Waking up earlier, can't figure out why..please help!

[sensfan]

Hello all. Two weeks ago today, my DD slept through the night and it was a glorious thing. I hoped that this was a sign that, even if she wasn't ready to do this consistently, that we were at least on the right track. No such luck.

She's 3.5 months old, and for the last month and a half at least her night-wakings have been fairly routine. She goes down for the night just after 8, gets a DF at 11, then would wake up around 4:30 for a night feed. I haven't been absolutely certain that she needs this, but kept giving it because she's had weight gain and BF issues. Sometimes she'd even sleep until closer to 5. But since she STTN that one time, it's all been going backwards. That night she slept until 7:30, the next until 6:30, then she was back to 4:30. Now the last few nights in a row she's waking up even before 4:00! The first time it was about 3:45, I tried to settle her instead of feed, and she was back up by 4:30. Next night she was up at 3:30, so same thing, settled her and she woke up again at 4:45, so I fed her then. Yesterday she had an absolutely picture perfect sleep day, and she STILL woke up at 3:45. Spent 20 min trying to settle her, then ended up feeding her.

I can't figure out why this is happening, and it's driving me nuts. She doesn't sleep with a soother, doesn't get fed to sleep when she goes down at night (although that's pretty much what happens at her night feed). Here's what her routine was like yesterday:

3:30 woke up, settled after about 10 min.
4:45 woke up and BF, right back to sleep
7:30 wake up
7:40 BF
9:10 asleep
10:45 wake up, BF
12:20 asleep
1:50 wake up, BF, tp up with EBM
3:20 asleep
4:50 wake up, BF, top up with EBM
6:30 asleep for catnap (often fights this, not screaming but just lies there smiling)
6:55 wake up, quiet activities
7:40 BF, top up with formula
bedtime at 8:00 or a little after depending on how long she takes to feed, usually asleep withing 15 min.
11:00 DF, DH gives bottle of formula while I pump
3:45 wake up, try to settle, BF at 4:10
7:00 wake up

For wind down, I usually take her up around 1 hour 20 min of A time, we change diaper, read story, sing song and swaddle. I put my arm across her to hold through jerks and pat her on the opposite shoulder in her crib. She generally falls asleep withing 10 min. Before bedtime she has a bath every other day.

If anyone can see a reason why she's doing this please share! It`s driving me crazy trying to figure it out.
Thanks!

[Tweakster]

Hi there, it sounds like a growth spurt to me.  If she's eating and going straight back to sleep I would just feed her :-)  Normally at that time of the night (or day as it is really!) LOs can be soothed back to sleep because they are tired, but of course if they are hungry they will continue to wake to eat.

[sensfan]

I hadn't thought about a growth spurt. She's so non-demanding during the day that it's hard to tell when she's hungry sometimes. Would I notice her wanting to feed more often during the day too? Because that hasn't really been the case. Last night was even worse She woke up at 2:10, settled herself though, but was up again at 3:15. Tried for 30 min. to settle her down, then just fed her. She was up again at 6:00, got her to settle pretty easily, but only for another 45 min. I'm a walking zombie today.

[Tweakster]

Hi there, frankly at this age I would not bother trying to resettle too much if she's waking in the night.  Chances are pretty good it's hunger or she will resettle with feeding.  If you are feeding and for some reason she's not going back to sleep, then I would say it's likely a routine issue or she's in some discomfort of some kind i.e. gas or what not.  But really at 3.5 mths they are still just hungry all the time lol  And they do a lot of growing and brain development at night so it's no surprise that they get hungrier then too.  My boy had 2 night feeds until around 5/5.5 mths and he was bottle fed. 

The other thing I notice is that your DF is a bit later, maybe you could you try moving it back to even 10:30?  It might help.  Tracy felt that 11 or beyond was late for the DF. 

If this continues beyond a week or so then I say maybe she's getting ready to transition to the 4 hr EASY and that's a whole other ball of wax :-)

[sensfan]

I'll keep tabs on this for the next week then and see how things go. Thanks!