Regression?! WTF is going on over here!

[hunter14]

Last two nights LO is up C O N S T A N T L Y after falling asleep independently. Two nights ago was every 45 min - 1 hr for the entire night and last night he couldn’t even get a 15 min stretch in without waking up in screams for almost 2 straight hours. HELP?!

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Rough WW we follow - 1.75/2/2/2.25.

Naps are typically 30-45min but the 2nd nap of the day I will rescue and contact to help stretch total nap to 1.5 hrs.

LO is 5 mo and combo fed. Typically drinks ~27oz during the day and 1 night feed ~6oz (this night feed typically happens between 3-5am).

Regression or something else entirely? Should I stop rescuing that middle nap and go back to 4 naps, if necessary?

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Some background >

LO has fallen asleep independently for naps and bedtime for a couple of months now. Over time came false starts. We did schedule changes and all sorts of things before we stopped overthinking and they eventually weaned off to become less consistent.

 

[jamaicanbella]

@hunter14 For my LO, multiple night wake ups ALWAYS means teething.

 

[callie1956]

@hunter14 Your wake windows are really short for the age and only calls for 8 hours total wake time. My son averages 13.5 hours total sleep per day and at that age, he was on roughly 9.5 or 10 hours total wake time. Add more wake times to the day and you will see nights improve dramatically. Just experiment with the wake windows to see what works best for your baby.

Don’t worry about the short naps it’s developmental appropriate at that age. I never bothered with extending his nap, if he wakes up from 30 mins sleep, that’s fine. Instead I add a 4th nap or a micro nap in to bridge to bed time if all naps were too short.

A total of 2 hours day sleep is not too short for this age and baby can make up the shortfall at night. My son sleeps 11-12 hours at night at that age.

Slowly but surely, you will see their naps lengthening. My son is now 6 months and 10 days and he has at least one long nap per day and we are actually in the process of transition from 3 to 2 naps.

 

[7times70]

@callie1956 Could you help me with mine?! She just turned 6 months. Usually wakes up around 5.30 but goes back to sleep until 6:30am or 7am. Then goes down around 8:45/9am (today we stretched it until 9:30). Usually that nap is 1.5 hours but sometimes 45 mins. Then she is usually up for 2 hours or so and then back down for nap #2. That goes for usually 45 mins. Then she’s up again for 2/2.5 hours depending and does another shorter nap around 5pm and wakes around 5:30/6ish depending on when she goes down/wakes up. Then bed around 8:30. But she’s been waking up A LOT during the night. Usually sleeps from 8:30-10:30/11 no troubles then do a dream feed and then wakes up around 1:30am, then 330, then 530. We co sleep ish at the moment and trying to transition to crib but it’s hard on my mental state. She also has two teeth and the third is coming through soon enough. Thoughts?!

 

[callie1956]

@7times70 Am I right to read that your wake window is something like 1.75 to 2 / 2 / 2 to 2.5 / 2.5? Even if I take the higher value of these, it still only adds to about 9 hours in total? That feels a bit short for a 6 month old. If you can keep it closer to 9 hours 45 minutes to 10 hours wake time, it should make some difference.

Is the baby sleep trained at all? At bed time, does she go to sleep independently? And when she wakes up in the middle of the night, does she always take a full feed? At this age, baby really shouldn’t have to be fed this often at night. Are you breast feeding? And when you say co sleeping ish, are you sharing a bed or is the baby in the bassinet? Can you fit a crib in your room? We still have ours in our bedroom, but he is in his own crib.

Sorry for all these questions but without these, it’s hard to give you my opinion.

 

[wolfwhohowlstoparadise]

@hunter14 I feel like my babies sleep needs changed constantly between 4-6mos, and she just kept needing more and more awake time. At 4mos we were on 1.75/1.75/2/2/2 and by end of 4 mos we were on 2/2/2/2/2, and by 5mos we transitioned to 3 naps, starting at 2.25/2.25/2.5/2.5 and quickly building wake time back up over a couple of weeks to 2.25/2.5/2.5/2.75. By the end of 5mos we were on 2.5/2.5/2.5/2.75. Your baby sounds high sleep needs if those wws of yours have recently been working, as average total sleep at 5mos is 12-14 hours and your schedule asks for 16! So you're probably not going to be jumping to the wws we were on, but you almost certainly are going to need to stretch them. It probably won't be easy at first if your nights are that rough, as they will be tired - but you'll need to do lots of distracting to push through to get out of the cycle of bad nights/short wws.

 

[alysson]

@hunter14 At the same stage as you are, OP. My LO consistently wakes up at 2am-4am and takes about an hour of going back and forth with him before he settles at 5am. The one night that worked for us with only 1 short wake up was when we had huge sleep debt from the day where we had 4 naps but only 3 hours in total, so he was exhausted. We also swing between 3 or 4 naps a lot depending on the duration of those naps.

 

[hunter14]

@alysson Ugh. Every stage is equally fun and challenging! I hope you get some full nights soon.

 

[heathermig]

@hunter14 This is exactly how my kids behave when teething. First kid got teeth at four months, second at six months. Try painkiller.

 

[7times70]

@heathermig Really?! Mine has two teeth another one on the way. She just turned 6 months. Wakes 1:30am, 330, 5:30

 

[lex123]

@hunter14 Any chance of an ear infection? Idk if you flew during vacation or if LO had any congestion?

 

[hunter14]

@lex123 Could be… we did fly. He’s a pretty stuffy baby in general though, so hard to say if it’s much different post travel. I’ll give our doctor a call if it doesn’t improve!

 

[lex123]

@hunter14 If you are okay medicating you could do a trial of pediatrician approved pain med

 

[trivalee]

@hunter14 Your wake windows are very short. For a 5mo my suggestion is 2/2.25/2.5/2.75. stretch wake windows and your maybe perhaps will be able to remain asleep.

 

[hunter14]

@trivalee I follow his cues and even these wake windows can be hard for him to meet!

Would it change that quickly to where he was sleeping through the night (minus a quick false start and/or 1 night feed) to waking up frequently?

 

[keepthefaith2014]

@hunter14 In my experience, staying awake longer takes practice! Give it a week of keeping LO awake longer and I bet their capacity will improve

 

[trivalee]

@hunter14 And btw the wake windows I sent are not a goal per se. Stretch yours and when your problem reduces you can pause.

 

[hunter14]

@trivalee Thank you! Always a guessing game with these babies.

 

[trivalee]

@hunter14 Sleep cues are not reliable after the newborn stage. At this age I would expect your schedule to change every 1-2 weeks. Yes things do change abruptly. Boredom looks like sleepiness at this age.

 

[hunter14]

I will add that we’re coming off of two vacations in a row, but we kept to a routine on vacation/during travel and he did great - this chaos just started 2 nights after getting home from the latest trip.