habitual waking and won't go back to sleep anymore

[Grace's Mom]

How old is your child? 6 months old

What’s his/her daily routine?  We just move to 8-8 to days ago because we are getting ready for the time change.
e 8
a 8:20-10:00/10:30
s  10/10:30-12:00

e 12
a 12:20-2/2:30
s 2/2:30 - 4 (should be but normal wakes early for this nap)

e 4
a 4:20-6ish
cat nap 30 minutes

e 7ish
a bath, pj's
s 8

What’s nap routine?  change diaper, sing, swaddle (which we are stopping because she can roll in her swaddle now...only swaddled for naps), paci and usually goes right to sleep.

How long are naps? 1.5-2 hours or shorter

What's bedtime routine? Time?  at around 7/7:15 1/2 of bottle, bath, pjs, finish bottle while singing, praying, reading, etc.  kiss and lay down.  

Do you bottle or breastfed?? bottle

How much? or how long?  6oz, 8oz, 6oz, 8oz

How many wakes per night? 1 time

What do you do for A time and how long is it?  A time use to be 2.5 hours for go round, 2.25 hours and then2.25 hours and 1.5-2 hours before bed.  Lately she hasn't been staying up as long...teething, etc.

Are there developmental issues such as teething or milestones?  teething, rolling, sitting

Have you introduced cereal? Why, how much, and how many times a day? 1 oz of oatmeal in the am, 2 oz fruit / veggie after 3rd bottle.

Do they have a prop? If so what is it? paci

Do they have a lovie? stuffed kitty cat


What’s your LO like when waking at night? How long is he/she up?
When you go to him/her is she fussing or crying? Or is it a mantra cry?
What have you tried to settle??

She has always woken up once a night at around 5am (when we were on the 7-7 schedule).  We would feed her, change her diaper and then put her to bed and she would fall asleep with in minutes on her own.  Lately I have been lessening the formula in her bottle so it's mainly water as she is not really hungry but it's just a habit.  Well, the past couple of nights she has woken with not a hungry cry just a cry of sorts.  After a little while I go in and try to give her a paci.  That went on for about 30 minutes.  Then I thought I would try and give her some water.  She drank 4oz, I changed her poopy diaper (tmi, sorry) and then laid her down, but she would not go back to sleep.  She fussed and cried off and on for another hour.  I tried rubbing her head, belly, giving her a paci, holding her, etc.  I even tried feeding her more formula but that didn't help either.  Nothing would settle her and by now she was over tired, rubbing her eyes, etc.  Eventually after almost 2 hours she past out....30 minutes before wake up time.  I just don't know what to do about this waking.  Nothing works and I can't do pu/pd because of my back.  I am at loss.  Any suggestions?

Thanks.
Melissa

[Colin Macs Mom]

How long have you been doing solids? I'm wondering if the evening feed is maybe giving her gas or tummy upset.

[shimzy]

I would ask the same question, if she hasnt been on the solids for very long she may be having a sore tummy.

[Grace's Mom]

She has been on solids for over a month now, since she was 4.75 months old and she is now 6 months 3 days.  She didn't seem to have any problems when we first started solids.  Could it be affecting her after this many weeks?  I never thought of that. 

-There are times when she would wake after her habitual waking because she went to the bathroom IYKWIM.  This started when we went on solids.  She goes at least once during the day and now once at night before it is time to wake up.  It is very annoying because it wakes her right up.  I wish there was a way to guarantee that she won't go in the middle of the night. 

Thanks.

Melissa

[Katet]

When they poop in the early morning, that is usually an indication that their body is waking up to start the day & so it is hard for them to go back to sleep as their metabolism has kicked in...with my ds#2 when he started having wakeful periods in the early am it was time to drop a nap... so it probably means she is getting close to being ready to drop the catnap...
Also try changing the time she has solids as that works sometimes as it changes the metabolism... eg give oatmeal in the pm & others in the am

[Grace's Mom]

Question about dropping the cat nap.  Right now if she drops the cat nap she will be up for more than 4 hours  and during the day she can't stay awake more than 2/2.5 hours.  How does that work?  Do their bodies just allow them to handle more hours at one time during the day and not others? 

