4.5 month old fussy before bedtime, waking every hour at night

[nnovik]

Hi all,

I've tried a bunch of things inspired by the forums so far to solve this latest issue and no luck, and have run out of ideas, so I am posting my first question to ask your advice!

My little girl has been on a vague EASY-ish routine since early on, but we only really put her on a more firm four-hour EASY starting right when she was four months old, and overall it's been great. Her schedule:

6:30-7   wake
7           bottle
9-11      nap (wakes a bit in middle)
11         bottle
1-3        nap (wakes a bit in middle)
3           bottle (+ a little bit of solids)
5-6        half-hour nap in here
6-7:45   bottle, bath/massage, bedtime
11         dreamfeed

She was doing great -- much happier and less fussy in general (she was taking only half-hour naps before) and waking sometimes once in the night but settling back down.

Then the last few days the night sleep has all gone wrong! She's waking roughly once an hour starting from around 1-2am onward. She settles right back down again, so I don't think it's hunger (she's eating 6-9 ounces at each daytime feeding plus 3-4 ounces at the dreamfeed).

Associated with this, she's become very fussy at bedtime -- popping off the bottle and eating very slowly. I have been ending up giving her about the second half of the bottle in her bedroom after she's had her storytime and massage because she won't eat before that, and the long feeding ends up dragging out her bedtime.

Today I tried feeding her at 6 instead of 7 (so right when she woke from her last catnap), thinking she might be overtired and overstimulated later on, but no, she was just as fussy, and I didn't get her down until 7:45, ugh.

So my questions are!

- Anyone have any advice?

- I'm thinking it might be too long a day for her overall and that's what's causing the fussiness and night wakings, but I'm not sure how to address this. Should I maybe skip that last catnap, just start bedtime ritual around 5pm and feed her at 6 aiming for lights-out at 6:30?

Any other suggestions welcome!

[nnovik]

Hi Jane, thank you! Yeah, I suspected that the last A is a problem, I am just struggling with how to fix it. I want to get her to bed by 7:30, but she just doesn't finish her bottle quickly enough if I wait until 7pm for her to start.

Yesterday and today I moved her bath/massage time into the previous activity time, then after she woke from the CN I kept her in her bedroom, quietly read a book, then started the bottle at 6:15. She was much less fussy and I did get her down by 7:15. Unfortunately, last night at least she still woke up every hour -- will see how tonight goes, I am about to head off to give the dreamfeed. D:

As for settling, she goes to sleep really fast for both naps/bedtime -- when she fusses I take her to her bedroom, she gets swaddled, into her crib, shade comes down, the white noise or sleepytime playlist goes on, she gets her pacifier, and zooom she is asleep. At night when she wakes up we give her the pacifier and put a hand on her and she goes back to sleep. (We don't have a lot of noisy stimulation going on -- no TV or radio, no electronic toys, no older child at home, etc., so she doesn't seem to need a ton of winding down.)