Author Topic: Waking every 45 minutes through the night  (Read 1668 times)

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Offline Millie2

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Waking every 45 minutes through the night
« on: September 21, 2005, 21:03:24 pm »
My daughter is nearly six months old and has started waking a lot during the night. 

She previously slept through from about 7.30pm to 7am with a dream feed at about 9.30pm.  Then she started waking earlier and earlier and now wakes every morning between 5 and 6am.  I try to get her back to sleep (by feeding and putting her back down or by using the sshh pat method) but often its impossible and she just lies there talking to herself. 

During the last three nights she has woken a couple of times crying.  Its very unusual as she normally just talks when she wakes and is happy.  Last night was the worst.  She went to bed later at about 8pm, woke at 9.15 (so I did the dream feed), woke again at 10.15, at 11, etc until about 2am when I fed her again.  She then slept till 5am so I rolled her over and sshh patted her back to sleep till 6.30am.  My husband and I are exhausted!!!  And so is she!!!

Her day sleeps are also getting worse.  She has been a 45 minute sleeper for quite sometime now but she is now trying to cut them to 35 minutes while I'm still trying to lengthen them using sshh pat.  Usually when she wakes she just talks to herself.  She doesn't cry but she also doesn't resettle down to sleep again! 

What can I do with this child??  Obviously as she changes from light to deep sleep (or the other way) she is waking and is now finding it impossible to go back to sleep.  How do I help her to resettle herself again like she used to?
Mum to Katy (March 2005) and OJ (November 2006)

Offline Lilah'sMommy

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Waking every 45 minutes through the night
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2005, 21:40:35 pm »
Do you think she might be teething?  It's hard to tell the first time around.  Take a look at her gums-- any swollen or red spots?  I know Lilah started to wake a whole lot more when she started teething.  I had no idea what was going on, and thinking she was hungry, fed her.  This ended up causing problems later on, because she started to wake expecting to be fed, even though she didn't need it!  If you are okay with it, try some baby Orajel and/or baby pain reliever and see if that helps.

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Offline albertasweetpea

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Waking every 45 minutes through the night
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2005, 22:04:05 pm »
Millie, it can certainly be teething. Sounds about the right age for it!

Was your DD born early? Just having gone through all of that with my LO got me to thinking that if your daughter was a few weeks early, it would put her right into the 4.5-5 month period where they go through that.
Molly was waking every hour for about 3 weeks straight and nothing I did (feed her, wake to sleep, pat/shhhhh) would get her to stop. Now she isn't doing that but she is still waking at 5 am!!  :shock: 
What do you do when your DD wakes so early? Do you rush in or just hold back? If you don't go to her right away, does she fuss for a bit then fall back asleep?? Molly talks to herself for about an hour then will fall back to sleep for about 1/2 hr or 45 minutes and that's it. Then she's awake and ready to play!
The daytime naps are related to her night time sleep and vice versa. I always find when Molly does 45 minute naps all day, her nights are terrible!
Another thing you mentioned was waking 45 minutes to an hour after you put her to bed? And often after that? A tip I got from another Mom on here was to try to make sure the last catnap of the day is a short one (never longer than 45 minutes) and if you are on the 4 hour EASY, keep the Activity time before bed quiet. No stimulating activities. Also, try to put her down 1.5 hours after she wakes up from the catnap, instead of the full 2 hours.
Hope any of this helps...hang in there. It will pass!!  :lol:
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Offline Colesmom

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Waking every 45 minutes through the night
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2005, 23:28:36 pm »
Albertasweetpea

you find a shorter interval better for the last A time?  I am having so much trouble with my last interval.  I find if I put DS down for say 2 hours A time he just cries and cries and finally gives up at 2:30 A time.  This led me to believe that that was his optimum time.  hmmmm, now i'm not sure.  He also wakes up at the 40 min mark.  He settles anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes...but is VERY upset in the meantime.  I just leave him as anything I do makes it take longer :oops:   it's very hard to listen to him so upset.  I read this happens when they are overtired...but if I put him down any earlier he doesn't settle either :cry:

Also, I think your naps are around the same time as ours (from the march/april chat thread)...so if you only have a 45 min. catnap...what time does your lo go to bed?  Cole is already going to bed around 6:30-6:45.  Once we get rid of the catnap it will likely go earlier so I want to leave some leeway so he's not going to bed at 5:30 soon!!

anyway, curious to know when DD goes down for the night.

