Mel, I’m so sorry to hear this! It’s exhausting to try to chase down a two-year-old AND a 7-month-old when you’re well-rested, let alone when you’re getting no sleep whatsoever! I would recommend setting up a Sleep Session with Gentle Sleep Coach Amy Potts for next week. This will allow her to ask you some more questions, get to know your situation better, and then help you create a workable sleep plan on how to get him sleeping better – without disrupting your toddler. There are lots of different methods we could try, besides cry-it-out. Getting to know you better will help her recommend one that may be a better fit to your situation. 🙂

Ekaterina, it’s normal for there to be some sleep disruptions at this age. She’s going through a major milestone shift right now – moving from “newborn” to “baby”. You may notice her appetite increasing as well. At this age, the longest she can go is about 1 – 1.5 hours in between sleeps. 5am is considered “early waking” and can often be caused by her being overtired at bedtime. (Which makes sense, looking at some of the napping issues you’re having.) I would recommend signing up for a Sleep Session with Amy, so she can look over your sleep logs and give you more specific personalized suggestions for handling those naps. There are a lot of different factors that can cause disruptions at this age, I hesitate to get too specific. I could accidentally give you the wrong advice. Talking things through one-on-one would let us get specific answers to specific questions, and get a better feel for what’s going on at home. Then we can help you create a workable plan, and identify what is reasonable to expect for her at this age. Hopefully that makes sense. Click here to learn more about the Sleep Sessions.

My baby’s routine is almost exactly that, except we have not started lunch yet. The problem I am having is this. She has been sleeping through the night just fine for a few months 7-7, no issues. At about 5 month mark she however started waking up at  5-6 AM and whining. Sometimes she would fall back asleep and sometimes she will not and I end up with a full on screaming baby at half past way too early in the morning. Which makes me think that she probably has reached her point of “sleep saturation” and doesn’t need as much sleep in the daytime any more. But…. if I try to extend her wake times and shorten her naps, I WILL have an overtired baby. It is catch 22, really. She is a week shy of being 7 months now, and I am not sure how and where to shift her schedule. She normally takes an hr and a half nap in the AM, and an hr and a half in the afternoon. She may or may not take a catnap at around 415. Lately it is a struggle, but I make her do it anyway, cause otherwise she ends up being up for 5 hrs before bedtime, which is a no-no. I guess the question is, how long is too long between sleeps at this age. Should I insist on stretching her wake times and drop that catnap or what? Should I push her bed time back and shorten her night time sleep? It does not seem to help though, cause she wakes up early in the AM anyway. No idea what to do and she is driving me crazy with her 5 AM wake p calls.

Naps are often the hardest part of sleep training, Carol. You’re in good company. Also, there’s a growth spurt around the 6 month period, which can be having a factor here. Honestly, I’d need to look over your sleep logs and interview you about your current naptime routine. Then we’d create a plan on how it would be best to approach your specific child and help her stretch those naps. I would recommend that you consider doing a Sleep Session with Amy and she can share various methods you can choose from to help get on a better place. That way we can dive deeper into what’s going on and talk with you about what’s the best option for you, moving forward.

I think that this is normal, Natasha. Eventually, you could increase the amount to 8 oz at breakfast, lunch, afternoon bottle, dinner and then one before bed. This will get him used to eating at normal times and fill up his belly until the next feeding. It might even stretch his naps out longer. It is also important to feed him his solids close to the time he gets his bottle. Think of bottle/solids like his whole meal. If you give them to him at separate times, he is going to think he is snacking throughout the whole day. The more he gets filled up at mealtimes, the more likely he will give up that 4:45 feeding.

Hope this helps!