What now? (long)

[neelam.mom]

Help. We are tired of our DD's night wakings. After we took some small vacation in Aug her sleep has been terrible.

Her routine since past 2 days: +/- 15 mins
7am wake up
7:30 BM
8:30 Breakfast
9-10 nap I
11:30 BM
12:30 Lunch
1-2:30 nap II
3:30 BM
4:30 Dinner
5-5:30 nap III
7pm bedtime routine with BM
7:30 bed (most of the time its 7:15)

In past weeks, there were times when she will get up one once and goto bed on her own and there were times when she got up 2-3 times and wont goto bed for next 1-2 hours  . Last night she got up once at 1:45am and didnt sleep till 2:45am then again at 4:45am and didnt sleep till 5:15am (that too cos I let her cry to sleep  , I am very tired now)

For her naps I and II she goes done very easily, I put her to bed and in 5 mins she is asleep, no fussing no crying. At her nap III she fusses a bit and is up after 30 mins but NOT HAPPY. After that she is cranky till her bedtime, does it mean that I need to move her bedtime early? If yes, then how early? But I am so scared that if  I move her bedtime early she might start waking up in morning early to start her adventurous day    Should I help her take longer nap III and then move her bedtime little late, say 8pm? How long should I wait to see if this is right routine, for that matter any routine, for her?

At night if I dont go immediately to shh/rub her back then she starts to cry and then its really hard for her to go back to sleep. I know I should help her to sleep on her own but I need sleep now  . I also know that she know how to fall asleep on her own as she does for naps and she did before all this craziness started.

Tell me there is a light at the end of this looooooooooooong tunnel, cos I cannot see any 

[Colin Macs Mom]

I think that she's getting too much daytime sleep, so she's not tired enough at night. I would suggest adjusting your routine to something like this, to eliminate the cat nap.

7am wake up
7:30 BM
8:30 Breakfast
10:00 - 11:15 nap I
11:30 BM
12:30 Lunch
2:30ish-3:45 nap II
3:30 BM
4:30 Dinner
5-5:30 nap III
7pm bedtime routine with BM
7:15/30 bed

Last night she got up once at 1:45am and didnt sleep till 2:45am then again at 4:45am and didnt sleep till 5:15am (that too cos I let her cry to sleep  , I am very tired now)

Please, please don't let her cry like that again. CIO and CC are the antithesis of Tracy's beliefs, and go against BW completely. Those methods break the trust between parent and child, and I'm sure you don't want that. LO needs to know that you will be there to meet her needs. It's not fun, but we signed up to be parents 24/7, not just during the day. It sounds like you already know that it didn't help, if you're tired.

[neelam.mom]

Thanks Colin Mac's Mom. I agree with too much sleep during daytime but how do I keep her awake when she is so sleepy? Do you think 5-10 mins increments everyday?
 
We just came back for ped's office, our DD had her 6 weeks appointment after 6 months to recheck her weight. I talked to ped about her night awaking and she said it might be reflux  . Our DD has start spitting (again) and sometimes its yellow in color.  Its just her guess and have asked us to try Mylanta for few days and see if her night sleep improves.

Well, I see that you have spirited + reflux baby, how did you come to know that your LO has reflux? What medications are you offering? How does your LO's eating &sleeping timings are? I have acid reflux so I know that I cannot sleep immediately after eating. Now when I think about it, her night waking are on/off  for a month now coincidentally after we started solids

Please, please don't let her cry like that again. CIO and CC are the antithesis of Tracy's beliefs, and go against BW completely. Those methods break the trust between parent and child, and I'm sure you don't want that. LO needs to know that you will be there to meet her needs. It's not fun, but we signed up to be parents 24/7, not just during the day. It sounds like you already know that it didn't help, if you're tired.

I too dont believe in CIO but last night I was (and still am) very tired. And I actually didnt sleep after 4:45am    cos I let her CIO and was feeling very bad. As I said these night awaking are going on/off for month now and I am totally exhausted 

Thank you for your response.

[Colin Macs Mom]

When transitioning like that, many people do 15 min. increments for 3 days or so at a time until the new time is reached. But if your LO can't handle 15 minutes then do smaller increments, like 10 min or even 5. She might be grouchy, but she'll adjust if you stick with it.

Yep, I do have a refluxer - although we weaned his medicine a couple of months ago successfully    I won't lie, it's very challenging to have a LO with reflux especially with sleeping. My DS was screaming all the time, and I mean SCREAMING ALL THE TIME. Sleeping was beyond awful (it basically didn't happen, ever) and the only way he would nap was on his side being held. Things were so awful for all of us that I got online one night and started looking for information. Then I found the sticky here in the reflux forum listing some symptoms and stuff, and realized that DS had almost all of them.    Long story sort of short, I made him an appointment with his doc. It did take a while to convince her that it was actually reflux and needed medication, but we did it and she prescribed Zantac. He did quite well with it once it kicked in and things improved greatly, all around. We also got a wedge for him to sleep on and that made a HUGE difference for his night sleep.

Try elevating one end of the crib with a book or something and see if that helps at night, if you aren't already. Make sure that you aren't feeding her anything acidic like citrus or tomato. Root vegetables are great for refluxers, like carrots, potato, that sort of thing. And let me know how that mylanta goes. You may very well need something stronger if she does indeed have reflux, so don't be afraid to push for that if needed.