NWs getting worse with 4.5 months old

[UlrikaandOlle]

DD now 20weeks normally does STTN maybe 2 times a week, but the rest is just all over the place. And it is getting worse. She started to wake up 1-2 hours after bedtime, so I am now giving her the dreamfeed at 10pm (used to be 11pm). Then she wakes up at random times throughout the night. Last night was 12.30, 2.30 and 5. I haven't fed her during the night for a month but tried to do so at 2.30 last night and she had a lot and went straight back to sleep - but she still woke up two hours later. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

She used to wake herself up when she came out of her swaddle, and I tried to wean her off from it. But she was not ready, so now she is swaddled again and she does not come out of it, but wakes anyway. And yeah, one more thing: she falls asleep independently, no props here. But what I do do when she wakes early from a nap or in the night, is to press my hands or arms on her body to keep her still which seems to calm her.

Our EASY roughly (3.4-4 hours):
6.30am BF
8.30am Sleep for 1.5 hours (tried to cut it shorter, but she still wakes in the night or early)
10/10.30am BF
12-2pm Sleep
2/2.30pm BF
4-5pm Sleep
6pm BF
7pm Sleep
10pm dreamfeed

Please help, help, help.

[UlrikaandOlle]

thanks jane,
by cutting the day back to 12 hours - do you mean putting her to bed at 6.30 if she wakes 6.30am? I will do 4 hours between feeds now and shorten the catnap. Is it ok to keep the morning nap to 1.5 hours?

For naps and bedtime she falls asleep independently, I swaddle her, put on the wave sound machine and put her in her cot. She might cry a bit, but settles quickly. For the NWs on the other hand, I don't want her to wake the house up so I stay by her with my hand on her chest or even pressing my arms on her body to keep her still which seems to calm her down. However, I tried yesterday night to leave her to make her fall asleep by herself which she did, but she woke 20 minutes later. What is that telling us?