7 month old wakes up hourly!

[southernmama47]

I'm usually just a lurker but I could use some advice on what to do. I'm starting to lose my mind! DD is 7 months, and has always been a bad sleeper, but recently started waking hourly. She goes right back to sleep if I nurse her, but it's still super frustrating. Nothing really makes her calm other than boob. It makes it so I have NEVER gone out with DH alone since she was born. She doesn't do this in the day, and she takes 2 naps that usually last a couple hours each. I have no idea what to do. We do co-sleep, but she stays in the co-sleeper at the start of the night before I go into the bedroom with her. She wakes regardless if I'm there or not. She used to sleep 3-4 hours at a time and that was bearable. Could it be teething (even though she's been teething for a couple months already?) Or maybe a growth spurt? Any suggestions?

[whozeyermamma]

Hm. Hard to say - I've seen this 'waking up hourly" thing on other baby boards too around that age - my guess would be growth spurt.

My DS (5 mo) started doing that after he got sick - had a fever and was waking hourly to nurse - which was fine when he was sick. Not so great after he got better! Now, after midnight it's a total crapshoot - sometimes every 2 hrs, sometimes every hr. who knows!

After the holidays, I'm going to try the No cry Sleep solution - I've got to get some sleep too! I wish I had better advice!!

[memz]

My DD is now 10 months, but around 7 months she also started waking up hourly and I couldn't even put her down. She has always been a bad sleeper and still is. I don't have much advice....With time she went back to waking every 2-3 hours....It lasted from about 6 and half months to 8 and a half.....

[southernmama47]

That's what I was afraid to hear. That it barely gets better. We are going to start transitioning her to a crib, as sad as that makes me, because I think she is a light sleeper like me and would benefit from less noise and movement in bed with her. Hoping it can help. I'll also get the No Cry Sleep book, and see if it can help. 

[APToddlerMama]

No Cry Sleep Solution helped us a TON when my son was right around that age.  Good luck

[ellairiesmom]

dd2 is almost 10 mos & (knock on wood) the past week seems to be sleeping a little bit better.  better meaning not waking every 30-45 mins & needing my boob in her mouth to survive :)  but she is now fighting her naps which she used to take easily.  ???  we have the crib in our room & use it for naps & the shift she does before we come to bed & bring her in with us.  she is refusing to sleep in her crib now.  she sleeps in our bed, in the car or on me in a carrier or on the boppy.  

she also refuses a bottle or cup & the few times i have left to get a night out, dh had to load them in the car & drive them around so she would sleep.  

i was thinking the sleep stuff was spurt related since she started pulling herself up the past week but i guess she could just be bossy & difficult.

curious about the no cry sleep solution.  everyone here always mentions it.

[Knitting Mama]

Definitely could be related to mental leaps as well-- there is one around 37 weeks or 8ish months, and so really babies from 7-9 months go through it. Also, is she working towards any milestones like crawling or scooting or sitting really well or anything like that? Milestones can also cause horrible sleep. And of course teething.

[angelpie545]

No advice, but wanted to sympathize-my ds nearly the same way, except it's every 2 hours or so instead of everything hour.  Some nights, it can get up to every hour.  We've hovered between just breastfeeding and solids since solid foods tend to make him really REALLY constipated, so I'm rather certain he's waking out of hunger.  I'm trying to figure out an eating schedule/food that works for him without making him so constipated. 

[LiamsMommy]

Hi no advice here either but I have two non-sleepers.  Ds is now 7 and actually sleeps in his own bed all night. yay!  LOL! 

I wasted so much energy trying figure out what was bugging him and keeping him from sleeping when he was younger.  Of course there were the obvious things that would disrupt our sleep but then there were times with no rhyme or reason.  I have come to realize being sleep deprived is just part of being a mommy. 

When I do not have a LO disrupting my sleep I spend less time in bed.  Right now I have to go to bed earlier because I get a lot of interruptions.  This to shall pass is my mantra.  Enjoy your baby while he/she is still a baby.  They grow so fast.

[Snapdragon]

is he waking up because he is hungry? We are not dealing with anything on that level, but my 8 month old did switch from 4-5 hour sleep stretches to 2-3 hour stretches- and finally we recently decided to try feeding him some baby cereal before bed to see if he will sleep longer stretches because he usually wakes up, nurses and then goes to sleep again- so I am thinking the milk isn't holding him over for long enough stretches. we are actually trying it tonight for the first time so I don;t know how it will work but that is my suggestion to consider if it is hunger related.

[southernmama47]

I don't know if it's from hunger. She isn't on solids yet. We are attempting to do BLW and she hasn't really ingested food yet, just played with it a little. I am wondering if I should start her on mushier food, but I keep thinking that breastmilk is enough, so hunger shouldn't be a reason.

[Prairiemother]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama 

Definitely could be related to mental leaps as well-- there is one around 37 weeks or 8ish months, and so really babies from 7-9 months go through it. Also, is she working towards any milestones like crawling or scooting or sitting really well or anything like that? Milestones can also cause horrible sleep. And of course teething.

  I agree, at least from my experience.  Here's something that really helped me - removing ALL clocks from my vision at night so I didn't know how little sleep I really got.
 

[Asiago]

My son is 13 months now and over the past year he has gone through phases, sometimes nursing endlessly all night, once in a while he would wake up and want to sit up, etc.

Mostly these things just seem to pass. Their little bodies go through so much change the first year, I don't know how they could ever be very consistant with so much going on.

I would encourage you to hang in there, hopefully it's just a passing phase.

