Author Topic: 7 months sudden constant night waking...need reassurance how to handle  (Read 2404 times)

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Offline koakitty

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Ok I am posting again, thought the 2 days in a row of night waking  at 6 months was a growth spurt...maybe it was. But now LO is 7 months and has been waking up 6 out of the last 7 nights, only once a night and its at random times, eg : 4AM,  4:45Am, 2:30, 2:45, etc. No wakings before midnight and I know she is not overtired. She does take the boob if offered, and will nurse like she's hungry. But why all of a sudden at 7 months does she need early AM feeds? I try to offer her the boob every 3-3.5 hours during the day to get more milk in then, but she doesn't always take it or nurses poorly. Here are the things that I think could be the culprit:
                                         
                                          * In the past month she has learned how to pull to standing, sit & crawl (whew!)
                                          * Just started on solids at 6 months, but gas doesn't seem to be an issue
                                          * Two bottom teeth coming through the gums

OK so that's a little of what has been going on, and here's her schedule (roughly):
                                     
                                          7AM     BF/Diaper change etc
                                          8 AM     breakfast (cereal & veg or fruit)
                                          9/9:30  Nap (sometimes 1.5 hrs but usually 45 min)
                                          10AM    Wake & Activity
                                          11AM     BF
                                          12:30/1:30  Nap (depends on her mood & first nap length)
                                          2:00/2:30    Wake & Activity
                                          3PM     BF
                                          4:30    Cat Nap
                                          5PM     Wake & Activity (nothing too stimulating)
                                          6 PM    BF & then Dinner (cereal & veg)
                                          6:30    Bath
                                          7 PM    Bed
                                          2:24/4Am Wake for feed
This has been a loose schedule (with in a half hour or so) in the past week. She then wakes anywhere from 2:30Am to 5Am for a feed and then it's back to sleep with no problems. She does wake up crying at these times and she is sitting up and her lovey is sometimes across the crib, but if I give it to her and try to get her back to sleep by patting, she screams louder and will only go back to sleep after a feed. I guess this is normal, but not for me!  She hasn't woken regularly like this since 7 weeks old. She self soothes (sucks her thumb) and has her lovey which keeps her company. Ok so here is my question, could it be that she can't find her lovely at night? Should I try a night light? MAybe it's her teeth and then only wants the boob for comfort? MAybe it's learnig to sit and then freaks out because she is sitting up and doesn't know what to do? Although she is pretty good at getting up and down, so not sure about that one. Or could it be separation anxiety? I Am puzzled and tired!  I'm not sure how to handle this, but don't want to create a bad habit of night waking. I have also tried cutting back on solids, so that she gets more milk during the day. Right now I feed her about 1-2 TBSP of veg and about 1/4 cup cereal 2x a day (morning and evening).  Any advice or insight would be great....maybe I've just been spoiled for so long with a baby who doesn't need a night feed....HELP!


Thanks for reading!
Sarah
Mom to Bella 7 months (Nov 30, 2005)
Sarah
Mom to Bella Victoria
Angel/Textbook Baby

Offline Wiki

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Don't have any advice but want to sympathise, my 6 month old has been like this for a while now, and he is a pretty good eater in the day. What I don't get is that the random wakings have moved from 1-4am back to the 11pm-2am slot, he is still going to bed at the same time, still on 4EASY. We've tried a bit of solid food but he's not keen. Sometimes he wakes screaming - is that likely to be teeth though? He'll resettle after those times.

They keep us on our toes huh? He slept thru from 11-16 weeks and my H thought we had it sussed. I knew it was too good to be true. We've probably had 10 sleep throughs in 10 weeks since...

Vic and Caspar (also Textbook/Angel)

Offline teezee

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i would suggest sticking to a 4 hr routine - if lo is able to go the longer duration during the day she will be able to have her belly sustain her longer during the night. when she is feeding she may be feeding for comfort as well - my lo did this and ended up taking more during the night feed/s than she did all day..so i caution you to feeding unless lo needs it.

also - most lo's tend to drop that catnap between 6-8 months - usually what signifies it is time is when lo starts waking early in the morning, or multiple wakings later throughout the night. to me, i would think that you could cut out that catnap and perhaps extend that am A time to at least 2.5 hrs maybe a bit more to try and push the day forward. opt for an earlier bedtime for a bit til lo is able to stay up longer periods without getting overtired and then slowly start extending the bedtime later.

teething and other milestones can also have an effect on night sleep and perhaps is playing a role in this. are you giving lo any pain reliever if you think she is teething? how about some baby orajel?

i used a night light and realized after many months that it didn't 'help' with the wakings at all..in fact when i turned it off it really did help her sleep better..

how are you reacting when lo wakes at night? are you trying to settle in the crib? have you tried any techniques?..pu/pd..patting..shhing..
Tawnya
Mommy to Alecksandria
June 11, 2005




