Trouble settling after night waking

[rimkat]

Hi there,
I'm absolutely new to this board and am looking for some advice! I've read both BW books and would love to implement them, but am having some issues. My daughter is 9 weeks old and I'm really having trouble settling her at night and after her night wakes.

I suspect the main reason that it takes me about an hour to settle her at night is because she is going to bed too late - however, this only started because we tried putting her to sleep much earlier but found that no matter when we would start our routine, she wouldn't fall asleep any earlier than 12:00! The first few weeks of her life she was falling asleep at 2am because of what I suspect was colic, so 12:00 seemed like heaven to me

I do the shush/pat method, but sometimes resort to rocking when that doesn't work. I do this until she falls asleep and then put her down. Most times she wakes up a minute or two later, and I will usually repeat this 5 or 6 times before she finally falls asleep for the night. Now she usually wakes because she starts grunting and squirming and I suspect that gas may be a big issue because when I pick her, often she will burp and this will calm her.

So lately she's been falling asleep at around 12:00 and then waking about 5:00, which is great (5 hours!), but after her feed, it takes me forever to get her back to sleep again. It's the same issue - I shush-pat her, put her down, she wakes and I have to do this over and over again. Often at this point I'll just take her into bed with us because that way when she stirs I can shush pat her without getting up and she will fall asleep again. However, she doesn't sleep as soundly in bed with us, and neither do I, so I do try to avoid doing this at all costs.

I swaddle her and our daytime routine is not too bad IMO. She usually has 3 naps, each around 45 mins - 1 hour. And I feed every 2.5-3 hours...

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,
R

[mmom]

Welcome.   Can you post your routine in EAS format?

It is important to be consistent about how you settle your LO.  In other words, I wouldn't try sshing, only to end up rocking.  KWIM?  Here is some general info about sleep training at this age.  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85500.0

Are you seeing any other signs of discomfort?  How is your LO during the day?  I wonder because you speak of gas and grunting.  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=654.0

[rimkat]

I was also suspecting the reflux may be an issue and I've brought it up with my doctor, but he said that all babies have some reflux and unless she is projectile vomiting every day and not gaining weight properly, he won't give meds. I do have her mattress elevated in her basinet though..

She's usually fine during the day and she doesn't really cry a lot or seem that she's in pain during the day so I'm not really sure.

It's hard for me to post my EAS schedule because she always wakes up at different times in the morning depending on how disastrous the night was (anywhere from 8:30 - 10:00)

But typically I try to put her down for her naps approximately 1.5 hrs after she woke from her last (I'm now thinking that I'm waiting too long...)...Her cues are also really hard to read because it seems she goes from being just fine to being cranky...  This makes it really difficult to put her down sleepy but awake...

However, she does go down quite easily for her naps...she fusses a bit when I first swaddle her, but then I take her into my walk in closet where its dark and she usually falls asleep quite quickly..

I always start out with the shush pat and then if she seems to continue fussing, I add bouncing and continue shush patting.

Our naps are usually 45 mins long and its very hard to get her to go back to sleep after she wakes from them.

The annoying thing is that putting her down to bed for the night is always a hassle no matter what time I do this. Last week I gave up and basically cluster fed her all evening while she napped/fed on the boob and then would go upstairs to put her to sleep at around 11 and she'd be asleep by around 12:00 (after an hour of putting down, her waking and starting over).

Yesterday I tried to this waaay earlier. Gave her a bath at 6:30, fed, and starting trying to put her to sleep but no dice. She fell asleep at 11:30 only to wake 45 mins later...

It just seems like everything is such a mess that I don't even know where to begin