Need help getting 4 month old back on track

[becky1969]

Great improvements!!!!

Here's some answers to your questions:

1) How to handle nights.  My rule was always cat nap if their A time would mean putting them down for cat nap at 5 pm or earlier.  If the A time after last nap would mean a cat nap after 5 pm, then I would just go for an early bedtime.  IN the instance you gave, where she woke from nap at 4:30, that would have meant her A time would have not made her sleep until about 6:00 (1.5 hours A time).  IN that case I would have just made 6 pm her bedtime.

As her naps get a bit more consistent then you'll have room for a catnap.  The most important thing is honoring those A times.  When you have a late cat nap it just throws the whole night off.  In your situation, you tried putting her down for a cat nap after only being awake for an hour! No way was that going to work, which is why she didn't fall asleep until 6 or so.


2)  Yes, if she's hungry at 5 feed her.  But treat it as a night feed, meaning you feed her in the dark with little to no interaction  and then just put her back to bed.  Hopefully she will then sleep until 7:30 or so.


I'm hoping that 5 am feed will disappear as we get better day sleep in her.  I suspect she's waking b/c she was OT at bedtime and so that makes her wake at 9-10 hours after going to bed.  If she gets decent daytime sleep in her she won't be as easily roused early in the morning and *should* be able to make it to 6 or later without a feed. 


Are you doing a DF at this point?  If not, this a great time to introduce one.  That will DEFINITELY help her make it thru the night! We usually advise using a DF up until about 7 months old or so.

[Jenn00ot]

So for every small step forward it seems I am slapped with a tremendous step backwards.  Just when I thought I was making progress things seem to have fallen completely apart again.  I am seriously looking into hiring a baby nurse at this point since I am out of ideas. 

She is back to waking at night, short napping as well as not going down at night and is starting to become dependent on me (even more so than before).  I was hoping to get her through the overtired thing with whatever means necessary but she seems to be resistant to that as well.

Wake 7 am
E 710
S 830-915 (tried to extend with no luck, would get her close but she couldnt drift back off)
A915
E1010
S1040 (managed to make it in time to httj and get her to extend this nap)
A1210
E100
S150, wokr right back up so really only slept 215-245
E 410
Catnap in my arms in the rocking chair took till 455 to fall asleep
Wake 530
Started windown routine at 630 including a feed
Finally asleep at 735
woke at 805 and wouldnt go back to sleep, not crying just not able to transition to sleep
bottle and nursed 930
s 1015, stirred at 11 but didnt wake until 305 at which point I fed her
S 330
wake 430
brought her to lay with me and she slept very fitfully till 615, replaced pacifier and maybe managed to get her to sleep till 730 (it is dark in our room so i couldnt tell when she had her eyes open or not
Awake 740

So i can't seem to get her into any sort of a rythmn.  my lovely husband comes home from working all day and cooks a wonderful dinner and I am not able to even eat dinner anymore cause she wont go to sleep.  I just do not understand and it is becomming really difficult.  We are both stressed out, I am completely obsessed with her sleep and can no longer leave the house since it might disrupt her.  We only go out to go to physical therapy on tuesdays but other than that we stay at home...maybe get a short walk outside here and there depending on the weather.

any ideas?  I am  calling her pediatrician as well as the local childrens hospital tomorrow to see if there is anyone in the area who works with families establishing sleep habits with their infants and as I said before am even having to research baby nurses because I dont know how long we can continue like this as it is taking a major toll on my family. 

[becky1969]

I think now LO is UT!  They increase their A times by about 15 minutes every 4 weeks.  I suspect she's ready for an A time increase.  In future, whenever naps go to pot, try increasing As by 10-15 minutes and see if that resolves the issue.

I would now try an A time of 1h45 and see how that goes.  

The other possibility is that she's starting to get teeth.  My son got his first tooth at 4 months old.

[Jenn00ot]

I had thought of that.....will work on it and see how it goes.

Thanks