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Offline Nani

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5 month old - Waking every hour
« on: December 29, 2006, 16:09:19 pm »
My son is 5 months old and for the past 4 nights he has been waking up almost every hour.  I do not believe that he is teething.  Usually he is able to go back to sleep by being shh’d, rubbing his forehead or by giving him his pacifier.  Other times I have fed him (once usually), which is typical during the night. 

I am currently breastfeeding and sometimes I gather from his reactions after the second breast that he wants more.  Could this be affecting his nightly sleep? 

I am not sure of what to do about his hourly wakings.  Please help this sleep deprived mother!

His EASY schedule is as follows:

He wakes up about 8 a.m.

E around 8 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.
A 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
S 9:30 a.m. – 11 to 11:30 a.m. (1 ½ - 2 hour nap)

E 11:30 a.m.
A 12:00 p.m. – 1 p.m.
S 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. (1 ½ - 2 hour nap)

E 3 p.m.
A 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
S 4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. (1 – 1 ½ hour nap)

E 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
A 6:30 – 7:15 p.m.
E/S 8 p.m. (usually has a feed before bed)

For the past few months, he has been swaddled during the day and at night he sleeps in a sleeping bag (his arms are free). His nap or bedtime routine is the following: he is placed in his swaddle or sleeping bag while in his crib, he is given his pacifier, his forehead is rubbed and a white noise machine is put on and he will usually fall asleep fairly quickly. 

He will sleep from about 8 p.m. to about 11 p.m – 12 a.m., then wakes up crying/screaming.  I calm him down and then an hour to an hour and a half later he wakes up again.

I should also mention that this schedule is fairly new, about 2 weeks ago, my son would only nap for 40 minutes during the day, sometimes 4 – 5 naps a day.  Regardless of interventions I tried, 40 minutes was his maximum and that lasted for about 3 months.  However, during this time, he would sleep 6 – 8 hours and then wake up for 1 feed in the night and then go back to sleep for 4 – 5 hours.

Thanks,
Andrea
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Offline Jenny_Jen

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2006, 18:33:11 pm »
JMO but sounds like teething to me.  My DS wakes every hour & doesn't nap much when he's teething.
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Offline abbysmomma

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2006, 20:32:33 pm »
Hi.. I've been going through many of the same problems, and I was looking at your schedule. It seems like your LO sleeps a lot during the day! I have a very similar situation, and I keep thinking that maybe the day sleep is starting to rob the night sleep. I pretty much have to force Abby to stay awake for longer than 2 hours, and I try to keep her day sleep to 4.5 hours max - I try usually for 4 hours. If Abby has one two hour nap, the other nap is max 1.5 hours and the catnap is as short as i can make it (45 min usually). And while I still have multiple night wakings, I think I might have them until I can wean her from her one night feed. I don't think she understands that sometimes she gets to eat when she wakes up, and other times she must keep sleeping. Anyways, I don't have a lot of advice - just letting you know that you're not alone! Oh, one other thought - maybe going through the six month growth spurt early? If so, keep feeding, and hopefully it will go away! Good luck!
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Offline Nani

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2006, 01:38:42 am »
I really don't think that my LO is teething.  Thanks for the advise about the naps.  I thought that he might be sleeping too much as well, but as I mentioned about 2 weeks ago, he was only giving me naps that lasted 40 minutes  :o!  I was starting to go crazy with his schedule and no matter what I did, 40 minutes was the max (today he gave me one 2 hour nap and two 40 mintue naps - we'll see what happens tonight).   Then when he finally started sleeping longer during the day (except today), I though this is great!  Then the craziness started with his final bedtime.  It seems it's a never ending battle, just when you think you have one problem solved, another one begins.  I am not sure what else to do for his evening wakings?
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Offline angelina and andrew's mum

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2006, 19:59:33 pm »
ive had same probs with dd-when she has short naps in the day she only gets up once in the night but when she has great naps shes up every hour during the night. i normally have to sshh her back to sleep(she still takes one or two feeds at night as well).
i cant offer much advice but just wanted to say hang in there, ur doing a great job. :)
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Offline Anthea01Charlie

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2006, 23:43:25 pm »
Seems we are having similar encounters!!  My bub was sleeping beautifully for 6 - 8 hrs a night until I moved her to the 4 hr routine and increased her daytime naps.  Originally she was taking 3 1 hr naps, now is taking 2 2 hr naps and a cat nap (following the routine from Traceys book) and her night wakings got worse.  I would rather her nap during the day and SLEEP at night, so 40 min naps are welcome during the day, so we can get some rest at night!!  Good luck with your LO - hopefully things get better for you.
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~Anthea~
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Offline Nani

