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Behaviour/development

Sleep routine sudden resistance/change- any ideas?.

15 replies

mummy2lola · 09/04/2013 20:35

Hi there,
I not a frequent mums netter, but I would appreciate it if anybody had any ideas on this...

Our dd 5 months has always been a pretty good sleeper and we've got our little routine that works for us to a tee,moor used to.
We used to bath dd and feed her ( shes ff 6 ounces 3 hourly and fed pureed fruit at breakfast) at 6pm, and then she used to be tired for bed after the 6pm feed then sleep solidly until about 5am.

Lately dd doesn't seem to be tired at all after the 6pm feed and bath, and tonight we've tried letting her stay up later, and then giving her a later feed, but she wasn't interested in a later feed at all. She's been waking up at about 2am instead of her usual 5am- she's not crying at this point, just sort of babbling, but when I out the dummy back in she then cries because she's seen me. If I just leave her babbling in hope she will babble back to sleep, she does eventually cry for our attention. Wen I offer a bottle at this point, she does take it, but to be honest she does love her bottles!
We keep things calm, and she has been teething, but it doesn't seem to bother her that much, so I wonder what it is????

I go to bed pretty early anyway, so that in the event dd does wake early, ie had a good chunk of sleep before hand, so I'm in bed by 9.
Why do you think she's waking so early? I'm making sure she's full up during the day, and even to the point where she often fusses with one bottle during the day and leaves it sometimes, but apart from that she's usually fed at 5am, 9am, 12, 3pm, 6pm and also half a pouch of organic fruit purée for breakfast at 8. Am I doing anything wrong here, ??. I trying my best

Would be interested in any tips or if anybody has been through anything similar, and what has caused her to wake for no apparent reason so early.

Thanks so much,
Look foward to hearing...

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CheungFun · 09/04/2013 20:47

Hello,

To be honest you sound like you're doing everything right to me! My DS is 15 months old, and my Mum did warn me that every time we got settled into a routine he would change it...and she was right!

I think at this age DS had 2/3 naps in the day time and I put him in bed at 7pm. I do find with DS that the better he naps in the day, the better he sleeps at night.

If your DD is teething, maybe you could try some teething powder, I think Nelsons do a homeopathic one, or maybe some teething gel and see if it makes a difference or not?

Sometimes their sleep is broken when theyre going through a developmental leap, so they wake up because their brains are too busy with what they've learnt in the day time!

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mummy2lola · 09/04/2013 21:15

Thanks for your kind advice
She's has teething gel & granules. I'm not sure why- it might be because she's a fidget... We still swaddle her because its the only way she will sleep. She won't even fall asleep on me... She just ooverstimulates herself, even when we try & calm it down, then cries . She naps once a day, do perhaps we should look carefully for more tiredness signs, so we can slip another nap in- she never naps for long... Perhaps 10 mins!! Phew... She tired me out, but I love her so much!!! X

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MajaBiene · 09/04/2013 21:18

Some babies are dropping from 3 to 2 naps at this age, could be that?

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CreatureRetorts · 09/04/2013 21:22

No too early to drop to 2 naps.

They have a developmental leap around 4/5 months where sleep goes a bit crap. As well as a growth spurt. So feed her and it'll pass - you could try reducing the bottle over time if she has it for a long time but likely she'll stop.

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MajaBiene · 09/04/2013 21:22

Sorry, just seen she only has 1 nap! Chronically overtired maybe? Most babies this age sleeping 11 hours a night would have another 3 hours of naps at least - say an hour in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. First nap around 2 hours after they wake in the morning, then leave 4 hours between waking from the second nap and bedtime.

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CreatureRetorts · 09/04/2013 21:24

Also has the night waking coincided with the fruit purée? I ask because fruit isn't exactly filling so you could be filling her up in the day with less filling food and she needs to catch up again at night.

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CreatureRetorts · 09/04/2013 21:25

Blimey missed the 1 nap too! That's not much for a baby that age.

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mummy2lola · 10/04/2013 20:27

Hi there- the napping & general getting dd to sleep is mission impossible & I've tried and continue to try everything.
I try rocking, standing, sitting, light, dark, music, silence, swaddling, walking with pram, driving....you name it. I literally spent 3 hours trying to get her to nap today as she was rubbing her eyes and grouchy, and when I succeeded after 3 hours, she eventually fell asleep for ten minutes- she really fights it and I can't think of any solutions I've not tried, and then when she finally gets to sleep, she's due a feed.
She has a couple of spoonfuls of puréed fruit, but not enough to fill her up. I've tried upping the milk, but she won't take anymore than 6oz currently, and won't go longer than 2 hrs and 40 Mins.

Am I doing something wrong???

I'm open to constructive criticism, and spend all my days putting my 110 percent into dd, neglecting myself completely to ensure she's catered for.

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CreatureRetorts · 10/04/2013 21:13

Don't neglect yourself at the expense of your dd! I found that I focussed too much on DS's naps (he's my first) and he didn't nap well. With dd, my second, I was more relaxed and couldn't spend ages getting her to nap - she had to fit around the existing routine. As a result she napped much better than ds ever did.

