Author Topic: 4 month old awake half the night! I am so tired...  (Read 1445 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Emrohde

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 2
  • Location:
4 month old awake half the night! I am so tired...
« on: November 06, 2017, 15:13:24 pm »
 Our daughter is almost 4 months old ( she will be on Saturday )  and she has been awake at night Between 8 and 1 AM for the past week and a half.
 When it started, we thought it might be just because she had gas. She has had trouble in the past getting rid of her burps. And they have made it hard for her to stay asleep. If we would get her up and burp her she would often have a big burp and then be able to settle back down and fall asleep. This seems to be the problem initially. We had just moved her into the bedroom with her two older brothers, so when she got up and was upset and seems like she needed to burp, we took her out into the hallway which was  dimly lit so that she would not disturb them while they slept. Sometimes if she was very upset, we would bring her out just to distract her for a moment before trying to burp her and then bringing her back into her room. She was up and down like this for several nights, and it just seemed like she needed to burp and she would fall back asleep, but she might wake up again later that evening and have another burp. She also had a poopy diaper several evenings  as well which have accounted for her discomfort and inability to go back to sleep.   This is been happening every night for the last week however, and I’m afraid she’s gotten into the habit of being awake. Last night she was just up talking in her bed a couple times before I had to go in when she was upset. Typically, she’s been waking up about an hour after falling asleep for bedtime, which was a time she would normally eat  again after her bedtime feed. So I would feed her and try to burp her and eventually get her back down to sleep. But she would wake up quickly being upset and would have burps and seem like she’s almost asleep but not stay asleep when we laid her down. By the time the 10 o’clock hour rolls around, I would feed her again  as a dream feed even though she was already awake. In between those feeds  she might have also had a poop be diaper or I might’ve changed her diaper wondering if that was bothering her. After the dream feed she might’ve still had problems burping or with gas  and would not settle down to sleep. She’s also gotten hyper active because she’s overtired. Eventually by midnight or after, I would try to feed her one more time in our room, where she spent her first three months sleeping, because I wasn’t sure if the nightlight in the boys room was bothering her.  She would normally then fall asleep just out of sheer exhaustion while eating. I would sometimes lay her down in her crib again in the boys room or in a pack and play in our room because I was just too tired. I had had her on a three hour EASY schedule  before yesterday and had felt like it was definitely time and would be easy enough to move to a four hour schedule. I also read in the book that that might take care of night wakings. Yesterday went super great! She slept well I woke her up from her nap so she wouldn’t have more than 5 1/2 hours of daytime sleep. She went down for two naps and bedtime all by herself in her crib and did not need any help. But she still woke up last night and stayed awake until about 1 o’clock talking in her crib  several times which makes me think that she has displaced some of her nighttime sleep. Also, I’m afraid because I fed her three times after going to bed, that I’m robbing her daytime eating as well. And then there are those burps… I’m not sure which direction to go at this point. Thank you for reading this - I’m so tired that it’s really just a stream of consciousness post! Thank you for helping me figure out what to do during the day so that she actually sleeps at night!
 

Offline Emrohde

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 2
  • Location:
Re: 4 month old awake half the night! I am so tired...
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2017, 15:28:58 pm »
Yesterday looked like this:

E: 7:30
S: 9:15
E: 11:15 (woke her up)
 She cued for bed early, so we did naptime ritual aroubd 12, I think.
S: 12:35
E: 2:35 (woke her, though she was stirring)
Went in to sleep at 3:45
S: 4 (fell asleep all by herself)
E: 5
Bath
S: 6:30 (again, put herself to sleep)

Woke at 7:30 - talked in her crib until 8
E: 8
Laid her down, she talked for a while, went in when she was distressed and left when she calmed down again.
She talked for a while more and was really upset and she had a poopy diaper.
Really mad when I was trying to get her down to sleep and finally fell asleep at 10:20.
Up at 10:56
E: 11 fed her “dream feed” hoping she’d fall asleep
Up until eating close to 1am and falling asleep at the breast.

Down for the rest of the night.

Offline creations

  • Feeding Solid Food & EASY
  • Forum Moderator
  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 496
  • Posts: 21993
  • Location: UK
Re: 4 month old awake half the night! I am so tired...
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2017, 19:03:47 pm »
Hello and welcome to BW forums :)

Those nights sound tiring!

I'm not 100% sure what is causing them, you've mentioned burping (is there any reflux or silent reflux? Have you check out the symptoms?) but she's up such a long time in the night it sounds like it's more than just a burp bothering her.  Is she teething? Any sings such as red cheeks, ear rubbing etc?
I forgotten when jabs are given but I remember my DS having some very disturbed nights a couple of weeks after at least one of his jabs - could this be part of the disturbance do you think?

I think for now I would suggest:
- not letting her do too much of a catch up sleep the next day as you don't want to end up with day and night switched around
- making sure she is not OT before BT (that third nap can be longer, 45 mins rather than 30 or even let her have a long nap and move BT later)
- make sure she gets a milk feed at BT (I don't see one on your EASY but many people forget to type it) so that she doesn't need a feed an hour after BT. it's ok to cluster feed in the evening and not have a full 3hrs between.
- consider night sleep training in the boys room. It could well disturb everyone for a few nights but if this is habitual and her wanting to come out of the room the only way to stop it is to settle her in the room really.

Keep recording your EASY times as we might be able to help more with more information.