Please help!!! I need sleep

[Serides]

Hello,

My LO is 6 months old. We have completed the 6monts growth spurt. He was sleeping from 8am to 8pm when he was 3 months. When I began to switch from 3 hours easy to 4 hours easy his waking time has begun to be earlier. Now it is 6am!!!!

He is also waking during night once or twice. There is no ruglarity on those. Sometimes he falls asleep with shh-pat sometimes needs to be BF. I can't make W2S as most of the time he is up around 5 o'clock.

I tried late bed time. Late and early DF.

Most of the time he sleeps 45min to 1 hour in the rocking chair only if his daddy holds him.

Please help me to make his wake up time one hour later or so.

Here is our routine
6:00 wake up
6 - 6:45 rocking chair
7:00 BF
A
9:00 - 10:30 Sleep
11:00 BF
A
13:00 - 14:30 Sleep
15:00 BF
A
17:00 - 17:45 catnap
A
19:00 BF
Bath - Bedtime Routine
20:00 Sleep
22:30 DF

[blue2006]

Have you thought of dropping catnap?  Not sure if it would work but Tracy suggests catnap can go between 6-8 months.  Then you could bring bedtime earlier (a good bedtime is between 7 or 7.30 according to Tracy in her Problem solving book).  Tracy also says late to bed more often then not results in early wake ups.

What is your bedtime routine?  And how does lo fall asleep? Also are you introducing solids soon?  Wake ups that are inconsistent are more likely to mean waking because of hunger.  If lo used to sleep through and has started waking it might be a cue to start him on solids.

Hope the info helps.  I'm sure the mods will be along to help you soon.

Tasha

[momofclaire]

Hi!

Tasha was right, one of us would be along soon   however, I think she has given great advice.  For a month or so, around six months, Claire was waking at 6 or 6:15.  I just went with it and it lasted a short time.  I think dropping the cat nap is a good idea if your naps are solid as you don't want an overtired baby on your hands.  I also think his bedtime is too late.

[Serides]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Let me try to give you some more information about what I tried.

I tried to drop catnap. However he is getting overtired and doesn't fall asleep easily and in that case wakes more than 3 times during night.

Going to bed earlier is also something difficult for us because I'm working until 7pm and feeding him immediately when I stop working in my home office. I'm feeding him, giving bath, having silence activity for 10 minutes and going bed and sleeping in 20 to 40 minutes in his cot. Howeer today I don't have a meeting after 6pm therefore I will try to feed him at 6:30 and go to bed immediately.

introducing solid foods something that we have started. However he is eating a little as dinner. To be honest I don't have problem to get up and BF him during night. What I can't do is to wake up at 6am.

[momofclaire]

If dropping the cat nap has caused problems then an early bedtime is a must.  If you can't get him to bed earlier then I would offer the cat nap and see if it gets better.
6 months is a rough time for sleep.  There are many milestone things going on.  Is he rolling or trying to scoot or crawl?
When did you start solids?  I would advise to not feed him solids at the dinner meal because some babies have a hard time adjusting. 

[Serides]

It has been only 5 days which we are trying solids. However it is not solids like pear or pea. I'm trying soup and rice cereal. he doesn't eay more than 7 or 8 teaspoons. I don't think that 6 o'clock is related to that as we are facing it since almost 2 months now.

As I'm working until 7 everyday I can't make him go bed earlier. Today his nanny tried to cut cat nap but he couldn't stand after 6 and sleep until 6:45 which caused a later sleep 8:30.

If i can eliminate irregular wakings due to hunger by introducing solid food then I can try W2S again. As he is sleeping in the rocking chair while daddy holds him, this 6 o'clock waking is 100% habitual I believe. What do you think? Is my situation complex?

[momofclaire]

It's not horrible complex    All babies are a bit complex as they simply won't just tell us what will solve their problems. 

I think I would do two things.  First, don't feed solids for dinner.  Since you have only been on them two weeks, you shouldn't be giving him solids at every meal.  Introducing them very slowly is the best thing to do.  If the 6:00 waking is habitual, and it sounds as if it is, I would try W2S.  Are you familiar with how it works?  It takes at least three days to break the habit, maybe more so if it works ones night, I would do it two more and then see how he does.

Hope that helps
Myia

[blue2006]

Definitely try w2s on the 6am wake up.  So you’d be waking lo at 5.

BTW 6-8 teaspoons is a good start!  I couldn’t get my boy to have more than two for the longest time!  Can you tell us what time you are giving solids. Dinner to me can be midday or evening depending on what part of the country I’m in! lol

Also how does he wake in the morning?  Does he cry until you go to him etc?

If w2s doesn’t work you might like to reconsider early to bed.