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2006, 00:48:29 am »
Thanks for the feedback  :)  It is hard pill to swallow when your child just does not want to cooperate.  I am a control freak and I like routine and the moment things change, alarm bells go off in my head.  I myself, don't like the 40 minute naps, it seems as though I cannot get anythings done for me.  I also find that my LO wants many of them.  Today we had one 1 1/2 hour nap, one 40 minute nap and one 20 minute snap (as I call them).  It is 7:15 and hopefully he will sleep well tonight.  Thanks again for the advise and feedback, it's reassuring to know that I am not alone  :)
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Offline abbysmomma

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #7 on: December 31, 2006, 02:39:05 am »
Let us know how it goes. Maybe I need to do the same with mine!
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Offline Nani

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #8 on: December 31, 2006, 15:40:29 pm »
Well last night was interesting, after one 1 1/2 hour nap, one 40 minute nap, and one 20 snap he was in bed by 7:15 pm and he woke at 12:30 am for a feed fell back asleep without any problems until 6 am.  I tried to soothe him, but he wanted to feed (I am currently bf).  I fed him and he went back to sleep until 9 am.  Maybe the night waking issue relates to his daytime naps.  I will see how it goes over the next couple of nights  :)  Thanks for all the feedback!  I do appreciate your all your help!
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Offline angelina and andrew's mum

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #9 on: January 01, 2007, 11:42:09 am »
thats brilliant nani-children are definately mind boggling!!
keep us posted and happy new year.xx
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Offline Lockie & Sam's Mummy

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #10 on: January 02, 2007, 01:27:26 am »
hi andrea,

looking at your schedule, it seems you're on a 3.5hr easy. have you tried transitioning to the 4hr easy? at 5 months, your lo should really be able to handle a 2hr activity period. i found a lot of my lo's sleep issues went away when i extended his "a" time & moved to the 4hr easy. anyhow, hope things get better for you soon!
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Livvy
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Offline Nani

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #11 on: January 02, 2007, 15:11:42 pm »
Hi Livy,
I just recently started the 3.5 hour EASY and am slowly trying to move to a 4 hour EASY.  However, I usually find that in the morning, my LO cannot stay up for very long (1 1/2 hour) and in the afternoon, early evening he has no problem staying up for 2 hours.  Any ideas?
Andrea
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Offline Lockie & Sam's Mummy

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #12 on: January 02, 2007, 21:30:26 pm »
hi andrea,

i had a similar problem with my lo's first "a" time & put up a post. i was given the advice to gradually increase his "a" time by 15min increments until i was at 2hrs. this worked fine for us, although very occasionally he won't *quite* make it to 2hrs & then there are days that he even makes it to 2hrs 15mins! you can increase more gradually if you feel your lo needs to go more slowly.

in tracy's book, she recommends working on extending the first "a" time, then once it's at the correct time, moving on to the next "a" time & so on until the whole day is on the 4hr easy. we found that increasing this first "a" time really helped with the whole day as he was able to take a really good first nap which is crucial to good napping/sleeping for the rest of the day.

also, you'll probably find that your lo will take fuller feeds when you move to the 4hr easy as he will be hungrier at each feed. your supply should adjust accordingly & hopefully the better feeding should help the routine too! anyhow, lots of luck & be sure to let us know how you're going...
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Livvy
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Offline Nani

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #13 on: January 02, 2007, 21:45:39 pm »
Hi Livvy,
Isn't that interesting, I knew about slowly increasing the A time by 15 min. increments, but I must of missed the part about working on the first A time.  That makes so much sense! 
Thanks so much!
Andrea
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Offline Nani

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Re: 5 month old - Waking every hour
« Reply #14 on: January 06, 2007, 01:26:26 am »
It's happening again  :o  Last night my LO was up almost every hour.  I fed him twice and the other times I gave him his soother, PU/PD, or rubbed his head.  His naps yesterday were very short.  He was up for two hours from when he got up, slept for only 1 hour.  Then was up for 2 hours again, woke up after 40 minutes I did PU/PD for 20 minutes and he fell back asleep for 45 minutes.  Then he was up for 3 hours  :P (I tried to put him to sleep after 2 hours, but he cried & screamed).  He finally fell asleep for 40 minutes and was up for over an hour before bedtime.  Is it his short naps that affected his night sleep? 
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