4 month old with constant 2:30am night wakings...please help

[caydensmama]

 DD will be 4 months old on April 9th and has been on a great 4 hour eating routine, that she started herself, since she was about 2 months.  I've been back to work for 3 weeks now, and my husband’s grandmother is watching DD.  The great routine she was on when I was home has gone a bit off track and I'm not exactly sure what's happening.  This used to be her routine -

5:00a/5:30a - wake up and eat, then go right back to sleep
8:45a/9:00a - wake up and eat, then play until sleepy signs noticed
10:15a - down for nap...used to sleep for 2+ hours (now taking 1/2 hour - 45 min. cat naps)
11:30a/12:00p - wake up and have play time
12:45p/1:00p - eat, then play some more until sleepy
2:15p - down for another 2+ hour nap (this one is staying somewhat the same)
4:00p/4:00p - wake up and play
4:45p/5:00p - eat and play until sleepy
6:00p/6:30p - down for a 1 - 1.5 hour nap
8:00p - play for a bit, then start bedtime routine
9:00p - eat
9:30p/9:45p - time for bed

Now there are some problems I’ve started to encounter.  First - she starts fussing around 2:30a/3:30a every morning!!!  I’ve tried changing her diaper seeing that she hasn’t been changed for 5 hours, I’ve tried giving her the binky back, and I’ve tried patting and rubbing her back - but nothing works.  And to make matters worse, she will fuss every 20 minutes until about 4:00a when she goes back to sleep, only to wake up to eat at 5:00a.  Second - she’s starting to get sleepy around 7:30p every night, so I’m at the point where I’m starting her bedtime routine at 7:15p instead of the original 8:15p.  DD is a great eater - she's strickly formula fed - and eats 5-7 oz. per feeding, and from what little I've read so far - she's a Spirited little one.  She even goes right to sleep when put down for a nap, and goes right to sleep after being swaddled at night.  I'm not sure if I should start doing a dream feed at 11:00p to see if she's waking up at 2:00a because she's hungry, or if something is happening during the day to make her start getting fussy.   

Any advice is greatly apprecated.  Thank you SOOOOO much!!!

~Tricia

[Aarismom]

Heya Trish

Best advice: it sounds like your lo is ready for bed earlier than usual. I'd go with it. Nightwakings are often caused by too late bedtimes, and are often fixed by earlier bedtimes. Your lo needs around 11-12 hours of sleep at night...it's probably best to put her to bed earlier, and perhaps she'll be ready to get up in the am at 7. While you'll have to start your day earlier, you might have a happier munchkin

As for the nightwaking, it is safe to ignore her unless she's really crying out for you. There are other ways to illiminate it, such as wake to sleep, which have also been known to work.

Hope this was helpful!

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

[Gippie]

Tricia, 

My DD is 4 months old and in the past 2 days we have squashed the 2:30 AM wakings by 2 nights of wake to sleep - it worked on the first night and I intended to do it for 2 more - but I feel back to sleep last night on day 3 - oh well...I won't do it tonight unless it reurns.

When DD was waking at 2:30 I also found that she was waiting EXACTLY 3 hourse from whatever early AM time to the next and when she fell back to sleep in my room it was fitful.  Some changes I made, that you seem to be doing was switching to the 4 hour EASY.  I found that she wasnt taking full feeds - so that was a big help.   The W2s was KEY in changing her AM deal.  A lot of posts mentioned that it was probably habit that formed when she WAS having a growth spurt and needed the food.   

Either way, try Wake to Sleep and keep us posted!

Stacey

[caydensmama]

Thanks so much for your advice ladies!  Last night we started the bedtime routine at 7:00pm and DD was sound asleep at 7:45pm.  She woke a few times in the early morning - once at 3:00am, then at 4:00am, again at 4:15am and then slept until 5:15am when it was time to eat.  Each time I just put her binky in her mouth and she went right back to sleep.  I wrote everything down so we can see if it happens again tonight, and see if a pattern is forming.  I'm just glad it wasn't every 20 mintues like it has been!     I'm also trying to make sure that she stays down for complete naps, to see if that's what's causing the night waking.  We plan on implimenting 'wake to sleep' this weekend also to see if that will help.  Wish me luck!        

[BabyBsMommy]

Stacy's suggestions are what we did to help, too!  We changed his naps from 3 1.5 naps and a cat nap (well, when we could extend his naps  ) to 2 1.5-2 hour and a 1 hour cat nap between 4-5 pm.  We found out the hard way that if he has any nap time much past 5pm he is very difficult to get down for bed.  We also changed his last feed from before his bath until after his bath so now he eats at 7pm and goes to bed by 7:30.  Before he was not going to bed until 8-8:30.  Finally, he was habitually waking between 1-2am and we've just tried w2s (pat shh worked for a long time and we didn't mind it because it took only 5-15 min but when it started to take over an hour we looked for a better solution) and it worked the first night - he slept another 2.5 hours - so we'll see...   the only problem now is that his woke up at 3:30 for a feed and again at 6:30 but wasn't ready to start the day then and wanted to go back to sleep...he usually would wake for the day at 7am.

[Elphyrafire]

Stacy also helped us so she is a very wise person! Listen to her!
My 4.5 month old sounds like he was having as many wakings as yours, if not more. Three things that helped:
1) Changed to a 4 hour EASY
2) Bedtime is now at 6:45 (start the routine at 6:15)
3) Wake to sleep for the predictable night wakings. Have only been doing this 3 nights but it's worked MOST of the time (not all- takes practise)

GL!

[BabyBsMommy]

Yup!  On 4 hour EASY for 2 days now.  He is eating more at his feeds and nights have improved right away - most importantly, he's not waking 45 min into his bedtime sleep!   Last night went to sleep at 7:30, not a peep until 1:20am.  I dropped the df for a night a few days ago because I wasn't able to pump enough and he actually slept longer but 1-2am was his feeding time before the df so we eliminated it for the week he was taking the df with w2s.  I guess because we canned it, he woke up again out of habit but he wasn't hungry and I was able to put him back asleep with pat/ssh in bed in about 15 min.  He woke up at 3:45 for a huge feed and then slept until shortly after 7am.  What a difference!  I'm going to do w2s tonight to see if it stops that 1-2am waking again....