28, then refused to go back to sleep until just now, 10:15 pm.

@creations I thought that if I gave him another 2hr30m A time he would just treat it as another nap? Don’t you have to keep them up past their next naptime in order for them to treat it as bedtime?

[Katet]

just sort of suckles.

That's exactly what they do when there isn't enough supply to build it up, so it doesn't necessarily discount that he's wanting to feed.

@creations I thought that if I gave him another 2hr30m A time he would just treat it as another nap? Don’t you have to keep them up past their next naptime in order for them to treat it as bedtime?

Naps aren't an exact science, every child is different and put into play a baby who was Premie, you add into the mix. I know one friend who had 2 Premies, one Dr told her to adjust the adjusted age by one week every month once they got to 3months, so a baby born 6 weeks Premie could be classified as "caught up" by 9months old. So finding their corrected age for an idea of A time can be a bit tricky, and by 6months they can start to show some signs of being High or low sleep needs and so it's not always easy to work out what is going on. The fact lots of the wake ups are early evening and early morning says to me that he may by like my youngest and 9-10 hours night sleep with feedings was all he would do. If I put my DS2 to bed at 7pm, then he wanted to start the day at 4.30/5am no matter what we tried & he never ever did the "ideal" 12 hour night,

I suspect that with the fact you say his day sleep is good & lots of the waking are at the start & end of the night. he might need to have a shorter night & keep 3 naps in the day as he needs the awake time, but needs it to be in 4 blocks to have enough of it because he can't cope with the length of awake to only have 2 naps... My DS1 (who was High Sleep needs & completely different to his brother) was on 3 naps until he was nearly 10 months old, he woke up around 6.30am & went to bed around 7.30/Asleep 8pm to get the naps as he could only stay awake 2h30min max & I had to tweak the day naps as he wasn't a textbook baby & I found the "textbook" routines, caused me more problems than listening to what my child was showing me.

[creations]

Don’t you have to keep them up past their next nap time in order for them to treat it as bedtime?

Not at all, no.  All routines with BW are adjusted based on what suits the individual LO, some do like a longer last A time but for others they want/need the same or even shorter.  My own DS needed a very short last A time to make his night sleep good.  When he was on 1 nap for example he had about 8hrs first A time, then nap, then only 4hr second A time before BT.  As a younger baby too his last A was always the shortest, noticeably shorter than the others.

[sydneyrose22]

Ok, so I’m feeling like there are a few things I could possibly do. I’m going to pump after feeds to boost my supply and see if that helps. I think I might also try pushing his A time by 15 minutes before naps, but having a shorter A time before bed. I am starting to suspect he might be lower sleep needs or be a little farther along than his adjusted age. Thanks for the help ladies, I will let you know how the next few days go.

[Katet]

Yes from experience with friends the adjusted age really doesn't influence much developmentally past 6months. I know my DS1 who was full term was still on 3 naps at 8 months, but a Mum in the mother's group with a 6-week premie, had her DD at 2 naps at the same age.