Where did my baby go?

[nursekat]

So...I've been a spoiled mommy.  My babe has been sleeping through the night since she was 2mos old, and now at over 4 mos is starting to wake again.  All week she has woken once for a feed, somewhere between 2am-4am...I wasn't complaining then because I almost felt more rested - we both slept in until 8am and I wasn't waking frequently from my painful engorgement.

Last night she woke at 11pm - she hasn't done that since she was a month old!!  I resettled her, then she woke at 11:50, 12:00am, 12:15, so I finally got her up and fed her (she was only mildly fussy).  She slept until 4am and did the same thing, waking every 10-15 mins until I finally got her up and fed her.  Is it a growth spurt or what?  She doesn't seem to be super upset or hungry, but if I just settle her and put her back down, she will keep waking up over and over.

As far as her daily easy goes, she has been on a textbook 3 hr easy until these past couple of weeks.  Well, almost textbook - she has only always been able to stay awake for one hour, so she'd do one hr A time, 2 hrs S time, with a 45min catnap in the eve.  We have just been getting great success at slowly stretching her A times to 1.5 hrs, except maybe in the late afternoon and evening when she was more tired - she sometimes would only make it 1.25 or 1 hr.  Could it be the change in schedule is too much?  She was born a month early...maybe she's not ready?

As far as props, we have none except she does use a pacifier.  Although, she has always used it appropriately in that she just needs it to fall asleep (sometimes it's even out before she's all the way asleep), and only rarely does she call in the night to need it popped back in.

Any ideas?  Any other info you need?  I miss my sleep!! 

[Molsmum]

My LO has never been text book but would sleep from 7.30pm until 7am waking for one feed at between 3and 4.  This week she started waking every 40-45 minutes during the night.  I posted on here too 'From once a night to 8-10 times'.  The replies I got focussed on developmental issues, teething and rolling.  My LO has just started rolling onto her side so I think this could well be it, has your LO started to roll too.  The other suggestion was slight reflux.
I know it's an absloute nightmare but after 5 nights my LO slept until 3.15am and then woke as usual every half an hour until 6.30am.  The first stretch was a start so hopefully we'll get back on track.
Hope you soon have your sleep back

[Molsmum]

Post was from once a night to every hour or less if you want to look at suggestions

[*Mona*]

right, developmental issues probably. same thing happened to my dd when she started teething, rolling and trying to sit up all day long and even in her crib at night. plus, I've just returned to work which had had a huge impact on dd as well
but we're getting better. so hang on in there, your baby will be back, just give her some time.
oh, and moving to 4 hrs EASY should help some too, she's a big girl already.
HTH,
Monika

[Colin Macs Mom]

nursekat, this age can be really rough on sleeping because they start developmental stuff. Which is great, but not fun at nighttime!    Has she started rolling at all yet?

[nursekat]

She's rolled over (front to back) once, and I'm not sure she knew what was going on!    But she does roll side to side a lot...I went more on following her cues today and she couldn't stay awake as long as she has in the past couple of weeks, so I'm wondering if we were pushing her routine a little too much.  She's always needed a LOT of sleep (I was the same way growing up), and she was born a month early, so I'm just taking it at her pace right now.

[nursekat]

Yeah, stacy, I just saw a post recently about somebody who had an LO with lots of night wakings due to the paci.  I'm keeping it in the back of my mind, but I'm just not convinced.    Anyway, she's had night wakings wanting the paci before, where all she wants is it back in her mouth and then she's back out for hours.  This is her waking, then waking again, then waking again until I feed her.  I don't know that she's hungry, but just that the feed helps her sleep more soundly.  I'm going to slow down on pushing her A times quite as much as we've been doing and see how that works.

btw, I had mommy mush brain for a second there.  I was reading another thread about somebody else's baby with n/w, and then I switched threads but forgot I had done that - I read your response and thought, "Is she talking to me?  Oh yeah, I think she's talking to me.  Wait...how did she know we use a paci??"    I need more sleep...

[nursekat]

So, we went back to a 3hr easy and she doesn't seem as tired, but is still waking at night.  For a few nights it was two feeds (multiple wakings) in the night, but the last couple of nights it has been just one feed (although multiple wakings).

My new question is this - do babies go from sleeping through the night to needing feeds at night?  Or is the feeding just a means to an end (as in she'll just sleep better, but doesn't need it)?  I'm trying to discern if she's needing the feeds or if it's a prop (paci) thing. 

In any case, she's looking chunkier with all of these extra feeds at night. 

Generally what she does is wakes and fusses (but doesn't open her eyes) - she's very very easy to resettle but then will wake anywhere from 10-20-60 minutes later.  When she does this a couple of times I just feed her and then she'll sleep for hours, often until the am.  So since she resettles easily I'm not positive that it's hunger, although since she does well after a feed maybe it is??  Any thoughts??

[Colin Macs Mom]

Is it possible that you're going in too soon? If she's just fussing and isn't even 100% awake, definitely leave her be.

[nursekat]

Tried that.    She just wakes up and fusses more. 

[nursekat]

What?  They change???   

Just teasing...we do cluster feed, but she never takes very much for her last feed of the day - she's always a bit tired and fussy...might work on giving her an ebm bottle to see if she'll take that better...I'm just trying to figure out if it's food or props.  She eats at totally random times - anywhere from 11pm to 5am!  Maybe she is ready to move away from the 3hr easy?  As in she's snacking every 3 hrs instead of getting her full amounts?

[Colin Macs Mom]

Yeah, you might try a 3.5 hour EASY to test.

[nursekat]

Tried over several weeks to stretch to 3.5 EASY, ended up being worse and worse for her every day, with the overtiredness.  I thought that was maybe what was causing the night wakings.  So we went back to 3hrs, and she has been sleeping really well during the day and eating well every 3 hrs.  I tried just BARELY stretching her A times today, but what we run in to is that her third long nap of the day runs well into the evening - do people ever just skip catnaps?

[Colin Macs Mom]

Sure, not everyone does a catnap. It all depends on LO and what they can or can't handle.

[nursekat]

Well, last night was a weird evening.  Her third long nap of the day ended at 5:30pm, so I was hesitant to put her down for a catnap and decided to just watch her cues.  She was content until 7:20!!  She didn't want anything to do with eating, though, since she just ate at 5:30pm.  So I just put her down and she was sound asleep by 7:30...but she woke up at 8:15 - a perfect 45min nap!  So I just fed her and put her right back down, and she would wake every 20mins or so for about an hour, then she was out.  She had a better night than she's had in a while - one waking for binkie and settling, one waking for eating.  Not bad.  Will have to keep experimenting with A times and catnaps.  In general, do you want a longer stretch of A time in the evening or shorter?