Hello,
My daughter will be 4 months old next week and we are having a couple sleep issues. She is actually quite an angel and has always slept marvelously during the day. In fact i generally wake her at 2 hours so she doesn't sleep too long. Night she was always able to sleep as well after waking 3 time to eat early on, then down to twice a night, and a little after 3 months only once. At the end of December, she got a cold and had a hard time breathing so would wake every hour and a half or so. I would try to help her get her nose unplugged and feed her as she was quite upset by that point. I knew it might be developing a bad habit but I wanted to get some extra fluid in as well. I moved her to the 4 hour routine about a week ago as she wasn't taking full feeds. This seemed to help stretch night sleep to 4.5 hours for about a week. Now, we are back to 2-4.5 hours depending on the night. Sometimes she is crying right away and sometimes she is playing then it turns into crying. I need help stretching her nighttime out. I am going back to work on 2/6 and could really use a longer stretch myself. She is about to be watched by a very wonderful neighbor who is learning the BW ways so I also am anxious to get this sorted out before introducing that transition. Here is her routine:
E 7:00
A 7:30-8:45
S 8:45-11:00 (note: I have to walk my older daughter to school now which is a new activity so my LO falls asleep in stroller about 8:45 and wakes 30-45 mins later when we get home but goes right back down and I wake at 11)
E 11:00
A 11:30-1:00
S1:00-2:30 (half time wakes at 2:30 and other half time I wake her so I have time to feed before leaving at 3:15 to pu older daughter at school)
E 2:30
A 3:00 - 5:00 (I am conscious this might be too long but this will be about the time husband is picking her up and bringing her home for catnap when I return to work)
S 5 or 5:15 cat nap for 30-40 mins
This is where I have never been confident in my night and might be adding to the problem. I feed her 6:15 or 6:30 then put her to bed at 7:30. Should I be letting her stay awake longer or putting her to bed earlier? I am suspecting that along with the changes from the transition, that this is the piece that is causing the trouble.
Also, if she wakes to eat at 5 or 5:30 am and truly needs to feed, do you still feed at 7 am? I am but she is not always eating a full feed and am wondering if this also is the problem.
Prior to now I have been able to be a little more flexible with the routine leaving it to her natural rhythms and moving slowly. I feel horrible we have to be a little stricter since I am going back to work. I am trying to balance he flexibility with giving my neighbor some sort of timed routine to follow since she has not done this before.
Thank you for any advice!!
