Our daughter is almost 4 months old ( she will be on Saturday ) and she has been awake at night Between 8 and 1 AM for the past week and a half.
When it started, we thought it might be just because she had gas. She has had trouble in the past getting rid of her burps. And they have made it hard for her to stay asleep. If we would get her up and burp her she would often have a big burp and then be able to settle back down and fall asleep. This seems to be the problem initially. We had just moved her into the bedroom with her two older brothers, so when she got up and was upset and seems like she needed to burp, we took her out into the hallway which was dimly lit so that she would not disturb them while they slept. Sometimes if she was very upset, we would bring her out just to distract her for a moment before trying to burp her and then bringing her back into her room. She was up and down like this for several nights, and it just seemed like she needed to burp and she would fall back asleep, but she might wake up again later that evening and have another burp. She also had a poopy diaper several evenings as well which have accounted for her discomfort and inability to go back to sleep. This is been happening every night for the last week however, and I’m afraid she’s gotten into the habit of being awake. Last night she was just up talking in her bed a couple times before I had to go in when she was upset. Typically, she’s been waking up about an hour after falling asleep for bedtime, which was a time she would normally eat again after her bedtime feed. So I would feed her and try to burp her and eventually get her back down to sleep. But she would wake up quickly being upset and would have burps and seem like she’s almost asleep but not stay asleep when we laid her down. By the time the 10 o’clock hour rolls around, I would feed her again as a dream feed even though she was already awake. In between those feeds she might have also had a poop be diaper or I might’ve changed her diaper wondering if that was bothering her. After the dream feed she might’ve still had problems burping or with gas and would not settle down to sleep. She’s also gotten hyper active because she’s overtired. Eventually by midnight or after, I would try to feed her one more time in our room, where she spent her first three months sleeping, because I wasn’t sure if the nightlight in the boys room was bothering her. She would normally then fall asleep just out of sheer exhaustion while eating. I would sometimes lay her down in her crib again in the boys room or in a pack and play in our room because I was just too tired. I had had her on a three hour EASY schedule before yesterday and had felt like it was definitely time and would be easy enough to move to a four hour schedule. I also read in the book that that might take care of night wakings. Yesterday went super great! She slept well I woke her up from her nap so she wouldn’t have more than 5 1/2 hours of daytime sleep. She went down for two naps and bedtime all by herself in her crib and did not need any help. But she still woke up last night and stayed awake until about 1 o’clock talking in her crib several times which makes me think that she has displaced some of her nighttime sleep. Also, I’m afraid because I fed her three times after going to bed, that I’m robbing her daytime eating as well. And then there are those burps… I’m not sure which direction to go at this point. Thank you for reading this - I’m so tired that it’s really just a stream of consciousness post! Thank you for helping me figure out what to do during the day so that she actually sleeps at night!