3.5 mo old waking at night - hungry?

[dkmom]

I've been on EASY (more or less!) since LO was 4 weeks and she has been sleeping through the night (11-6) since 8 weeks.  At about 3 months, she started waking up at 5:00, then the next night at 4:30, then 4:00, then 3:30, and so on...last night she woke up at 2, 4:30 and 6:30!   Each time she wakes up, she seems hungry and so I feed her (I try to persuade her back to sleep first) - but she always takes a full meal.  She is also ALWAYS fighting her swaddle, but still can't seem to sleep without it.

I'm thinking this is a development thing, but growth spurts don't last for 2 weeks, do they?  The wake-ups have been getting slowly earlier for about 2 weeks now.  Will this end?

Typical day (although it fluctuates because I haven't set a "morning time", I just start easy when she gets up).  Her naps are never long enough to make it to the next "e" so there is almost always extra "a" time.  EASY fluctuates between 3-3.5 hours:
7 E
7:15 A
8 S
9:15 A
10 E
10:15 A
12 S
1:30 E
1:45 A
2:30 S
3:30 A
4:00 E
4:15 A
5:45 S
6:30 A
7:00 E
7:15 A
9:00 S
11:00 E (I wake her for this - we can't get DF to work)

and then she wakes up at 2, 3 or 4 

Thank you for your help!!!!

[lilac83]

Hi -

Based on the routine you posted, it looks like your LO isn't going to bed until 9pm? I think this long stretch of A time before bed is causing OT which is causing the NW. Ideal bedtime, since she's waking at 7am, is between 7/7:30pm. What you'll want to do, is start slowly transitioning her to the 4hr EASY and drop that 5:45pm catnap. Bring bedtime earlier and hopefully the restless nights will end.

[dkmom]

Thank you!  So, if I put her down at 7/7:30, should I still wake her at 11 (or keep trying to figure out the DF thing) for one last feeding?  She always falls right back to sleep after I do that, so that isn't a problem, but I don't want to disrupt good sleep?

Thanks again!

[lilac83]

If you have to wake her all the way for the DF, I wouldn't bother doing one. Just let her wake on her own when she's hungry. Waking her all the way at that point of her night sleep could be disrupting the rest of the night.