Early wakings getting worse and worse- really at a loss

[mommamatar]

Hi all,

Jaime, thanks for your advise... I will try to 4 hour feeds as that is probably were we are graduating to.
Typically when he has woken he is not hysterical, but the one 5am wake up, he was cyring a lot and  nothing worked except a feed.  And it was a full 8 0z feed. Like your Mikey, he did not want a bottle at 8am, only 2 oz or so. The other times, it wasnt hysterics but he needed a bit of a pat/sh.  I have been letting him whimper a bit more and telldh not to go into  him. Have not tried pu/pd yet.  Sometimes it works others not.  Guess as I am working now sleep for me and dh is more precious. Also, #1 is next store and absolutely cannot have him up to.

With the solids I had already tried to introduce the cereal on a spoon at the last night feed.  He seemed to take really well to it, but wanted nothing to do with his bottle after that. Maybe too much I gave him.  I also did a DF at 10:30 and he still drank 6 oz.  That was when the night wakings/early awakenings kinda started happening too? Weird. So I stopped and just gave formula again with the last DF.  My ped said I could give rice cereal at 10:30 instead of a bottle- but who the heck wants to do that?   I am going to try again but in reverse order, bottle first and than a bit of rice cereal.

Maybe try solids at Mikeys last feed at night followed by bottle? Feed the solids 30 minutes to hour before Sleep? For the morning, do the mid morning after a nap?  You are right, it is very trial and error. I cant even remember what I did with #1 and that was only 3 yrs ago.  I did not know from BW, but #1 is an awesome sleeper still and naps from 12-3 even on weekends.  I used the Babywise methods which are similiar but harsher... I hope I dont go there with the CIO  but at 4:30 it is very tempting.

Oh and that Tylenol .... I swear the night I gave it to my  loy, thought his teeth were coming in .... slept w/o a peep. 

Thanks again and good luck this weekend, get some naps when DH is home. I know I still do when my guys are napping.

Wendy

[texasmom]

Hi girls,
My computer is down, and I haven't been able to get on.  I'm on DH's work one now.  I hope you all are doing well.  Collin is sick    Poor thing. 

Brooke

[texasmom]

How are you guys doing?   

Jaime still on vacation?

[jmosery]

Sorry haven't been around. Was on vacation.

Had a great time. Mikey was a completely different baby away. I think being out of the house all the time totally agrees with him. I wish we could do it everyday. I want to be home with him so badly, even DH agrees but we just don't know how we would do it money wise. Makes me sad. I was so sad to have to come to work today. Hopefully the feelings will go away soon because before I felt good about my choices for him and us.

Mikey did great on the plane both ways. Going there he did cry for 10 min. half way through but he was just a bit tired and hungry and once he got a bottle, he was all good. The thing I did learn was that he doesn't need to eat as much as he's been eating. We've been feeding him bottles every 4 hours and solids in between. The kid hardly ate while we were away. We cut his bottles to 6 oz. instead of 8 and just waited for him to show signs of being hungry. We did the same for his sleeping and let me tell you, it just felt better. Better than being on some schedule. I mean we never are with sleeping, but I always was with eating. So I told my nanny that from now on we wait for him to get hungry before we feed him. So we'll see how that goes.

He still wakes between 3-5 for a bottle but then goes back to bed till about 6:30-7 and goes down between 6:30-7, so for now i'm just going to go with the flow and hopefully that bottle at 3-5 will disappear. I just like sleeping till 6:30-7 and don't mind getting up for a quick feed.

Nothing new developmentally. No crawling or even trying. Kinda stinks. what can you do. I can't believe our little ones are getting so big.

OH, if you want to see pics from vacation, here is the link

http://www.samsphotoclub.com/share/g...90&sid=2716788


jaime

[texasmom]

Hi Jaime!  I'm sooo glad to hear that you had a good trip.  I wrote you this long post about when we took Collin on a trip - I wanted to assure you that everything would be fine - and the website went down right when I tried to post.  

Collin is great out of the house too.  

So where do you work?  Is it possible to go part time?  If not, don't make yourself feel guilty about not being home with him.  You are a great mom.  And you guys have quality time when you are home.  It sounds like you are home more than most working moms.  Didn't you say that you come home for lunch?  And you have a great nanny.  

