My dd is 20 weeks, and for about 2 months now she has been waking at night and up for 1-2 hours after one of her feedings. We have been getting up at around midnight and 4:00 am for feedings (which I am working on trying to reduce... but that's for another forum!) and every night, after one of the feedings, she will just stay awake for at least one hour. I feed her in the total dark, don't change her, she is swaddled with one arm out. I don't talk to her or play at all, just pick her up, feed her until she seems full, put her down, tuck her in and walk away. She will most often coo and talk to herself for about 45 minutes, then starts to fuss. If it's before 4:00 am I will usually leave her to settle herself, but after 4am ds #1 will wake and he's GROUCHY the rest of the day, so I will go in and give her a soother to resettle her quicker after 4 am. I know I should be more consistent about that... but I do what I have to do....
Any suggestions as to why she is staying awake after her feedings? I assume it's a developmental thing... but when will it stop!! I could deal with getting up for two feedings if she would go back to sleep after, but listening to her sing to herself for hours in the middle of the night is really wearing on my dh and myself!! I read Dr. Weissbluth's book in an effort to try to understand why she is doing this, but all I could come up with is maybe she's overtired? Putting her to bed earlier than 7:00 is not helping, and she naps pretty well during the day... I'm at a loss and would appreciate any insights, thanks!!
