5 week old suddenly waking more

[jsnyder77]

For the last few nights, our 5 week old has been sleeping from about 9 until 2 or 3.  I feed her and then put her back down again.  She then sleeps until 7 in the morning.  I can handle this.  But last night, she was up at 1, ate, but would not go back to sleep until 3.  Woke up at 3:30 and refused to go back to sleep.  I fed her again at 5:30 and she finally went back to sleep.  Think she could just have been hungry?  She took a 2 hour nap in the afternoon which she does not normally do and we put her to bed about 45 mins early.  Think all of this could have thrown her off?

[Tweakster]

Hi there how is she fed - BF or bottle?  There is a 6 week growth spurt that can cause sleep and eating to go rather wonky.

[jsnyder77]

bottle fed.  she gets 4 oz every three hours...and then I feed her every 2 hours from 4-8.

[Tweakster]

HI there, to be honest at that age I would just continue to offer food when she wakes, she is likely hungry going through a growth spurt.  If it continues beyond a week then you can revisit your routine but sometimes you just have to plough through it :-)

This is a good link to read through:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=68057.0

[jsnyder77]

Thanks.  I was prepared to do that last night, but she slept through until 3:30!  I think the bigger issue is me.  We use the baby monitor and as soon as I would hear her grunt/squeal/whimper, I would assume she was awake and would run into her.  Last night I tried to turn the monitor down and only go in when she was truly crying.  Every time she would put her self back to sleep.  Even now, she is taking a nap and making a few noises here and there, but as long as she is not crying, I am not going into her.  Think this is cruel or ok?

[Tweakster]

Hi there, it is absolutely fine.  It's crucial that they learn to self-soothe and if your LO is starting this early to do it, I would certainly encourage it.  It's often best not to rush in because a lot of the time they are just going through sleep cycles and transitions and they do go back to sleep. 

Crying is different and you will hear her and respond. 
Have a read here:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=141660.0

Eventually you will also learn the difference between her mantra cry and her 'I need you' cry:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64160.0
and when she is doing mantra you won't need to respond either.

This all comes in time as you learn your baby.

We turned our monitor off at night rather early on because it was affecting our sleep too.  We all slept better when we only responded to true needs rather than every noise he makes :-)  He's a very noisy sleeper to this day.  And when he was that age he was making many 'barnyard noises' all night long.