Waking 6 times in 2 hours

[Dixielane]

So I have posted here about my LOs sleep toubles.. Well, we sidecarred a crib to our bed to give us more space but still "cosleep". So at night when I go to bed is nice, she has her space, we have ours, I nurse when I need to and we all sleep well together. She sleeps great WITH ME.

BUT

How do I solve this issue... Tonight she has woken up 6-8 times in a period of 2 hours, because I am not in bed with her. She sleeps like an angel if I am there, but I go to bed LATE (I'm a big night owl) so when I slip out of bed, she's awake within 30-45 minutes. Or like tonight, sometimes more.

Why ?? She is so peaceful if I am there, but cannot sleep at all by herself. She used to sleep 3 hr stretches :(

She is soooo tired, when I respond to her crying, I come in -- if she is definitely not hungry I won't nurse her. I hold her in her bed, and keep her from kicking/flailing, this makes her VERY mad, so she cries and fights it.. then passes out in my arms. Then wakes up instantly, screams, whimpers, passes out. Wakes up, whimpers, passes out. Over and over for about 5 minutes. Then I leave, and shortly, she is up crying again. If its been about 1-2 hours I will nurse her if she keeps the serious crying going.. and basically start back over. I've tried all things like staying with her for an hour, to help her get into a deeper sleep.. doesn't work. She'll still wake up like clockwork.

We've tried it all: noise makers, fans, music, womb sounds, lovies, tucking a warm rice sock at her legs so she thinks she's against someone, the works. But she can't get into any sort of deep sleep, unless I am with her.

What is the deal here? :(

[jenninjapan]

Not sure I can offer too much advice or help, but can I ask why you dont just feed DD back to sleep? Do you feed her to sleep to begin with or do you do something else?  Some consider it a bad habit to start, but since I fed DS to sleep since birth, he would 100% not go back to sleep for me for any amount of time unless I fed him. For him it was never about hunger at night (unless he was in the middle of a growth spurt) but rather comfort and habit. Also 7 months is prime teething time - could this be affecting DD's sleep patterns? It always messed things up for us, but thankfully after a couple of weeks things got back to normal.

There were times DS was up every hour, sometimes twice an hour and on the worst nights three or four times an hour.  But thankfully it never lasted too long.  Hopefully next week will bring you both a better night!

[Dixielane]

Originally Posted by jenninjapan 

Not sure I can offer too much advice or help, but can I ask why you dont just feed DD back to sleep? Do you feed her to sleep to begin with or do you do something else?  Some consider it a bad habit to start, but since I fed DS to sleep since birth, he would 100% not go back to sleep for me for any amount of time unless I fed him. For him it was never about hunger at night (unless he was in the middle of a growth spurt) but rather comfort and habit. Also 7 months is prime teething time - could this be affecting DD's sleep patterns? It always messed things up for us, but thankfully after a couple of weeks things got back to normal.

There were times DS was up every hour, sometimes twice an hour and on the worst nights three or four times an hour.  But thankfully it never lasted too long.  Hopefully next week will bring you both a better night!

Next week.. thing is, she's been doing this now for 2 months. Waking every 30min to 1 hour usually (obviously more last night) unless I am in bed with her. My only solution is to go to bed at 8pm.. which i CANNOT DO for sanity reasons! (like her waking every 30 min till I go to bed at 2am keeps me sane - HAHA!)

I nurse her to sleep the 1st time --- if she wakes 30 min later I KNOW she isn't hungry. If its 1 hour later, I try to cuddle her back to sleep since I know she's likely not hungry, but if she persists, I will nurse her then. I just nurse as a "last resort" when I know she's not hungry. Times she JUST ate, I will cuddle her in my arms till she falls asleep - usually she fights, screams, kicks, and then konks out. So we are trying to cut back on nursings. I know to babies want/need are the same thing, so I am slowly trying to help her learn she CAN sleep without nursing so I offer other things before nursing.

