Early Wakings/Tweaking EASY???

[Grace's Mom]

I posted our entire problem on the Night Waking board...I haven't heard back from anyone just yet and thought I would post here to see if our schedule may be the problem.

Here is our schedule (of course the naps change daily due to a variety of things...teething, swaddle weaning, etc.)  We also just moved her to an 8-8 schedule instead of a 7-7 schedule due to the approaching time change....we like to prepare.

E  8am  Bottle and Oatmeal
A  8:20-10/10:30 (depending on the day)  She use to be able to stay awake 2.5 hours here, but once she started teething staying up 2 hours was a struggle.
S  10/10:30-12:00 or earlier 

E  12 Bottle
A  12:20-2/2:30
S  2/2:30- should be till 4pm but that hasn't happened in a few days....she usually wakes way early.

E 4pm bottle + 2 oz solids...fruit and veggies
A  4:20-5/5:30
S  30 minutes or so from the time she fell asleep

A  Play time/bike ride, etc.  Anything to distract her.
E 7:15 or so  1/2 Bottle
A Bath, PJ's,
E  1/2 Bottle while singing, reading, praying, etc.
S 7:45/8am ....she usually rolls, fusses for a bit here but does fall asleep on her own

All of that is fine....the problem is that she has been waking at 5am or so (now 6 since we move to 8-8) for months now. We have been feeding her, changing her and putting back in her crib and leaving and she falls to sleep immediately.  Lately, she has been waking, but not for food and no matter what I do (change diaper, hold, feed, give Tylenol, rub head, etc.) it takes at least 1-1.5 hours to get her back to sleep.  She is teething at the moment so I am not sure if it is that.  We have just started W2S and it hasn't worked yet so we are going to give it a few more days.  Does anything in our schedule stand out as to why she may be having problems in the early morning?

Thanks.

[* Paula *]

It could be that because you have changed your routine to 8-8, that she has become overtired.  When you changed over, did you just change it or did you do a gradual change?

With you saying that she is fussy when you put her down, it does sound like she is over tired, and with her waking so early in the morning, it is spiraling, and now you have early wakings every morning.

It might be worth going back to 7-7, and add 10 mins of awake time over a few days to get her to stretch out.

Although Teething could have a lot to do with early wakings - does she wake in the night as well?

[Grace's Mom]

We were changing her schedule gradually and then on her own she just switched.  She does that with a lot of thing.  She never seems to want to do anything gradually.  If we go back to 7-7 I have a feeling it will throw her off even more, especially since we would have to change her back to 8-8 by the 29th for the time change because we don't want our day to start at 6am IYKWIM.  She started doing most of this right before the switch so I am not 100% sure that one has to do with the other, but I could be wrong. 

-She mainly fusses before bed because she keeps rolling over and can't figure out how to go back.  There have been a few times where it has definitely been because she is overtired due to the fact that she woke up early from a nap that day, etc.  Tonight however she went straight down.  I only had to go in once to flip her over and that was it...out in 5 minutes so that was good. We watch her cues really closes and try to put her down always before getting overtired.   

Since she started solids at 4.75 months old (she is now 6 months 3 days) she has recently been going to the bathroom early in the morning and when that happens it wakes her up. 

Ahhh....I am so confused.  I feel like I just turned down every possibility you just gave me with a reason for it not to be the cause.    Sorry.  This can be quite hard at times.  I truly appreciate your help in this. 

Melissa

[rebecaq]

Hi Melissa,

I think it's a mix between teething and milestones causing her to wake and have a fitfull sleep.  It seems that her sleep is already light because of the teething, and then she rolls over and can't get back which cause her to fit and fuss.  Since her sleep is being constantly interrupted because of this she's constantly overtired.

Here's a link regarding how milestones interrupt sleep and what is your best game plan can be

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=65196.0

Let us know how you get on.

- Beca 

[Grace's Mom]

Thanks Beca.  That makes perfect sense. 

Melissa