[Asiago]

My son is 13 months now and over the past year he has gone through phases, sometimes nursing endlessly all night, once in a while he would wake up and want to sit up, etc.

Mostly these things just seem to pass. Their little bodies go through so much change the first year, I don't know how they could ever be very consistant with so much going on.

I would encourage you to hang in there, hopefully it's just a passing phase.

I just reread your post. I cannot say for sure if this will help but my son sleeps so much better next to my body than in his co-sleeper. I don't know if your daughter would be the same but just wanted to throw that out there.

[Snapdragon]

for whatits worth so far the one night we tried with the cereal before bed he woke up just as much (last night) ! But I think it is worth tryng again anyway.

good luck though- that is a challenging thing to have them wake up that often

[Tattooed Hand]

My DD's sleep got really bad - from 3-4 hour stretches to every 2 hours to every 1 hour or even less. The arc was a bad phase from around 7 months until just recently, at 11 months, when she finally started walking. Food made no difference. We did make some changes in our sleeping arrangements - she now sleeps in a twin bed next to our bed (all beds on the floor) and our bedroom is a quiet and dark place with a white noise machine. Her bedtime is 7pm. I also tried some stuff from the No Cry Sleep Solution. I don't need to make her STTN in terms of never waking b/c she sleeps 12 hours a night and I can't go that long without food. So I just want her to go from 9 until after 3am. I started limiting nursing time, starting with unlatching her with my finger after 5 minutes and waiting for her to get used to that. Now we are down to 3 minutes from when she latches on and sometimes I can even get her back to sleep by patting and shushing her. After 3am, she gets to nurse for much longer. As a result we've starting getting some long stretches out of her, like 5-7 hours. This is all very recent, a month ago she was waking up every 45 minutes and I was a sleep deprived mess. But in the 4 weeks we've taken these measures, we've seen huge improvements. Though who knows if they would have worked had we done it earlier. she had a bad patch from 8-10 months and maybe nothing could have made things better.

Big hugs, mamas because I know how awful it can be. I hope you find a way to make things better or hang in there until they get better on their own.

[southernmama47]

Thank you all so much for the advice. It's so good knowing that I'm not alone in this. I keep feeling like I'm doing something wrong (even though DS was a perfect sleeper). I know that when all this ends, I will miss all the snuggles that we had together.

[lizsky]

I've been doing something similar to TattoedHand with my 8.5 month old because I felt like I was at a breaking point with fatigue.  Like many others, my DD's sleep which was never great became way worse around 6 months (waking every hour, and taking 30 to 90 min to get her back down) and it remained terrible despite trying a lot of things and keeping a sleep journal.  

A few weeks ago we decided to increase DH's nighttime parenting involvement.  I kept putting it off because I felt like DD was cutting a tooth, or she had a cold, or DH had too much going on at work and I felt like I should be able to handle it since I'm a SAHM...but eventually we decided there's never going to be a perfect time, and DH was very willing to try.  We don't do anything super rigid...if DD wakes up we just have DH soothe first rather than relying on nursing every time.  I was pretty skeptical about it, and nothing changed for a night or two, but now that its been a couple weeks, I can look back at the sleep journal and see that it really has helped a lot- even this past week when DD has been cutting a tooth.  At this point, DD can sleep until about 4am or so with just a few hugs and a little rocking from DH, and then from 4am on we nurse.  I'm trying not to get too excited in case it all falls apart again, but for now I'm enjoying the longer stretches of sleep and feeling more functional.  I hope something will change for you too.  

[Unlikely Mama]

What is your baby's bedtime?  Are you maintaining age-appropriate wake times between naps and before bedtime? (At 7 months, that is something like a max of 2.5-2.75 hours...)  It made a huge difference in my baby's sleep to have an early bedtime since she started the 3-2 nap transition at about 6.5 months (she is now 8.5 months.) Depending on her naps for the day, this means I put her to sleep anywhere between 5-6:30pm.  I know it sounds REALLY early, and possibly counterintuitive, but she actually sleeps more than when I was trying to keep her awake until 7-7:30.  If she naps great (mine doesn't), then you can probably get away with putting her to bed a bit later, while still maintaining a max wake time of 2.75 hours or so beforehand.  Just an idea! GL!

[southernmama47]

Originally Posted by Unlikely Mama 

What is your baby's bedtime?  Are you maintaining age-appropriate wake times between naps and before bedtime? (At 7 months, that is something like a max of 2.5-2.75 hours...)  It made a huge difference in my baby's sleep to have an early bedtime since she started the 3-2 nap transition at about 6.5 months (she is now 8.5 months.) Depending on her naps for the day, this means I put her to sleep anywhere between 5-6:30pm.  I know it sounds REALLY early, and possibly counterintuitive, but she actually sleeps more than when I was trying to keep her awake until 7-7:30.  If she naps great (mine doesn't), then you can probably get away with putting her to bed a bit later, while still maintaining a max wake time of 2.75 hours or so beforehand.  Just an idea! GL!

I always attempt to put her to bed at 6:30ish, but most of the time she won't sleep and I have to get her up and let her stay up for awhile longer. My DS was such a great sleeper and used to sleep every 2-3 hours but DD just will not. She usually takes a nap 2 hours after waking in the morning, then again after lunch for 2 hours. Then she stays awake until bed time. She seems like a light sleeper and wakes easily at noise. My house isn't that big, and I can't make my DS stay totally quiet for all her naps, so she only gets 2 naps a day, one of those while DS sleep as well. I totally agree about frequent naps and early bedtimes as that worked for us with DS, but DD is just having such a difficult time.