night waking

[leticia]

Hi, I'm new here, my baby is 8 mths old, she's never slept Thru the night and I recently read Tracy's books, I've done a lot of the things she recommend and we had some improvement, but still we have some terrible nights once in a while and in a good one she wakes up at least twice, but what has me really confused is that even when she has sometimes a good hour or hour an a half naps, she still doesn`t sleep thru the night for any number of reasons, sometimes she is hungry, or the paci fell off and she couldn't find it, etc. and now she started skiping completely some naps. Is that normal? should I just leave her adjust her own routine? because obviously she modifies everything, meals and activity too. (sorry about my English I'm from Mexico).
Please if anyone has any advice I'll be thankfull...... Leticia mommy of Isabella.

[Colin Macs Mom]

Hi there and welcome to BW!    It would help a lot if you could post the answers to the questions in the "please read before posting" stickie. It's much easier to see what's going on that way.

[leticia]

Hello Colin Mac`s mom don't know why I can't post my reply

[leticia]

Ok, now I could. First of all thanks for being there. It's a little long because we've been thru everything. Her routine goes something like this at the moment:

wu at 6:30 botlle 5 oz (breastfed untill 6 mths)
plays in my bed till 9, and naps 30 or 45 mnts
wu and bfast fruit sometimes with cereal
plays or go out
has a bottle around 12 and naps for another 30 or 45 mnts (last two days was for 1h 1/2)
eats veggies with chicken or pasta or rice
plays or go out
(used to nap but now she cut that one out)
takes bottle around 4
dinner at 5:30 veggies or fruit or lunch left overs
bath at 7
bottle 7 oz and goes to bed.

The thing is I've been modifiying this routine depending on her "needs" (don't know anymore) she has never taken longer naps, and that doesnt bother me that much as the night wakings, she sleeps pretty good until 1 or 2 am and she starts waking over and over again (twice in a good night) sometimes is because she drops her paci which now she knows to put back on but sometimes she misses it, now she has been hungry (since moved dinner to 5:30 instead of 6) and sometimes just because. I tried w2s and I only woke her more, I do a modified version of pu/pd because she got really bad (I put her on her side and place my hands on her so she feels secure, I nerver fight her, just do it when she allows me to) than ended the crying a great deal not completely thoug. It has never worked for naps, when she w up from a nap she's ready to go with a big smile. Today she refused to nap at all until 1 trhu 3, so she moved everything and it seems she will keep waking up no matter what. She also has a stuffed puppy and a blankie but I don`t see her very attached to them. She only gets grumpy when she is completly tired or hungry. Please give me some advice.........
 
Thanks from Lety and Isabella.

[Colin Macs Mom]

I think that her naps need to be adjusted - she's likely in a cycle of overtiredness which is causing her to wake at night. There are sample routines for each age range posted in the EASY forum. Take a look there and that should help you get some ideas on how to adjust. Her naps definitely need to be longer than 30 or 45 minutes, regularly. The short naps also make for a very long A time, longer than she can probably handle.

[leticia]

I definitely agree with you, but as I told you before I've been changing her routine according to the changes she makes, I've never been able to make her sleep more in her naps, I already tried to follow some routines shown here but either she wakes earlier from the nap or she takes longer to sleep or she's not hungry at lunch time and she eats poorly and is hungry an hour later, etc. Today she woke up at 6:00 gave her bottle and left her to sleep more and she woke up 1/4 before 9!!!!! had bfast at 10, bottle at 12 and put her to sleep, she was absolutely tired but she's been asleep for an hour an still doesn`t wake up (in Mexico is 1:00 pm now) when she w up I`ll give her lunch... and so on. Could it be that she needs to be more tired in order to sleep longer? I know is totally opposite of wan you just told me, but it's not the first time that it happens....Last night she only woke up once and I had put her to bed at 8 instead of 7.. So I`m really confussed.
                           Lety

[Colin Macs Mom]

Anything is possible    All LOs are different.

I definitely agree with you, but as I told you before I've been changing her routine according to the changes she makes

I think that this is part of your problem to be honest. You need to set a routine and have that be that. The way you are doing things now you are letting her run the show and doing things more on demand. Consistency is very, very important. Getting her on an actual routine might mean a rough few days, but the end result will be worth it.

[leticia]

Ok, here's what Ill do and tell me if Im wrong. I will observe her for two days writing everything down, notes, etc. And for day 3 I'll stablish the routine (from easy forum) that is most similar to what I wrote and stick to it as far as I can because believe me, I've tried but she is totally spirited and you already know what I'm talking about. I have another doubt, what would be wrong if she naps after solids instead of before, that way she could take the 2 naps she is already taking but they would be at around 10 and 2 and she would be less tired in the afternoon, tell me what you think.Thanks....Leticia

[Colin Macs Mom]

I think that sounds like a good plan. And believe me, I do know how hard it is with a spirited one! You just need to have more willpower than her.   

I don't think that there's anything wrong with napping after solids. It's more important to make sure she gets proper naps and A time.

[CLJK]

I don't know if this will help, but once my DS was about 6.5 or 7 months old and rolling over very well (back and front), I noticed some of his naps were really short and some were great - about 1 hour and 10 - 30 minutes.  I realized that the longer naps came when he was on his tummy.  Because I knew he could easily roll himself over if he needed to (thus the risk of SIDS was reduced), I would go in about 10 minutes after I knew he was absolutely asleep and flip him on his tummy, if he wasn't there already.  He would briefly wake up, but I patted his bottom for a few seconds until he went back to sleep.  I did this for every nap up until about 2 weeks ago, when I let him go and realized he could now take the longer naps on his own without being on his tummy.  I know it's a bit obsessive, but - hey - we all wouldn't be here if we weren't obsessive about our kid's sleep!  I would only do this if you are comfortable about your LO sleeping on her tummy.  Incidentally, I never do it at night, just for naps.  My DS is now about 8.5 months old and we are just getting to the sleeping all the way through the night stage (well, almost).

Good luck!

[leticia]

Sounds interesting, she's been rolling over since she was 6 mths, she's been crawling since 7 1/2, sometimes I find her in the weirdest positions, at first I got scared and moved her but sometimes she woke up really angry and lately I've been finding her on her tummy, I now absolutely leave her that way, since I see her head is turned to the side and breathing normal,
but now that you tell me I'll try to do that during naps and see what happens......thanks.