Hi
We have recently successfully employed PU/PD to get nearly 6month Isla to sleep independently, (without boob prop) and she's very good now at both naptimes and bedtimes, going down usually without any trouble.
However, she has started waking between 1 and 2 hours after going to bed (this has happened for over a week now) and then again at around 10.30. I am tending to feed her in order to get her tanked up, but I'm not really sure whether she needs it or if I'm just reconditioning her to get boob in the night. (I don't really put her back in her cot asleep - I tend to make sure she is awake so we don't fall into the boob trap again!)
She had been able to put herself back to sleep in the night, and the other night, even after a broken up evening she slept from 11 till 6.25. So I thought we were getting there!
However, last night was a complete mess - I was doing PU/PD or various other strategies for two hours from about 10, having fed her again when she woke at 8pm. We restarted bedtime, tried to go through the routine again, changed her nappy, sat quietly etc but she just went nuts! Eventually I managed to get her down with PU/PD but had to hold her and pat her for about half an hour to get her through the ragged breathing etc This was on the 3rd PU/PD attempt, Isla having woken up 10mins after the previous two attempts!
My question is - why is she doing this waking up? And since she now seems to be losing the habit of putting herself back to sleep again when she wakes, should I start a nighttime PU/PD campaign again?! Or is there a slightly different technique for babies who have otherwise learned how to go to sleep.
I have to say she is struggling a bit with her bowels, is a little constipated, and I wonder if she is sometimes woken up by tummy ache, but in general I feel like it is more behavioural than that since she should go down again once the pain passes - also of course having a feed gets her back down again.
Any tips as to what strategy to employ to nip this broken evening sleep in the bud would be appreciated.
Her routine is as follows (usually)
6.30 - 7am wake and breastfeed
8.30 solids
9.30/10.00 sleep (50 minutes)
11am breastfeed
12.30 solids
2.30 till 4 sleep (I used some sleep extending techniques to get this from 45 minutes to 1.5 hrs)
5/5.30 solids
6.30 bottle feed
6.45 bedtime
Thanks!