Collin has not had any developmental milestones lately.  It was so weird b/c in one week, he started doing like 5 things, and now it's been a long time since he's done something new.  

He had a nasty cold last week, so it was thrown off, but generally here's what he's been doing for a while:

Wake - Usually around 5:45, but sometimes earlier (usually no earlier than 5:25, but even sometimes earlier than that) and sometimes later - as late as 6:15/6:30.  
Nap 1 - 8:45-10:15
Nap 2 - 1:45-3:15
Asleep for the night - 7:00 (sometimes a little earlier and as late as 7:30, but usually 7:00)

We are not super regular though.  He varies from day to day.  I'm just going with it.  

As far as eating, here's what we generally do:
6:30 Bottle
8:00 Solids
10:30 Bottle
11:00 Solids
When he wakes from his nap - Bottle
Maybe a little solids in sometime here
4:30/5:00 Bottle (I add this one in b/c some days he eats a LOT - this is to help him get through the night if he needs more that day.  Most days he doesn't eat much at this bottle, but like yesterday and the day before, he ate 8 oz at all 5 bottles - that is a lot for him though)
6:35/6:40 Bottle right before I lay him down

I tried to click on the link to your pictures, but I couldn't get to it.  It said page not available.    

I'm glad you had a good time!!  

[jmosery]

BROOKE

try this link

http://www.samsphotoclub.com/share/guest_enter.asp?id=5494048&sid=2717695


So Mikey this morning woke at 5:30, fed him a bottle and he slept till 7am

i kind of like this schedule as I get to sleep later, no more cat naps either. hmmmm not bad

hopefully today goes well too

[Ali's mum]

hi everyone!

things have slowly yet surely greatly improved around here - we've had a couple of setbacks, namely teeth and such, but here's a couple of changes made to the ol' routine:  i've switched nap #2 and dreaded catnap around and it's working like a dream, and we've pushed the crib out of our room at night = sounder sleep for ali, dad, and mum!!!  ohhhh it's a much happier household...

the dreaded catnap switch has been fantastic.  here's the new schedule, and i do mean schedule not routine! (remember, i have a textbook boy):

7am wake and bf
8am solids
8:30/9 nap #1 for 1.5 hrs

11am bf
12pm solids
1ish catnap for 45 minutes (i must wake him up gently)

3pm bf
3:30/4 nap #2 for 1.5 hrs
5:30 solids
6pm bath or very quiet play time
7pm bf
7:15 bed time

this is working very well for us, especially with arranging any go out or chore times right after that 11am breastfeed session - it always makes for an easier catnap on the road and easier wake up from it then he's good and zonked out for that nap #2... voila!!!

 
~kriddy~

[jmosery]

KRIDDY- thats great that its working so well for you. whatever works huh??

he's sleeping consistantly through the night? thats great

So last night Mikey went to bed about 6:45-7pm and slept till 6am. i fed him a bottle and put him back to sleep but he was up for the day. which is fine but we had a day with a cat nap today and bed time at 7pm. wasn't bad actually because he only slept an hour in the morning. so not too much sleep time. hopefully he sleeps longer than 6am tomorrow morning. i like the days with no cat nap

[jmosery]

Well ladies

my early riser is back and I'm exhausted and dont know what to do

yesterday was 6am, which wasn't bad. we did a cat nap and he was in bed at 7pm

then this morning he woke at 5. i gave him a bottle and put him back to bed. he was hysterical. i tried shh/pat, which by the way no longer works at all. its just too stimulating for him. so even with naps, once he wakes, he's up because I can't do pu/pd with him or shh/pat. both make him even more crazy. so here we are wide awake. well he is at least for the next hour

so not sure how today is going to go. he'll probably be in bed by 6pm at the latest and still have a cat nap

so if he IS a 10 hour sleeper,  i need to get bed time pushed back to 8pm. i can accept he sleeps 10 hours and has a cat nap for now, fine, but then their is no way I am doing 7pm bed times and 5 am wake times. i am so tired right now and have a pounding headache from his crying. i feel like crying and boy i can't imagine what its going to be like with a newborn too. goodness.

[texasmom]

Hi there guys!

Jaime,
I LOVED looking at your pics.   

So sorry you're having such a hard time with Mikey's sleep.  Ugh. 

