where should I tweak?

[UlrikaandOlle]

With some hard work on the naps, my DS now 7 weeks sleeps very well in the day - settles easily and independently and sleeps for 2 hours (or more if I don't wake her). Now the problems have moved to nighttime sleep. She gets a DF (or wakes up for it) around 10-11pm, and usually doesn't feed a lot but if I try to "force" her to take more she will wake up fully and is impossible to settle back to sleep after that. Before she used to wake around 3am and then 7am - which is perfect. Now, since 2 weeks (so not a growth spurt that lasts that long...) she wakes after 2.5-3 hours usually around 1.30-2am and again at 4-5.30am - and these feeds take forever, well the winding takes forever usually up to 1.5 hours. (she is a little bit refluxy, am trying Gaviscon now).

What is going on? Any good advice on what I can do to make her go back to only having one nightfeed, preferably around 3am so she lasts until morning (6-7am). It seems like she can last 4.5 hours between feeds in the evening, but not at night?!

EASY approx
E 6.30am
S 08.15-10.30am
E 10.30am
S 12-2pm
E 2pm
S 3-4.30pm
E 4.30pm + 6pm (cluster feed)
S 6.30pm
E 10.30pm, 2am, 4am...

[UlrikaandOlle]

Thanks, but I feel that A time in the days are pretty perfect for her, I do read her cues and put her in her moses basket after a yawn and she falls asleep without my help within a few minutes. The problems are at night - does several night wakings mean too long A time?? Another question about NWs - to make her sleep longer at night, how does the cluster feeds work. Say I want to feed her at 9pm and 11pm - are both of them dreamfeeds because she normally sleeps from 6.30/7pm.

[momtonb&ab]

i do feel Jane is right here, that perhaps the A time is too long...if your LO is pretty easy going you wouldn't see the effects of those long A times until the night for sure.....  would you be willing to shorten the A times a bit and see how the nights are ?  if you don't see a change in a few days you could always start stretching  them again.........

i think two wakings at that age is about right - not sure if you would want to mess with cluster feeds now.   i don't remember exactly, but i think by 8 weeks our guys were over that cluster feeding stage.  

hugs, and congrats on your new little one!  

[UlrikaandOlle]

THanks ladies, I will shorten the A times a bit. But as a miracle the two last nights have been perfect with a NW at 3am and 3.30am respectively, after a 11pm dreamfeed. So I am pretty pleased. I think what made it was that I moved the basket to another room so I don't wake up from DS grunting and babbling throughout the night, because she apparently settles back to sleep by herself.

And again a question about cutting back the nightfeed - do I wait for her to sleep through, or could I "manipulate" it by tanking her up before midnight and try to settle her back to sleep when she wakes up in the night and see if I can stretch towards 4am, 5am, 6am etc??