Wakes up 20-30 mins after bedtime

[Mahne]

I'm looking for advice on my 9 week old. We have an established bedtime routine that consists of a bath, quick massage, feed in the dark and then down in the crib with a white noise machine. My LO has silent reflux and is medicated and has improved significantly in the past 2 weeks. She is awake for about 1 hr 15 mins before she goes down for the night.

The issue is that I'll put her down for the night and she falls asleep right away with a few pats in the crib, but will wake up 20-30 mins later. Most of the time she just lays there looking around and may make a few grunts/cries and we just leave her and let her do her thing. Within 20-30 mins she'll usually fall asleep again on her own and stay asleep for 6-8 hours.

Why is she waking up after we put her down?
When she lays there figiting it takes away for her night time sleep.
Any insight is appreciated.

[becj86]

Generally a waking so soon after bedtime is related to overtiredness from the day or pain/discomfort.

What does her day look like?
Is the reflux fully controlled, do you think?
When she's lying there, I presume she's not particularly upset?

[Mahne]

I wouldn't be surprised if she's OT, she's a terrible napper and I usually end up APOP for a lot of her naps although I always try and put her down in her crib first before putting her in the carrier or swing. Unless she's being AP, she naps for 40 mins or less at a time and she's always fussing/crying when I put her down, even though I start winding her down at the first sleep cue.
I attempt to do a 3 hr EASY, but sometimes it can be all over the place due to her short naps. Here's what our day looked like yesterday.

W/E  9:00am
A  9-10am
S  10-12pm (my husband and I went for out for breakfast so we put her in her car seat at 10am and she fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep until we got home at noon)

E  12pm
A  12-1:20
S  1:20 - 1:50 (woke up fussing in her crib so shush-patted back to sleep)
S  1:55 - 2:15 (she woke up and was wide awake so we just got her up)
A  2:15 - 2:45

E  2:45
A  2:45 - 3:25
S  3:25 - 5:15 (this was her best nap ever at home, stayed asleep in her crib the whole time and woke up content)

E  5:15 pm
A  5:15 - 6:30 pm
S  6:30 - 7:15 pm (this is usually a catnap, and she was very fussy at last A time so I held her while she slept)
E  7:15 pm (cluster feed)

Start bedtime routine at 8pm with bath
E  8:15 pm
S  8:30pm

She fell asleep right away at 8:30, but then woke up at 9:00pm (we have a video monitor so I watch her on that.  We also go to sleep early so I don't do a dream feed and just wait until she wakes up for a NF).  She just laid there and wiggled and seemed content, but she did this for 1.75 hrs!  Finally just before 11pm she started crying and showing hungry cues, so I had to get up and feed her.

E  11pm
S  11:30pm

Woke up screaming at 1:30am I believe because of gas.  I shush-patted her and she calmed down right away and fell back asleep.
It's now 7:30am and she's still asleep.


I've considered that her reflux is still bothering her, but since she can go for 7+ hours I think that it can't be bothering her that much....is this reasonable?
We have a check-up today so I will talk to her doctor about her Zantac dosage.
She's also started fussing while she nurses, pulling away and popping on and off....is this a reflux symptom?

Last night was a bit different since she wouldn't go to sleep for so long and I fed her.  She usually falls back asleep after 20-30 minutes and will then do her long stretch and I end up feeding her at around 4-5am and then back down for a few hours and wake up for the day at 9am.  Also, she's EBF and we think she's spirited.  We stopped swaddling her at night because she can break free and I've found her with the blankets loose in the cirb so we moved to a sleep sac.

[becj86]

I've considered that her reflux is still bothering her, but since she can go for 7+ hours I think that it can't be bothering her that much....is this reasonable?

Refluxers tend to have a long period of quite heavy sleep (6-7hr) when they just crash from exhaustion, so that's not the best indication of whether she's not bothered by it - behaviour during the rest of the time is more reliable.

She's also started fussing while she nurses, pulling away and popping on and off....is this a reflux symptom?

Yes, it is a reflux symptom and its also a symptom of overactive letdown/oversupply or both...

Spirited babies often do well with a minimal wind down - wrap/sleep sac, pop into bed and shush/pat type thing rather than 2 songs, say goodnight to 15 things on the way to the bedroom, etc.

Unless she's being AP, she naps for 40 mins or less at a time and she's always fussing/crying when I put her down, even though I start winding her down at the first sleep cue.

Pretty normal really, at this age. Though the fussing when PD rings bells as a spirited thing.

Zantac is incredibly weight sensitive, so good to review dosage pretty frequently.

TBH, your day yesterday looks pretty good - I'd have been over the moon to have had a day like that when DS was 8 weeks old!

[Mahne]

Do I go in and try and get her back to sleep when she wakes 30 mins after putting her down, or let her do her thing since she's not fussing or crying?

Her dosage of Zantac has been increased so maybe we'll see an improvement in the next few days.
Thanks for your responses!

[becj86]

Do I go in and try and get her back to sleep when she wakes 30 mins after putting her down, or let her do her thing since she's not fussing or crying?

I'd be inclined to leave her to it since she's not fussing or crying. She seems happy enough? It seems odd to me that she does that and is fine with it for so long but I could be wrong - DS may have done that without me knowing - no video monitor here

Fingers crossed the Zantac increase helps.

[Mahne]

Yesterday we had a great day in terms of naps. She had two 2-hr naps and a couple of 45 min cat naps in the late afternoon/evening.  I put her to bed at 8:30 and she fell asleep within a couple mins, and then like usual woke up 30 mins later. She wiggled around for 25 mins and then fell back asleep on her own until 4am. 

Tonight I'm going to try and go in her room before she wakes up and pat her through her awakening...we'll see!  Sometimes that video monitor can be a curse, half the time I probably wouldn't even know she's awake