Hello
I am hoping someone can help me with my LO (9 1/2 weeks, weighing just over 10lb) who is now able to go 4-5 hours at night without being hungry but who is waking up at 2-3am anyway.
to help pinpoint the problem here is our routine
E - 7am
A - until 8.15 at the latest
S - 8.15 to 10.15 (and often have to wake her)
E - 10.15
A - until 11.15
S - 11.15-1.15
E - 1.15
A - until 2.15
S - 2.15 to 3.45 (I wake her here)
A - until 4.15
E - 4.15
A - i generally only want her to catnap for 45-60 mins in this cycle but if she could, she would again sleep for 1.5 hours +
A - Bath at 7.10
E - 7.30
S - wind-down and bed by 8.00 (generally goes down well)
DF at 11.30
Wakes at 2-3am and is definitely not hungry - we are perservering with pat ssh (actually just pat as sshing seemed to annoy her) and have been doing so for the last week. if this cannot settle her I will give her the paci and she settles really easily with this but will not always spit it out - this made us worry it was becoming a prop and hence we use pat ssh instead and are trying not to let her rely on the paci. She will then wake hungry sometime around 4-4.30 but will still take a slightly smaller feed (3oz rather than the 4-5 she takes at each day feed)
I cannot figure out why she is waking between 2 and 3. Could it be because she can only manage to stay asleep for a limited number of sleep cycles and then struggles to sooth herself? I do not rush straight in as she often grunts ansd fusses quite a bit and then does resettle so I wait until I know it is escalating and a few little cries have been let out before I go in. If it is this, how long are we likely to have to keep going with patting until she learns not to need this from us and to sleep straight through to 4-5?
I know her routine shows a lot of day sleep but she seems to be a really sleepy baby - often as little as 40mins after waking she is yawning and my attempts to extend her A time to decrease day naps backfired with her getting really grumpy and overtired. If you think this is the problem any tips for extending activity? Oh, and although she sleeps a lot during the day and wakes at night, she is not awake for long at night so long as we help her back to sleep so I am not sure too much day sleep is the problem.
One more thing which might be relevant - I used to be feeding her at 2-3am as this is when she was hungry so could she be waking this time out of habit (although the time can vary by 45 mins or so)? and if so, how do we address this?
I am so pleased she is now able to go 4-5 hours between night feeds but I am really finding it hard as we now actually have more night wakings than when she fed at 3 and 6 as I have to go into resettle her on average twice a night as well as once for hunger. I know I could probably settle her with the paci in 2 mins and be straight back to bed but my hubbie really thinks she will get addicted to this so does not want us to do so. Pat ssh can take anywhere from 10 mins to 40 mins each time so I seem to spend more of the night lent over her crib than I do in bed!
Sorry that ended up being such a long post but I had a lot of questions!
Thanks
Fiona
