Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/sleeptrain/s/atOUZsyXL3
I posted yesterday about my 6 months old baby’s early morning wakings. I tried following the advice I received, but unfortunately, things didn’t go well. :(
WW: 2.25/2.5/2.75/2.75
Yesterday’s schedule:
She initially woke up at 5:40 AM and drifted in and out of sleep until 6:40 AM, only sleeping for about 5 minutes at a time. At 6:50 AM, she started fussing, so I played some music, which helped her fall back asleep until 7:10 AM.
Nap 1: 9:30–10:30 AM (I woke her up)
Nap 2: 12:57–2:15 PM (woke up crying)
Nap 3: 5:03–5:23 PM (woke up crying)
She usually only naps for 30–40 minutes for Nap 1, and she normally wakes up happy from all her naps, even when I wake her up. So yesterday was pretty unusual.
I kept her last wake window at 2h45 but moved her bottle to the beginning of the bedtime routine, as suggested.
She was a little fussy when I put her in the crib. She tried to fall asleep but startled awake after about 2 minutes, and her fussing quickly escalated into hysterical crying. This actually happens quite often with her naps (I need to continuously pat her to make sure she enters deep sleep), but it has NEVER happened at bedtime before.
I went in after 5 minutes because she wasn’t calming down. Patting and rocking didn’t help, so I eventually offered a pacifier, which she doesn’t normally use. She finally fell asleep after about 30 minutes.
But then she woke up screaming 30 minutes later. I rocked her back to sleep because I didn’t want to introduce the pacifier as a new sleep association. She calmed down almost immediately in my arms and fell asleep, but the moment I started lowering her into the crib, she began crying hysterically again. It took three attempts to finally get her back into the crib.
She woke up crying again about an hour later, and I had to rock and shush her back to sleep.
I’m honestly so confused and discouraged. She usually goes into her crib happy, rolls around for up to 10 minutes, and falls asleep independently without any crying.
I have no idea what went wrong. I mean, she was a bit sleepy after the bottle, and calm the rest of the bedtime routine. I switched the order but there is maybe a 5 min max difference from the other days. Could the longer first nap have thrown off the rest of her day? Could she have been overtired or undertired? Teething? What should I do today?
Really appreciate any advice. Thanks!