Sleep trained baby still waking at night

[Whenyoupickapawpaw]

My DD is almost 7 months old. We sleep trained her last month when she moved into her own room and she now falls asleep by herself within about 5 minutes of being put in her cot at bedtime.

However, she still wakes up several times a night, mainly around 9pm, 11pm, 12:30am (when I give her a bottle), 3am, 4;30am.

With the exception of the 12-1am wake, where we feed her, she usually just cries, whinges or babbles for 5 mins before falling back to sleep so we don't intervene. She's not hungry as she had plenty of milk in the day, 2 solids and the feed at 12:30.

This is our rough routine:
0700am wake (2.25hr ww)
0925-0945 nap 1
09:45-12:15 (2.5hr ww)
12:15-1:15 nap 2
1:15-3:45 (2.5hr ww)
3:45-4:15 nap 3
4:15-7:00pm (2.75hr ww)

Does anyone know what could be causing the night wakes please?!

*Sorry, edited to add that she has a consistent bedtime routine (has for months), blacked out room, white noise and the temperature of her room is 19 degrees Celsius.

What is causing the night waking is the fact that she is a baby.

She is waking up at night because she is a baby.And that's what babies do.

She isn't sleep trained if she not.If she's waking several times a night

Honestly what the parents expect? Sometimes you get a baby who sleeps well.Sometimes you don't, and you have the latter
There's no mystery here.

I’d push nap 2 to 12:45 - 2:15 and scrap nap 3.

also, 3 solid meals a day before milk each time

Did she sleep better in your room?

Not really! We kept waking her up too.

@TheLivelyRoseI'm not expecting her to sleep through the night. I was under the impression that encouraging babies to self settle is good for them to learn to link sleep cycles and thus have better sleep and not be reliant on something or someone. It's very disruptive to her, and us (her being the priority obvs) so I want to ensure I'm doing everything I can I maximise her rest. We give her comfort when it's clear she needs it but most of these night wakes are fussing or babbling rather than needing food or comfortable. Thanks for your advice...

@bitterexwifethis is one potential thought I had, moving to 2 naps. Although I think it will push her ww capacity but I might try it and see how she gets on. She's a bit of a bird when I comes to solids so I might try with the third meal in a couple of weeks, when hopefully she'll be more used to solids. Thank you x

OP sleep training is just babies learning that if they cry, no one will come and soothe them. So now you've "trained" her not to cry at night because she will know no one will come, so when she wakes several times because she is a baby you just have to deal with it.

Normal baby behavior. My dd was the same, but we didn't sleep train, and now she's 12 months and only wakes once to nurse. Generally, you don't need to teach them to link sleep cycles or not be reliant on you. They ARE reliant on you because they're a baby. It all comes with time. (With some exceptions)

She's a baby. Many babies don't sleep. This is why i think sleep training is pointless because they go through different phases as they grow anyway, sometimes this involves lots of sleep, sometimes not. You just have to go with it. This is why you need to prioritise your sleep too. Mine didn't sleep through (till 5am) until 2yrs old. It really made me appreciate whats needed to care for a baby though!

Babies develop constantly. Sleep training isn't something you do once, they may need help to relearn to self settle as they go through development stages again and again. Some need more help than others, some aren't inclined to be trained no matter what you try and even if you follow all the guidance/suggestions.

Do you co sleep? I found this helped

OP that sounds really hard, I remember the sheer exhaustion. Ignore posters making you feel guilty for sleep training, sleep is important.

My baby screamed blue murder whenever we put her in a car seat, and no one suggests that is cruel.

For the night wakes, is it any better is Dad goes in? Sometimes they settle a bit quicker for them. Also try giving it a couple of means and see if they settle.

Even now my toddler will sometimes cry out in her sleep but actually, put her self back to sleep after about a minute.

Otherwise I remember that phase well and it was awful!

Leaving them to cry doesn’t actually train them.
Shes very young, probably teething and there’s lots of colds about, it’s normal for her to wake at night.
She’ll sleep through when she’s ready, it’ll happen, don’t worry.

Because sleep training is bullshit and doesn't work.

Babies expect their mum to be with them at night and they don't like it when you aren't. Humans are also biologically meant to wake, one long sleep isn't natural or normal and babies know this.

