night waking

[clare076]

I  have just finished reading Tracy's first book but can not find what I am supposed to do with my LO night waking.
Shelby sleeps from 8pm until 2am, feeds, then takes over an hour to fall asleep again before waking at 6. I can understand it taking her so long to go back to sleep when she has been asleep for 6 hours already, but is there a way of helping her move her 6 hour sleep to later in the night? Surely it would be better if she had her 6 hours from 11-5 (I may just be selfish here, and it may be totally impossible but it's worth asking)

Shelbys Routine (7 weeks old)

Shelby typically is awake at 6am and feeds every 2.5 - 3hours. She has about 3-4oz of EBM and only takes about 10mins to drink each bottle.
We then fight to keep her awake for longer than 30mins at a time, especially if she only has a short nap and stays awake until her next feed.

Morning starts - 6am
E - 6.10-6.20
A - 6.20 - 6.50
S - 7.00-8.00

E - 8.30 - 8.40
A - 8.40-9.00
S - 9.10 - 10.00
A - 10.00-10.20
S - 10.20-11.00

E - 11.00 - 11.10
A - 11.10 - 11.40
S - 11.50 - 12.30
A - 12.30-12.50
S - 12.50 - 1.30

E - 1.30-1.40
A - 1.40-2.00
S - 2.00 - 4.00

From about 4.30 Shelby suffers from colic every day until around 7.30 at night. We try giving cluster feeds at 6 and 8, however due to being so unsettled she will usually only take about 2oz of each bottle.
Shelby always has a bath around 7.45 when she is a bit calmer and is in bed after cluster feed (around 8.15)
I have also tried giving a dream feed at 10.30 but she hardly took any and still woke at 2 am.

Is there anything I can do

Clare

[Deb_in_oz]

Hi Clare - at 7 weeks she is doing great going from 8pm - 2am with out a DF. she is still so little - trust me, that will shift out soon enough - you might also consider perservering with the Df - i am not sure how many nights you tried it, but it can take up to a week for her to really take enough to make a difference .6 hours is a huge sleep for a 7 week old and is technically considered sleeping through the night even though it is starting at 8pm.

looking at your current routine though i suggest you might try to cut back how long she is awake in each EASY cycle - you start counting "A" time as soon as she is awake and it includes time spent feeding/changing/etc. if you are "having to fight" to keep her awake longer... it sounds like you might be keeping her up past her sleep cues (is she giving any???) at 7 weeks many lo are still only able to handle 45min of A time or less, although some can stay up as long as 1hr+ and do big naps. since her naps are short it is likely because she is overtired when she goes down or she has not learned to get through to a 2nd sleep cycle - this is where Tracy's sleep training comes into play. if she wakes from a nap after 1 sleep cycle or less then at 7 weeks you woudl use shh/pat to resettle her. you are in effect teaching her to extend her sleep so that eventually as she comes into light sleep she will put herself back to sleep rather than waking fully.

for 7 weeks and with a colicky baby you are doing great! hope some of that helps you, apart from the Df i don't really have any special tricks for moving the long stretch - if she were to take the DF at 10:30/11pm she might do the 6 hr stretch until 5-6am but there is o guarantee as they are not necessarily consistent at this age and the DF can actually change the existing rhythm in which case you don't know what the impact will be until you try it for a week or so. KWIM.