Full EASY during night waking?

[Britterbug84]

DD usually only wakes once at night, but it takes her a full hour to get back to sleep. This is what our nights look like:

E - 8:00pm
A - 8:15 (bath, massage, lotion, PJ's, story/song, swaddle, bed)
S - 9:10
DF - 10:30-11:00

E - 4:30
S - 5:15-20

E - 9:00 (Start of the day)

When she gets up at night, I change her, feed her, and swaddle her immediately back up. Then I will rock her until she starts to doze and then I put her in her crib. The problem is that this last couple weeks it has taken her longer and longer to start to fall asleep. I don't talk to her, or anything during these night wakings, so I don't think she thinks its time to play. Should I be worried about it? She will usually sleep until morning after she does go to sleep, but last night she started to wake up at 8, and I had to pat her back into deep sleep a couple times.

She is 2 1/2 months old.

Any suggestions?

Brittany

[~Sara~]

Hi Brittany!  I don't have a lot of advice right now (it's way past my bedtime and my mental functioning capabilities are at a minimum), but I have lots of hugs to pass on to you

Just a couple of questions (as other readers might need the info to help): is your LO BF, formula fed, both?  Also, what does your routine usually look like?

I'll check back tomorrow when I'm not half asleep and see if I can help any

Btw, I used to live in Utah...so pretty; I miss the mountains!

[vicstar]

When you do the early morning feed, try and not change her nappy unless you really have to.  Also it really helped for me if I kept as much light out of the room as possible.  This way to didn't wake LO up so much.
Good luck.

[anna*]

Totally agree with pps - don't change her unless she's poopy or soaked through, don't turn any lights on. What happens if you don't rock her, just put her back down in her crib?

Also, just an observation that your dreamfeed is very early for a 9pm bedtime. We'd normally do a 10.30 dreamfeed from a 7pm bedtime: pushing the dreamfeed later might help her sleep longer.

[Britterbug84]

DD is EBF and our routine during the day is usually really good!

E - 9:00
A - 9:20
S - 10:10-15 - She will almost always wake at the 45 during this nap, but I can usually get her back to sleep with some back patting
E - 12:00
A - 12:10
S - 1:15 - Our nap routine is - go into darkened room, swaddle, rock while she sucks on pacci, hum a song, then take her pacci away and put her in her crib. Sometimes she will start the head turning but a few pats on her back help her fall asleep.
E - 3:00
A - 3:10
S - 4:15
E - 6:00
A - 6:15
S - 7:15
E - 8:00
A - 8:10 (night time routine)
S - 8:50-9:00
DF - 10:30 - 11:00 - This is the latest DH and I stay up so I don't know it I can push her DF later at all without sacrificing my sleep. DH can't stay up later because he gets up at 4:45 for work....which usually wakes DD up if she isn't up already for her night feeding.

My optimal wake time would normally be 8 am but with the time change coming I have just let her fall into this 9 am thing. Then her DF will still be at 10:30 or 11. I think she may be approaching a GS because last night she woke at 2 and at 6. It took her almost an hour each waking to go back to sleep.

I have a touch lamp in her room that I turn on the lowest setting for night wakings. That makes just enough light to keep me from bumping into everything. If I just put her back in her crib, she turns her head from side to side (she is a tummy sleeper) and makes little noises, and unless I pat her or rock her it turns into screaming. The reason I rock her is to pass the time so I am not leaning over her crib for 45 minutes patting an awake baby. Should I just suck it up and pat her in her crib? Sometimes after an hour she is still awake so I give her her pacci and go back to bed, and I have no idea how long it takes her to go back to sleep. She usually wont take her pacci until like 45 minutes into the night waking.

Also, she is a VERY heavy wetter and will soak through a disposable diaper half way through the night. I left her in the same diaper for the whole night and it literally fell apart. She ended up with those gross gel things all over in her PJ's. So I usually have to change her.

Thanks for the suggestions so far!

[anna*]

How about going up a size for diapers in the night. The larger sizes are more absorbant. Less stimulation when you feed her will mean she's less likely to need to be settled back to sleep.

[Britterbug84]

I hadn't thought about that! Thanks!

[~Sara~]

I completely agree with Anna re: the bigger diapers.  DS soaks his in record time, so we went up a size for the nights, and so far, so good!

Now, as to your original question (if you should be worried about the night waking and it taking so long for her to resettle after eating), I am more inclined to think you shouldn't worry too much about it yet, especially if you think she's going through a growth spurt.  I would just see how the next couple of days/nights play out, and if you think that her wakings have become habitual and that her daytime sleep is suffering because she's getting so much A time at night, then you could try wake to sleep.

And as she gets older, her wind down and nap/bedtime routines are going to become increasingly important because she's more aware of her surroundings.  So, she'll respond better to the routines as cues to sleep.  It freaked me out when Aaron started taking longer to fall asleep--I thought something was wrong, but it's just their little bodies growing up

I don't think your LO is trying to make up for any A time during the night, meaning that I think her A times during the day are just right for her age.

I hope that helps a little bit.  Maybe other posters will have better ideas/insight!

[Britterbug84]

ok....maybe a really naive question, but what do you mean by wake to sleep?

[~Sara~]

Oh!  Sorry   Wake to sleep is where you bring your baby from a deep sleep to a light sleep and then settle them back down (without waking them up completely).  It's purpose is to interrupt and restart their sleep cycle.  A lot of people use it to stop habitual night wakings and to help extend naps during the day.  I, personally, can't use it on my LO--he just wakes up

Here's a thread where the technique is discussed:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=38359.0

[Britterbug84]

I think things are improving! Not only did she sleep from 9-6:45 straight through, but it only took 40 minutes to get her back to sleep rather than the full hour! I bottle fed her breast milk for her DF and it seemed to help her sleep longer.

When I got her up I didn't change her, but she had worked out of her swaddle so I had to re swaddle her. I didn't turn ANY lights on this time either, so maybe that helped.

[~Sara~]

Congrats, hon!  That is fantastic!  You must feel sooooo good

I always found that DF feeds went better using a bottle, too...my LO always fell asleep even faster when I tried to breastfeed him his DF.

How was she during those 40 minutes?  Wide awake, or just trying to settle back down?  Here's hoping she'll do this for you for many nights to come

[Britterbug84]

It think if she hadn't had to be re swaddled she would have gone right back to sleep because she was passed out after eating. After being swaddled she was wide awake and talking to the little morning light coming through the window lol. But I just did our normal wind down routine (minus the song) and put her back in bed. After about 25 minutes of back patting she was asleep.