It gets tricky when you have to work so late.  The idea of an earlier bedtime (in your case it would be 6pm or 6.45 at the latest!!!) is to recharge a lo that may be waking early due to overtiredness it’s not a permanent thing.   

The idea is to have your lo down 12 hours after waking.  By 8 your lo it probably overtired and overtired babies tend to wake early.  Perhaps you could try the early to bed over the course of a weekend.

Once the overtiredness is dealt with (if this is what’s causing the early wake ups) you can then shift the bedtime to one that suits your lifestyle.

Are you able to let your lo sleep till 8?  You’d need to tweak you BF times as well.  So you feed more like 8, 12, 4 and 8 (7.45).  If you stay on the times assumed for a 7-7 baby your lo will wake for that 7 feed and not have the op for 12 hour night. 

What do you think?  I hope w2s works for you!

Tasha

[Serides]

I've tried W2S. However it is not possible to make W2S when he wakes to be fed at 5:00am!!! I will try it again. I hope this time he will get hungry earlier so that by 5 he will be asleep ;-)

If it won't work I will try this weekend early bed. Yesterday I managed to get him to sleep at 7:30pm. However it didn't work he woke at 6am again.

He wakes up with pleasure at 6am. And 9 out of 10 times he is getting asleep again in the rocking chair for an extra 1,5 hour.

Also I have decided not to try dinner (I was trying it at 6:30 - 7:00pm) but instead try introducing solids at 3:00pm in the afternoon.

I will try all of these for a week or so and let you know the result.

thanks a lot

[Serides]

I need advise. Don't know what to do...

My LO didn't have catnap yesterday as he woke from his last nap at 3:15pm and then slept at 7:45pm. Then we woke at 1:45. I managed to get him back to sleep in his cot. Then he woke at 2:50 and BF. Then 4:45 first he slept back but in 5 minutes woke again. I BF him he slept and then in 10 minutes woke again. He slept back at 5:40 and slept until 7:15. And then slept until 8:15 in the rocking chair.

I couldn't do W2S as he was awake at the time I supposed to do W2S. However as he slept until 7:15am I believe his waking at 4:45 acted like W2S. But I couldn't understand why he woke that much. Although I thought that he was not hungry at 4:45 and BF him to get him asleep but it didn't work.

I'm thinking these frequent wakings can be because of either overtiredness or early sleep. I couldn't decide which one.

Now I need your advise for today. Which wake time should I take into consideration and get him sleep; 7:15 or 8:15.

I have also a generic question. If he wakes at 7:30am then if I feed him at 7:30pm before sleep then it takes almost one hour to get him sleep. Because I'm feeding him, bath, feed again as he gets very hungry after bath, bedtime routine(listenning lullby), sleep in 20 minutes. then if he wakes next morning at 7:30am this means that he sleeps 11 hours. And if he needs 12 hours of sleep then he will be sleeping for 11 hours and after a while this will cause overtiredness. Then what should I do? Should I feed him at the third hour so that he will be sleeping at 6:30?

[momofclaire]

You can cluster him in the evening, which would mean feeding at the third hour.
Is it possible he could be having a growth spurt?  6 months is a tough time because so much is going on. 

[Serides]

We had a growth spurt two weeks ago. Is it possible to have a second one.

[momofclaire]

Probably not that close together.

I would think the waking is due to overtiredness.  I would try to get him to bed earlier and really work on naps.  Hang in there.  I know for me 6 months was a rough time, but it does get better, I promise.

[Serides]

I have a generic question

If he wakes at 7:30am then if I feed him at 7:30pm before sleep then it takes almost one hour to get him sleep. Because I'm feeding him, bath, feed again as he gets very hungry after bath, bedtime routine(listenning lullby), sleep in 20 minutes. then if he wakes next morning at 7:30am this means that he sleeps 11 hours. And if he needs 12 hours of sleep then he will be sleeping for 11 hours and after a while this will cause overtiredness. Then what should I do? Should I feed him at the third hour so that he will be sleeping at 6:30?

[blue2006]

Hi,

You've got a lot going on haven't you!  There are many reasons for night wakings including hunger, habitual, teething, milestones ect. 

Aim for a consistent bedtime and wakeup, perhaps in your case it would be 8pm to 8am.  Don't let him sleep past 8am but if he wakes at 7 go with the flow, but stick to the 8pm bedtime.  12 hours sleep is an average.  If your lo is up and happy after 11 then this may be that's all he needs.  However if he starts waking early again that could be a cue to let you know he needs a few early nights as he might be overtried kwim?

I'm sorry I'm not sure what you mean by "should I feed him at the third hour so he is sleeping at 6.30"