What are we doing wrong? DD (9.5 weeks) wakes up @4-5am!

[lbellini]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  DD has the following approximate schedule in the evening:

somewhere between 8 & 8:30pm: Bed
10:30pm: husband wakes her up for feeding (long story, but she has reflux problems and this is one of the only times she'll happily eat. Hope to drop this feeding SOON)
1:30-2am: First wakeup for feeding. Usually back down in ~35minutes
4:30-5am: Second wakeup - not sure why she does, I think it's gas, as she often will not eat much.

I am ok to do that 4:30/5am feeding, but she will NOT go back to sleep for more than 30 minutes (at most - and this is after I spend 15-20 minutes trying to get her BACK to sleep).

She's usually pretty out of it if she does eat (but not really asleep-asleep) so I've even tried just popping her right back into her crib - but then she's up in FIVE minutes.

What am I doing wrong?  Is bedtime too late?  Is she too young?  I'm sorry, 5am is just too darn early!  I have to go back to work in a month and I could not function on so little sleep!


I've read a few other posts on this, and it seems maybe her bedtime & the dreamfeed are too close together?  She usually eats the usual amount at the 1:30am feeding, so I know she needs that food.

Thanks!

[SandyGal]

Hi Laura:

How is dd falling asleep? What are your bedtime, naptime routines?

Is she sleeping on an incline to help with the reflux?

A little bit more information will help the kind people here help you out.  :wink:

[lbellini]

So her bedtime routine starts at 6:45 or so - she gets a bath with music on, we go downstairs & eat (around 7:15) have a short 'play' session and then bed ~8pm.

There are no real naptime routines now, since she is so unpredictable in the morning.  She will generally get fed again at 7/7:30am, then sleep from approx 8:30-10:30 (give or take 30 minutes, depending on "wake" time), then the rest of the day is hit or miss - she usually will not sleep more than 45 minutes -1 hr at a time.  We're on approximately a 3-hour EASY but she usually cannot stay awake (starts yawning) more than 1.5 hours.

So perhaps my post is wasted If it's gas waking her up, no one can really help that. 
And, she eats like a bird - she never takes more than 3 oz at a time when eating, and if you try to cluster feed (say, every 2hours) toward the later afternoon, she just won't even take the bottle.  She is difficult to 'tank up'.

[SandyGal]

Is she uncomfortable when she wakes? If she has gas, you should be able to tell that. She would seem very unsettled and be crying. Does she just seem ready to start her day at that time?

I am assuming that dd is falling asleep independently and that she is not being parented to sleep (rocking, walking etc.). Is this the case? What about other props... pacifier?

I know 5am is an early wake time for you. With her not taking many more calories during the day at this time, I'm not sure that she is going to be able to drop that feed at this time. My dd kept her 5 am feed for a while, but eventually it lengthened as she started to eat more during the day. My solution was to go to bed earlier so that I was getting ample rest. Now, having said that, she did go go back to sleep after that feed.

Also, having a structured daily sleeping schedule will help to smooth out her feeds and her night sleep as well. Have you charted her sleeping during the day? You say that her afternoons are all over the place.

Just trying to get an accurate picture of what is going on. I got very stressed right before I returned to work, but everything really evened out and we figured out a routine. Relax... you will too.

Okay... I'll do my best to help you get a bit of a better routine.  :wink:

You can PM me if I don't respond quickly enough to your post. PM's tend to get my attention first as it alerts my home email.