HELP!!! Growth Spurt at 7.5 weeks? (long)

[Britterbug84]

I don't know what to think....My LO is having a tough time of it the last 3 days. From Monday-Thursday she was doing great on EASY, but I had her A time too short so she was sleeping a minimum of 2 hours every nap. That made her "only" sleep for 6 hours at a time at night (I know I shouldn't complain about a 6 hour stretch at night). I had planned to start extending her A time on Friday, but never got the chance....

On Friday she started having major sleeping problems during the day. She started waking up 45 minutes into a few naps, but she was still only hungry every 3 hours. I would try to put her back to sleep when she woke up, but sometimes just gave up and let her be awake before she ate.

Yesterday we had a somewhat good day. Here is exactly what our schedule looked like, starting with the night feed:

E - 2:30
S - 2:55
E - 6:30
S - 6:50
She woke up at 7:50, still groggy, but screaming I held her off until our optimal wake time
E - 8:00 (she is EBF and usually only takes 10-15 minutes to eat)
A - 8:08
S - 9:10 (woke at 9:50 groggy but fussy, couldn't get her back to sleep)
E - 10:05
A - 10:17
S - 11:35 (woke at 12:20, tried shh-pat, passi but she was wide awake)
E - 12:53
A - 1:07
S - 2:00 (woke at 2:40, wide awake and really wanted/needed to suck, took passi and kind of went back to sleep)
E - 4:15
A - 4:34
S - 5:20 (slept through transition....but I put her to sleep on MY bed rather than hers)
E - 7:00 (Bottle fed expressed breast milk by DH so it took her a lot longer)
A - 7:30 (Bath, Massage, PJ's, Swaddle, Bed
S - 8:30
10:00 - DF

That night she slept a whole 10 hours!! Then today (Sunday) has been HELL! This has been our disaster of a schedule so far.

E - 6:57
S - 7:15

E - 8:55 (I slept through my alarm)
A - 8:55
S - 10:15 (I think the longest she slept this time was 20 minutes. She was awake on and off until 11:25, but didn't seem hungry, but really cranky and eventually OT)
E - 11:28
A - 11:45
S - 12:50 (again really cranky and OT sleeping 10-15 minutes at a time on and off until 2:20)
E - 2:25
A - 2:35
S - 3:00 (woke at 4:00 and dozed with passi until 4:30 when she acted hungry; rooting, gapping mouth, bobbing head on my shoulder)
E - 4:40
A - 4:58 (started trying to put her to sleep at 5:30 and she immediately started screaming/fighting sleep)
S - 5:50 (woke hungry at 6:25)
E - 6:35
A - 6:50
S - 7:40

That is where she is now! She is asleep on my bed in an attempt to get her some decent sleep. I don't know if/when I should wake her up for another feed before bed or if I should just do a DF and hope for the best overnight. For the last half of today she was crying/screaming almost every minute she was awake and I couldn't tell if she was in pain or just super OT. Something that I am wondering about is that she hasn't had a bowel movement sense Thursday afternoon. I was told this is normal in an EBF baby, but if she is in pain should I worry about constipation?

Ok, now that my novel is over, does anyone see anything in my routines that could indicate a GS or something else? Is there anything I can try tomorrow in case it is the same story as today? I really need some help!!

[Britterbug84]

Bump? Can anyone out there help me?

Update: She had a DF at 9:40

E - 4:20
S - 5:10

[*Liz*]

I would have left her asleep and gone for the DF as well - no point waking an OT baby at night!!

Constipation - would only be the case if when she does have a BM it is hard like pellets. If it is normal BF poop then all is fine. My DS used to go once a week from that age onwards when he was BF. It is just that sometimes they digest so much of the milk that there is nothing really left to poop out.

Regarding the routine - I think you might have extended the A a little too far and are getting OT naps. What A time were you using before?

Sometimes babies do give out rooting and hungry signs when they are actually very tired at this age - they want the comfort and relaxation. There are GS all the time when they are young though - often they do have a bit of one at 8 weeks or so.

I would try shortening that A a little first thing and see if it helps?

Does she give clear sleepy cues?

[Britterbug84]

I did leave her asleep, and she slept for almost 9 hours and then another 3 hours after her night feed.

I had her A time really short, about 40 minutes including feeding, because I was putting her down at the first yawn after she was done eating. Today we have been doing about 50 minutes and her naps were better. She still woke at 45 minutes, but with a little coaxing she would go back to sleep, and during her nap at 3 she slept straight through! She is still rooting a bit, but goes back to sleep as soon as her pacci touches her mouth, so I know she isn't really hungry.

She finally had a BM and seems to feel better.

