Night-time waking - please help

[alanasmum]

DD is 7.5 months old and no longer has night feeds but has an early morning feed at 5.00am and then goes back to sleep for a couple of hours.

But every night she wakes at about 3.00am and is impossible to re-settle. I just don't know what to do. I battle with her to get her back to sleep but she never does and I end up giving in and feeding her early. I've tried dummy, cuddles, water, leaving her to cry. Nothing works - she just won't go back to sleep. Any suggestions at all? I'm getting so completely frustrated with her.

[hayles86]

Hi, If you find a way let me know. My DD who is 6months is still waking 3 times a night :(. Its driving me crazy. Ive tried everything as well.

[jungle_queen]

Hi,
My DD who is 6 months has been waking 3 times a night. I've started doing Elizabeth Pantley's no cry sleep solution. It has lead to big improvements so far over the ten days I've been doing it, as DD now sleeps 4.5 hour stretches instead of 3. (Heading towards my holy grail of 5 hours straight!)
But I thought what may be of use to you from it, is the Pantley pull off - withdrawing bubby from the boob (or dummy, or bottle, whatever her main comforting source is) as soon as she slows down her sucking, and using a word cue to get her back to sleep - if she cries out and roots around you put her back on, for say ten seconds, then pull her off again. First night I did it, it took about 8 goes to get DD calm in my arms, but now usually it is only the one time - so I'll be in and out in less than 10 minutes. My next step will be to wean her off needing boobie altogether .. but that is the next step ;)
For older babies I've read somewhere that if the wake up time is regular - sometimes you can try to 're-set' the habit, by actually waking them ahead of time (say 30 mins) then each night moving the 'wake up' forward by 15 mins. The theory being you break the habit. Maybe that might help in your case?
Or else, the PPO might make night waking less lengthy in time.
Otherwise I guess all the usual things too, maybe something in her diet is bothering her? Or she could be hungry?
Hope you find some clues that help you get back to your sleep :)

[bindiloo]

Could she be getting cold perhaps,its something i think is sometimes the problem with littlies waking early hours of the morning. Maybe you could set your alarm and sneak in and put an extra blanket over her before 3am or dress her in warmer clothes for bed and just see what happens.Its worth a try.
My little girl is 8mnths and sometimes she too will wake early but most of the time i find if i dress her in warmer clothes she'll sleep well.
Sometimes i notice if my DD has had a day where she's really dribbling and chewing things, then her gums are prob annoying her and if all else fails i give her a little panadol and stroke her back for awhile and she goes back to sleep.
Just thought id make some suggestions,hope it gets better for you.I know i hate it when i dont get a whole nights sleep it drives me insane.

[bindiloo]

Also ill just add that to get my DD out of her night feeds i started the dreamfeed,i only did it for a few days and she stopped waking all night for feeds. But i did have to attemp it twice,i waited a month and went again and it worked 2nd time.
:thumbsup: Goodluck

[Tulp]

Last week DS was waking a couple of times through the night and we realise that this was after the weekend we had friends staying over. We believe it's because of the change in routine over the weekend and the constant attention he was getting from everyone. He hardly got his own time like he always did. He resumed his 10 hours sleep pattern now though so sleeps through again.

Could it be a change of some routine? Oh by the way she is gorgeous.

[neeky]

What time is your bubs last feed?
at that age ds was waking at 3 am every morning also, after a bottle he would go back to sleep for a couple hours. The suggestion we were given was to give him a top up feed b4 i went to bed. ie he went to bed around 6-7pm, i stayed up until 10pm. So he had a bottle before he went to bed and then at 9-10pm when i was going to bed i went in and gently woke him and gave him a top up feed, he started not waking until 5-530am then, and after a week (in which i was boosting his day time feeds) he just stopped needing the top up feed and kept sleeping through.
then all i had to do was train him to realise mummy wasn't getting up b4 6am! He has been sleeping through ever since!

[alanasmum]

Well, here I am again at 4.30am :mad:. DD has been up since 3.15am. Have tried everything to get her back to sleep other than feeding her. It looks like she might have finally exhausted herself but it's now 4.30am and she's due for a feed at 5.00am. I really don't want to go back to night feeds but there's no point in doing this every night.

She goes to bed at 7.00pm. I tried the dream feed when she was younger but it didn't make a diffrence to her night time routine. And she's definitely warm enough at night - she's in a sleeping bag which regulates her temp nicely.

I don't see that I've got any other choice than to start feeding her at night. :( It's so frustrating because she is having 4 bottles a day (about 750ml) and 3 solid meals so any night time feed will be for comfort not hunger. At 7.5 months surely this can only spell trouble for the future.

[Diddles]

I'm having similar trouble with my baby of the same age, but in his case I know its teething making him wake. Do you think this could be the reason that your bub is waking too?

[alanasmum]

I'm having similar trouble with my baby of the same age, but in his case I know its teething making him wake. Do you think this could be the reason that your bub is waking too?

Some days she definitely has trouble with her teeth but this is not what's waking her up. When they do bother her, she has a very distinctive cry like she's in pain. When she wakes up at 3.00 in the morning, she rolls on to her belly and starts playing and talking to herself. She's tired and rubs her eyes but she fights going back to sleep. If I give in and pick her up she will fall asleep in my arms but as soon as I put her down she starts playing again. :banghead:

She does the same thing during her day sleeps. I used to be able to put her down awake and she'd fall asleep on her own. Now it's a battle to get her to sleep every single time.

[neeky]

does she cry when she wakes up and plays? my ds still wakes up and plays by himself early in the morning (he is almost 15mths, he's been doing it since about 4mths) but he just doses back off at some stage. he will let out some little cries here and there but nothing desperate so he stays in bed until its a desperate cry (and i know he wont go to sleep or calm down) or Im ready for him to get out of bed.

Maybe you could try the dreamtime feed again, and try offering a little more food in the day time, it may help and if she isn't hungry then she just wont eat it! I thought that my ds was eating more than enough food when he was that age, but then the CHN suggested more feeds in the day and so i tried it and he ate even more! It was crazy the amount of food he was eating, i swear he ate more than me most days! But because he was so active he was just burning it all off.


other suggestions could be playing some soft music in her room, and or maybe a night light if she doesn't have one already.

DS also went through a fighting the sleep in the day phase, thats when we brought in the routine so he knew it was sleep time. Our daytime sleep routine is : take him into his room, telling him its nap time now, close the blinds, put on his sleep cd (classical music) , then put him into the cot give him a kiss and say night night bubby see you when you wake up. then close the door and leave. Sometimes he just plays for awhile and then will cry for 5 mins and then go to sleep but most times he just goes off to sleep. It took him a week or so to learn that it meant it was sleep/quiet time and that mummy wasn't coming back to get him for a while, but once he did it made life so much easier!

also have you tried putting her to bed a little later? it didn't work for my ds he still got up early but it may for our bubs!
It may just be a phase, I know its incredibly frustrating and tiring. :hugs: hope things work out soon! there is nothing better than when they start sleeping through properly! (ok well maybe kisses and hearing them say mummy!)