Thanks

Traci
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Offline albertasweetpea

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Waking every 45 minutes through the night
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2005, 23:36:32 pm »
Hi Traci - well ideally Molly would go down around 6:30-7 pm but on a day like today where I got her up at 5:45 (after being awake for an hour) she will be going to bed around 6-6:15. It is just soooooo early but if I leave her any longer it will take forever to get her down and then she will constantly wake up until around 10 pm.
Just looking at Molly's logs and yesterday she was awake at 6:15 but had a 2 hr nap in the morning and another 2 hour one in the afternoon (woooo wooo!!  :lol: ) then a 45 minute catnap at 4:20 pm. I put her down at 6:30 (sticking with the 1.5 hours after awake) and she wouldn't settle until 8 pm!! I guess she had too much sleep during the day. Gosh, will we ever figure this out?? Maybe when they go off to college??  :shock:
BTW...I grew up in Toronto!! Nice place to visit but I dont' think I could live there anymore...I guess I'm a small city girl at heart.
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Offline Colesmom

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Waking every 45 minutes through the night
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2005, 23:42:58 pm »
see, i find this very confusing.  If it took her 1.5 hours to settle then maybe she wasn't tired enough?  do you find that MOST of the time she settles well after being up only 1.5 hours?

I suppose the long naps could have something to do with it.  Today's naps for us were as follows:

Nap 1 8:00-8:35 then i shhh/patted and back from 9:00-9:50!  I knew this would be short as he had an early wake up and i had him up 2:15 A time to get a normal schedule going

Nap 2 45 minutes.  didn't bother to extend.

Catnap 1 hr 15 minutes!  And he woke up the most rested from this (obviously).  Not sure if he saw me there because i had gone in to wake him when he woke himself...but it was so cute...he was scratching and patting at the animals/letters on his bedding :)   
I find that regardless of the length of catnap (be it 30 min or 1hr  30) Cole needs to stay up 2.5 hours (or close to it-today was 2:25)

He wakes at the 45 minute mark...but then I won't hear a peep out of him now until about 12:30 or so!
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Offline albertasweetpea

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Waking every 45 minutes through the night
« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2005, 00:08:56 am »
Traci - last night was a strange one with the long time to settle. Looking over her logs I noticed that when she does have more than about 3.75 hrs. of naps during the day, it takes longer to settle her at night. Guess now I know that if she has good naps, I can keep her up longer. Thanks for pointing that out!! Sometimes it does take someone else to point out the obvious that's for sure.
Strange about Cole's waking at 45 minutes. Does he just cry out and then go straight back to sleep? The last couple of weeks Molly has been doing that. Just a "waaaaaaaah" and by the time I get up the second flight of stairs (darn 4-level split) she is quiet and sound asleep. Too funny.  :lol:
Just put her down, it is 6:05 and I haven't heard a sound yet. She quite often fusses for about 10 minutes, talks to herself, squalks etc...then is out. Will let you know how the night goes.
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Offline Millie2

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Waking every 45 minutes through the night
« Reply #7 on: September 22, 2005, 01:19:09 am »
Hi folks

I have considered teething and am still wondering about that.  She got her first two teeth at four months but we didn't seem to have the night waking with them - just loads of dribbling and red cheeks.  Her cheeks are pretty red again so I'm using a teething gel for pain relief as well as paracetemol before bed.

The other thing I thought it might be caused by is the change to her diet.  I've just started giving her "six month food" so its the first time she's had meat.  I wonder if she's having trouble digesting it as she seems to be waking the first time about 4 hours after her dinner.  I think I'll stop the meat meals for a couple of days and see if she improves and then reintroduce them at lunchtime instead.

I know I need to get control of her day sleep but it is just so hard.  I have tried everything I can think of to lengthen her naps but nothing has worked (and I've spent a week on each method in the aim for consistancy). 

I have tried going in as soon as she stirs so that she doesn't wake too fully but that rarely works.  As soon as I roll her to her side she starts crying and then she'll settle but won't actually go back to sleep.  Several times I've been tricked thinking she's asleep but when I've leaned over to check her eyes are wide open!  I've sat in her room for an hour thinking she was asleep but as soon as I've moved she's opened her eyes again!!

I have tried leaving her to settle herself but she'll just lie there talking until I go in (an hour later!) or she'll talk for awhile and then start bellowing.

I've tried the wake to sleep method but she either wakes fully and won't go back to sleep or she won't stir at all!

I've just read a good book today about development and it said that they all have some major changes going on at six months which can affect their sleep and eating habits so I feel a little bit better knowing that it is normal and should settle down soon!!!
Mum to Katy (March 2005) and OJ (November 2006)