where did my good sleeper go?? 3 mos old

[laurrarrae]

hello! this is my first post, so i hope it's in the right area. i've been a lurker ever since my daughter was born, though! we have followed EASY since they day we brought her home--it has been wonderful! she is now 15 weeks old. she is definitely a textbook baby. her nighttime sleep has slowly and surely gotten better and better each week. recently she has been sleeping from 7pm to 4am before waking for a feed! however, this past week we have not done so well. she has been waking up at midnight or 1 am, and is up for anywhere from 1.5 hours to 3 hours before falling asleep. we try to sooth her (shush/pat, giving her the paci) for about 30 mins before feeding her. sometimes even feeding does not put her to sleep, though! her daytime naps have all been great and she is not more fussy than usual or anything during the day. i really cannot figure out why her sleep has gotten so wonky! any ideas??? i'm tired! haha.

here is our typical day:
7am: wake up and eat (she is EBF)
7:30-8:30 A
8:30 S
10:00 E
10:30-11:30 A
11:30-1:00 S
1:00- E
1:30-2:30 S
3:30 E
5:00-5:30 S
5:30-6 A
6:00- bathtime
6:30- final feed
7:00 bedtime

[cath~]

Welcome

That looks like a great routine you've got your DD on

My DD2 had long NWs when she was getting too much day sleep or not long enough awake time, usually an increase in A time helped solve it.  Do you think your LO could take a slight increase in A time?  Maybe she's ready to move to more of a 3.5hr EASY.

This link might be helpful:
Time to Transition - 3hr, 3.5hr or 4hr EASY

[laurrarrae]

maybe! she generally gets fussy right at the hour and a half mark, and starts rubbing her eyes/swatting her face, which i took as tired, but maybe she just needs a change of scenery at that point.

[cath~]

it could be tiredness, but could be she is getting OS or needs a change of scenery (my DD2 rubs her eyes and acts tired when she gets OS, e.g. when we're at a busy place with lots of people, but if I take her somewhere quieter or for a walk, she is wide awake and happy again).

Also, if she's been on this routine for a while then it could be habitual tiredness - i.e. she gets sleepy at same time each day out of habit

I'd take things really gradually and see if you can stretch her out a bit longer.

Or, one other thought - could she be genuinely hungry when she wakes in the night - perhaps it's a GS?  Have you tried feeding her straight away to see if she'll go back to sleep?  Perhaps keeping her up (I know this is not your intention!) for 30 mins before feeding her means she's then too awake to nod off again iyswim.  Might not be this but just a thought.

Maybe some one else has other ideas too

[Emami]

Or, one other thought - could she be genuinely hungry when she wakes in the night - perhaps it's a GS?  Have you tried feeding her straight away to see if she'll go back to sleep?  Perhaps keeping her up (I know this is not your intention!) for 30 mins before feeding her means she's then too awake to nod off again iyswim.

I was going to suggest this too.  3 months is still really young and she may well still need that feed.  Even though she's a great sleeper (yay!) and can go long stretches it doesn't mean that she will never need that feed just because she *can* go without.  I was also blessed with a baby who slept through from really young (was doing 12hrs straight at 3 months!), but it wasn't a case of she dropped her night feeds and never needed any again yk? Around 4-5 months she was back up again every night for a while, and there are so many growth spurts and changes at that age I just went with it and fed her, it was much easier to get everyone back to sleep that way than try to resettle and have her wake up more and still end up feeding because she was genuinely hungry.  Personally I wouldn't worry about bad habits and whether your DD really needs that feed until she's older.  Anyway, that would be my first 'fix', and if she is still having long NWs even when you feed her then I would definitely start looking at routine or other factors too.

[laurrarrae]

thank you both for taking the time to reply! i am trying to remember (sleep deprivation makes it hard to recall!) but i think the first night we had trouble, i fed her right away. that turned out to be the night where she was awake the longest, too.

[cath~]

How are things going?