Unfortunately, she does not give clear sleepy cues. She yawns all the time, from the time she wakes for a feed clear through after she falls asleep. I have been noticing that at about 50 minutes she starts to get fussy and a change of scenery makes it worse....so I start the wind down. I think I just need to watch her more closely and figure out what her other cues are.

Any suggestions of other cues I could look for? She isn't quite coordinated enough to rub her eyes or pull her hair. Thank you for responding!

[*Liz*]

Yes 40 mins would be too short at that age - the average A time at 8 weeks is about 1h 15 mins - so after 3 days if your naps are still a little short extend to 60 mins. Don't go too fast else it can lead to OT.

At that age Jacob used to start to go a bit 'vacant' and start staring off into space a lot, and then start to get a little fussy. The other thing he used to do when really small was to start to rub his head into my chest or shoulder (took me ages to figure that one out  ). If he was getting OT he would root for food as he wanted to suck himself to sleep.

The signs are hard at this age though - and if you are struggling with them you may need to keep half an eye on the clock to help as well.

I have never found the yawning very helpful either TBH.

[Britterbug84]

Well, things went downhill after Monday....so downhill that I didn't record times or anything. I was just trying to keep my sanity.

On Tuesday the first two naps were disasters! She slept another 9 hours Monday night, but when I got her up at 8 she seemed REALLY tired still. So after she ate and was awake for barely 35 minutes and was getting fussy, and cranky so I started our wind down and she was asleep by the time I got her swaddled. She woke after 40 minutes and would not go back to sleep. What do I do when that happens? Do I feed her again, or let her be awake, or just keep trying to put her back to sleep until the next feed time?

I let her be awake and then fed her after an hour. Then she stayed up for another 30 minutes and I put her back to sleep....which she fought like crazy. Once she was finally asleep, she woke after just 30 minutes, and I got her to sleep another 20 by giving her the pacifier. I fed her again (she wasn't really hungry obviously) and she stayed up another hour and 15 minutes. Then my husband came home and put her to bed and she slept clear until her next feed time without so much as a peep, and had a perfect EASY schedule the rest of the day.....he put her down for every nap.

Last night she slept for 9.5 hours again. When she woke at 5 it took her 1 1/2 hours to go back to sleep!! Then she woke after just 50 minutes....so at 7:20 and wouldn't go back to sleep and so I fed her early. All day our "schedule" has looked more like EASAEASA. I finally laid down in my bed with her for her afternoon nap, and she slept for the whole nap. I got her up, fed her, and she immediately started acting tired and cranky. I did some low key quiet A time in her room for just 30 minutes, and started the wind down routine. I went into her dark room, changed her, swaddled her (she started screaming), sat in the rocker, rocked for a bit with her on my shoulder (still screaming like I was killing her), and then laid her on her back in the crook of my arm. When I did that, it took her about 5 minutes to get sleepy, and I put her in her crib.....where she promptly woke up and started screaming again. I patted her and shhh'd her and she finally relaxed and fell asleep making her total A time 65 minutes.

She just woke up after 30 minutes of "sleep" and neither me or DH can get her back to sleep. I am really discouraged......I just want to quit. I don't know what to do.

[*Liz*]

((hugs)) honey - this happens from time to time especially when they are so small. They are just so prone to getting OT  . There is also a bit of a developmental issue with napping at this age - they start to experience light sleep for the same time and don't know how to get themselves back into deep sleep again so they wake after 40-45mins.

I would keep feeding on the 3hrly schedule, and then follow cues for the naps on days like these. Exactly like you have been doing  .

I used to spend 20 mins trying to get J back to sleep, and then if I failed did a little bit of A time. On BAD days I used to AP the last nap of the day to save both of our sanities. I would usually go for a buggy walk and he would sleep for 2 hrs then. To extend a short nap you can try 2 things - one is to shh/ptt through the transition, then other is to provide pressure to stop them stirring too much and waking.

Have you observed a nap to see what is waking your lo?

I honestly believe that at this sort of age you do have to go with the flow a bit. Or perhaps that is just waht I had to do, but really when there are so many issues at play it is hard to get every day the same.

I kept BW 'in mind' for much of the early months. I found it stopped me from using too much AP, and I held the 3hrly cycle in mind, and started teaching independent sleep.

Have a read of this
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=65842.0

TBH I tried to implement BW at about 8 weeks as well and found it to be very similar to what has happended to you this week. But remember that BW is actually about following your babies cues and responding to their needs - so even if the routine is a bit of a pickle and they are short napping you are still doing a great job by establishing a feeding schedule and learning how to recognise and respond to your babies cues. And that is a great gift for both of you.