Do you think maybe now he might be ready to drop the catnap?  I don't know, just a thought! 

I think 8 pm would be great for bedtime - I bet he'd sleep later.  When we moved Collin's bedtime to 7 pm (that is actually when he is usually asleep), things got so much better (it was 6 pm before).  Generally he sleeps till 5:45, sometimes a little earlier, and sometimes a little later.  I was thinking of maybe moving Collin's to 7:30, but then I think the time change is coming... 


Brooke 

[jmosery]

BROOKE- thank you

Well, I have successfully changed Mikey's bed time to 8pm. About 2-3 days ago he had a fluke day where his cat nap was at 5:30. I couldn't put him to bed for hte night that early, so we did a cat nap and I kept him up till 8pm. He had no problems

he woke up the next morning at 5:15 as usual, so I fed him(which is another problem) and put him back to sleep. since he went to bed at 8 and not 6:30, he fell back asleep and stayed asleep till 7:20

so yesterday we started our day at 7:20 and went to bed at 8pm

he woke up at 5:30 this morning, i fed him and he went back to bed till 7am

so we've successfully changed his bed time till 8pm. which is great and i don't even mind when the time changes later beacuse I can just wake up early now, but not too early and get a workout in before he gets up. I would love that. i miss my morning workouts

i don't know if i mentioned here why i wanted to change his time but i figured that soon he'll be eating all regular foods and i really wanted thim to be up at night for dinner time and to see DH which he hardly ever does during the week

ok, he's up gotta run

jaime

[texasmom]

Soo glad to hear that it is working out for you.  That is fantastic.  I bet he will start sleeping till 7 regularly. 

Now to get rid of that darn feeding... Urg.  One thing I do that seems to help is a thing suggested to me when dream feeding didn't work.  I still do it.  It's clustering.  So I feed at 6:30, 10:30, 2:30, 4:30/5:00, and 6:30.  Solids twice a day in between feedings.  Those last feedings in the evening work well to get him through.  Also, is Mikey good at knowing how much he needs to eat?  Collin is good at it.  He will push the bottle away when he doesn't want it.  And he is 50th percentile for weight.  So I offer him 8 ounces at every feeding.  The clustering really helps when he goes through a growth spurt.  Normally he will eat about 30 ounces a day, but when he is going through a spurt, he eats A LOT.  Like last week he ate 43 ounces in one day.  But there was a day the week before he only ate 23.  So it evens out.  I just wondered if you did that, if it would help. 

So will he go to bed at 9 when the time changes?  Did you know it's changing early this year?  March 11 - 3 weeks away.  I can't decide what to do - leave it at 8 or do 7:30.  I do like the quiet evenings, AND I'm a morning person, so the earlys don't bother me TOO much (anymore anyway - I'm a little used to it after 3 1/2 months!)  I used to get up this early when I worked, so I TRY to think of it that way - this is my job, and I'm getting up early for it.   

OMG!  I had the worst day/night yesterday with Collin.  He is able to stay up much longer now.  It is weird.  So his last nap was late, and he would not go to sleep at 7 - got him to sleep at 8.  Then he was up at 2:45 and NOTHING was wrong that I could tell.  He has only done that one other time since he started sleeping through the night.  Anyway, he was up till 4:20.  I mean, I tried everything to get that kid down.  Finally he was hysterical maybe b/c so tired he couldn't go to sleep.  SO I resorted to food - it always calms him down when he gets that way.  He ate 4 ounces (all I offered) and zonked.  Then was up at 6!  So crazy.  It got me so scared.  I just keep thinking, "It had to be a fluke."  Please Lord, let it be.  He was super tired today after his first nap, which I had to wake him from after an hour b/c I had to go to church. 

Man, this sleeping stuff is hard.  I knew it would be before I had a baby b/c I have always needed sleep or I am not good at all.  But I didn't know it would be this hard. 

So how many kids do you and your husband want?  Was this one planned?  I have a friend who had a baby around the same time I did, and she's preg too - expecting in October. 

