[Catherin Sedano]

Hi Emma, I apologize for my late response. Thank you so much for answering my questions. I have been applying your recommendations and they seem to be working. My little one has been waking up around the same time (between 8am to 8:30am) every day and going to bed a little before 9 pm. Her naps have been more predictable, too, which makes things easier. She still wakes up twice almost every night. Since my last email, she has had a couple of nights when she woke up more than three times and those were really tough nights for me. I was surprised but also gave me relief to learn that it is normal for babies her age to wake up twice during the night for feedings. Does this mean that I should feed her every time that she wakes up? I usually only offer a feed once when she wakes during the night. As I mentioned she has been waking up twice almost every night. She tends to sleep 3 to 4 hours the first part of the night, then wakes up. The second sleep is usually a longer one from 4 and a half to 6 hours. People keep telling me that I should give her more solid foods so she can sleep longer. She has been eaten solid foods only one time during the day usually around lunch time. Should I add another meal at dinner time? Could that be the cause of her wakes? I also wanted to mention that when she wakes up during the night she wakes up crying like something is bothering her. This doesn’t happen when she wakes up in the morning. On the contrary, she makes cute noises, I guess to wake us up and she gives me a big smile as soon as she sees me. I am mentioning this in case that means anything and helps figure out the reason of her wakes. She will be going to daycare in a couple of weeks so I wanted to ask you for advice in how to have an easy transition. I am a bit concern about her nap situation at daycare since it can be a little hard to get her to nap sometimes. If you have any advice on that, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you again for all your help. Catherin 🙂

[Catherin Sedano]

Hi Emma,

Thank you so much for the additional questions. I really appreciate your attention to detail. Before answering your questions, let me tell you how things have been. After reading your message with the nap schedule, I implemented it and it worked perfectly well the first three nights. My daughter woke up around 8ish and I put her for every nap at the recommended time. She fell asleep easily with little resistance as opose to crying at the time of every nap. I was impressed. Even though the she didn’t sleep through the night, she slept for longer stretches and only woke up once. That allowed me to get a little bit of more sleep. Today however, the fourth day of implementing the new nap schedule, she woke up at 7 am so one hour earlier, I am not sure if this happened because I put her to bed at 9:55 pm so was past 9 pm. Since she woke up one hour earlier, that messed up her nap schedule. I fed her when she woke up and she was still sleepy and fell asleep during the feeding so I put her down again around 8 am. She slept for over two hours and woke up at 10am when she was supposed to have her first nap.. Therefore, she didn’t have a first nap. Her second nap was at 1:45 pm for 40 minutes and the last nap at 6:30 for 30 minutes.. We bathed her before bedtime, which probably was not a good idea. It was harder to put her to sleep tonight, she kept crying, which she usually only does for naps. It took me a while to calm her down and she finally fell asleep at 9:45pm but has already woken up twice, once 40 minutes after I put her down and the second time 35 minutes after I put her down for the second time. I hope that she sleeps for a longer stretch now but we will see. What can I do in this situation when she wakes up earlier than 8 am? I am not sure of what caused her to have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Was she overtired or was is the bath time too close to her bedtime? Was it something else? She will have her vaccinations on Tuesday and that usually messes up her sleep schedule. I would appreciate if you give me some advise on what I can do to keep her on a sleep schedule when situations like these happen. Now, I will answer your questions:

1- We settle down usually with a feeding. Although, lately, I tried twice to settle her just rocking her in my couch with a pacifier and.it worked. But my husband always feeds her for naps.

2- We do have a nap routine as she naps in her bedroom. We typically, get in the room, closed the blinds, and turn on the white noise machine. My husband lays her down on her stroller and feeds her there until she falls asleep. Sometimes he doesn’t finish the whole feeding and he stops when she falls asleep. I, on the other hand, rock her on the chair while I feed her. Once she is sleeping I stop rocking and recline the chair and let her sleep on me.

3- She is mixed fed. More formula since I returned to work and it is harder to pump as often as I should to maintain milk supply.

4 – My husband doesn’t push the stroller when he puts her for naps and the naps are in her bedroom.

5- The stroller can turn into a bassinet but he doesn’t use it like that for naps. He reclines it a little bit so it is not in an upright position. Is it better to put it as a bassinet?

6- I work most days from home and only go to my office twice a week. I usually leave early around 6 am and return around 5:30 pm. When I go to my office he takes care of everything since our daughter wakes up until I get home. Here is when naps become inconsistent because he doesn’t follow a schedule for naps and follows more tired cues. However, I spoke with him and he will follow the nap schedule that you recommended. When I work from home, I usually feed her when she wakes up and put her down for her last nap and bedtime.

7- When she wakes overnight, I only feed her if she wakes up and it has been more than 5 hours since her last feeding. The other times when she wakes up, I only hold her or breastfeed her a little until she falls asleep again which is usually very fast. When I do feed her, I give her a small 4oz.bottle, Most of the time she finishes everything.

