My LO is 10 months old. He's always been a fabulous sleeper, and we never even saw night wakings until he was probably 5 months old. I attributed them at that time to teething, and they eventually disappeared by 7 months.
He's now 10 months, and the last 2 months of sleep have been awful again! Again, I thought it was teething at first - he got 4 at once. But now they are all in, and though the sleep got better for a week after the last tooth came in, it's awful again now. He woke with a fever yesterday, has runny nose so I'm taking him in to make sure it's not an ear infection. But I also want to make sure it's not a routine issue.
Owen was doing fabulously with 3 hours of awake time between naps at 7 months, but while teething really cut back on awake time. He always gets super tired when teething. It seems like we're working back up to 3 hours. Naps are great - but bedtime is a mystery! I feel like if I could ONLY figure out when to put him down for the night, then the night wakings would stop. He always goes to sleep quickly and easily and on his own. We've eliminated the bouncing/walking prop we had at 5 months, thank goodness! However, he is now waking up anywhere from 5-6 hours after going down and staying awake for 1-2 hours.
DH and I are going CRAZY!!!
How old is your child? 10 months
What’s his/her daily routine? Awake 7, bottle 7:30, solids 8:30; Bottle 12:00, solids 1:00; Solids 5, bottle 6
What’s nap routine? first nap 10-11:30; 2nd nap 2:30-4:00;
How long are naps? never more than 3.5 hours in day, usually closer to 3 (the morning nap is becoming closer to an hour lately)
What's bedtime routine? Time? bath, bottle, story, bed
Do you bottle or breastfed?? bottle
How much? or how long? three 8 oz. bottles
If breastfed.. one side or both?? (at each feed) n/a
How many wakes per night? 1-2
What’s your LO like when waking at night? How long is he/she up? 1-2 hours. After the initial crying is over, he's usually smiley and giggly - almost manic.
When you go to him/her is she fussing or crying? Or is it a mantra cry? crying, then chats to himself. Will leave him alone for up to 30 minutes, until crying starts again.
What have you tried to settle?? shush/pat in crib, replace paci, pat tummy, tell him "night-night time" (this works for naps or early morning wakings), last resort take him out of the crib and feed (we just dropped a bottle, so i've been worried it's possibly hunger)
What do you do for A time and how long is it? Usually 2.5-3 hours
Are there developmental issues such as teething or milestones? just finished getting 4 teeth 2 weeks ago; is learning to pull up to stand, is beginning to crawl
Have you introduced cereal? Why, how much, and how many times a day? (for LO’s under 6 months) no cereal b/c he has bad reaction to it.
Do they have a prop? If so what is it? paci, but not really a prop b/c once it falls out for the night, we rarely replace (except lately with night wakings)
Do they have a lovie? He has 2.
Any ideas? I have found that if I put him to bed with 2.5 hours (or less) awake time after last nap, there seems to be less disrupted sleep at night. But that seems awful short for this age. I definitely know that 3.75 hours is too much - resulted in overtired bub bouncing off walls and had trouble staying asleep.
Any advice welcome!
ETA: After reading some other night waking posts, I feel I should add that Owen has reflux, and our doctor started encouraging us to cut back on his medicine (Prevacid) at around 6 months. We tried, and didn't have any success until around 7.5-8 months when it seemed he was doing fine without it. However, now thinking about it, it DOES seem like these night wakings are coinciding with dropping the Prevacid. However, I don't really see any signs of reflux. He's not arching his back or crying hysterically. It's more like he wakes because he's either overtired and not sleeping well, or undertired due to too much daytime sleep or not enough time between nap and bedtime.
