4.5 month night sleeping

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Hello!  I am looking for advice on my 4.5 month old's routine so that we can improve her night sleep.  It seems awfully sporadic - some nights it's 5-6 hours, others are 8 and lately she has been waking in the night around 1 or 2 AM (not hungry, pacifier usually puts her bak to sleep). She is put down in her crib drowsy around the same time every night and usually uses a pacifier or her fingers to put herself to sleep.

We had her on a 3 hour easy schedule from birth, but she wouldn't sleep that long at night (4hours).  I tried the dream feed but it didn't seem to make a difference because she was still waking up at night, and it didn't help me out because my bed time is 9 PM.  Around 2.5 months she transitioned herself to a 3.5 hour schedule, but then around 3 months she increased her night sleep to 6-7 hours and transitioned back to a 3 hour schedule during the day.  Now her naps are usually 30 minutes long.  Sometimes I can get her to take a pacifier and go back to napping, but mostly she wakes up wide awake).

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

Here's her current schedule.

May 2

E 4:00 AM
S 4:15 AM - 6:30 AM
A (keep her occupied because we are trying to start the day between 7 or 7:30 am)

E 7:15 AM
A
S 8:30 AM - 9:00 AM (30 min)

E 10:15 AM
A
S 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM (1.5 hr)

E 1:20 PM
A
S 3:00 - 3:30 PM (30 min)

E 4:20 PM
A
S 5:40 PM - 6:30 PM (50 min)

E 7:00 PM then to bed
S 7:50 PM - 3:20 AM (At 1:30 AM she woke up and gave her pacifier)

May 3

E 3:20 AM (right back to bed)
S 3:35 AM - 6:30 AM
A (keep her occupied because we are trying to start the day between 7 or 7:30 am)

E 7:10 AM
A
S 8:20 AM - 9:10 AM (50 min)

E 10:10 AM
A
S 11:00 AM - 11:15 AM (15 min in car)
   12:55 PM - 1:30 PM (35 min)

E 1:40 PM
A
S 3:00 PM - 3:40 PM (40 min)

E 4:30 PM
A
S 6:50 PM - 7:15 PM (25 min)

E 7:30 PM then to bed
S 8:00 PM - 4:30 AM

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Hello and welcome to BW forums

Looks like you have her on an average A time for age but I wonder if she might be ready for a slightly longer A time as I see she had a good nap after 2.5hrs A one day whereas she is short napping after 2hrs A time.
Have you tried increasing her A time to maybe 2hr 15 or 2hr 30 for a few days to see what  happens?

I think it's the one night waking when she is not hungry which you are trying to get rid of - it looks like you are just resettling her which is fine but you could, as an alternative, try feeding with the possibility of her sleeping slightly later in the morning.

What do you think?

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Thanks for your input!  I haven't tried increasing her A time but that sounds like a good idea.  It's been hard for me to read her sleepy cues lately so maybe I'm putting her down too soon.

Last night she didn't get up not hungry so I hope that was just a fluke!

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Cues at this age become tricky to read - LOs can now start to rub eyes or yawn when they are bored rather than tired. A change of scene/activity can be needed rather than straight to nap.  Although they don't "do" very much at this age you can sing nursery rhymes, look at picture books, hand her a toy or safe house hold object to just hold and explore or even just walk around the house cuddling and talking about what you see.  Just moving from one room to another can be another level of stimulation to keep LO interested and awake a touch longer.

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Thanks. I will try those things to keep her occupied

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Let us know how you get on in a few days.

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I've been able to keep her up a bit longer (10 or 15 min) by moving her around like you suggested.  But now it's a bit harder to get her down for a nap because she's been crying a lot but will eventually settle down and sleep.  Her naps over the last few days have been around 30-40 minutes though. 

The good news is that her wake up time seems to have shifted to 7:15-7:30 AM which is great.

Bad news is she is randomly crying in her sleep.  I give her the pacifier and she goes back down. I'm wondering if I should try to let her settle on her own but I think her merlin magic suit could be getting in the way because she cant put her right hand in her mouth.  For whatever reason she tucks that elbow inside the sleeve and her hand isn't exposed.  This weekend we are going to try to see if she will settle herself...

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  Her naps over the last few days have been around 30-40 minutes though. 

It looked like most of her naps were this length before increasing the A time too. Do you feel the naps are significantly worse now?
Crying when being put down sounds like OT but it can also be UT.
The best nap in your EASY came after 2hr 30 mins which is a long A time, were you often getting a longer nap on that A time or rarely do you think?

If she is just making noise in her sleep there is no need to re-plug the paci it can become habit. If she is crying though you need to go to her, you can put a hand on and shush/pat which might help her relax.

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Today I had one A time of 2.5 hours and she slept 1 hour and 20 minutes. She also increased her E interval to 3 hr 10-15 min. I was out running errands and she napped in the car so I wasn't able to continue the pattern, but I will try again tomorrow!

Her naps seem about the same. It's hard to tell.

Do you think if her naps increase that she won't sleep as long at night?

I'll try the hand or shush/pat tonight if she unsettles.  I definitely don't want to get her into a pattern of needing a pacifier.

Thanks for your input!

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Do you think if her naps increase that she won't sleep as long at night?

LOs who do not sleep well in the day can have more night wakings due to being over tired and unable to fully relax at night.
If you have an appropriate number of long naps in the day and LO is well rested then the night may well end up a bit shorter but it ought to be good sleep rather than disturbed sleep.
If there is too much day sleep LO can end up being under tired at night time which can lead to BT refusal or long happy night wakings - this is usually easily rectified by capping a nap or moving BT a touch later.
At 4 - 5 months most LOs need 2 long naps and a CN plus a full night of sleep.

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We are still working on her A times which are about 2.5 hours now.  She still isn't napping consistently though.  They range anywhere from 30 min to 1 hour.  However, her naps overall are longer than when I first posted.

The last two days she took two naps (refused the last one) totaling 100 minutes or so and she slept great at night.

We're also on day 5 of PU/PD and have not used the pacifier yet!

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It sounds like things have improved
Remember most of us don't have a *perfect* EASY, we just have what works and what we can manage.

Her A times are quite long then, a bit longer than the guidance at this age.  This is worth remembering so that you can continue keep it in mind for all her routine changes.  There's a tricky pahse of transition if they refuse the third nap (CN) though and are not yet ready to move to a 2 nap day (closer to 6 months although looks like yours may do it earlier).
You might find she does alternated days of the CN, one doing accepting it when she is tired enough, the next refusing and so on.  If you have a way of APing that CN it can help you get through a tricky phase and avoid too much OT.