Nearly 6mths and never slept thru

[Anthea01Charlie]

I am exhausted and need some encouragement that I am on the right path.  I have had bubba on EASY for two months now & transistioned her from 3 to 4 hr routine over a month ago.  Some nights she wakes every two or three hours others she wakes every 6.  I have started to "tank her up" and am waiting to see the result (has only been a few days).  I am considering PU/PD at the begining of the New Year if tanking up does not change things.  Our routine is consistant and she is typicaly an Angel baby:

7am Eat (BF - may need to wake her some mornings if it's been a rough night!!)
       Activity
8am Eat (Solids)
       Activity
9am Sleep (Goes down without fuss- 10.30 Awake & takls in cot)
11am Eat (BF)
        Activity
12    Eat (solids)
       Activity
1pm  Sleep (sometimes have to wake her/ sometimes awake & talks in cot)
3pm  Eat (BF)
       Activity
4.45 Nap in pram
5.30 Eat (BF)
       Activity
6pm Eat (solids)
       Activity (wind down routine - bath etc)
6.30 Eat (BF)
7pm Sleep (always put to bed awake to self sooth with paci)

Then all hell breaks loose!!  She wakes at all different times during the night - sometimes takes a full feed sometimes doesn't.  I always try the paci first, sometimes it works but she generally wakes an hour later and takes a full feed.  She was born 11lbs 12oz & is very healthy (chubby).

Am I being selfish??  I would love for her to sleep 7pm to 7am.  I would even be happy to do 1 feed early morning.  Can anyone see where I am going wrong?

[shimzy]

If she is nearly 6 months, it seems she is getting alot of day time sleep.

Anyone else?

[Colin Macs Mom]

I agree. I would drop the evening catnap and adjust her daytime naps a bit as well. Hard to say how much - only you can know for sure. But at LEAST drop the catnap IMO.

[Anthea01Charlie]

Thanks for your replies.  She has started waking early from her naps and I am holding off bf until the 4 hour mark.  I am also gradually using PU/PD to strech out her nighttime feeds.  Thanks again for your replies.

[M and N's Mom]

I noticed you have solids at 6pm and BF at 6:30.  The solids might be interfering with the amount of BF she is taking and BF, not solids, will help her go longer at night.  6 months is pretty young to be having 3 meals a day...most don't even start solids until 6 months.  We (and others I know) didn't start solids in the evening until DS was sleeping longer stretches at night.

[owensmommy]

Hi there - just wanted to share our story so that you know others are in the same situation.  Our ds struggled with very bad colic and needs a lot of assistance to fall asleep - then he wakes as often as every 45 mins.  Good luck.  I think I'll drop the evening solids and see if that helps.

[Shellha]

You are completely NOT selfish to want your DD to sleep thru the night, isn't that what every Mum wants :-) We struggled with my now 7mo DS for a long time in terms of getting him to sleep thru, but finally at almost 5 months he started and hasn't looked back. We still have rough nights but I don't feed at night anymore. Once you feel confident that she isn't waking due to hunger try and stop feeding at night - then she won't associate waking with a feed.

We kind of got sick of the NWs and took an all or nothing approach - we basically threw everything at it, with the help of Becaq the EASY mod - might be worth PMing her for help as she is GREAT :-)

I know everyone is different, and by the sounds of it your DD is a lovely good size, so I can understand giving 3 solid meals a day. That is what worked for us - stuffing my DS so full of food he couldn't wake up! he has been on solids since 4.5mths and was on 3 meals a day from just under 6mths.

We dropped the catnap around 5.5months, and his daytime sleep then increased (we had 45 min naps for the longest time!) - I would suggest, like the others, that you look at trying this.

Once you have dropped the catnap you can move her afternoon solids earlier - perhaps 4.30ish. I would try giving her, if you don't already, something carb rich - sweet potato is slow release as is chicken and helps aid sleep, and I do a brown rice puree that I mix with fruit that definitely helped things along.

Not sure if your LO is in her own room - if not, try to move her in ASAP as that helped HEAPS with our NWs.

Do you DF? We are weaning from this at the moment and although I am still breastfeeding I do a formula feed at night and it certainly helped.

The other thing we did at 6mo, and it might just be that it worked for us, but we stretched A time to 3 hrs, so similar routine to you but if waking at 10.30, would go down to sleep at 1.30, and then if waking at 3, would be awake 4 hrs till bed at 7 - we had alot of grizzly evenings but it certainly helped.

Best of luck and don;t for a second feel like you are wanting something that isn't rightfully yours - SLEEP and lots of it.

[Anthea01Charlie]

Thank- you everyone so much for your encouragement!!  Really appreciated in this time of sleepless-ness
Shellha,to answer some of your questions, yes she is in her own room and has been since we got home from hospital.  I was doing a DF but she started waking before I could give it to her.  We were going to bed at 7 and she would be calling out by 9pm, so I dropped that quick smart   Also she refuses formula so that wasn't an option.
I am working on streching "A" time to 3 hrs but I have to be carefull, if I turn my back she dropps off in her bouncer!! Dropping the cat nap has been a struggle. She gets so tired and grumpy-rubbing her little fists into her eyes and pulling her ears I guess it would only take a few days to adjust her routine.
On the positive side, her night wakings are getting less frequent.  She woke at 11pm and PU/PD till 12pm then woke at 2am B/F then didn't hear from her again till 6.30am!!  So I guess you could say I am winning the sleep battle!!