8- Diaper changes are not due to bowel movements, it is more just to cover my bases so she falls back to sleep faster than if something is still bothering her..

9- I keep the light very dim during night wakes.

10- She sleeps on her back.

11- She sleeps in her crib overnight. The crib is in our room. The sleep space is dark and quiet. I followed your advice about the temperature in the room and try to keep it cool rather than too warm. I try to keep the temperature at 73 degrees Fahrenheit. She wear a long sleeve footed pajama and I put her in a 1 TOG sleep sack. It is almost Summer here in North Carolina, USA where we live. We don’t have Blackout curtains in our room so in Summer Time it gets lighter early in the room. Our bedroom is quiet. However, our kitchen is right next to our bedroom so we try to keep it quiet if we are still doing things in the kitchen when she is sleeping. Her crib is very close to my bed due to the size of our bedroom. I try to be as quiet as possible when I go to bed.

I hope that answers all your questions, please feel free to ask more if necessary, I really appreciate all your help and look forward to your response and guidance.

Best,

Catherin

[Catherin Sedano]

Hi Emma,

Thank you so much. I will look up both blackout curtains.

Catherin

[Catherin Sedano]

Hi Emma, thank you so much for reading my long message and for your follow up questions. I greatly appreciate taking the time to help me. Regarding your first question about the later bedtime, yes, putting her to bed between 9 pm and 9:30 pm helped. She slept for longer stretches of time and woke up only once overnight. This was working great until two nights ago. She went to bed earlier more around her later bedtime between 7:30 pm and 8:00pm. And she woke up every two and two and a half hours. That’s why I couldn’t answer to your message before because I was very exhausted. I think the reason why she became sleepy earlier is because she was overtired, she had only taken two naps. One long nap in the morning and a very short one in the afternoon. It was impossible to keep her awake during feedings. She fell asleep fast despite having the lights on and me trying to keep her awake. She would protest and cry when I tried to keep her awake so I just let her fall asleep. She is also teething. Her two front bottom teeth are coming in so I think she was probably uncomfortable. She would rub her ears and the sides of her face a lot. Her Pediatrician told us that it is related to teething. My husband and I tried to give her Tylenol but she vomited it. She has been rejecting Tylenol the last few times that we have tried to give it to her so we don’t know how to help her so she can get a better restful night.

Regarding your second question about the time to place her back in the crib. Sometimes she is not fully awake so I just hold her for few minutes and she falls asleep fast and I put her down. However, if it has been more than 5 hours since her last feeding, I usually, feed her and change her diaper. Sometimes I do something else like cleaning her nostrils if it sounds like she is congested. It is very difficult to guess what is bothering her so I tried to guess and cover all my basis in hopes that she will get a longer stretch of sleep. And yes, I also hold her but only for 10 minutes. I am also worried about choking that’s why I still hold her even thought she doesn’t spit up as much. Does the risk of choking or having spit ups go away after 6 months? I am willing to stop holding her if that is the case. She will in fact turn 7 months old in a couple of days.

Regarding naps, these are still a challenge. Except for the morning nap that happens in the crib, her two afternoon naps are either in my arms or stroller. I went back to work so my husband takes care of her during the day. The only way that he has been successful to get her to nap is on the stroller. When I get home after work in the afternoon, I nap with her on my reclining and rocking chair. I know that this sounds awful and I feel that it is not good for her to sleep in my arms or her stroller but we’ve tried so many times to put her in her crib that I am not sure my husband wants to try it anymore. Putting her to sleep has always been a challenge for him.

Regarding your last question about her wake up times. Yes I want to try a consistent wake up time. I have actually began waking her up between 8 am and 8:30 am and she adjusted very well. She is in fact waking up between those times by herself. If those are her wake up times, what time should her bedtime be? How many hours is a baby her age supposed to sleep at night? I am aware of the number of hours a baby her age is recommended to sleep in a day but is there a recommended number of hours during the day and night? I am more than willing to follow your advice about naps and bedtime routine and I thank you so much for working with me. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. I look forward to your response.

Catherin

[Catherin Sedano]

Hi Emma,

I wanted to report back on the new approach and tracking my daughter’s sleep. I haven’t been able to implement the new approach consistently because I have to hold her for a good 20 minutes after feedings due to mild reflux and to avoid spit ups. The routine after feeding and put her to bed is shorter that 20 minutes. I tried to keep her awake for the 20 minutes but she gets frustrated because she is tired and wants to sleep. What I have been doing for the time being is to begin the routine with her feeding with the lights on, after the feeding I close the blinds, swaddle her , dim the lights, and begin to sign a lullaby until the 20 minutes mark. By then she is beginning to fall asleep in my arms. While she is not fully awake nor deeply asleep, I put her down in her crib. This has been working since day one. She doesn’t wake up and continues sleeping. I am very happy that something is working.

