Sudden night wakings

[LouiseB]

Hi

I would appreciate a bit of advice on how to try and tackle my baby's sudden night waking. Sorry its long but a lot of things have changed at once.

From 8 weeks old my little girl has slept 10-12 hours a night - until this week when she has been waking up several times a night. She is now 17 weeks old. She has been on a 3 hour routine from 8am until 8pm plus a feed/dream feed at 10.30/11pm. I had a lot of problems breastfeeding so for the last month have been bottle feeding her and everything seemed to click into place since I did that.

Some other things that have happened in the last 2 weeks or so are:
- We moved bedtime forward a feed. Before then her last feed was at 10pm and then she would sleep until 8am. Now her last feed is at 8pm, she goes to sleep and we dream feed her at about 11pm. This worked well for only 3 nights.
- She then had a cold a chesty cough and woke in the night for the first time in about 8 weeks coughing and struggling for breath. We obviously both jumped out of bed, grabbed her and cuddled her etc. She went back to sleep without feeding very quickly but woke the next night also coughing and then has woken most nights since. She is over the illness now.
- Her day time naps are now only 30-45 minutes long and she is happy and not sleepy when she wakes and wants to play. She doesn't wake crying.
- She isn't getting tired as quickly as she was
- She is drinking about 5-6oz when I offer her a feed at the night waking.

I'm not sure if she is in a growth spurt or whether its because of the illness (she is now over that) or whether (as the babywhisperer book indicates) she should be on a 4 hour routine now, or whether its to do with the earlier bedtime?

I've not dealt with a growth spurt since bottle feeding. What do I do? Can I increase overall volume of formula at the same time as moving her to 4 hour routine? She is currently drinking about 5 x 5oz plus a 5oz or so dream feed. But last night she easily finished off another 5oz at 4am. Today I tried more food less often and she drank 7oz every 3.5 hours.

Any help would be great. I'm not sure what to tackle first. The naps? The feeding? Or is it related to our reaction to her illness?

Thanks!

[teezee]

def move to a 4 hr easy. as stacy said lo's needing a longer routine usually start to have night wakings.

the short naps are probably due to lo needing a longer A time as lo is probably not tired enough to stay asleep for a longer period. if you stretch out A time then lo will be more tired for that nap and sleep better again.

also, as for the night wakings - once lo is on a 4 hr routine, when it is time to feed there will be a longer gap between the feeding times, therefore lo will be hungrier and will take in more bm/formula. having more in the tummy will also help lo get through longer periods without feeding.

i think by tackling lengthening the routine (slowly if needed as  you also don't want lo to get overtired in the process as that will cause you more problems..) by stretching out A times slowly (15min every few days...although your lo seems to be ready for this transition and you may able to get a bit longer), this will solve both the nap and feeding problems!

hth!