I have not gotten that far yet.  I mean, I really want Collin to have a sibling, and I do want another child, but I don't know if I can do it.  I don't know why this has been so hard for me, but it has.  I LOVE him to death.  It's just hard.  The not working part is hard for me.  I think about your scenario, and it sounds pretty good to me - work and have a nanny.  You do like that don't you?  Anyway, I figure I'll just see - hoping that by the time he is 2, I'll be ready for another.  But I don't think I'll go back to work for a while - it's really important to DH that I stay home, and it's important to me too.  Just hard. 

I'm just rambling tonight!

Take care!

So NOW I am going to be watching to see what happens with these longer A times.  Morning A time is about 3 hours 15 min and afternoon 3.75-4.25!  Wow!  It seems to have happened quickly - went from 2.75 to 3 and now this.  I got some advice from someone in NAPS. 

[jmosery]

BROOKE- I'm sure the night waking was a total fluke. I had that I think last week. One night he woke at 3am and was hysterical for about 40 min. and we had no idea why. I knew he wasn't hungry. But it only happened that once, thankfully. Hopefully it doesn't happen again for you. I'm sure it won't

Mikey and his bottles. The weird thing is that if he's the least bit hungry, he'll eat. If he's tired or really not hungry then he'll push the bottle away but i find that he finishes bottles way more than he probably should. Could be because honestly i think i've been overfeeding him all this time. When he was born, during his 2-3 months I was completely overfeeding him. His reflux was terrible, he cried a lot, spit up what I thought was the whole bottle. He was eating 40 oz. a day and i the reason he WAS in so much pain was because I was overfeeding him. I think I've been doing it all along. From 3-7 months, he's been eating 32 oz. of formula a day. four 8 oz bottles but still spitting up a ton. But I figured its what he needs and since the spitting up hasn't bothered him, I just kept doing it. But now that i've cut his bottles to 5-6 oz., six ounces for two weeks and now I just cut them to 5 oz. since he's been getting inthat extra bottle. Do you know he rarely spits up. Isn't hungry. So I think all this time i've been overfeeding him. which could be why he's a big kid. but I didn't know. people said he'll stop when he's full and sometiems he does, but most of the times he doesn't. he clearly does it with solids though. If he isn't hungry for solids, no way does he eat them.

lately his eating schedule has been

5:30- 5 oz. bottle
7:00- 1 tbl. yogurt, 1 oz. fruit(and he doesn't even finish it)
9:30- 5 oz. bottle
1:00- 5 oz. bottle, and since he's really hungry after this bottle, he's been eating 1 tbl. cereal, 1 oz. fruit in cereal, 2-3 oz. veggies
5:00- 1 tbl. cereal, 1 oz. fruit in cereal, 1 oz. vegetable
7:45- 5 oz. bottle

I feed him 3 meals of solids to give us something to do, but also because he really doesn't eat much at breakfast and dinner.

I thought if I cut his formula oz. from 32 to 24-25 oz. a day, he would eat more solids. I know his doctor is going to want to recommend cutting his formula even more at  9 months. I'd like to get him off of formula early if possible. Especially since the other baby is coming. I would hate to have to spend money on TWO for formula and deal with bottles and all. but we'll see.

I gave Mikey cherrios the other day for the first time. So cute how he chews them. Yesterday we were out to eat and I gave him some of my meatball. He liked it too. I'd like him to try as many of our foods as I can. I would love him to eat our foods. Especially now that we moved his bed time.

So we have successfully moved the bed time to 8pm. But wow, the time change IS early. I'll keep it the way it is for now and see how it goes. I would like to start getting up ealy to workout. I haven't worked out in a LONG time and I can feel the difference in this pregnancy beacuse of it. I'm much more tired. I honestly dont' know how people stay home taking care of other kids while they are pregnant. Let me tell you, after a weekend home with Mikey all alone(DH is no help), I am done. Yesterday I actually started crying to DH in the evening because my body hurt so much and I was so tired. I told him if he doesn't start helping more, I'm going to end up on bedrest and then he'll really see how much help he's going to have to do. So he did Mikey's bath, wohoo right and promised to start helpng more from now on. So we'll see

