Somewhere, it all went south..

[Lola_Grayce]

Hi,

I need some advice on what to do with my 14 week old DD.  We've been on the EASY plan since about 8 weeks and it was going so perfectly...she was sleeping 10 to 12 hours straight at night with 1 two hour nap in the morning, and 2 other daytime naps of about 1 hour.  Then, somewhere around 12 weeks, she started to wake at night and I thought it was a growth spurt and she needed to eat.  Now, I'm afraid I've created a habit that she wakes to eat ever 3 to 4 hours all night long.

A typical day looks something like this (nap times vary in length lately):

Wake Up:  8:00
E: 8:00 - 8:15 (typically will only eat 2 or 3 oz)
A: 8:00 - 9:45 (sometimes I give her the last 1 oz before nap)
S: 10:00 - 11:30

E:  12:00 - 12:20 (she may or may not finish a 4 oz bottle)
A: 12:00 - 1:45
S:  2:00 - 2:45

E:  3:00 - 3:15
A:  3:00 - 5:00
S:  5:00 - 5:30  (she typically fights me to take a nap, but will fall to sleep eventually)

E:  6:00 - 6:30
A:  6:00 - 7:30 (Bath, read, rock, and try to tank her up before bed)
S:  7:30

She will not take a DF.  She's formula fed only.  Lately, she wakes up at 10:30/11:00 and cries.  I do shh/pat and can get her to fall back to sleep, but sometimes only for 30 minutes or less.  Last night, she woke up at 11:30, 1:00, 1:30, 4:30 and got up for the day at 8:00.  BTW, when she wakes up, she is wide awake, smiling, laughing, and generally happy when she sees me...until she realizes there is no bottle to eat.

I've been trying to break the night feeding since I know she's capable of going all night without eating.  For the past 2 nights I've shh/pat several of the wakings and then give her 1 oz of formula if she won't settle down but only at 2:00AM or after. 

Any advice on how to break the night feed and get her to sleep again thru the night?  Any advice on if this is a typical nap routine?  I've tried adjusting from the 3 Hr EASY to a 3.5 or 4 Hr EASY, but she just gets so tired during A time - but she's not necessarily hungry when the next E time is supposed to happen.

I'm lost and not sure how to go about correcting the issue.  I am sure its a case of accidental parenting but at this point, i just need to know the best route to correct my mistakes.  :-(

Please help. 

[Ima shel Alon]

It's very normal that babies that age still feed at night, even if they didn't before. My DS, for example, had much longer stretches at night when he was tiny and when he was around 2-4 months he woke up to eat every 3-4 hours.
IIWY I wouldn't wean those feeds, I don't think she is old enough.
Have you tried feeding her when she wakes at 23? Would she take a full feed if you give it to her?
If she settles only for 30min that makes me think even more that she might be hungry.
So if you are ok with feeding her at night you would feed like you are during the day. If you feed every three hours then you would do the same at NF.

The fact that she is happy when she wakes up at night and having a "crib party" makes me think that she is slightly UT and perhaps is ready for a slight increase of her A time. She seems to be on high A already so I wouldn't push it too much.

[Lola_Grayce]

Typically when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she'll only eat 3 oz (which is not a full feed).  I'll try to up her A time a little and see if that makes a difference in how long she naps during the day.

Thanks for the feedback and help!