Early Wakings!!!

[Erin M]

Hmmm -- can you give me your whole day like this:
E
A
S

Are you giving a full feed at the EW time?  Does she go straight back to sleep after?

[ills84]

Here is how an good day goes

EW: 4-5-5.30AM
WU: 6.30-7am

E: 7am (solids 1hr after)
A: 2.55-3hrs
S: 9.45-11.10

E: 11.15am
A: 2.55-3hrs
S: 2pm-3.30pm

E: 5-5.30PM solids then bottle at 6.30pm
A: 3-4hrs (depends on her last nap length)
BT: 7pm (asleep by 7.30pm)


I have fed at the EW, she will take about 120-150mls. She will go back to sleep if I pat her (can take up to 1hr including feeding). I have also tried not feeding (she will go back to sleep but wake at about 6am (I don't feed until 6.30am) and she is fine with this.

It really has me stumped!!!

[Erin M]

This is tricky -- a few possibilities come to mind --
She could actually be hungry at the EW -- if you give her a quick bottle and leave, will she go back to sleep or does she still fuss for you?  I used to do smaller feedings at the EW time and they eventually phased out on their own.  But, if she's still not going back to sleep after the bottle, then it's probably not hunger.

Anything environmental going on at that point?  Noises, heating/cooling cycles, things like that?

What about teeth?  EWs and teeth went hand in hand for 2 out of my 3 -- in fact, it was pretty much the only time they bothered my ds, I never would have known he was teething otherwise.

It could also be that she's just adjusting to the new routine and this is the last part of it ironing out.  Is she falling asleep easily for the first nap?  With that first nap length, she could almost use another (small) bump in A time. 

[ills84]

I think she might be teething, but the EW have been happening for about 8 weeks now. Sometimes my husband gets up and goes to work at this time.
I have given her smaller amounts of food, but she has already had a big sleep so it hard to fall back on her own. I know she can go without the food, as she has done it before.

She falls asleep easily for the first nap (within 5 mins). I can't get anymore than 1.20-1.30hrs out of her in both naps. Iam not quite sure she would handle another jump. We have been jumping for 6 weeks now.

Like today she has had 2 naps a 1.20hrs.

[Erin M]

We have been jumping for 6 weeks now.

Well maybe on the flip side she just needs some time to get used to some of this.  Does she wake happy enough from a nap of 1.20? 

[ills84]

Yeah she does. Iam just thinking she is so little to only be having 2.40hrs day sleep.

Past two nights have been good. First night she slept from 7pm till 5.45am gave her dummy and pat back to sleep up at 6.45am. Last night asleep at 7pm woke at 2am took 1.5 hrs to get back to sleep ( just couldn't get into that deep sleep) and the woke at 6am I have dummy and patted to sleep wake at 6.50am

[Erin M]

Glad for the good nights!  I'm thinking that she needs some time to adjust and you can go from there to see if you need to tweak further.  As for the amounts of sleep, you can read this: Typical Amounts of Day and Night Sleep -- she might be on low end (depending on how you look at it), but she's definitely within the range. 

[ills84]

I think Iam going to just roll with it for now.

Iam having a problem with fitting in the third feed. She has been going down for her second nap between 1.45 and 2.30pm. Now do I feed before she goes to sleep, I don't think she will take a full bottle.

See like today she had a morning nap of about 1.40hrs which took her to 11.30am, she ate at 11.40pm she will go back down to bed around 2.30pm, but her next feed will be at 3-3.30pm. What do you do in this situation? Feed before the nap and then count 4hrs after this so 6-6.30pm which would be her BT fed?

Really tring to figure where to put the feeds.

[Erin M]

Depends on how much she'll take.  Honestly I'd post on the bottle feeding forum as I know the advice is somewhat different between bf and ff LOs. 

[ills84]

ok so it was going well, she was on 2 naps a day and going to bed at 7pm and up at 6am. And then daylight savings has hit!!!!

The past few nights she has woken up at 515-5.30. I can get her back to sleep with rocking and in bed with me then she is up for the day at 6.30am. I try in her cot with patting and dummy for up to 30-45mins. The first night it took 1.20hr to get her back to sleep.

What do I do??? Her naps are falling in the right times, it's just her WU.

Do I just ride it out for a week or two and see if  her body clock will change???

[Erin M]

There's some advice on that here: Adjusting to Daylight Savings Time Change
My girls would do the adjusting themselves with little intervention, but my ds would just stay on the old routine forever unless I gave him a little kick in the right direction.  I do a progressively later BT for a few days and he adjusts pretty quickly -- the link has some more gradual advice.