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View Full Version : Nightwaking & Too Early Wake-up Time, Help!



NoAngel
07-08-2004, 02:38 AM
Please advise...

I am a 1st-time Mom who is trying to get her 6 1/2 month old daughter
to sleep peacefully through the night (Who isn't, right?!). My
daughter's name is Kami, and she and I have been benefiting from the
advice of Dr. Weissbluth (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child) for the
last 3 weeks. As a result, we have come a long way in a short time.

A month ago, Kami was napping in her crib, but sleeping with my
husband and me at night(after a failed attempt to transition her to
her crib at night). She was waking every 1 to 2 hours to nurse very
briefly, waking up for a special 2-hour "play period" at 1 or 2am,
and then also waking to start her day at 5:30am. My husband wasn't
getting the rest he needed in order to function well at work, and I
was dazed, frustrated, and would have given anything for 3 hours of
uninterrupted sleep. Now Kami is sleeping in the crib in her room and
often sleeps at least 8 hours without any intervention on my part.

However, after astonishing success the 1st week, Kami is waking 2 or
3 times a night and still wakes up far too early in the morning. Plus
constantly expecting/waiting for her to start crying during the night
has made me too tense to rest. I've tried turning down the volume on
the baby monitor, but then I can't sleep because I'm afraid that I'll
miss a cry of distress - like early this morning when she'd turned
onto her tummy (a much hated position!) and didn't seem to remember
how to roll back over. Therefore, I am hoping for input on 3
recurring issues:

1) Kami's night wakings are usually brief ones in which she'll
whimper for a minute or 2 and then go back to sleep. I use
the "Happiest Baby" CD and a humidifier to block out street and
household noises, so I don't think she's being disturbed by any
noises. Is this normal? Has anyone done anything else to get their
baby to sleep soundly through the night?

2) Sometimes she'll awaken around 4am and continue complaining
persistently. In the hope that she'll settle down and return to
sleep, I've begun going in immediately to change her, nurse her and
put her back to sleep. However she'll often start crying again 10 or
20 minutes after I've soothed her and put her back in her crib. Then,
she'll cry on and off for the better part of an hour and then wake up
at about a quarter to 6.

3) She still wakes up far too early in the morning - between 5:15 and
5:45am. So, she's exhausted and ready for her 1st nap of the day
around 7am - which is what I'd prefer her wake-up time to be! She
takes 3-4 naps per day, we have a consistent bed time routine, there
are room darkening curtains on the window in her room, and she's
normally asleep by 7:30pm. The kicker is that she awakens early even
if I put her to bed late - at 8 or even 9pm! Any ideas?

I realize that I may be asking for too much, but I'd appreciate some
insight from others who have experienced any of these issues.

Thanks in advance,
Tara

P.S. If anyone could tell me how to attach an avatar to my profile I'd be forever in their debt. I don't know anything about URLs, but I have a jpg file of my darling, wide-eyed Kami that I'd love to use...

mmdrown
07-28-2004, 03:29 PM
Hi Tara,

First, let me congratulate you on getting your daughter to sleep through the night at 6.5 months! My son didn't sleep through until about 9/10 months.

On your first question: one advice I got on noise/no noise was not to get an infant used to anything specific - like a specific piece of music or song. It's possible your daughter wakes up when the DC stops. In fact, if your daughter can go to sleep, and stay asleep, through street and household noise, she will be a better sleeper as she gets older.

On your second question: my son used to wake up really early, too. We just brought him into bed with us for the rest of the morning. (I realize you just got your daughter out of your bed but for us it was a way to get a few extra hours of sleep.) We only had to do that for a short period of time. It seems that as infants get more active, they get more tired and sleep longer. (At least mine does.)

On your third question: what you describe seems normal - based on my experience. At 13 months my little boy wakes up at 6:30 and is ready for a nap at 9 no matter what time he goes to sleep.

I know how tiring and frustrating lack of sleep is but hang in there!

mudder17
08-18-2004, 09:19 AM
For your first question, I think it's very normal for a baby to wake up several times during the night (adults do it all the time). The trick is for them to learn how to fall back asleep. I watch DD on her video monitor at night and I'll notice her waking up and shifting around and sometimes she'll even lift her head, but then she'll put it back down and fall back asleep. We have a fan going in her room all the time, so there is some background noise, but if she's sleeping well, she'll sleep through a lawn mower outside her window. But if she's not, even a flushing toilet will wake her. I also remember someone posting a while back that babies who are sleeping very well often have their sleep patterns disturbed by growth spurts or other developmental milestones. So hang in there!

I'm not sure how to answer your second question because I still feed DD once during the night (she sleeps from around 6 p.m. til 6:30 a.m. with one feed).

For your third question, well, her wake up times seem to vary. We used to let her sleep in as long as she wanted, and often, if she had a hard day the previous day, she would sleep in until 8:30. But then once or twice a week we had to wake her up at around 6:30 to drive DH to the train station. And that would totally throw her off. So we decided to institute a regular wake up time, around 6:30. That said, she now wakes up on her own at 6:30, but sometimes, like today, she wakes up at 5:30! I let her move around her crib this morning until just after 6 because she was fairly quiet and I wanted to try encouraging her to stay in bed until at least after 6 (a la Weissbluth). I'm not sure how to encourage a later wake up time, but I do know that if she's particularly overtired the night before, she tends to wake up earlier rather than later. In this, I think Weissbluth is correct, sleep begets sleep and sleeplessness begets sleeplessness. So putting her to bed late may be the opposite thing of what you should do.

Not sure if I've answered any of your questions, but I definitely feel your pain! (See my other post.)

Oh, by the way, if you go to the BBB Lounge, you'll see instructions for posting your avatar.


Eileen

Mother of Beautiful Kaya
born 22 February 2004

http://lilypie.com/baby1/050222/2/16/0/+10/.png

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_rosequartz_3m.gif Breastfed 3 months and counting

http://www.chemicalgraphics.com/kaya

masha12
08-27-2004, 12:18 AM
I think your problem is the bedtime. According to Dr. Weissbluth, sleep begets sleep and it is false that keeping a child up will result in the child sleeping later in the morning. The opposite is true, the earlier the baby goes to sleep, the later he/she will sleep.

If the child is taking 3 or 4 naps a day, it is likely that the bedtime is too late. Try moving it up progressively 20 minutes every night until you think it is right. (This is what Dr. W. suggests in his book.)

Good luck.