Offline koakitty

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Thanks for the replies, at first when she started doing this I'd wait a few minutes to see if she'd resettle herself, but that only made her scream louder & harder. So when I'd go in, I'd find her lovey and lay her back down (she would be sitting up sucking her thumb) with it and try to pat/shhh, she'd quiet briefly but then sit back up and suck her thumb as if to say "No I'm hungry!!" How do you knwo when it is hunger or something else??? I'm confused and since it's going on a week I'm worried it's becoming a habit. I haven't given her ora-jel or any tylenol for the teething, does that really last long enough to keep them from waking 7hrs into sleep? Or do you give them the meds at the early wake up and try to get them back to sleep then without a feed?
I know that around this time they drop the catnap, but I've tried to extend the days so that she wakes around 3/3:30 from her second nap, so that she can be in bed by 6:30...but what do you do when they go down for a nap at 1:30PM and wake at 2 ready for more play time?  I can't keep her up for 4 hrs to put her to bed at 6PM, and I really don't want to put her to bed any earlier than that. Everything is out of whack this week because of the early wakings and the late in the day cat nap. I have been pretty much keeping her to a 4hr feed routine, just tried the earlier feeds one day to see if it would help (it didn't) at this point her "A"time is at least 2.5-2.75 hours, sometimes 3hrs, I gues I am just in a transitonal period of dropping the nap and trynig to work in a good routine around that. I am just worried that if I don't get that quick nap late in the day that she will be overtired at bed time and will wake 1-2 hours after going down (which is what happens with her when she is overtired). Thanks for your help with this, just when you think you have a good thing going they throw you a curve ball!
Let me know what you think.
ThankS
Sarah
Sarah
Mom to Bella Victoria
Angel/Textbook Baby

Offline teezee

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when my lo was teething (some teeth were worse than others..) i would give her tylenol before bed and then orajel at her first night waking..usually she would go right back to sleep as the relief is pretty much instantaneous.

i think that once you tweak a little you will be able to figure it out - cut out that catnap and see if the wakings persist in the same way. if lo is still waking for a feeding but sleeping better overall than there is a post about weaning night feeds that would be useful to you if that situation arose. generally with lo's the rule of thumb is if lo wakes and you resettle and they wake within the hr assume it is hunger and feed, if they resettle and sleep past an hr you can be pretty sure it wasn't hunger..now i feel this situation is an exception b/c if lo isn't tired - she will wake many times kwim?

it will take a bit of extending/limiting basically playing with A times and nap times to find the right fit for you lo - extend the A times all you can without letting her get overtired at all..keep the extra A time low key and quiet. if you are interested in the easy board faq's you can find easy routines for lo's of all ages just to give you a better idea of how to go about things :)

you have it right on about if your dd gets overtired...unfortunately it is a hard transition  :-\
Tawnya
Mommy to Alecksandria
June 11, 2005




Offline koakitty

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Thanks Tawnya, I will check out the EASY activity board for her age group and work on adjusting her schedule. Last night she woke at 3:30AM and I gave her some orajel and then tried to pat/shh to sleep but that didn't work and then I did the pu/pd and that didn't work....I'm just not used to having her cry in the middle of the night and it's a bit unnerving..last night I finally gave her some boob, but didn't let her finish both off like I normally do, just gave a bit to calm and then put her back in the crib awake and she went back down until 7AM.I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do, but it's working for now and maybe it's a temp crutch till the two bottom teeth poke through and she gets a little used to the sensation??? I just didn't want to start giving her a full feed in the middle of the ngiht and end up having her body clock thrown off, and always expecting a feed in the wee hours. Thanks for all the advice, I will try the extension and dropping the cat nap and see how it goes. I'm willing try try anything at this point to get her back to her great sleep schedule.

Thanks again,
Sarah
Sarah
Mom to Bella Victoria
Angel/Textbook Baby

Offline teezee

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sorry last night didn't go so well  :-\

i would caution you to giving even half feeds in the night - as it most def will create a bad habit...have you tried offering water instead? i know my lo wouldn't take water froma bottle but loved it out of a straw at night :)

if you are going to offer the half feed - don't do it too many nights in a row as if you are not willing to keep doing it you will have to break this habit. once you have the A times and naps situated a bit better - you should see improvements :)

good luck!
Tawnya
Mommy to Alecksandria
June 11, 2005




Offline koakitty

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Ok here is the update, for the past two days we have done just two naps and it has been ok!  I was skeptical, but I tried to slowly extend the 2nd A time so that she would nap somewhere around 2PM...and with 1.5 hour nap that would put her wake up time at 3:30PM and still be able to be in bed by 6-6:30. It was a little bumpy getting her to bed, she was clearly tired, but she didn't go down right away, took about 20 mins of protesting (not crying, just some screehes she does when she's annoyed). The first night she woke up at 10PM and was screaming, like she was in pain, obviouisly not hungry, I couldn't console her which is very unsual...so I had to let dad take over and after she let out a huge fart (lol) she settled back down and went to sleep!  She didn't wake until 6:00 AM to eat and then went back down until 7:30 AM. The scehdule that day (yesterday) was a bit off, but I am slowly working on the tweaking so that we get a good schedule going. Last night she was in bed by 7PM and only protested for about 15mins so she was asleep by 7:15 or so and didn't wake all night, so woke at 6AM! YIPPEEEE one small victory at a time! OK so it gives me hope and thank you again for the input, I took your advice about dropping the cat nap and working on the A time, etc and it seems to have worked, brilliant! I also gave her Motrin before bed last night and I think that may have helped Along with taking out the cat nap :O) So far so good, I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Thanks again!

Sarah
Sarah
Mom to Bella Victoria
Angel/Textbook Baby

Offline teezee

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i think that is a HUGE victory!! don't be discouraged if lo has a bit of regression in the next bit as that is totally normal - just keep doing what you are doing - well done sarah!!

just a word of caution about motrin - it is VERY good - i myself loved it compared to tylenol but it is much more harsh on dd's belly and she started waking due to a tummy ache. if you notice this - stop the motrin and see if she's any better.

i will be away for a week or so - but pls keep us posted on how things are progressing
Tawnya
Mommy to Alecksandria
June 11, 2005