When I got back from vacation, i really didn't want to go back to work and bugged DH about me staying home once the new baby comes, but now, I don't want to. I give you guys SO MUCH credit for being SAHM. I really do. I don't know if its because I am pregnant or not but I am exhausted staying home a day with Mikey. Plus, honestly, I am bored. I love Mikey, don't get me wrong, but I hate being home and to play with the same toys over and over again and then to take care of the house too.I  just don't know how you ladies do it

sometimes I HATE my housekeeper. but i think its anyone that lives with you and takes care of your kid. sometimes they just get on your nerves. you know. but i assume thats natural. see with daycare, you drop the child off and know they are being taken care of. but you don't know EXACTLY what goes on each day. WIth my housekeeper, I know EVERYTHING. which is good but being the mom, of course you would do little things differently. you know? but she lvoes him, she never gets frustrated with him EVER. she really is good to him and she takes really good care of my house. its always spottless. so its a good thing.

this baby was definetly not planned. To get pregnant with Mikey, I went to a reproductive endo and needed Clomid, trigger shot(to ovulate) and an IUI. so after mikey was born i never got my period. i had an appt. the following week to see my gyno about BCP so i can get my period. But DH and I weren't using anything beacuse I figured, no period how can i get pregnant, but i kept taking tests hoping I was. I wanted to get pregnant, DH didn't.  we had planned to get pregnant when i mikey was about 12-15 months old but I kept telling him i wanted another and even made an appt. to my RE to talk to them about it. DH wasn't saying no, he just wasn't totally on board. and i didn't trick him in any way. i really thought, "how can i get pregnant, i haven't gotten my period after mikey and didn't get one before either" but one day I tested positive. I was so happy. DH freaked. but now he's happy about it but adament that this is our last one. I say the same, no more after this. thats why i hope it a girl. i know if its a boy, DH will bother me in a couple years for another as he doesn't have any sisters. but we'll see. we can find out next week on the 27th but he wasnts to keep it a surprise, i want to know. hopeflly at the u/s he'll change his mind

wow, i'm really babbling along

so anyways. what do you suggest on getting mikey out of that 5-5:30 wake up. he isn't waking for hunger. i've just been feeding him because its the easiest way to get him back asleep. sshh/pat just doesn't work anymore. it works to get him to sleep, but if he wakes early from lets say a nap, ssh/pat never works. it gets him completely hysterical. i think its too much stimulation. and pu/pd is too. so i'm at a loss. any ideas??

jaime

[jmosery]

ok, so mikey continued to wake up at 5:30 but today he didn't go back to sleep so i'm back to my 6:30 bedtime because he definetly needs more than 9 hours of sleep a night and in 3 weeks when the time changes it will be 6:30 wake up and 7:30 bed time. HOPEFULLY which is a nice schedule.

lets cross our fingers I don't get a 3 am wake up tomorrow

[texasmom]

Jaime,
How long did you try 8:00?  When we switched to 7:00, it was worse for a few days, but then it got better.  Just FYI if you ever need to do it again.  But you like 7:30?  Just 3 weeks away.  I think that's what I want too. 

Collin has been sooo overtired.  At least I hope that's why things have been wacky for us.  He's hardly sleeping at all.  He's a mess.  Last night he woke at 11:00, crying, and was up for 15 min.  Then he was up for the day at 4:30.  Asleep the night before at 7pm.  UGH.  I put him down early b/c he has been so tired today.  6:30 asleep.  Anyway, I HOPE tonight is better.  We've had 3 yucky ones now.  That kid is so prone to night wakings when he gets overtired.  The day before he was up for the day at 4:15!!!     I can explain this with him just getting over the flu.  Like I said, I hope that's all this is.  Trying to be patient. 

Are you still doing the early feeding?  I wondered if that would cause him to start waking at that time b/c he is used to eating.  Like he might sleep at some point in the future (?) if not wanting to eat.  As far as suggestions, I can't remember if you said rocking works.  That's what I do.  And a paci.  But it's usually pointless if Collin wakes after 5.  Jim tried this morning, and it didn't work then either. 

The stuff you said about staying at home is exactly what I struggle with.  It IS hard.  I found someone that I can pay $25, and she will keep him for the day.  She keeps kids in her home.  She goes to our church - so we know her well.  I thought that would help me.  I do work on Thurs and Fri's for 4 hours, but sometimes I NEED a day alone. 

That is so great that you got pregnant after having so much difficulty with Mikey.  Let me know if you decide to find out what you're having!   

Let me know how you're doing.  We were doing so great.  7pm-5:45am.  I thought that was good for us.  Hope ours gets better.