Author Topic: 4 Month Old Night Wakings and I am Going Back to Work  (Read 1336 times)

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Offline trishr

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4 Month Old Night Wakings and I am Going Back to Work
« on: January 26, 2017, 22:15:42 pm »
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!!

Offline trishr

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Re: 4 Month Old Night Wakings and I am Going Back to Work
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2017, 06:46:32 am »
Hi there, sorry my post was so long but any thoughts out there?

Offline Martini~

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Re: 4 Month Old Night Wakings and I am Going Back to Work
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2017, 08:10:43 am »
Hi Honey - my main thought would be that she sleeps too much during day. At 4mo we needed to cap sleep to 3h max a day as DS1 started to wake during night. He was down to 1 feed (DF) but was walking often looking like having problems to go back to sleep. I cut morning nap and afternoon one and he started to do 12h nights. I am not saying she needs 3h but right now it is much more than 4h, maybe you can cap something?
~Marta

Offline trishr

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Re: 4 Month Old Night Wakings and I am Going Back to Work
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2017, 21:54:52 pm »
Thank you so much for replying.  Right around when you replied my oldest came down with the flu that turned right into pneumonia!  I have been swamped with helping her get better as well as taking care of my LO so I apologize for not thanking you sooner!

I also wonder if the day sleep might not be a factor.  The problem I have is that she can barely stay awake 2 hours for her A time.  She is "begging" to go to sleep by the time I lay her down.  This makes it challenging to figure out where to cut the time.  Little girl loves her sleep!  She goes right back down in the night as well which I am grateful for.  Just need her to extend the amount of time she can go before waking.

I am wondering if there is something I can focus on for the end of evening.  Sometimes she wakes around 9:45 and it is close enough to df time that I feed her and then she will sleep 6-7 hours.  I just haven't seemed to find the exact formula to replicate that.  The only thing that seems consistent is the earlier the df the longer the sleep and the later the df the shorter the sleep.  I also wonder if she is just now programed on a 4 hour routine over 24 hours so maybe the wake to sleep technique could work to break the rythym.  I think I am going to try it.  I am going back to work on Monday and should have worked on this the last week or so, but with a sick kiddo I didn't honestly have it in me to dedicate the time.  Now I believe I will need to let the week go by with me back to work so it isn't too much change at once for her.

Thank you again and any further suggestion you have or thoughts on what I am posting now is welcome!