The best solution is to cosleep and expect night wakings.

I think you're really over worrying about normal baby sleep. It's total rubbish pushed by so-called "sleep consultants" that if your baby can fall asleep independently they will never wake at night. My 13 month old has fallen asleep independently at bedtime for about 7 months, and never slept all night. Night wakes are totally normal, she's still so tiny. She's far too young to add a 3rd meal, that could make her sleep worse to be giving more food. 1 meal at that age is fine. If she's putting herself back to sleep quickly why are you worried, or even aware if she's in another room? That shows she can do that. Just mute the monitor and wear earplugs, that's what I've always done - I hear if she cries! She might not even be waking, just making noise as she goes into another sleep cycle. Night feeds are also normal to 12 months and beyond, they don't understand that they "should" get their calories during the day.

I think it probably is just her being a baby! But I’d probably take the opportunity to tweak her routine to see if it helps.

Have you tried the first two naps being an hour each, and the last nap being the cat nap?

I had one baby who needed to be rocked to sleep every night which took about 45 minutes. However once asleep she slept all night.

My other baby would snuggle in and close his eyes the second you put him in the cot and go to sleep without a peep. And then he’d wake up a couple of times a night until he was 15 months.

So I don’t believe in the self settling theory at all. 7 months is very young and she’s not ready to sleep through the night. I know so many people who’ve followed every routine/book/method and had at least one child that wasn’t having it and continued to wake for a couple of years.

She’s a tiny baby who needs milk offered at every wake

It's normal to wake during the night. Especially as an infant because

1. Innate need to suckle and build milk supply. They don't know our society doesn't really do this much anymore. They still biologically need to wake, suckle, feel safe, build milk supply, inform milk content. A dummy may help.
2. During developmental leaps (about now) this will occur more.
3. Waking up and not being able to verify safety will only prevent secure attachment being formed and child will wake up more.

Vicious cycle. What's the big deal about making a baby sleep alone? Most adults don't like to sleep alone and don't sleep through the night.

Well it does. Over time they will realise their cries won't be answered and they give up trying.

Great for mental health.

I'd be doing this too,they have huge growth spurts under 1.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I'm a FTM and have really struggled with the adjustment. I've not been around babies before and everything is new and overwhelming (I know every parent experiences this, I'm not looking for sympathy or excuses, just pointing out my lack of experience). Tbh I do think the online world, social media and sleep consultants dupe parents into thinking babies should and can be trained to sleep through... Never my expectation but I did, perhaps foolishly, think that helping her self sooth would help her sleep longer stretches.

I don't agree with feeding her every time she wakes. She's no longer a tiny newborn and is in the 65% centile for weight. She's formula fed so I cant just pop her on the boob. HV actually recommended trying to wean the night feed once she's on 3 solid meals, although I'm happy to still feed her until she no longer wants it.

We did cosleep for A little bit when she was in our room but I felt so uncomfortable and worried I'd squish her that I couldn't really sleep. She also rolled into the next to me and cried so that put me off doing it again! It just didn't work for us.

I will carry on as we are and accept this will be the way until she grows and is ready herself ❤️

Does anyone know what could be causing the night wakes please?!

She is a small baby and that’s what babies do.

The sleep training industry is designed to elicit money from parents who have been sold a lie - that their babies should ‘sleep through.’ They shouldn’t.

Waking through the night is normal, natural, and keeps them safe.

Babies wake in the night, it's normal.
Sleep training might lead the baby to stop thinking someone will go into them when they wake but it won't stop them waking up entirely.
They also have very tiny stomachs so get hungry more often
Also it's quite common for babies who may have started sleeping through the night to start waking up again.

She doesn't need 3 meals a day until about 10-12 months. It should be a very gradual increase in solids so milk remains their main source of calories.

We did one meal at 6-8 months, 2 meals at 8-10 months, and then 3 meals at 10-12 months.

This.

You can feed every time she wakes with a bottle, just as you would a boob. She's a very small baby still. After one is when you start limiting bottles as they're on good more then. Babies very rarely over feed. You might find there are fewer nigh time wakings if you offer more milk.