10mo, waking, waking, waking

[zelda]

i thought that it was just a phase, but...

after sleeping through the night for several  months, lo started to wake at least once/night about two months ago (after he was sick for a week).    since then, he has gone through some major developmental changes (standing, crawling, sitting, becoming more verbal, teeth).  there was some separation anxiety in there where he didn't want me to leave the room before he fell asleep (much better now).  now he just wakes up, sometimes hungry, sometimes thirsty, or for no reason that i can see.

i can't figure out what to do:
1) waking to feed - i absolutely stuff him with calories during the day, i can't feed him any more than i am right now.  we have started trying diluting his milk (as per earlier thread, see sticky), but no luck yet.
2) waking thirsty - sometimes he wants water.  we always give it to him.
3) waking for no reason - here, he is just difficult to get down again.  he wants company and will fight pu/pd.

here is his schedule:
630-700 wake
715 solids
900 bottle 150-200ml
930 nap
1100 wake
1115 snack
1300 solids
1330 bottle 150-200ml
1400 nap
1500-1530 wake
1530 snack
1700 solids
1845 bottle 150-200ml
1900-1930 sleep

please help, i know that this can get better, i just don't see the way yet. 

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Hi Zelda

How is your LO falling asleep at the beginning of the night?  Do you have a bed time routine?  Is your LO falling asleep feeding/using a paci? 

What happens when your LO wakes during the night?

I'll check back
Jo

[zelda]

hi jo,
thanks for responding.  i'm afraid i can't really give you more clues, though.  lo falls asleep pretty well at the beginning of the night - we do our routine, i put him in bed sleepy but awake, give him his lovey and leave.  he usually falls asleep fairly quickly.  it's the same routine we've used for six months (bath, pyjamas, bottle, book, bed).  he has never used a pacifier.

when he wakes during the night, i listen for a bit to see if he needs me.  then i go in, try to soothe him in the crib by turning him on his side (his sleep position) and saying "time to sleep" over and over until he starts to settle himself.  if he is upset, i do pu/pd.  if he is doing that little cough that babies sometimes do, i give him some water.  i generally leave the room when he starts to settle himself.  sometimes he yells when i go - then i wait for a few seconds outside his door to see if he stops by himself.   

he woke up twice last night - once at about 930 (settled after about 5min) and once at 230 (settled right away after water).  he also woke at about 5 or so, but put himself back to sleep after a bit.

is any of that helpful?

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Hi Zelda

Well, waking during the night can pretty much be narrowed down to a few things:

Hunger
Sleep associations where your LO needs a prop of some kind to transition into the next sleep cycle
Developmental disturbances
Illness or teething/unwellness
Overtiredness or not tired enough

Your day time rountine sounds fine.  Your idea of trying to dilute the night feed is a good one and if I were you I  would stick with that for a little while and see if it gets you anywhere.  Otherwise, I would look over the above list and see if you think any of those might be the reason for the wakings.  Unfortunately nothing else is jumping out at me.  Although the wakings you describe from last night (9.30pm and 2.30am and a self settle at 5am) is pretty much a direct replica of what my 10mo is doing - although that's a vast improvement from the waking we were having so I'm really happy with that.  I guess it's all a matter of perspective 

Good luck to you
Jo

[zelda]

well, here's my update:

things are better!  we have not fed him at night for about a week now, so that's a real success.  he is still waking up, but going back down easily with either some water or a little encouragement.  last night, he only woke once at about 10.30.

jo, i took a look at your list.  i really don't think it's a prop issue because he goes down pretty easily most of the time and i can hear how he sometimes puts himself back to sleep.  i could easily be developmental disturbances because there have been so many new things over the past two months: crawling, standing, verbal advances.  and teething is also a possibility, but i can't confirm this one way ot the other - he doesn't like me poking around too much in his mouth.

he is definitely not overtired, he naps like a champ during the day - two naps of 1.5h each.  not tired enough is a possibility as well - i looked at the 'average sleep hours' post and i see that he might be moving towards slightly shorter naps, so i think i will try to limit his morning nap to 1.25h to see if that helps.

