struggling to work out A times after ilness

[Honeymonster]

My 6 month old LO (2wks OD and big baby) has just recovered from a virus which was hell for about a week, before and after she was super sleepy as she recovered but before that we'd been sitting at 2hrs 45mins A time needed to get a decent nap. Since recovering she stopped wanting to self settle because of all the AP i'd been doing when ill and was screaming when i started the wind down.. i then pushed her A time to 3hrs/3.15 and she amazingly just started going down without a peep again and sleeping well. she also suddenly stopped the 45min wake up after bedtime.. something which has plagued us for months!! I was amazed!

I cant help feeling its happened very quick (stretching A and dropping catnap) but she has been so super easy and happy the past couple of days i just thought it must be what suits her. only thing is she keeps waking about 3/4am and having a cot party for about an hour.  she isnt hungry -if i pick her up she doesnt go for my boobs (BF) but if i feed her anyway she'll usually go back to sleep but then isnt hungry until 10 or 11am and even then isnt hungry enough to take a big feed. and as it falls in the middle of her first nap i have to give her something or it affects the nap, this then has the knock on effect of not having time to fit in 4 daytime feeds! last night OH did the NW and she wouldnt take a bottle off him at 3am and went back to sleep after 1 hr of playing in the cot.. it was the first time shes taken a proper full feed off me in the morning for weeks!

im going back to work in 2 weeks and would love to sort this out so shes tired enough to sleep past this wakening then hungry for her morning feed at 7am!
Shes been moe textbook/angel recently and has been so good its very hard to read her tired signs sometimes so i worry shes ot.. but the lack of wake up after BT makes me think no..

our easy has been looking like this-ish :

A: 7.30-10.45
E: 10.00
S:10.45-12.15 (occasionally 2 hrs but more usually 1.5)
A:12.15-3.30
E:2
S:3.30-4.15 (wakes up happy and chattering.. if shes had a short 1st nap will nap for 2 hrs here)
E:4.15 (often hungry again as she hasnt fed well early on)
E:6.30
A:4.15-6.45/7.00

Wakes at 12.30 and feeds off both sides and nappy change and is usually asleep while i change her then down without a peep.
wakes anywhere between 3-5am for her party!

[Buttonbobs]

Hi there, I wouldn't worry about it having been quite a good leap in A times recently. I think this is very common around this age and around the CN dropping.

I can see that you are getting good naps. Those cot parties in the early hours meant one of two things in this house - teething or UT. UT seems unlikely given the recent uplift in A times. If you're not sure though you could try seeing if a slightly longer A time to bed helps.

Alternatively, you could offer some medication as a dream feed at around 1am or shortly after your night feed and see if that helps her to sleep through for longer.

What do you think?

[Honeymonster]

Hiya button bobs thanks for your post! I keep doubting myself with the A times and finding her really hard to read just now but we had a couple of days of only 2 x 45min naps.. She just doesn't seem to want to nap just now! She has been quite OT and getting an early bedtime but then today on 3hr A times she took 1 x 2hr and 1 x 45min nap again and wasn't tired for bed at all.. Just kept playing in the cot not going to sleep... I got her back up and she was sick and then did a poo!! So that must have been the issue not ut!
The reall issue I'm having just now is her night feed has moved to 5am the past few nights  but she's now hungry for first feed of the day at 8am .. Which means on a 7.30 wake up feeds tgen fall in the middle of nap times and I think she's waking due to hunger. We've started weaning but she never eats much at breakfast so first nap has just been 45mins all week. I'm then feeding twice in the next awake time to encourage a longer nap in the pm but she's not big on eating unless really hungry!

[Buttonbobs]

That feeding problem does settle a bit as solids weaning kicks in and the gap between feeds also lengthens. A 45 min nap is still life likely to mean UT than hunger. Can you try a slightly longer first A time to see if it helps? Perhaps lengthen it by 10 mins and hold t that new time for at least three days. You can post here so we can keep an eye on what happens if you like.

Another technique to look at is wake 2 sleep, but this does only really work if an LO is on the right A time so I would work on that first.