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Until our LO was 6 months old, she was a textbook baby who followed Tracey's 4 hour EASY routine well. Since then, things have been all over the place and she's 7.5 months old now. She was fully breastfed till 6 months, and I now breastfeed morning and evening and formula feed her the rest of the time.

At first we put her new lack of routine down to going abroad for a week and beginning to wean her, then due to her growing up and needing longer A times. Then a week ago she was ill with a vomiting bug so completely went off her food and now she's intermittently teething. Because there always seems to be a "reason" as to why she's off track, we are being led by her, but I now feel there's always going to be an "excuse" and if I don't get her back on track soon I'm going to go mad with tiredness.

Our problems are early wakening (5-5:30), night feeding, still needing the dream feed, often not napping as well as she used to in the day - so we have a lot to sort out! The one thing she is pretty good at is going to sleep on her own, as we never put her down asleep. I decided three days ago that my priority was to cut out the night feed (usually 2-2:30am), so I planned to gradually give her less formula and to water it down a bit. The first two nights she woke at 2am and actually refused the bottle! I changed her nappy and she went back to sleep! Then last night at 2ish she was hungry, so I gave her 3oz formula, changed her nappy and tried to settle her. She screamed continuously for 30 mins and as I was so tired, I gave up and breastfed her, as I knew she was still hungry. Maybe I should have persisted, but she really was showing no signs of going back to sleep. I am totally exhausted and really need your help and advice as to what to do and where to start.

Here are her timings for the past two days:

05:20 E (big breastfeed)
         A
07:20 Breakfast (very small)
07:40 S
09:20 A
10:00 E (4.5oz formula)
11:30 S
12:45 Lunch (only 3 mouthfuls)
         A
14:40 E (5oz)
         A
15:45 S
16:25 A
17:30 Dinner (only 3 mouthfuls)
17:50 E (breast)
18:45 S (after small extra breastfeed)
22:15 DF (3oz)
00:00 Woke for 15mins, no milk offered
01:40 Woke for 40mins, declined milk
05:20 E (breast)
         A
08:20 S
10:00 E (6oz)
          A
11:30 S
12:15 A
12:45 Lunch (medium amount)
         A
14:15 E (3oz)
         A
15:35 S
16:00 A
16:30 Dinner (good amount)
          A
18:20 E (breast)
19:00 S
22:20 DF (4oz)
02:30 Woke for 45mins, had 3oz formula, then breastfeed
05:15 Woke, tried to settle unsuccessfully
05:45 E (breast)
06:15 S
07:20 A
08:20 Breakfast (reasonable amount)
          A
09:45 E (5oz)
          A

It is now 10:15 and I suspect she'll want a nap soon.....hopefully!

As you can see, the amount she eats is pretty variable. She used to eat more, but maybe her sore teeth and recent tummy bug have put her off a bit?

Thank you for your comments and advice.

Hi thanks for the reply. I did the 1:45 for a week, so I don't know if that is the key...but I will try again at this point what have I got to loose?

We were out all day today but are home tomorrow so I will kick off again with all of the tactics you suggested. I think you are right though I have been looking for a magic cure and maybe I need to be a bit more patient.

Thanks for the advice on the ssh pat will give it another go using a slightly different more back friendly method.

I didn't even realise she was waking up at 6 until a couple of days ago as she is in her own room I just noticed on the monitor when I checked on her. Would you suggest getting her up then even though she is happy and in an out of sleep? Maybe this has been the issue all along?

Will give you update in a few days...thanks 

Hun I think he is starting off with an OT nap due to the school run (which I know you can't change) what about cutting the next A right back. You doing a full A on a short nap. I'd be tempted to try as early as 2 hrs A later and pd then attempt resettling. You may have to play around a little to get the right A but hopefully you won't end up it's a really OT LO by BT.
I would also offer a third nap for now, until your LO can cope with the A to the first nap. You can do this 2hrs75-3 hrs after a good nap if you get a good lunchtime one. Or if you get another short nap say at 12-12-40 you can try maybe at 3-3.40 with 6.30 BT. Really though on a short nap day I used to just offer more to prevent OT (3-4)
X

HTH

Possible ear infection?

Hi, I hope you haven't tired of my questions yet...

Not at all, that's what I am here for .

So naturally she would get hungry again in about 4 hours (around 19-20), and since she should already be asleep by that time, how would you handle feeding her so that she can hold out until a 22 or 23 DF? 

Why is her last feed at 15-16? Are you not feeding at BT? Most parents feed at BT, it helps LO calm down from the day, helps him fall asleep and keeps him asleep for the first part of the night.
If you don't want to have a BT feed then I would just let her wake up for her first NF by herself. She'll wake up whenever she needs it.

Do you think this is a case of OT?

Yep, sounds like it. Was she crying when she woke up after 35min? Are you happy with settling her back to sleep with walking and singing?
If she wakes up in the middle of her nap and is not crying, just mantra crying or fussing I'd leave her and give her a chance to self soothe, she might surprise you .
The A time was probably a bit much for her to handle. It's normal when upping A times to get a few OT naps, just stick with it for a few days and give her time to settle into it.

Looking at your EASY you are right, she was a bit OT, but it's not too bad TBH. I mean, she gave you a great second nap(!), it's only the first nap that was short and made things a bit difficult with BT. But you are defiantly in the right direction! You three are doing great .
NWs in the first half of the night are almost always due to OT, but like I said before, OT is to be expected when increasing A times, it takes LOs time to get used to them.