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Hi Zelda,

Congratulations on the improvement!!  I'll keep fingers and toes crossed for you that it keeps up.

I have the same problem with my DS, trying to work out if he is teething - he doesn't like me investigating either 

I think you might be on to something with the day naps - my 10 mo generally only has 2 hours day sleep at the moment, 2 x 1 hr naps.  Worth a try right 

Good luck!!

[riab]

Woudl love it if someone coudl solve htis one for me as well!

After sleepign through 11-7 from 3 monhts old and 7-6 from 6 months old at 8 1/2 months we suddenly got night wakings again. It coincided with a period of not eating alot so he was hungry during the night- but we got that sorted out 3 weeks ago.

Last night was awful,

bedtime at 6.30pm
woke up at 9.30pm; 11.50pm; 4am; and 5am. Then had to be woken up very grumpy at 7.15am.

He has about 2 1/2 - 3 hrs of naps during the day usually 9-10 and 12.30-2/2.30.
he has had a regular beditme ritual since birth which is, bath, massage/cuddle and into sleepsuit and sleebing bag, gentle story/CD, bottle of milk, check nappy (to make sure he doens't fall asleep on the bottle) and down in his cot.

After starting PU/PD he now only takes 10-20 mins to settle and last night in total he was never awake for more than 25 mins at any one time. However as I was up each time and took longer to go back to sleep I was knackered by 7am then had to go to work at 8am.

How do I stop the night wakings? He is nearly always on his tummy when he wakes up and he is uncomfortable sleeping like that so I think thats what wakes him - he rolls over and can't breathe as easily so wakes up. He can roll both ways during daytime but not at night because once he's rolled over once he is at the far side of the cot with the sleeping bag wrapped round his legs.

My partner does help but he has a very demanding job too and after 2 months of not enoguh sleep he passed out form exhaustion at work yesterday. I've cut my hours at work down as I coudln't cope with no sleep and a f/t job but its not getting any better.

Please Help!
a very very tired mum

[zelda]

i'm wondering if there's something about that 8.5mo mark, i have seen several people here posting about night wakings starting at that point.

our situation was exactly like that - good naps, suddenly crappy nighttime sleep after months of sleeping through.  and lo is still waking up once every night two months later, but thankfully only once and only for water and then he goes right back down.  i can't really offer you any helpful tips.  what we did was to step up the calories,  and move the milk feedings back a bit away from the naps as per some advice i got here, but i don't know if that would be helpful for you. 

once per night isn't great, but it's loads better than it was before.

[zelda]

just my update:

the night wakings have STOPPED.  lo is now sleeping through again and not even waking for water anymore - knock on wood.

i don't really know why, we didn't change very much, although i have noticed that he is really eating a lot lately.

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Great news Zelda!

[Lucysmom]

Riab - Hey there...I am wondering how you are getting on these days.  I also was thinking that maybe your ds needs to sleep in something else rather than the sleeping bag.  Maybe if he weren't in the sleeping bag he could get himself onto his back?  I don't know if you have gotten help elsewhere on this site but I felt badly that your post got lost on this thread and wanted to check in and see how things are going. 

Take care.

[riab]

Hi there,

well things have improved a bit. we got a SafeTsleep tihngie which keep shim lying down and also turned the heating up a bit. I'm not sure if it is those changes or just running its course but he managed to go 6/7pm - 5/6am 3 nights this week.

Still had two nights of waking every 3 hrs in between but things seem to be improving.

If anyone is itnerested the SafeTSleep is great. its a velcro wide band, like japanese women wear over their robes? and it fits round his middle. It keep shim on his back - unless he is wide awake in which case he can still wriggel round. But it stops the middle of the ngiht thrashing etc. It also means he can't crawl around and fall onto the spars which was a big problem. Plus it adapts to a ginle bed so if we are away anywhere we can put him on a bed in safety.