4.5 month old going from night wakings of 1-2 hours to early waking

[Arisandmarion]

My 4.5 month old is starting to go from 45 minute naps on the 4 hour EASY to 1.5 hour naps (2) and a catnap, I still have to put her down sometimes to extend the naps but she is getting better. However her night wakiings have gone from 2am, 3am or 4am and taking 1-2 hours to go back to sleep to about 4am of squirming, waking and trying to go back to sleep to being wide awake at 5am! She is exhuasted in the day now becuase hse is so tired and when she wakes up at night she tries so hard to go back to sleep but after 10minutes wakes up again.
She goes to bed around 7 but I was putting her down around 6:30 when we started EASY 2-3 weeks ago because she was so tired. Do I need to go back to 6:30? Should I keep her awake longer? She was teething for a few days but she hasn't shown signs of that again. She's not sick, we haven't travelled or cahnged anything lately except her wakings are getting worse. (Except when she first goes down she is doing better and doesn't need any help going back to sleep as she did before until after her DF)
Please help! We are both getting very very tired.

[teezee]

ok well early wakings are USUALLY due to too much sleep - so when your lo wakes 'early' from a nap maybe you don't need to put her back down?? if you could post your routine then we could take a closer look into it all for you..

[Arisandmarion]

Well her routine varies becuase if she is up at 5am and I can't put her down again I can't start from the 7am EASY but it roughly goes like this:
5-7am wake up (try to make her wait to eat til 6:30 or 7am)
Eat 4-5 ounces
Nap 1 starts anywhere from 8:15 - 9am (try to keep her up til 9 but if up at 5 or 6 put down earlier) Usually naps 45 minutes but on occasion 1.5 hours
Eat around 10am (or after nap) 4-5 ounces
Nap 2 starts anywhere from 12-1:30 usually last 1.5 hours
Eat around 1:30 -2:30 4-5 ounces
Nap 3 starts from 3:30-5 (if slept 45 minutes in the morning try to make it 1.5 hours but if slept longer let this be a catnap if she gets up early and doesn't want to go back down)
Upon waking eats
Bath, wind down, eats again (in total this perod she eats ahywhere from 8-14 ounces)
6:15-7pm put down
11 dreamfeed of about 3-4 ounces
Usually wakes from 2-4 am and takes 2 hours of putting her down again - she tries and tries to go back to sleep but wakes after only sleeping a few minutes and have to start over again

Sorry it is vague but I don't keep her up if she has been up awhile and I can see she is really tired - it also messes up the eating every 4 hours too but I am trying to make sure she doesn't eat too often - she eats as much as she likes that's why they are averages
When she got up yesterday at 5 she was exhausted all day so I put her down at 6:30, she slept fine and woke up around 3am where I broke the rule I had been following the last 3 weeks and fed her 3 ounces - she took 20 minutes to go back to sleep (instead of 1-2 hours) but it seemed to help and she woke up this morning at 6:17 after some restlessness in the morning - do you think she just needs to eat in the early morning? If I start this will it be really hard to stop as she gets older??
Thanks for your help!

[teezee]

as best you can (and i know it can be tricky in a situation like this..) but do whatever you can to try and stick to a 4 hr routine at this point.

i understand lo is tired but def start extending that morning A time a bit as she will keep being tired at that time b/c she is not sleeping for that two hrs at night kwim? so she is making up for it with that early nap.

could lo have discomfort/gas at all? what is the nature of the wakings? does it seems painful or playful? how are you responding to them??

at that age it is very very common for lo's to still wake for one or two feedings at night and generally the rule of thumb is if you settle and lo wakes with the hr than feed and assume it was hunger. if lo settles and sleeps longer than an hr than you can be pretty sure it wasn't hunger. have you tried doing the df at any different times and experimenting with it a bit? once you get lo on a straight 4 hr routine - have you thought about perhaps trying a cluster feed? once lo is older and able to handle those long night stretches without food better, it is always tricky changing something with a lo, but imo would be easier then as she will be more capable to do so kwim? good luck and let us know if you have more questions...keep us posted