Seven month old waking at 3.30 every night. Habit or hunger?

[Spatchy]

Hi, this is my first time posting so forgive me if this has been answered somewhere.
I have a seven month old daughter who, since she was four months old, has woken crying almost every night at exactly 3.30 (before four months she was a bit of a nightmare and woke about every 2 hours).

We feed her when she wakes (crying quite hard rathe than moaning) and she takes a full 180/200 ml bottle and goes back to sleep until 5.15-5.30ish (this is when she always wakes up but we usually leave her chatting to herself until after 6).

I started weaning her at about 5 months so she is now on three big solid meals a day (loves her food) plus inbetween milk feeds and a final milk feed before bed at 7pm (goes to bed awake no problem).

My question is, is this 3.30am wake likely to be habit now as it is at the same time each night and she is getting what I think is enough during the day? If so should I try some form of controlled crying? I am not philosophically against that if so.

In The Baby Whisperer, if the baby is waking at the same time every night she suggest gently stirring the baby about half and hour (I think) before the waking time. Apparently she will then fall back into a deep sleep around the habitual waking time and carry on sleeping. I think it may take a couple of nights or so.

I was going to try this with my DD but the first night I was due to try it her waking became completely unpredictable so I've no idea how well it works.

We ended up doing CC around 8 months. It worked really quickly and she only cried for a total of 20 mins with all the going in and out of her room on the first night. Second night it was about ten and then she slept after that for a couple of months. I can't bring myself to do it now so we're back to waking up every night.

Could something be disturbing her? How is her room heated - does it get cold at that time?

Hi, thanks very much for your responses. PinkToeNails - I have heard about the wake to sleep idea but I don't fancy trying it as I feel that 'stirring' her could go quite wrong! I think we probably will end up try g the CC idea though, especially as you say it worked really quickly. Why do you think she started waking again after a couple of months though?

Iggly - I don't think so. She's in her own room in a a cot with lots of space and the temperature is set at 19. Only thing it could be is we live in an old house with very creaky pipes that make a banging noise every time the heating kicks in. Don't think it's that though as doesn't happen the same time each night - as only kicks in depending on temperature.

Looking back on my notes for the year - i keep track of her sleep and feeds each day - I see she hasn't been doing 3.30 all year but is is the most common time by far. It seems to alternate between that for a few weeks and then 11pm and 5am wake ups for a few nights in a row then back to 3.30.

She did actually sleep through the night for two weeks in february after we ignored a 3.30 crying session. Then she stopped after 10 mins though. We've tried ignoring her since though and she just got increasingly hysterical

Hi Spatchy
We moved to a new flat and her new room has such a different feel to it. She's also been teething on and off for months. We started bringing her in to our bed "just for a few nights" and now it has become the norm. We've gone too far now to do CC again I think. I have the No Cry Sleep Solution but I'm too tired to put it into action.

Hi PinkToeNails, sorry to hear that. It's all the more frustrating when you've had a taste of sleep filled nights again isn't it? I'm sure she will start to settle over time given the two factors that have caused the problem - teething will stop and the new flat won't feel so new to her soon. Still, it might be worth trying the controlled crying again maybe? You might be surprised. I always am when i set my mind against something with my daughter only to try it out of desperation one day and it works (I was rocking her to sleep in her pram every nap time until a few weeks ago as she wouldn't nap in her cot. One day she just did it and now naps there contentedly...most of the time.)

Another approach is a bit more drastic but worked for my parents (I know it's a different generation but still....). They moved house with us when my brother was 10.5 months old and they had the same problem where he wouldn't sleep through the night any more and kept wanting to come into their bed. In the end they ignored his crying one night, put in the ear plugs and let him cry it out. They said he never woke in the night again after that.

I know lots of people are philosophically opposed to CIO, so you might be horrified at that idea. It's just that if you're not it might be worth what could be just one night of hell.