Hi all,
I have a 4.5 month old DD, who is now bottle fed after being EBF and then combination fed up to just over four months. Thanks to the brilliant advice I've gotten on here we were able to extend naps and it looked like they were starting to extend themselves naturally. The morning nap is still good but the second nap has gone totally wrong again, and our nights are so erratic, no two nights are the same. I don't understand the nights, we never seem to make any progress towards pushing through a bit further, it's all over the place. I'm just getting used to bottle feeding and am trying a 4 hour EASY. She can wait for the bottle ok, give or take 5-10 mins. I was working towards a 2 hour activity time and that seemed ok but then I started to think she was undertired and pushed to 2hr15. That doesn't work either. Here is a quick summary of yesterday's EASY. She settles well to sleep on her own, likes a short winddown and doesn't have any props. As well as erratic nights we have very early wakings, around 5.45 - 6. She babbles for a while, is not hungry so I don't feed to 7am, but we're all up anyway, and so I have to start the first nap a lot earlier than I'd like to make the day work as 12 hours. We seem to always have an early bedtime.
So:
Awake at 6am, babbled in cot until we all got up at 6.30
E: 7am (never very hungry here, maybe 4-5oz)
A: Awake until 8.15
S: settled in couple of minutes at 8.15. Slept 1hr 30 until 9.45
A: Awake at 9.45 and played until feed time
E: 11 am - 6.5 oz bottle
A: 2 hrs - kept her awake until 11.45, then quick windown and asleep in few minutes
S: only slept 50 mins
A: 12.45 walk in pram to see if I could extend nap, didn't work, awake but yawning the whole time
E: 2.45 6oz bottle
A: no activity to speak of, straight to bed
S: 40 mins, woke crying at 3.30
A: played but not in good form until bath at 5.30 and bottle at 6
E: 6pm bottle 6 oz
S: asleep for the night at 6.30, exhausted. I tried for another quick catnap at 5, but didn't work at all
E: Woke herself crying for next bottle at 10.30. Took 5 oz. Awake for 25 mins
S: woke at 2.30am, fed a 4oz bottle, fell asleep during it.
Woke at 5.45. this morning,
This is one of our typical days, today looks like it's going exactly the same. But following the same 10.30pm bottle routine she either wakes at 2.30am or 4am. Why the huge difference? It doesn't seem to matter if we wake her for the dreamfeed or do it in her sleep. Majority of the time she is awake looking for it.
What should I do at 2.30am? Always feed? So far I have and then she doesn't require anotehr feed to the morning. But waking and feeding at 4am makes not a jot of difference to the early wake up times.
I'm really confused. There are a few issues I don't understand:
- early wakings - would really love our day to start closer to 7am
- erratic night wakings - why the big difference?
- 2nd nap - am I allowing too long of a nap in the morning (1 1/2 hrs?). I decided I wasn't going to wake her from sleeping, because if I do and the rest of the day goes wrong then she really won't get enough sleep.
Thanks ladies for all your wonderful advice so far, I hope there is something I can tweak!