Sleep training advice..night 6, still having problems

[walkbyfaith89]

Tonight is night 6 of ST. My baby turned 5 months last week. I’ve had good progress so far but still not where I thought I’d be at this point. We cut out paci, rocking, and magic Merlin all on night 1 and are doing Little Z sleep method (10 minute cry 1 minute check). She took to nap training great but the biggest hurdle has been MOTN. Every night since night one she has been awake 1.5-2 hours starting between midnight and 1:00. Prior to ST she had stopped feeding in the night but was cosleeping. Now I’ll go in after 30ish minutes and give a bottle which she downs, then put her in crib and she cries another 30-35 minutes.

Today I tweaked her schedule a bit to extend WW. Yesterday we were doing 2-2.25 hrs and today we did 2.5.

Last night down at 7:30, took 25 minutes to fall asleep. Awake at midnight. Feed at 12:30, back asleep 1:15. Up at 4:30 and put self back to sleep in a few minutes. Up for the day at 6:30am

Nap 1 9-10:30 (woke her up)
Nap 2 1-1:50 (woke up on own)
Nap 3: 4:10-5:00 (tried moving this nap to 4:30 but she couldn’t handle being awake so long)
Bedtime routine started at 7 and in crib at 7:20 (starting to get cranky) and was asleep in 4 minutes.

Now exactly 30 minutes later she is awake and crying. False start. Overtired? What am I doing wrong?? Before my WW were too short causing split nights. Now that I’ve extended them she’s too tired. Any advice is appreciated

 

[john127]

@walkbyfaith89 Only add 15-30 min of wake time every couple of days, sounds like you added potentially 2 hours in 1 day. Just scale it back tomorrow and add some time to your last ww only to start.

 

[lostandinsecure]

@walkbyfaith89 What were the wake windows before you extended them?

 

[walkbyfaith89]

@lostandinsecure 2 hours each

 

[lostandinsecure]

@walkbyfaith89 If you went from every wake window at 2 hours, maybe some at 2.25 hours, and then today all of them 2.5 hours, then you just added 1.5-2 hours of sleep to your babies schedule in one swoop. Way too much and way too fast. 2.5 hour wake windows x4 is a maxed out 3 nap schedule and likely way too much wake time for a baby just turned 5 months old.

It is entirely appropriate and normal for a just turned 5 month old to eat once or maybe twice each night. So, it could well be that baby is hungry, and if she's downing a bottle then she is. Is she finishing the bottle? Maybe she wants more - I was always taught that baby should be fed until they leave some in the bottle (obviously burping along the way).

I would go back to the wake windows you started with. Maybe add 15 minutes to the last one before bed. Feed within 5-10 minutes of baby waking, or dont feed at all - don't wait for 30 minutes of screaming else it's confusing.

 

[walkbyfaith89]

@lostandinsecure Yesterday I did a post on split nights and it was said that 2 hour WW was too short for her age . I just went in her room and picked her up to burp, she did right away so hoping it was just that. Put her back in crib, cried for 5 minutes and now back asleep. So tomorrow I’ll scale it back just a little and offer the feed after the first 10 minutes. She finishes the bottle in MOTN, sucking it dry at 6 oz. She usually only takes 4-6 oz per bottle during the day, we actually just worked her up to 6 oz whereas before she was doing 4.5 oz across 6 feeds. She’s getting close to 30oz during the daytime

 

[lostandinsecure]

@walkbyfaith89 HA, I totally commented on that post saying that. But, what's important, is that in this post you clarify that she literally just turned 5 months, which I didnt see in that last post. But I also advised to lengthen by 15 minutes, not 30. And I probably should have clarified to lengthen and then wait to see how it goes, not keep lengthening.