Wet Diaper Dilemma

[Jenna's Mum]

Ok this is probably a really silly question but I'm going to go for it anyway... my 11 week old daughter is on 3 hr EASY and doing very well with it.  My typical schedule is this:

7am wake-up time, feed, activity, and nap
10-10:30am feed, activity, nap
1:30pm feed, activity, nap
4:30pm feed, activity, nap
7:30pm feed, activity (bath), bed
10:45 - 11pm DF
5-6am she'll wake up, I give her the paci about 5-6 times spanning about 30-40 mins, then she goes back to sleep until around 7am

I know she's not waking for food at the 5 or 6am timeframe because she takes the paci and even when she's fed at 7am she doesn't take a full feed, usually only 2-3 oz.

My question is this... at 7am her diaper is absolutely soaking wet of course because I don't change her at the DF.  So I'm wondering if she's waking at 5 or 6am because of this, or whether she would wake anyway.  So I'm thinking it's better to change the DF to where I still feed her but also change her as well, which of course would wake her up somewhat and no longer be a dreamfeed.  I'm worried that if I change her at 5 or 6am when she wakes, that she will think this is her new wake-up time which is a little early for me. 

So am I right to try changing her at the DF to see if it helps her to sleep a little longer in the morning?  Do you think this might work or at least make her a little more comfortable, or would I be making things worse to change her schedule around at this point?  I actually didn't know how wet she was in the mornings as my husband is always the one to do the 7am feed and he just mentioned it today because she was more wet than usual I guess.

Thanks for any advice, sorry this is probably a silly question but we're doing so well on the EASY plan I don't want to mess her up by doing the wrong thing now.

[Critter]

We changed ours at the dreamfeed.  It didn't wake him up all the way, but it did wake him up just enough to take his bottle.  I know Tracy says not to, but sometimes it doesn't hurt to break a rule or two

[Jenna's Mum]

Thanks I did change her at 10:45pm before the DF... she didn't wake up all the way either and went right back to bed after her feed.  She still woke up at 6am but I guess that's to be expected... but she wasn't soaking wet which is nice.

I was looking at the typical sleep times for babies... when it says 10 hours at night, does that count from the 8pm-ish bedtime?  If I want her to sleep through til 7am, should I adjust her bed time to later or keep her bedtime at the same time and just wait until she extends her sleep time herself?  I would love it if 7am was her regular wake time, but I'm not sure if she'll naturally transition to this as she gets older or if I'll need to help her with it.

Thanks

[Critter]

I gave up on that battle.  Seems that my little man will never sleep until 7 unless he's sick, so I just go with the flow, and thank my lucky stars that he sleeps from 6:30-6:30!  Have you considered moving the dream feed a little bit earlier?

[Jenna's Mum]

Well 6 or even 6:30am is a reasonable time I guess... some people get up that time every day    No I hadn't considered moving up the dreamfeed, what would that do?  I thought the later I did it the better, but I never go later than 11pm.  Do you think I should move it to 10:30pm?  I would be so happy if she'd go from 10:30pm til 6 or 6:30am without waking at 5am or thereabouts... a solid block of sleep, even if it ended at 6am, would be perfect.  Do you think that's achievable at 11 weeks?  Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate the support.

[Critter]

I do, and I think you should try it.  I'm no expert, but having it at 10 vs 10:45 shouldn't make much of a difference except that Mom can go to bed a little earlier.  We always did Luke's at 10 or 10:15 and his schedule didn't vary.  We're trying to knock the dream feed out now.  He refused it last night, so toinght we're not going to offer it at all and see how it goes.  Try moving it up toinght and see how she does.

[Jenna's Mum]

Okay so I've gradually moved up the dreamfeed to 10:30pm which is fine... she's also fine with the quick diaper change before I feed her and it's working out well because she's not soaking wet when we get her up around 6:30 or 7am.  But now I have another dilemma... lately she's been waking at 4 or 4:30am.  I try to wait and see if she'll go back to sleep herself but it seems like she can't.  So I go in and giver her a paci and then leave again.  Sometimes she'll go back to sleep for an hour or more and sometimes she won't.  This is random really as sometimes she'll sleep til 5 or 6am.  So when she has the early wakings (anything before 6am I consider too early) should I just keep going in to her and giving her the paci?  Am I reinforcing the waking by going in to her all the time?  She's not frantically crying but she does cry out, once, then fidgets a lot and grunts, then cries out again, fidgets, etc.  Finally I see her on the monitor trying to get her hands free and I'm sure she's not going to be able to resettle... do you think she could?  I guess I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do at the 4am waking and if it will just magically go away by itself at some point as she gets a little older 

Thanks.

[Critter]

Two things you could try...
1)  Increase her bottles during the day by just one ounce even.  This might make a difference.  Have you started solids yet?  I can't remember how old she is.

2)  When my son kept waking up, we decided to get rid of the paci.  The first nap was HELL without it, but after that it was fine.  The paci falling out wasn't what was waking him up.  It was the paci being IN His mouth that kept disrupting his sleep.  You know how sometimes you fall asleep with your glasses on, or something in your hand, and that jolts you awake?  I think the same thing was happening to Luke. 

Also, have you ever done the dreamfeed at 10?  I know you think that her waking up early is b/c the dreamfeed is too late, but I promise you, it will work out just fine :-)

[Jenna's Mum]

Thanks, she's 12 weeks so not anywhere near solids yet.  I do add more to her bottles but it seems she won't take it if she doesn't want it.  Sometimes she'll suck down 4oz and even 5 on occasion, but sometimes only 3oz.  I prepare 6oz now just in case, but mostly she doesn't eat more than 4. 

I'm trying to do the gentle removal thing where I remove the paci before she actually falls asleep, so we'll see how that goes.  But I don't do that at 4am because frankly I'm too tired and I don't want to wake everyone else with the crying.

I will try the DF at 10 tonight and see how it goes.  I had gotten it to 10:30pm but obviously this is under my control.  Tonight looks like a 7am last feed so 10 DF should be good.  I'll see how she does tonight, thanks!

[Critter]

Good Luck!  We started Luke on cereal the day before he turned 4 months old, so you're not too far off!  We knew it was time when he was hungry before scheduled bottle time and he was waking up to eat in the middle of the night.  She'll let you know when it's time!

[Jenna's Mum]

Thanks, last night went well.  I did the DF at 10pm with no diaper change.  She woke at 4:30am but just for a couple of quiet grunty-type cries as she was kicking around in her swaddle.  She did this a couple of times, I didn't go in, and she put herself back to sleep again.  She pretty much repeated this again a couple more times until finally at 6:15am she really wanted to get up because it was getting light out.  So I went in and unswaddled her, and she amused herself for 30 mins.  So you were right, the 10pm DF didn't make a difference last night, I'll try it again tonight   

[Critter]

Actually it does make one good difference....you get to go to bed earlier!  Glad it went well.  The 4:30 wakings might stop once she realizes nobody's coming in to get her!

[Jenna's Mum]

Well I've been dreamfeeding at 10pm for the last few nights now with no diaper change, using a slightly bigger diaper at night which is wet in the morning but no leaks yet    So she didn't wake until 5:30am this morning - bliss!  I'll keep going as I am for a while as I'm fine with 5:30am wake, I go in and give her the paci and she sleeps sometimes for another hour... can't ask for more than that and now at least I am getting to bed by 10:30pm 

Thanks!

[Critter]

You're so welcome!  Glad I could help!