I have also been tracking her sleep because she is still waking up one or twice during the night and I have not been able to find out the cause of that. She used to be able to sleep through the night but that has changed and I don’t really know what else to do. I thought that It was issues with congestion so every time she wakes up, I clean her nostrils but that doesn’t seem to be the problem. I noticed that she rubs her ears and along the sides of her ears very often, I applied some anti-itchy cream but she continued doing it. When we saw her pediatrician, she ruled out an ear infection and told us that teeth is connected to the ears so that could be the reason.since she seems to be teething. So now, I am not sure if all the sleep disturbances is due to teething and it will pass at some point and just have to wait. She doesn’t seem to be in pain though maybe just discomfort. I wanted to give you some context before writing down her sleep log.for the past week:

May 25

Wake up time: 7:44 am (she usually wakes up between 7 to 7:30am. Or I wake her up. The night before she sleep for 6 hours before waking up twice. She was still tired and feel back to sleep after her feeding)

Nap 1: 8:50 am until 10:35 am

Nap 2: 2:15pm until 3:22 pm

Bedtime: 7:55 pm. She slept for over one hour and woke up at 8:56 pm

I put her down at 9:50 pm. She woke up again at 11:22 pm

I put her down at 12:11 am May 26. She slept for over 5 hours and woke up at 5:30 am.

I put her down again at 6:24 am. She slept for two and a half hours.

May 26

Wake up time: 8:52 am (I was so exhausted that I could not wake up 7:30 to wake her up so let her sleep in).

Nap 1: 11:21 am until 11:56 am

Nap 2: 5:05 pm until 6:21 pm

Bedtime: 8:50 pm. She woke up at 12:11 am briefly

I put her down at 12:15 am. She woke up at 2:43 am May 27.

I put her down at 3:36 am. She slept for almost five hours and woke up at 8:30am

May 27

Wake up time: 8:30 am (Again, I could not wake up at 7ish to wake her up)

Nap 1: 9:00 am until 11:25 am

Nap 2: 2:44 pm until 3:59 pm

Bedtime: 7:52 pm. She woke up at 9:10 pm

I put her down at 10:44 pm. She woke up at 2:37 am (May 28).

I put her down at 3:15 am. She woke up at 7:00 am

May 28

Wake up time: 7:00 am

Nap 1: 11:40 am until 12:08 pm

Nap 2: 4:00 pm until 4:25 pm

Bedtime: 7:45 pm. She woke up at 8:10 pm

I put her down at 11:45 pm. She slept for over 8 hours and woke up at 8:30 am

May 29 (this was an unusual day as we had family visiting so her bedtime was pushed a bit later)

Wake up time: 8:30am

Nap 1: 9:50am until 12:00 pm

Nap 2: 2:50 pm until 3:25pm

Nap 3: 8:01 until 8:55 pm

Bedtime: 9:45 pm. She slept four hours and woke up at 1:45 am. (May 30)

I put her down at 2:38 am. She slept for over 6 hours and woke up at 8:50 am

May 30

Wake up time: 8:50 am

Nap 1: 10:00 am until 12:30 pm

Nap 2: 3:33pm until 3:58pm

Nap 3: 5:47 pm until 6:29pm

Bedtime: 9:21pm. She slept for over 5 hours and woke up at 3:04 am (May 31)

I put her down at 4:00 am. She woke up at 10:00 am (May 31)

May 31

Wake up time: 10:00 am

Nap 1: 1:52 pm until 2:27 pm

Nap 2: 5:33 pm until 6:27 pm

Bedtime: 9:09 pm. She woke up at 12:20 am.

I put her down at 1:35 am. She slept for over 6 hours and woke up at 8:00 am (June 1).

I hope that it is not too much. I really appreciate your help and guidance. She used to go to bed around 7:30pm to 8:00pm and take 3 naps a day. 1 long nap in the morning around 9ish for 1 to 2 hours, and two catnaps in the afternoon. But since the last month things changed. The past few days I have been trying to change her bedtime to a later time to see if that helps her not wake up too many times. Therefore, I have been putting her to bed closer to 9 pm and wake her up between 8:00 am to 8:30 am. I don’t know if I am doing right or wrong but I don’t know what to do and how to help her. I look forward to your response.

Catherin

[Catherin Sedano]

Hi Emma,

I apologize for the delay in my response. My little one’s sleep schedule has become irregular that it is hard to know when she will sleep through the night and when she will wake up one or twice during the night. Therefore, the past week has been very exhausting that I have not been able to do anything but taking a nap every time I could. Thank you so much for taking the time to answering my post. I am willing to try the plan that you proposed. It pains me to see her wake up and cry when I put her in the crib that I will try this new approach. I am also tracking her sleep time and naps to see if I can figure out why her sleep has been irregular lately. Again, thank you so much. Catherin 🙂