Am I doing it right???

[mumofiz]

Hello,

My 4 month old has had quite good nights from around 2 months, S- 6.45, DF - 10.30, BF- 4ish, Awake - 7ish
Recently she has been waking loads in the night. A pattern of NW has emerged which is generally 2, 3.30 and 5. I wouldn't mind if she woke and quickly resettled but she wakes at 2 and I try to resettle her, she keeps her eyes closed but mantra cries/shouts out then settles back into sleep for anything between 2-10mins before thrashing about and mantra crying etc again. This continues til 3.30 when I feed her (I have stuck to only feeding her at this time as it's what she used to manage). After the feed she settles back down easily but then wakes at 5 with the thrashing/mantra crying again and continues this way until it's time to get up and have her next feed - 6.45ish. I am sure she is not going through a growth spurt as she doesn't need more food in the day and isn't starving at her 3.30 feed. One night I decided to feed her when she woke and each time she went back to sleep rather than mantra crying etc but still re-awoke at the same times thereafter. I resettle her using dummy, shhh and pressure on arms/legs - she doesn't respond well to shh/pat or PU/PD. I'm one very tired mummy having only had 1 hour of sleep after 2am for the last three nights, and have a very tired grumpy baby  . I just want to ask if I'm doing the right thing attempting to re-settle her rather than feeding at 2 and at 5 and some reassurance that it will pay off! 

Thank you

[Layla]

Hi there

Can you tell me what her daytime schedule looks like (feeds & naps, etc...)

Thanks
Layla

[mumofiz]

Thanks for replying 

 her daytime schedule is all over the place because of the bad nights, she is also only breastfed

Before the awful NW it was...

Wake: 6.45
E: 7.00
A: 7.20-8.30
S: 8.30-9.30 (this includes around 1/2 hour of jigging etc)
A: 9.30-10.15
E: 10.15
A: 10.30-12.00
S: 12.00-1.15  (this includes around 1/2 hour of jigging etc)
E: 1.30
A: 1.45-3.15
S: 3.15-4.15 (this includes around 1/2 hour of jigging etc)
A: 4.15-4.45
E: 4.45
A: 4.45-5.45
Bedtime routine: 5.45-6.30
E: 6.30
S: 6.45
Then DF 10.30, bf- 3.30ish

So very short naps where she was jiggled to sleep and then put down in her pram or chair, but after the first bad night of the night wakings and not re-settling I decided to go for broke and have now had 3 days of wind down at first sign of tiredness (story, close curtains, lullaby and dummy on lap) then into the cot for her nap. A previous attempt  to do this a two weeks ago using sshhhh/pat and then trying PU/PD  was terrible and involved lots of hysterical crying so I am now putting her down and applying gentle pressure on chest and or limbs and shhhing and she's much calmer going down even though it's been taking anything up to 45 mins for her to fall asleep. Yesterday looked like this - bearing in mind her extreme tiredness from the bad nights...

E- 6.30
A- 7.00-7.30
S- 7.30-9.15 (about 40mins to fall asleep)
A- 9.15-9.45
E- 9.45
A- 9.45-10.25
S- 10.25-12.15 (about 30mins to fall asleep)
A- 12.15-1.00
E- 1.00-1.20
S- 1.20-2.00 (10 mins to fall asleep)
A- 2.00-4.15
E- 4.15-4.30
A- 4.30-4.40
S- 4.40-5.40 (5 mins to fall asleep and I woke her up at 5.40)
A- 5.40-6.30
Brief wind down 6.30-6.45
E- 6.45
S- 7.00

We had a slightly better night last night, she woke at 2.15 but was quickly resettled with help of the dummy, then re-woke at 3.15 so I fed her, settled quickly but woke again at 4 with the mantra type calling out, settled again with dummy but kept re-awaking every 15-30 mins, crying out, til 7.15 when I fed her. Could this be early teething pain?? She yawned at 8.05 this morning so I took her up for her nap in her cot and it's  taken an hour, with fair amount of tears to get her off to sleep, she woke again after 5mins and it's taken another 20 to settle her down again    

Sorry, have rambled on and on and probably given far too much unnecessary info, or info that belongs on other boards. Kinda feels good just to say everything though - thanks for listening 

[mumofiz]

No particular change last night  - again she woke at 2.10 and was very unsettled, maybe settling into a 5/10 min sleep  a couple of times before waking again, until I fed her at 3.20. Asleep again at 4 (after a pooey nappy change) and awake at 4.45, then the same calling out/mantra thing dropping off briefly and re-awaking. Last night though she did fall asleep at 5.45 for an hour and a half which is better than the other nights. That was night 6 of this 'routine' 

 

[Layla]

I suspect she is on the wrong EASY. At 4 months, you should be heading towards 4hr EASY... that is stretch her feeds so that she takes more in & will sleep longer for naps

Also when you say you're jiggling... is she falling asleep in the process? It could be that you are also becoming a prop & she is expecting the same at night .

Here's a link to sample EASY routines.... https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=10385.0

Let me know what you think
Layla