Waking to play - I am going mad! HELP

[Firsttimer7259]

My baby girl has had a couple weeks of bad sleeping. She has had 2 colds since just before she turned 6 months, these have meant trouble breast feeding and hence lots of night waking. But thats not really the issue. Alongside this has come waking up for about 3 hours between 1-5am, to play. This used to happen occasionally and I would ignore as best possible. I have now lived through 2 weeks of it and can't stand it any more

She is almost 7 months old, was exclusively breast fed, then intro'd solids at 6 months, then switched solids to BLW. Still mainly breast fed.

Her naps in the day are pretty routine, she falls asleep about 2.5 hours after she first gets up and then 3 hours after waking from that nap. Then in the afternoon there can be one longer nap or 2 short ones. I try not to let her nap past 5.30 as then bedtime is dreadful as she is both tired and hungry (this = screaming). She tanks up from about 5pm for the night and usually needs her bed at about 7-7.30. she wakes at 1ish for a feed and then until 5 she sometimes wakes and is full of beans. I sometimes leave her to chatter in her room but she gets distressed after about half an hour then I have to go in and soothe her.

We have moved her into her own room in the last month. I am not sure that the wakings and room move are related as she was fine in there at first. In fact slept better as I used to wake her when I got up for the loo at night.

Now she is waking up later. Today woke at 7 instead of 5:30. I have tried longer naps, sometimes I can stretch one of them but only if she wakes up grumpy. If she wakes up and is happy and alert no amount of shushing patting rocking or breastfeeding makes her go to sleep. She just isnt tired. I know its not as long as she is supposed to sleep in the day but what do I do??

I think she wakes up in the night the way she wakes in the day, she tends to do sleeping and eating in 3 hourly cycles. So if she is up at 2 then she doesnt get tired again until 5. Its just awful, she does sleep a five hour stretch but its from 7pm-1am. I have tried the dream feed thing but then she still wakes up to play just a little later. Sorry am going on and on but am at wits end. I need to sort this out, my husband and I dont have family nearby so we have to do all the baby care between us. We are exhausted, even if one of us gets a rest that means the other has to do more. I havent had more than 4 hours sleep a day for 2 weeks and am just in despair.

Hello (big calm steadying breath)

I have had an emergency cry and then a long read through the never ending sleep regression thread.

AngelDog -your tips are giving me hope. My baby girl is a short napper 40 mins at best. but I am going to go from 3/4 to 2 naps a day. Today she has slept from 9:30-10 and we are going to main for a second long sleep at 2pm. Then usual bedtime of 7pm.

I think we might be having similar probs to crikeybadger. Well here we go...

I'm not on my PC at the moment so I can't link you to my own thread, but I had (still have to some extent) exactly the same problem night waking problem with my DS - it was absolutely killing me. I just wanted to reassure you that you are not alone and that I think your DD will grow out of it... My DS did this virtually every night for about 3 weeks, and then it tailed off to once every couple of weeks or so. For him is was definitely developmental growth spurts combined with nasty colds and coughs and nothing I tried made any difference... He just kind of grew out of it.

We notice now that if he suddenly does something new in the day (stands alone, waves, says a new sound etc) then we know we're in for a rough night, but knowing this in advance really really helps us focus and deal with it.

I also have no family or ILs close by to help, but what I found invaluable was:

1. sleeping when baby sleeps (luckily though, DS would have slightly longer than your DD so this may not be feasible for you)...

2. I would deal with the night waking and then when DS woke for the day (around 6) then DH would get up and I'd stay in bed for as long as possible before he had to go to work. He gives DS breakfast and takes him into the bathroom with him while he gets ready. That extra hour or so gave me the energy to get through the day.

3. Going to bed at 9pm or earlier and letting the housework and other chores just pile up! Not nice living in a tip I know, but I was losing it so much that it was preferable to me screaming in frustration and anger through tiredness.

Not much help I'm afraid and no magic spell to stop it happening, but it does get better I promise.

OP, it's worth a try, at least! I'd definitely try for shorter intervals between naps and see how that goes.

I agree with Tweet in that it can be a developmental thing too. But my guess would be that if it's been going on this long it's not just that.

