Author Topic: 7mo - separation anxiety  (Read 1176 times)

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Offline Terryv

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7mo - separation anxiety
« on: June 22, 2006, 23:13:16 pm »
Hi,

We are having a challenge with our 7mo daughter with sleeping patterns at the moment, I think she is one of those babies who doesn't want to sleep that much ever anyway but for the last couple of weeks, things have been as bad as ever. Our daughter has several food allergies and eczema which we are dealing with.

The current sleep pattern is basically

bedtime 7 to 7.30pm and she drops off quite quickly
Awake 8pm ish, settled by very low talking, sometimes rubbing tummy
11pm to 12 midnight - Awake for feed of BM
Thereafter awake about every hour until 6am when she thinks it is playtime
Mum often ends up bringing Allie to sleep on our bed at about 6am so she can try and get the last hour or two of sleep for the night.

On particularly difficult nights such as tonight, Allie also woke 3 times between 8pm and now, each time settled back to sleep by talking and rubbing tummy.

I have listed this under the topic of separation anxiety as Allie is also very attached to Mum and will not go with anyone else for longer than a couple of minutes (particularly if Mum moves out of visual range). The paediatrician has suggested we are dealing with separation anxiety and to sort out getting Allie into a nursery for a few days so she can get used to others. I am reluctant to pursue this at this time due to the difficulties we are experiencing with the allergies and eczema, the preferred approach would be to get Allie used to my wife's Mum first as Allie sees her several time a week.

Hope I haven't completely mixed up two issues here (its getting late !).

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

A very tired Allie's Mum and Dad



Offline Kimberly®

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Re: 7mo - separation anxiety
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2006, 04:00:04 am »
The first thing I would like is a copy of the daily routine. That may give me more answers. Would you be able to post that please?

Kimberly

Offline Terryv

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Re: 7mo - separation anxiety
« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2006, 20:43:50 pm »
Hi Karita,

Most certainly. Got an update form my wife this evening so here we go:

Breakfast at 8am ish, normally fruit and baby rice with vitamin supplements due to allergies. Then BF
10am - Nap of rarely more than half an hour
10.30am to noon - Play time
Noon - Lunch - savoury food (either home cooked or jars) and then pudding, again all with vitamin supplements. Then BF. Followed by playtime
2pm - Another half hour nap
3pm - Out for the afternoon to friends, parents, shopping, walk etc
5pm - BF
5.30pm - Bathtime
6.00 pm - tea time, basically the same as dinner, then BF. A quiet playtime before bed
7 to 7.30pm bedtime

The night hours are per my previous post. BF's are normally about 11pm, 3am and 6am at the moment although we are trying to eliminate one of those (the middle one).

Hope that is the level of detail you are looking for, if not, do let me know what else I can add.

Many thanks for your help.

Terry



Offline brightside

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Re: 7mo - separation anxiety
« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2006, 21:00:20 pm »
Terry: my son is 7 months also and although every baby is different my DS struggles to go past 3 hours A time even with a decent length nap. With a short nap, I have to put him down for a nap after about 2.5 hours. I noticed that your DD only has 30 min naps and her A time is often more than 3 hours. Just wondering if the crying could be more due to overtiredness than separation anxiety? Although that is also not uncommon at this age. I know that my DS has a worse nights sleep if he doesn't get an appropriate amount of sleep in the daytime (best amount is 2.5-3 hours). I would be tempted also to have an earlier bedtime of nearer 6.30, especially if she has been awake since 2.30pm. I think if you can sort the day sleep out and Allie can go to bed without being overtired, her night sleep will be much better and then her day sleep will also be better. Its a vicious circle unfortunately.. I think you're also right to try to eliminate one of the night feeds as a 7 month baby shouldn't really need to feed 3 times in the night. Do it gradually though so that she can up the amount she has in the daytime.  Good luck! Hope Karita has some other ideas for you too.
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Offline Terryv

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Re: 7mo - separation anxiety
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2006, 21:11:58 pm »
Hi Brightside,

It is certainly worth a try, Allie has always been reluctant to sleep, it was the allergies and her feeling unwell as a result which were the root of the problem until about 3 weeks ago. The only thing that would settle her for a while was to BF. All this is most likely a hangover from that stage.

Allie seems to have an internal alarm clock during the day, its almost always spot on 1/2 an hour and she wakes up. There are occasions when she will sleep for longer (this afternoon was 1 hour), but these are quite rare, maybe once every week or so.

I will suggest to Sairah that maybe we should leave Allie in her room if she wakes after half an hour, see if she will nod off again.

Thanks for th suggestion, will give it a try.

Terry

Offline brightside

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Re: 7mo - separation anxiety
« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2006, 11:07:29 am »
DS went through a  LOOOOONG phase of only sleeping for 40 mins. Eventually I got him to sleep longer through perseverence and lots of shh/pat. I used to give up after about 20 mins but one day I decided that I wasn't going to give up because I KNEW that he was tired. It took 40 mins and then he slept for another 1.5 hours!  ;D Well worth it! Try posting on the naps board too. You could also try 'wake to sleep' if she is waking reguarly after 30 mins.
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