Wakes several times and ...stays awake for hours ! Help!!

[wiinga]

Please help me as I am so exhausted I don' tknow if I'll manage to write this post in proper English.

My DD is 5 months old. She wakes several times at night and it takes me about 2 hours to resettle her. This is much the same as her activity time during the day!! She is bf and supplemented with formula. About a week ago I stopped bfeeding at night, because I thought that maybe the bfeeing became a prop, and she needs it to resettle at night. No teething or other problems.

Here is our daily routine.
7:00 Am Bf
A
9 - 9:30 nap (no way to extend this past the 30 minutes mark)
A
10:30 BF + 3 ounces of formula
12:00 - 3:00 Pm naps (why so long???)
3:00 Pm Bf
A
5:00 pm catnap 30 mins but not everyday, she often drops it
A
7:00 Pm bath, BF + 5 ounces formula
7:30 Sleeps
11:00 PM DF 5 Oz
12:00 Pm - 12:15  A
2 :00-4:00 A ((
3:00AM BF
4:00 Am S
4:00-7:00 AM sleeps 45 minutes and takes about 30 minutes to go back to sleep (

Our routine at going down is quite good I think. She lays in her cot and I stroke her on her head or tommy, so I think she goes to sleep quite independently, but yes, she uses a paci. When she wakes at 2 AM she doesn't cry. She just lays in her cot "singing" - as we call it. When I give her the paci she spits it out. until two weeks ago I would take her into my bed and BF her to sleep from 2 Am. I gave it up because she would never sleep longer than  30 mins, then I changed breasts and it started all again.

So this is what we have now. I really hope somebody could help me, as I have an older child, which I have to take care off during the day. I constantly feel like I'm not a good mother because I'm always tired, and don't have the energy to play with my 3-year-old son

[finlays mam]

Hi Wiinga,I have had similar issues and maybe could shed some light  .... a couple of things stood out to me, your afternoon nap looks  to be too long at 3 hours...i would wake your lo after 2 hours.  Your df could also be a little late try bringing it forward to 2230, it could be that your lo is unsettled because of the late feed, Tracy recommends feeding nearer to 10pm..... the other thing about the night wakings, if she's 'singing' leave her..she's obviously ok.

Hope this helps a little....i've gone thru this recently and posted and some posters suggested too much sleep during the day, and being overtired!!! it's a bit confusing isn't it???

[finlays mam]

......and by-the-way you're a GREAT mammy you're on this site aren't you?!! so that means you absolutely want to do the best for your lo's....don't feel bad

[weatherlyn]

my DS did exactly the same thing at five months, and it was solely due to his newfound mobility and his wanting to practise at night. My advice would be to make sure your daytime routine is sound, with the correct A times, make sure they get enough practise of crawling, rolling, sitting etc and as hard as it is, when they wake up and play, leave them to it, if you pick up and try and make them sleepy , its when AP starts, eventually they do fall asleep again. This stage lasted a couple of weeks with my son.

[Colin Macs Mom]

Ditto - the afternoon nap is too long for sure. Plus the mobility issue...    make sure that LO gets tons of time to practice during the day.

[suzie767]

hi my best suggestion is the 4 hour easy routine for babies over 4 months. my baby is 10 weeks old and pretty much follows the 3 hour easy to the letter. he sleeps from around 8 at night to 7 in the morning with only a dream feed and a night feed of arounf 3/4, sometimes 5.( i really hope he will drop this soon.

try followong the routine in tracys book to the letter for a week or so and i think everything will fall into place. any early wakings deal with using pu/pd until the next feed time. also if she is still asleep when her next feed is due wake her up and feed her.

i really think this will solve your problem as this worked for me!!!

[wiinga]

Thanks for all your advice!
I woke her up after 2,5h yesterday (Oh how hard it was  ), I shifted the DF to 10:40 pm. The last to nights seemed to be a little better: yesterday our DD woke only once (1,5h  ), and today she was only awake for 30 minutes!!
..But then we got up at 5:30 am.....
I'll keep you up to date...

[suzie767]

thanks, it seems like its working... i find these things do take time but a little improvement every day gives us some hope

[weatherlyn]

yup, i got all my great advice from jessica, colin macs mom at the time! and it was really good advice, it all really worked. it too shall pass... and then there will be something else waiting for you, at the mo, my DS has turned bedtime into a one hour drama he has total hysterics have a thread going about that at the mo.

[Colin Macs Mom]

Awwww  I'm really glad that I could help you    It really is always something though isn't it?