Thanks again to everyone for your suggestions, I am trying them all!!!!!

[Layla]

Hi, I just wanted to sympathise with you. In my case, #1 didn't start sleepiung straight through until she was 9months. She absolutely couldn't handle more A time and refused to drop the catnap until 9months old. She would wake at 6.30am, had a nap at 9am (1hr max), 12.30pm (1-1.5hrs) and catnap at 4pm with a bedtime at 6.30pm. She just needed the sleep so I waited it out. Then I noticed she was taking less at nightfeeds and dropped them altogether. I was pregnant with #2 thou so by the time #1 started sleeping through, my belly got bigger and I couldn't sleep myslelf . Then of course #2 was born and the whole thing started again. I finally managed to cut the nightwakings from like 5 (lol) to about 3 and only for the past month has she been sleeping better at night with at least 1 nightwaking. She still has yet to sleep all night and when she wakes she truely is hungry. I thought of a less stressful way of cutting the nightfeeds (less crying, that is cause I didn't want the crying from pu/pd or shh/pat to wake #1 at night) so I would water down formula. Worked like a charm and she started taking more at day feeds and less at night. My ped told me that 1 to 2 night feeds up until 9 months is normal so I guess I've expected it from the start but I do miss a good nights' sleep. My girls are early birds are well and start their day before 7am. I know that its been suggested to drop the catnap but I just wanted to let you know that mine had kept hers until she was 9 months.

With #2, she wakes at 6.30am, has a nap at 9am (1-1.5hrs), nap b/n 12.30-1pm (for 1-1.5hrs) and a catnap at 4.30 for 45 mins. Even with the catnap she will go to bed for the night at 6.30pm and will actually fall asleep within 5-10 mins. She wakes at night anywhere from 10pm to 1am (every night is different), will have a full feed and then up at 6.30am. I have tried to drop the catnap but she was sooo tired from the whole thing and she started waking more frequently at night as well as up at like 5am in the morning. Clearly overtired and not ready....I think some babies do need more sleep than others.

Good luck
Layla

[Anthea01Charlie]

Hi Layla, thank you so much for sharing your story Finally I don't feel like I am doing something wrong and that maybe LO just isn't ready to sleep thru the night yet!  It is also great to hear that the ped says its "normal" for them to wake for 1 - 2 feeds!!
Just like your #1 my LO just cant handle anymore awake time.  She is also an early riser but I try to leave her in her cot until at least 6.45.  I like the idea of watering down the night feeds, but a little hard with the B/F   I will try putting her down earlier for the night as I know she is very tired (maybe over tired) by the time we do last feed then bed.
Thanks again for your encouragement and support
 

[M and N's Mom]

I like the idea of watering down the night feeds, but a little hard with the B/F  

I BF too, so what we did since we couldn't water down the bottle, was I watched the clock for a few nights.  If my DS was usually nursing for 10 min at night, I only let him have 9 min for a few days, then 8 min for a few days, etc. until it got that he wasn't waking to feed because it wasn't worth it.  He wasn't happy when I took him off before he was done, but then I used shh/pat to settle him back to sleep.  It took a while, but it worked.  Once I was convinced he didn't need to eat, I sent DH so DS knew he wasn't going to get fed.

[Layla]

That's a really good idea about limiting the amount at the breast. You could also (that is, if your lo will take a bottle) express in the morning for the night feeds and water that down  .

How's things going at the moment. Mine is showing signs of dropping the catnap. She is starting to fuss alot before she falls asleep but then again she is 8 months today, so i guess its about the av age for them to drop it. She still needs it thou as she is up from her pm nap at 2.30 and there is no way she would be able to do 4 1/2 hrs till bedtime. Last night woke at 2.30am for a feed and then at 6.15 for the day.

Layla

[KELLYTOYS]

HI


Just wanted to say my baby is the same, she is 6 months and has never sleep though the night.  We onve had 8pm- 1am but that was a long time ago.   I am still bf but I am think of giving one bottle of formula at 10pm to see if it will help.  any thoughts??

I have not given any milk products todate because dd2 is intollarant to them and I was concerned that dd3 could be but HV as told me to try.

deb

[Anthea01Charlie]

Hi everyone, well we hit  a little bump in the road last night!!  I am sure that the night wakings are due to paci dependency, so last night we put her to bed as normal, did W2S at 9.30 then she woke at 10.30 (as she has for the last few weeks!!) so we did PU/PD (without the paci) and my beautiful Angel baby became very Spirited/Grumpy!! 

She lasted an 1.1/2 hrs screaming    DH suggested putting the paci back in as he couldn't bare it any longer.  Poor LO went thru all that    so sad.  She then woke at 3 and refused the paci, so I knew she was hungry.  I thought she was ready to drop the night feed, but maybe not.  Looks like I will have to wean night feeds using your suggestions rather than go "cold turkey". 

Layla, sound like you and your LO have things all sorted    Will be interesting to see how she goes dropping the cat nap - hopefully it doesn't affect your nights.

Deb, not sure about introducing a bottle at 10pm - if you are replacing a B/F I guess that would work.  I don't do the DF cause I think I will just have to wean in a month anyway!!  Let me know how you go - maybe I should do it  who knows, so hard to make a decision when you are sleep deprived!!!

[KELLYTOYS]

hi


we had a really bad night last night too.  Baby waking every hour!!

I have got her in today to see the doctor.  I started giving her milk product yeserday(rice pudding)  and I wonder if this upset her stomach?  dd2 is intollerant to milk

deb