Author Topic: Night wakings with 6.5 mo - not hungry, but PU/PD not working?  (Read 1192 times)

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Offline SierraKuo

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Can I just say how much of a comfort it is that these boards are here?  :)  I think I would go crazy trying to figure this all out on my own!

My LO is a little over 6.5 mo, and she is still nowhere close to sleeping through the night.  Based on recommendations from the board (THANK YOU!), we have her on a 4 hour EASY during the day, which works beautifully.  She goes down for her naps swaddled but completely awake, and takes two naps of 1.5 to 2 hours each.  She is eating three meals of solids.  So far, so good! 

But nighttime is a different story.  We put her down at about 7:45p each night after a bath, swaddled but awake.  She settles on her own, and usually only has about one waking between then and the dreamfeed for which she is easy to settle.  We dreamfeed her between 10:30p and 11:00p.  From then on, we do not feed her until 6:30a or 7a the next morning.  I KNOW she can't/shouldn't be hungry between then for several reasons: when I fed her through the night before, she would eat once at 10:30p or so, and then just snack the other times she woke up; she slept 7 to 8 hour stretches increasingly more often at 5 months old (then we went on an international vacation for two weeks *sigh*); she doesn't eat voraciously when she wakes up in the morning after I haven't fed her through the night.  But she will wake every couple of hours still, more often than that between 3:30a and 5a.

We go through the same steps each time she wakes up: lullaby toy, pat/shh, PU/PD.  We have been trying this for a week now, and the results are very mixed.  (Previously, I would just nurse her 2 to 4 times a night.)  Things were getting better up thru night 4, when she woke up only three times after the dreamfeed (still as many night wakings as when I nursed her!) and went back to sleep with the lullaby toy.  The last two nights have been awful.  She wakes up before the dreamfeed (last night she was awake for the dreamfeed too), and then gets up continuously through the night.  Most of the time the lullaby toy will take care of it, but I've had to do some pat/shh and PU/PD the last couple of nights too.  She doesn't root or eat more during the day, so I don't think it is a growth spurt.  She won't take a passy or bottle.  She seems to sleep worse if I don't swaddle her.

What am I doing wrong?

Here is my day, give or take about a half an hour from these times:
7a - wake and BF
8a - solids
9a - nap
11a - BF
12p - solids
1p - nap
3p - BF
5p - BF and see if she is sleepy enough for a catnap (esp if previous naps were disrupted by errands or something)
6:30p - family dinner (solids)
7p - bath
7:30p - BF
7:45p - bed
10:30p - DF
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Offline Kimberly®

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Re: Night wakings with 6.5 mo - not hungry, but PU/PD not working?
« Reply #1 on: May 19, 2006, 16:37:05 pm »
The biggest thing I notice is that your LO is overtired by bedtime.

Any chance you can move dinner to 5:30pm move bath and bedtime routine to 6:30pm bedtime 7pm?? This would be a giant leap in the right direction for sleep for your LO.
Kimberly

Offline SierraKuo

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Re: Night wakings with 6.5 mo - not hungry, but PU/PD not working?
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2006, 17:52:19 pm »
Should I skip the catnap and the BF at 5p, then?  I would like to move the bedtime earlier, but my husband gives her a bath every night (it's their time together everyday), and I don't know if he will be able to move it up because of work.  But I will try - it sounds good to me!  Anything else that might help - like doing something differently when she wakes at night?
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Offline Kimberly®

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Re: Night wakings with 6.5 mo - not hungry, but PU/PD not working?
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2006, 18:00:44 pm »
As lang as things are low key and not stimulating you should be fine. :)

Try moveing the catnap to 4pm maybe. See if she'll do that, then try solids at 5-5:30 and then a last feed at bedtime.
Moving it up will really help As she gets older, say 9,10, or 11 months she'll start to go later for bedtime. I understand the husband thing. Its so hard when they work later. My husband does too. Usualy I'll feed my DD dinner at 5-5:30 and then do her bath at 6-6:15, by the time her bath is done my DP gives her last bottle to her. Then we have supper for about 7-7:30 depending when she falls asleep. My DD is starting to move bedtime to 7:30 now so he can start giving her a bath :)

Does your LO accept a bottle at all? will she maybe take a bottle of expressed breastmilk at bed??
Kimberly

Offline SierraKuo

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Re: Night wakings with 6.5 mo - not hungry, but PU/PD not working?
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2006, 18:31:09 pm »
Unfortunately, she has not taken any of the bottles we have tried.  She will chew on them like a toy, but she won't suck.  Way back when she was a newborn, we tried introducing the bottle right before bed so that DH could have that time with her too (and I could get a longer break!), but after the first couple nights of taking the bottle, she decided she didn't want it anymore!   ::)  We call her our Spirited Angel.   :)

DH is looking at getting another job, so with any luck it will have better hours.  I'll let you know how it goes - thanks so much!
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