Waking at night but not needing to eat...

[UNCMomma]

So... my 11 week old finally mastered the sleeping through the night thing (with dreamfeed) last week, with four days in a row of sleeping past 5:30 AM (and going back to sleep with paci until 7-no feeding needed).  (She is a breastfed baby on the 3 hour EASY, at least attempted!  Some days she doesn't cooperate with the routine due to short naps!) 

Well, the last 3 nights she is back to waking up at 4.  Still she does not feed (shows no hunger cues and does fine waiting until 7 to eat), but I give her the paci, rock her a little, and she falls back to sleep very quickly.  I then put her in bed with me to prevent the chance of her waking back up. 

She hasn't had a middle of the night feeding for over a week, and I really don't think she's waking from hunger, as mentioned previously.  Any advice on getting her to sleep through again?? 

Thanks, Amanda

[teezee]

i would suggest not rocking lo back to sleep when she wakes early or at night at all as you want her to learn to self soothe and not need mommy there to do the soothing for her. have you tried shh/pat or just shhing or just patting or whatever works for your lo - just at all costs try to keep lo in the crib so she doesn't associate falling back to sleep with you.

i could take a look at her routine if you would like to post it.

[UNCMomma]

I know, the rocking is a bad habit.  My LO is Great at self-soothing throughout the day, but the middle of the night has always been her weak spot.  She has always had a hard time getting back to sleep in the middle of the night, with or without my help.    Anything I try to do seems to key her up more, including shh/pat.  Even when I was feeding her, she had MORE trouble falling back to sleep after the feeding than now, when I just give the paci and rock.  I also have a 3 year old, and working on ANYTHING at 3 or 4 AM is really hard to get motivated for when I know we will be up at 7 for a full day.  Her schedule is ideally the following...

7AM Awake, eat
7:45 down for first nap
(this is her most difficult nap, and usually very short by the time she falls asleep.  She seems to have more trouble falling asleep when I let her stay awake longer)
10 AM Awake, eat
11 AM down for second nap (sometimes a good nap)
1 PM Awake, eat
2 PM down for third nap (usually pretty short)
4 PM (or earlier if third nap short) Awake, eat
4:30 PM down for fourth nap (usually longer)
7PM Awake, Eat, Bath
8PM In bed for the night
10:30 Dream feed
About 4 Awake, paci, back to sleep until 7 AM

Like I said, we attempt the 3 hour EASY, but there is a RARE day that she naps accordingly for good lengths every nap and we make it 3 hours.  A lot of times she wakes early from a nap, so I let her have activity time, then eat right before she goes back down to prevent overtired (I still put her down awake). 

Thanks, I appreciate any advice! 

Amanda

[teezee]

i think you may need to tweak the routine as 45 min A time first thing in the am really doesn't seem like very long (although it feels forever ago to me now) and the reason lo is probably fighting this is b/c she isn't tired enough. i think if you in fact stretched out all the A times that you would have a much better napper and this would def help nightsleep. start out slowly by 10 or 15 min every few days and see if it is helping..you will know when you find the right balance

[UNCMomma]

What you're saying certainly makes sense, but I keep arguing with myself about the awake time being too little or too much.  She DEFINETLY has trouble taking longer naps when she's overtired.  Like today, she has not taken over a 30 min nap.  She therefore shows obvious tired signs after about 30 to 45 min of being awake.  In the earlier part of the day she had no trouble falling back to sleep, but again for a 30 min nap.  I've tried placing my hand on her and shielding her eyes twice today, each time with no success. 

I know this topic doesn't really fit here, I'll post somewhere else.  But it all ties in, you know??  I think you're right, if we could get DD to catch up on sleep she could probably stay awake longer.  She's suffering from cumulative effects of short naps right now. 

 

Amanda

[teezee]

maybe you want to try an earlier bedtime for a few days so that lo can get caught up on sleep?

[UNCMomma]

I was actually just thinking about that, since she will probably be waking from another 30 min nap in the next few minutes (and it's only 4:50 PM!)  That may be a good solution, I'll let you know how it goes!    Thanks!

Amanda

[teezee]

good luck! will keep my fingers crossed!

[UNCMomma]

Update--I tried an early bedtime last night but I guess the day was WAY too much for her with all the short naps and she had a LOT of trouble going to sleep.  The good part was that once she was asleep, she slept for almost 8 hours.  Poor baby was probably exhausted.  I pray today goes better!    Thanks for the support!

Amanda

[teezee]

well it is def some improvement...keep going forward and don't get discouraged..if you feel like you are going crazy - come here someone is always around

[UNCMomma]

Thank you, it helps to know that you're not alone during the rough times!  I always try to make myself realize that at least we're attempting a schedule, which is more than lots of people do. 

By the way, I did W2S for her last nap which WORKED!!  (I guess, it was either that or the complete exhaustion left over from yesterday!)  I went in at 25 min and at 45 min.  She actually woke after 1 hour but kept her eyes open for a minute, whined one time, and was back out!!!!  She slept 2 1/2 hours!!!  YAY!  I just tried it again at the 25 min mark for this nap, and so far so good!  If this would only work...

Amanda

[teezee]

  truly a wonderful accomplishment