I can't remember how much detail there is on the neverending sleep regression thread, but there's an explanation of how it worked for me on the '7 month woes' thread (which I think may be linked to from the sleep regression thread, but I'm losing the plot a bit tbh! :))

I know exactly what you mean about the doing things in cycles. My DS is 1.5 hours, so if he does get up to play, I rock him in the rocking chair until he eventually drops off, usually 1.5 hours later.

You know, it's quite funny I spotted this actually... I'd not looked at the sleep board properly but the title of your thread jumped out at me!

Hey there, thanks for the responses.

Unfortunately we are already doing all the things you suggest Tweetinat Its funny tho before this nightmare phase she did the up for a midnight party thing about once a week too.

The long sleep at 2 didnt work out. My H took her out in the sling facing forwards for a brief walk to keep her entertained and she fell asleep facing outwards at 1...

Do breastfed babies get hungry at night after 6 months? we are doing BLW...

Off to read thru sleep regression thread....

This is turning into sleep diary but posting makes me feel I am doing something.

Anyway for the first time H took over sleep duties. She had a bottle and despite some moaning here and there she lasted until 3:50am before the wake up and play started. This morning she got up at 8.30 despite me trying to wake and feed her at 7, she took feed more or less in her sleep. So my napping schedule is out ( or a few hours delayed) Not so great in terms of other things I have lined up in the week. From H I learnt that leaving her longer often helps, he sleeps more heavily than me so she was left to resettle by accident. I tried that more deliberately this morning and she napped in her cot after being put down drowsy. Quite a breakthrough as normally naps have to be in our bed and on the boob.

The worst thing is that despite H being on duty and me having earplugs in I couldn't sleep. Didn't fall asleep until midnight then woke according to babygirl's usual freakish schedule.

Am thinking the one with the real sleep problem is me . Dont know what to do - am so tired I cant nap, am not sleeping properly even when baby lets me. When I got into states like this before pregnancy I would sometimes take some night nurse style stuff and knock myself out for a night
Not good but it did the trick of re-setting me. Am breast feeding now and increasingly desperate...what can I do?? I really need this to stop, worst thing is that being this tired is affecting my ability to parent well. I am short tempered and irritable not taking pleasure in her and getting really critical of everything. This is not good.

Are things really getting better?? fingers and toes all crossed...

After trying for more sleep in the day with no improvement I decided to go for less. In our case that meant dropping the first and most reliable nap. She didnt go down, i went with it and kept her up til 11;30. She slept 11:30 to 12 plus 2:30-4. in bed by 7. Slept till 4.30am hallelujah!!! then awake til 5.30 then a bit more sleep, but got her up at 7am

next day: 7am start. First nap 10.45 - 11.30. second nap 2.30-4. Asleep 7-1, up for an hour, 2-7

She has periods in the day where she looks tired and i would like to let her sleep but its possible to stimulate her out of it. Afternoon napping is hard as she is overtired. so i dont find this new structure ideal - might even drop it once she goes back to sleeping at night. ie: wake, feed, back to sleep. |

But for now no more being awake for hours on end at night means i am no longer angry and resentful (or just plain exhausted) in the day. I think she's happier with that too. Altho i try not to show it i am sure she can tell when i am pissed off and that really isnt a good thing.

have been working on getting her down without the boob and resettling with a bit of patting or PUPD and realised she does a lot of that pretty well.

Early days yet but wish me/us well

Update: did a third day of the above schedule, night sleep the same. Slept through til 4am, up for an hour, back to sleep. This time I think her initial 4 am feed was too short (just 5 mins) and then she was still a bit hungry...it took me an hour to figure that out. Poor girl!

BUT I dont like sleep depriving her in the morning, she looks so knackered and I feel mean. I am going to see if I can get her to have a short 15 min cat nap this morning and see if that gives me night time tiredness plus a more alert baby in the day.

Thought I might update this: shes still sleeping well. She now has 2 naps a day, morning and afternoon. And goes to bed a little later than before. But apart from waking to feed (she is still breastfed so I find that reasonable) she sleeps through.