8wk old Help. . . night waking grunting

[tjteems]

My 8wk old seems to have a pattern of a non-hunger wake up at 2:20am (going for 4 days now).  When she wakes she cries in outburst type cries and grunts and writhes.  I pat shhh her for an hour.  Then by 3:45 she is ready to eat.  .  She takes awhile to settle, but never full on cries loudly.

She eats at 7, 10, 1, 4, 7, 10(DF), 3am-ish
I limit her wake time to 45-75mins and follow her sleepy cues.  She was napping 1.5-2hrs between each feeding, but the 45min invader has come in the last week. . .and now the 20min invader in the last 2 days.  Arghh!!  So, lately I feel like she is definitely overtired.
We do bath and wind down routine right before 7pm bottle, then straight to bed.

What can I do differently?  BW worked great with my son, but I'm at a loss with this baby girl.  She is formula fed BTW and in a tight swaddle on her side in a sleep positioner.
I've been reading about W2S.  How do you do it exactly?  Would that be appropriate here?  I'll also mention that with a 2.5yo, I can't always camp out in the nursery and patt shh forever during the day.  Thanks for an insight!

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Hi there

Have you tried feeding straight away when she wakes at 2.20am?  What happens?

Jo

[Kimberly®]

thats the first thing I thought of too, why not try a feed and see what happends

[tjteems]

Thanks. That is what we've done the last few nights and then last night she didn't wake until 3:15!!  I think I was trying to get her to go longer between feeds like my son did at this age, but I need her to go at her own  pace.  Thanks for the advice!

[tjteems]

An update now at over 10 wks old.  She went for 2 nights until 4:30am when I fed her and she seemed hungry.  The past 2 nights she has slipped back to the 2:30am wake up.  She doesn't seem hungry.  I tried Tracy's trick from her first book about picking up and offering the paci for the length of a feed time.  I did that and she sucked for 15mins and then fell asleep.  I put her back in bed and she was up again in 30mins. crying.
I guess she still needs this feeding then?  I find it odd that she can't go more than 4 hours after her dreamfeed without a feed.  In the past week, she has also moved to a 3 1/2 hour feeding schedule, but is still getting the same number of ounces.
I was considering offering a smaller bottle for the night feed gradually.  Is this a good idea?  I was hoping that would get her to eat more during the day and less at night.  Any thoughts on that?  By the way, when I do feed her at night, she generally goes straight back to sleep (at least 90% of the time).

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Hi there

Yep, it does sound like your LO is hungry.  You could try the smaller feed and see how that goes.  I wouldn't push your LO out too much further on her day time feed cycles - most LO's are still feeding every 3 hrs up to 4 months.  She also won't be able to sustain the A time to meet a 3.5 - 4 hr routine at that age - throwing off EASY.

Good luck
Jo

[tjteems]

Thanks for your quick reply.  Yes, I know it is early to go longer than 3 hours between feeds.  She sort of did it herself.  I found myself waking her to eat from naps 2-3 times a day for 3 days in a row, so I figured she was trying to tell me something.  Should I try to keep her on the 3 hour schedule?  Seems like that would be better until she is sleeping through the night.
Any thoughts?  She takes power naps of 2-2 1/2 hours each, so extend A time is not an option for this sleepyhead.

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Hi again

I would think that long naps are very normal for your DD's age - how long is her A time currently?  If she is taking a 2 hr nap, and her A time is 1 hr, then you would still be on the 3 hr routine??

[tjteems]

Her A time is usually about 1 hour.  Max is 1 hour 10 mins.  THen she'll sleep for a bit over 2 hrs, putting us on a 3 1/2 hour schedule.

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Hi again

I probably wouldn't wake her but if she does wake earlier then I would feed her as close to the 3 hr mark as you can get.

Sounds like you are doing a great job - those early weeks aren't easy but you seem to be going really well!  Good for you!

Jo

[tjteems]

Thanks for all your quick replies.  She had one span of 4 hours today betwwen feedings, but then was really hungry the next feeding after 2.5 hours.  So, I think I def. should have woken her at at least 3.5 hours.  Thanks for the tip.  Need to focus on the night waking first.

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Just by way of observation - a lot of the time when your days are going well the nights sort themselves out.  It is MUCH harder to work on the nights in isolation to the days.  I would always suggest get the days sorted first and then tweak the nights if you still need to......

GOOD LUCK!

[tjteems]

Just wanted to say thanks and give an update.  From your advice I decided to focus on the days and get back to a 3hr schedule from 3.5 since she is so young.  After 3 days back on a consistant 3 hr schedule, she slept through last night!!  Betime at 6:30, dreamfeed at 10;30 and then I didn't hear another peep until 6:30 am.  Yahoo!  Hope she does it again tonight. 

Another piece of advice I took from these boards is I turned off the monitor last week.  I left hers and our doors open (she is just down the hall).  Then I only wake to her cries and not every snort and grunt.
Thanks all!

[Jo-FrasersMum]

That's FANTASTIC!!!!  Thanks for the update