To be honest, I'd get out and about - try taking her for a walk about 90 mins after she wakes and see if she naps (I used a black out thing for the pushchair). If she sleeps, great, if not, doesnt matter. Perhaps do this on your way for a coffee or shopping trip or something for you.

As for the night sleep - I've seen loads of threads recently about babies at this age - so I would put it down to a growth spurt. Feed her at night as many babies need it still. If you think it's becoming a habit, reduce it gradually night by night to slowly wean her off.

I think you're doing fine!

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Miggly · 10/04/2013 21:20

Hi there,

My DS is 5 months and wakes at around 7.30-8am but still needs to be down for his first nap by 9 / 9.15 if he's to go down peacefully. If it gets any later than that he gets grouchy and finds it very hard to get to sleep at all. I have to go by the clock because he really doesn't give off any tired signs until he's actually overtired, and then we only know that from the crying.

My DD was exactly the same, but took me a very long time to realise it. Now three, she still is to a certain extent - a 7.30 bedtime is too late for her, and often upsetting all round!

So a bit long winded, but you could try getting her down for her first nap of the day an hour or an hour and a half after waking - babies often seem to sleep better the less tired they are...

(I found it really helpful with my DD to start to fill in a time chart of sleeping, feeding and crying - it was only then that everything stopped seeming so much of a blur and I was able to make sense of her a bit!)

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Miggly · 10/04/2013 21:26

meant to say, I agree with MajaBiene re the longer stretch before bedtime - we have about 1-1.5hrs to the first nap (DS sleeps around 45 mins / 1hr at this point), then can be up for around 2.5 hrs until about 12.30/1 when he naps again for a couple of hours and then manages a slightly longer stretch of about 3.5 (occasionally 4) hours awake till bedtime. If he hasn't napped well at lunch he'll sometimes drop off for about 15 mins in the sling when we're out and about late afternoon, but this doesn't seem to affect his bedtime (6.30-7) at all.

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MajaBiene · 10/04/2013 22:27

Taking ages to settle then waking very shortly afterwards sounds like over tiredness. I would start settling for the first nap 1-1.5 hours after she first wakes up. Hopefully if you can crack the first nap the others will fall into place.

45 minutes tends to be a single sleep cycle, lots of babies wake up after this. Waking after just 10 minutes is over tiredness though.

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Lynz1987 · 10/04/2013 23:11

Just read ur post I'm going through a similar thing with my DD she slept amazingly from 10 weeks old with only the occasional night feed which I would always give as she was so young but generally never woke for. Until a week ago.... It started with an 11pm and a 4am feed then up at 6am :0( I managed to wean her off the 4am as I thought it wasn't needed but still give DD a bottle at 12, she's teething cutting her first tooth at 4 month (eeek scary)!!! Which i think contributed mainly to her wakimg. But honestly i have heard so many mums with this problem at 4/5 month mark. Put it down to teething growing hunger. I've told myself it won't last forever....,
As for naps in the day my DD was awful!!! She went from falling asleep anywhere to being awake virtually all day!! I've stopped this now by using a gro bag instead of swaddling even during the day and unless we r out ( DD loves to sleep in her pram) I put her to bed at nap times. in her cot in the dark no fuss! first signs if a yawn it's upstairs no playing no talking same as at night it has worked so well. Despite DD teething she's a different baby
Sorry to ramble but thought I'd let u know ur not alone.

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Babygirlpw · 11/04/2013 05:05

My DD began these random night wakings as you have described at around five months. For about three weeks, she could be awake in the middle of the night for anything up to 1.5hours. Not crying, or necessarily hungry-largely babbling away and playing! Just as randomly as she started doing it-she has stopped! So, I wouldn't worry too much, I agree with other posters its likely linked to a growth spurt.

Agree with others on the napping.. My DD has her first nap 2 hours after waking, prior to this random night waking phase she would nap 1.5hrs after waking. Hope that helps. Sounds like you are doing great.

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workingmumto1 · 11/04/2013 08:46

My DD slept through the night (12-13 hours) from 3 months, then at 5 months decided to start waking up every 3-4 hours. I tried feeding her as she seemed hungry and although this did put her back to sleep, by 6 months she was waking up to 7 times a night. It wasn't until my mum suggested that she might be hungry for food and want to start more solids that I realised that this was her problem - we started feeding her 3 meals a day and within two weeks she was back to sleeping through (of course a couple of weeks after that she learned to crawl, and woke up for that, then she got a cold, then at 9 months she was walking and so woke up to practice that, then she got tonsilitis and so woke up because of that!)

I would say that I really wish I'd never started feeding her back to sleep, because I've only just managed to stop her 'needing' that now (at almost 11 months). It was fine at the time, but slowly every time she woke briefly in the night, she wanted a feed - whereas before she would settle herself back down without ever really waking up.

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