15 week old suddenly waking at 4am again

[sharanb]

I need some advice. My little girl started sleeping through the night at 11 weeks and this lasted two weeks but now she seems to have gone backwards. She keeps waking at 4am ish. To start wth it was 5.15 then it has just been getting earlier and earlier. Last night she woke at 3am!!! 
To start with she was taking a full bottle so I just though that she was hungry and thought no more of it. Now she seems to be only taking 2oz and waking for other reasons.  We have to swaddle her at night as she judders her arms and wakes herself up.  She has been swaddled since birth. Last night she didn't want her dummy, only took 2oz of feed and seemed to be more bothered about trying to get her arms out of the swaddle. I let her arms out, fed her and after a while she went back to sleep. How do I know if she just doesn't want to be swaddled anymore? What is she still wakes up and doesn't take much feed. I'm really confussed as to what has changed and why it is getting earlier and earlier.

Any ideas 

[Tweakster]

Hi there, 15 weeks is a bit of a crazy time...they head into 4 months and hit a growth spurt...development starts to accelerate...among other things.
Could you post what your EASY looks like for the day...from wake time to bedtime...it could be that she needs a tweak in her daytime A's.

[sharanb]

That's another problem all together. She isn't great at EASY. She finds it very hard to get to sleep as she isn't very good at soothing herself. She cries and cries until she adventually falls asleep. Her day generally looks like this:


Feeds 7.00am
Awake time      7.15 - 9.15
Sleeps      9.15 - 10.00

Feeds 10.30
Awake time 10.45 - 12.45
Sleeps 12.45 - 1.30

Feeds 2.00
Awake Time 2.15 - 5.00
Sleeps 5.00 - 5.30

She never seems to stick to a routine that well. She has always been very demanding. She has baby reflux and cries alot. She is on meds but she still cries alot. I think she is a Diva.

[Tweakster]

Hmm actually her A's are really on the high end.
A times are normally as follows:
3 months 1 hour and 20 - 30 mins
4 months 1 hour and 45 - 2 hours

Do you find she is OT for naps?  The crying is really normally an indication of developmental issues with sleep and/or OT.

What is her bedtime and wake time? 
What meds is she on and do you think she might need a dosage change? 
Reflux babies have a hard time with sleep because of the discomfort.

[sharanb]

I agree that she is probably OT. She goes to bed at 7pm and usually wakes at about 7.30am after waking twice in the night. I don't think that the reflux is anything to do with it as she shows no signs of reflux anymore since taking it but the doctor wants her to take it until 6 months when she is weaned onto solids.

I find that isn't very good at self soothing. During the day she will roll onto her side when we put her down for a nap and wakes after 30-45 minutes but on the odd occasion when I have left her to cry for a bit or given her her dummy again she goes back to sleep for a bit longer. I think she wakes but can't self sooth and get herself back to sleep that is why her naps are short and why she maybe getting OT. Is there anyway to teach self soothing. I want to get rid of the dummy all together and would prefer her to suck her thumb.  Any ideas   Getting exhausted now as both me and my partner are having to get up twice in the night each night as one is needed to deal with her and the other is now having to deal with our 3 year old son who is now waking when she does because of her crying.

[sharanb]

Well I have now established a few things. Last night she woke 6 times in total nearly every hour wanting her dummy. Once she was re-plugged she went back to sleep for a hour. One time I went in and found her flipped on her front with her head stuffed in the matress. 

I have swaddled her for the past few days and that has made no difference at all (thought it might help as she used to love it). I have managed to get her to sleep a bit longer during the day, has been sleeping 2 1/2 to 3 hours all together during the day instead on 2 hours like before.  I have been putting her down to sleep after 2 hours of A instead of waiting for her to fall asleep and then putting her up. Trying to get her into more of a routine.

But nothing has changed at all. 

She doesn't seem to be able to get herself off to sleep without crying for ages until she finally falls asleep. My thought is that she doesn't know how to get herself back to sleep after she wakes a bit by herself. Sometimes she goes down for 30 minutes and then wakes up crying but when we bring her down and hold her on her side she falls asleep again for another 30 minutes if not more.

Please does anyone have any idea what I am doing wrong or what I can do as the sleep deprevation is getting so hard plus now with my 3 year old waking during the night whenever she cries is making night time a knightmare!!!!!  I don't know how much longer I can cope. 

[Tweakster]

Hi there, looks like the paci has become a prop since she can't replug herself and needs it to sleep.  She has sleep associations.  It may be time to think about weaning the paci.  Have you posted on the props board?  You can get some great help there.  You are right, she needs to be taught to sleep independently and it usually takes shush/pat and/or PU/PD to get these LO's on the right track.  Yes she can be taught to self-soothe but it doesn't happen overnight and it takes commitment to a method.  Can you get any help while you sleep train?

Usually crying before sleep is partially developmental and partially OT.  It depends on the LO. 

[sharanb]

Right, I no longer thing the paci is the problem or maybe just part of it. Last night she woke every hour and wasn't really interested in the dummy. She just kept on making noises crying and seemed wide awake. When I put the dummy in she spat it out and cried. She flipped onto her front a couple of times after just chatting to herself and cried again. I have no idea what is going on and everytime I think I maybe getting near understanding why she is doing it I find out I am wrong. Help anyone please.  I can't see this ever stopping and if anything it is getting worse. It was twice a night which was bad but now it is 5-6 times a night. Ahhhhhhhhh.

[Tweakster]

Hi there, if it's not OT or a prop issue then it really sounds like discomfort then.  Teething, reflux, tummy upset??  Anything out of the ordinary? 

Big hugs - it's so hard.

[sharanb]

Well finally some progress. 
The other night I tried putting some baby rice in her feed just before bedtime at 7pm and we didn't wake her for a night feed as we wanted to see how long she would go before waking up and she woke at 1.45am for a feed and then went back to sleep until 6am. Woohoo!!! Did it again last night and she slept until 3.30am for a feed and then back to sleep until 7am. I'm not sure if it is the baby rice or maybe the dreamfeed was disrupting her or what but it has ben good for two days and we are getting more sleep. Since we aren't having to wait up for the dreamfeed we are able to go to bed early and get some sleep before we need to get up and feed her during the night.

Oh and when she goes down at night she isn't using the paci which is great!!! She sometimes has it for a little bit during the day when she is trying to nodd off but most of the time she isn't interested in it and spits it out.  Thank you so much for being there for me and giving advice. No doubt I will be on again soon with another problem. 

Thank you so much