-She did wake at 5:45 this morning.  I went in and tried to soothe, but it didn't work, so I changed her diaper and that didn't really help either.  I gave her a few oz of water, burped her and laid her down and she went back to sleep.  I thought for sure it was going to be like yesterday (1.5 hours of crying, etc.).  I also did w2s but she woke 15 minutes later.  We'll see if she sleeps until 8am....I am praying hard. 

Katet....thanks for the idea about changing the food around to see if that helps.  I didn't think about that. 

-Melissa

[Colin Macs Mom]

Ditto to Kate about moving the food around.

As for dropping the cat nap, it's a tricky thing! It helps if you can extend A time by even just 15 minutes through the day, then it cuts down on that awake time in the evening.

[Katet]

Yes dropping the catnap is almost as hard as dropping to 1 nap (the worst being no nap... we have them occasionally with my 3yo & OMG... grumpy child)
What I found was to extend all A times (so they all end up about 3h +/- 15min each  when you get to 2 naps & cut the catnap back shorter & shorter & then somedays were 2 nap & others 3 nap days in the early days & bedtime kind of moved forward & back from earlier for 2 nap days to later for 3nap days. My biggest problem though was fitting it so I had both children napping at the same time

[Grace's Mom]

I guess I shoud post this on EASY but when extending to 3 hour A time, where do the naps/feedings come in?  Would they only get one hour of sleep each time in order to eat at the 4 hour mark or would they eat 5+ hours apart at this time? 

[Katet]

Well cos I was fitting around a toddler routine, mine didn't fit the norm.
But an example would be (milk =formula or bf)
7am wake,  Milk & Breakfast
10am Nap
11.30/12 wakeup, Milk & Lunch
2.30-3.30/4pm Wakeup & Milk
6pm Dinner, 7pm Milk & Bed

It is about the time they drop to 2 naps that EASY extends past 4 hours, but really it is about working out what works for your child & you... as we pretty much did

7am ish wake bf & Breakfast
9.30am-10.15am Nap followed by ebm milk (in sippy)
noon Lunch followed by bf
1/1.30- 3.30/4pm Nap followed by bf
6pm Solids
Bath & bf & bed
I had to offer the sippy of milk to tide him over as I needed our routine to fit that of my toddler & his activities

[Katie]

melissa just wanted to let you know we just dropped the catnap but are still on 4 bottles she is awake around 3 and a half hours in the evening but it has been ok took a couple of days for her to get used to b ut she wasnt napping there anymore just crying so we ditched it  lol  sometimes if shes too grotty i go out in the car to get milk or something this gets her through just a little outing but i dont always have to do that tonight she was happy in her swing while we ate and before her bath at 6.15pm. then bottle at 6.50pm  then bed between 7 and 7.15pm  hope that helps 

[Grace's Mom]

I don't think Grace will be ready to drop the cat nap for awhile  .  She gladly takes it and if she didn't take it I think she'd be in bed at 5:30 instead of  .  I think once we get her to 3 hours we will go for it.  She was exhausted at the 2 hour mark again this morning so I think we will have some time unfortunately.  I would love for her to go 3 + hours with only 2 naps.  In time. 

Katie...Congrats on dropping cat nap.  That's amazing.     Your family is just so adorable.

Katet...I love to schedule. Thank you.  I am going to print it up.

[Grace's Mom]

Ooops.  That should say in stead of 8:00....I guess I deleted it on accident.

Mel

[Grace's Mom]

Grace definitely doesn't need to eat at night anymore.    She hasn't for the past few days but has still woken up in pain due to teething.  Today it was at 4am, but it is usually at 6am or so.  Poor thing.  I think she will do much better during the day once she doesn't wake at night.

Thanks for all of your help everyone.

[Colin Macs Mom]

YAY!!