Good day baby/nightmare night baby

[cdore]

Hello my daughter is 24 weeks old and has never been a great sleeper.  She now sleeps beautifully during the day but is a complete nightmare at night.  She wakes frequently and wakes super early.  I don't know how to fix this and it's driving me and my husband crazy. 


She wakes at 5 or 4:30 or 4 to start her day....Sometimes can get her to sleep until 6 but not very often.

EASY :

E - 6 to 6:15
A - 2h30 min 830 first nap
S - 1h30min to 2h 10:00
E - 10:00
A - 10:15 to 12:30
S - 12:30 to 2
E- 2
A - 2:15 to 4:30
S 430 to 5 or 530
E - 530
A - bath etc
S - bedtime b/w 700 to 800

She goes to sleep easily for naps and bedtime.  The problem is she wakes up at 1030 - we used to dream feed, now she just wakes up at that time to eat. 

She also wakes at 1:30.  Try to put the paci in shh/pat but doesn't always work.  I need to breastfeed her to sleep again.  Next she's up at 4 ready to start her day.  Again we try ssh/pat and paci. that may work for 30 mins but by 5 i usually feed her and she may sleep until 6.  bah! Do you see anything that I should change from my easy to avoid multiple night feedings and early wakings?  Can't handle it.  plus she is always happy during the day - total Angel but at night she screams and yells and gets really angry.  What gives?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


 

[jessmum46]

Hi there

Does your LO sleep independently, as in do you put her down fully awake and she settles herself?  Does she need the paci for every sleep time and every NW?  Any medical issues/reflux/wind?

Couple of things I'd suggest - first is that her day is very long if she's waking at 6 or before - could you get her to bed earlier, say 6.30pm?  It won't be forever, but I'd suspect if her days are that long that she has some OT building up and putting her to bed earlier may just help her catch up a bit.  She may still be up at 6am, but will be better rested after a longer night's sleep. 

The second thing is that I suspect she's headed into the 3-2 nap transition and needing to drop the CN.  For that she needs to be able to handle around 3h of A time.  What I'd do is try to gradually push out your first A time by 10 mins or so, hold for 3-4 days, and then push again if she's coping with the increase.  You can then push out your second A time too (if she's angel personality she should cope reasonably well with increases).  Once the A times get nearer 3h you should be able to drop the CN and bring BT temporarily earlier to prevent OT.

You may find that working towards dropping the CN resolves some of your NW/EW problems   Bear in mind there's also a huge growth spurt around 6 months so a DF/evening feed and a NF is totally reasonable.  I'd probably feed at the 10.30pm and 4am wakings, and try to resettle by any means other than feeding at 1.30am if you can.

Hope that helps x

[Erin M]

Totally agree with PP -- also, you might try doing the DF at 10:15, just early enough to catch her still asleep (with the thought of pushing it out again eventually)

[cdore]

Thanks for answering my post ladies,

Katherine, my little one does need the paci to go to sleep as it relaxes her but I put in it, she rolls to her stomach and is asleep (for her naps and bedtime).  I guess it is a prop but she sleeps beautifully for naps that I wasn't too concern about it.  Maybe I should be? Also, if she is a bit more difficult to put down for a nap, we hold her and pat her back.  We still put her asleep awake though.

I like your advice about taking the cat nap out.  I'll work towards that.  A couple of weeks ago I increased her awake time but she may be ready for more.  She's been doing things ahead of when she is "supposed" to so maybe she needs less sleep (the comment I get from all other moms is that they can't believe that she is 5 months old and can't believe how strong she is). 

[jessmum46]

My DD was much the same - we dropped the CN at about 6 months.  It's fine to keep the paci if you want to - it won't be long (another couple of months) before she can learn to replug herself anyway

Just so you know there's a support thread for the 3-2 transition here: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=233237.0