Help with early waking - 5 week old

[mcmeg05]

Ok...I'm so confused here. Maybe my schedule is so off that I need to redo the whole thing...but my 5 week old daughter wakes at 5:00 or 6:00 for a night feed and will NOT go back to sleep!! Here's what our day looks like:

E & A - 8:00
S - 9:30
E&A -11:00
S - 12:30
E&A - 2:00
S - 3:30
E&A - 5:00
S - 6:30
E&A - 7:30
Bed - 9:00 pm
Dream feed: 11:00
Night waking: 3:00am
Night waking:6:00am
And then it's an unsettled every 15-20 minute waking kind of sleep until 8:00 when I finally give in and get her up for the day.

HELP!!! What do I do here???

[Bex09]

Hi there, I wonder if the EW is down to OT, it can often show up as EW. 1.5 hr A time at 5 weeks is quite long, although your naps are nice and long. Have you tried an earlier BT, as again 9pm seems quite late and means that your DD's day is really quite long, especially if she is restless from 5/6am.

So you could either try BT a little earlier or you could make that last nap at 6.30 earlier and shorten it like a CN. You can bring BT earlier then as LO will be tired after a shorter sleep. Ideally you want to try to keep your day as close to 12 hrs as you can and cross your fingers that your night will be 12 hrs too! With NFs included of course!

Just as another thought, do you keep your DD's room dark and quiet/white noise on? I was just wondering if the morning light or heating coming on, etc is waking her at this time?

[mcmeg05]

I agree...I need to bump her bedtime a bit. I'll give it a try these next few nights.

Her room is blacked out completely and she sleeps with a white noise machine...so I don't think that's an issue. When she wakes I can tell that she's tired but is too gassy to resettle. So I've got to figure out a way to deal with the early morning gas. She's definitely a bit refluxy too, so she seems very uncomfortable.

This morning when she woke at 6:00 I tried feeding her like usual and she wouldn't eat...AT ALL! So in my early morning exhaustion I laid her on my chest and we both slept until 7:30. So now I'm thinking that her 6:00am feed may be doing more harm than good and maybe she doesn't need to eat then.

So I'll try to put her to bed earlier tonight and see how it goes. I wish it wasn't so confusing!! She's my third and yoU think I'd have the hang of it by now. But they're all so different!!

[becj86]

Are you burping after night feeds? She may root and seem like she needs a feed if the gas is bothering her but a feed may actually be doing more harm than good as you said.

Is her reflux under control? Are you doing the things that naturally help with reflux like elevating the head end of the cot, holding her upright for 20min after a feed, etc.?

[mcmeg05]

I am burping her...but it seems like as the night progresses her gassiness increases. During the day we have an entire wake time to work out the burps (which honestly are continuous). But at night I get one or two good burps out of her and lay her back down. Her head is elevated in the crib.

So things are getting progressively worse in the morning...even though I bumped her bedtime earlier. This morning at 6 I Passed her off to my husband and he took her to the guest room where she slept until 8:30...but it was VERY fitful. Always straining and grunting. She needed to be patted a few times every ten to 15 minutes and then she'd sleep again. But then 15 minutes later she'd start the grunting etc.

I don't know what to do. It's so exhausting!!! If she would even just sleep until 7:00 am I'd be happy. But 6:00 seems too early!!

Oh we also shortened her awake times to about an hour too. She still does the three hours between feeds...so her naps are now almost two hours long!! Is she sleeping too much now??

[becj86]

Are you BFing? If so, are you engorged at all when feeding at night? I often was and lying back to feed helped as the flow was against gravity then. I would feed in a recliner chair - get DS latched while sitting up so I could see and then immediately he was on, I'd push back so I was lying almost horizontal.

I'm also going to see if I can get some ladies with reflux experience to have a look - I really think the reflux could be part of the issue. Have you seen a doctor about the reflux? Is she on any medication to help her?

[ZacsMumme]

Hugs honey,
I hada similar problem with my Z early on with a combo of a fast let down, too much milk in the early am and reflux.
TBH we never really sorted it till later but here are some tips I learnt to help us deal with that early morning unsettledness.
Express first, or at least try to drain a bit onto a towel. Feed with LO upright to let gravity work, or you lying backwards to slow flow. I personally had screaming after this feed so I ended up having to fight Z to take the paci so he old calm down and take less air in - reducing the trapped wind which makes reflux so much worse.

I wouldn't worry about APing at this age, if she falls asleep on you and you can get some rest lying down with her and rubbing her back then I would just do it. while in discomfort you won't get a good sleep at any time.

Meds? - have you seen a dr about the reflux?
Have you tried gripe water or infacol. These can help with the wind.
As bec says, try to keep her upright. I just let Z fall asleep on my shoulder (if he would)

[mcmeg05]

I'm breastfeeding exclusively. I don't feel engorged at all!! Especially last night, which was awful, my milk seemed a but low. I do try to feed her laying back a bit for this reason though. But maybe I'll try her more upright.

We've been sporadically using Infacol and gripe water. But neither seem to make much difference. But maybe I need to try using them more often. Zacsmum and mama2girls...I'm glad some other People have dealt with this too!! I'm hopIng we can get this reflux thing sorted out first and then it will just magically make the sleep better!! Hopefully!!

I have an appointment with our doc tomorrow to deal with this reflux. My first daughter had it, my second didn't and I was hoping to avoid it again. But she seems to be getting worse every day. Today she's almost refusing to nurse entirely. And then is very spitty and gassy. She's clearly really struggling!!

[ZacsMumme]

HUGS - I think once you see the Dr hopefully you will have some more clarity around it. Does sound like reflux to me though