I don't know how to tell if its teething pain. She's always drooled alot, nothing excessive, and she always chews on stuff sinced about 4months, so she doesnt show any "pain" signs, but her two bottom teeth have cut thru.

But if its teething pain, wouldnt she show more behaviors during the day that point to teething pain? Shes a very happy baby, but I guess lately I am noticing alot more fussiness and seperation anxiety.

She slept last night for TWO HOURS -- in her boppy. We proped her in it in a reclined position and wrapped one arm on her like someone is holding her - and she slept the longest she has in 1-2 months. I don't like it, but maybe having decent sleep stretches here and there, will help her accept sleeping better.

Don't know what else to do to stop the constant waking. We solved the issue of her waking as soon as we lowered her in her crib (we sidecarred, so I can now just lay next to her, and then slip away when shes out) but now its the constant wakings to deal with.

[D_McG]

can you have your DH respond?  DS stopped that when I stopped nursing him at every interval (sounds like you've already got that).  DD stopped when I stopped going in.  DH went in instead.  

[Dixielane]

Originally Posted by D_McG 

can you have your DH respond?  DS stopped that when I stopped nursing him at every interval (sounds like you've already got that).  DD stopped when I stopped going in.  DH went in instead.  

 We've tried.. her crying gets SOOOO much worse. DH works 4am-8pm so is not with her alot during the day, therefore she does not really find comfort with him when she is having a melt down.. ONLY mama will do. She gets inconsolable after he tries. Plus, he really needs his sleep waking up so early.

[jenninjapan]

Have you tried feeding her every time? For me seven months seems incredibly early to try and cut back on breast feeding, especially for one who is exclusively breast fed - unless you are planning on going back to work and need to get her weaned.  And holding off on bfing until she is distressed seems like a confusing message to send such a small baby.  Some babies sleep fine through the night before they turn one, but a lot of babies do physically/emotionally need those feeds before 12 months.  Being hungry most of the time has nothing to do with it. Have these frequent wakings started since you started refusing her a feed here and there or was it vice versa?  Maybe trying a different approach for few nights would be worthwhile. Feeds during the day are much easier to cut back on for early weaning than night feeds.

How about swaddling? We swaddled DS until 7 months or so (really until it became too hot in the summer for it).

While DS was teething there was very little change in behaviour during the day.  I only found out he was teething when things got kinda funny with sleep or I actually saw  a tooth poke through.  How DS napped also really affected his sleep at night.  Is your DD getting a good two or three naps during the day? The more napping and relaxing a baby does during the day the easier it is for a baby to relax into that deep sleep at night.

[Friday13th]

Ok, I have a almost 7 month old and he's an awful napper and sleeper.  What I'm currently trying (we're talking day 1) is popping him off the boob right before he falls asleep and then patting, snuggling him to sleep, ala NCSS which I haven't read in two years and am waiting to get from the library again.  Anyway, my theory is if I can get him to sleep without sucking he won't expect the boob when he wakes up and will eventually be able to get himself back to sleep (this is a REALLY long term goal and mine is mostly geared toward getting him to nap longer on his own) 

At night, however, I always nurse when he wakes up.  I would absolutely not be cutting back on nursing at this age.  DS2 is super distractable during the day and I have a loud, older child so he honestly doesn't nurse that much during the day and is pretty much reverse cycling at this point.  I would not at all be comfortable depriving him of that and I do think he needs to nurse frequently at the start of the night to really tank up and go for a moderately longer stretch in the middle of the night. 

And honestly, I do go to bed with him, at 7:30.  I read, watch tv, go online.  I kind of like it, it's freezing cold here right now so we all snuggle in bed for the night early and mostly stay put other than getting up to do a few brief chores.  And I fully expect it's going to get worse before it gets better, the Big Bad Sleep Regression is coming (DS1 slept so badly from 8-10 months, I would have sold my soul just for a 2 hour stretch)