accidental parenting?

[katemom]

Hello fellow baby whisperers...

My daughter is 13 weeks old.  For the last month and a half, she has woken up for one middle of the night feeding.  She cried and I fed her, which was anywhere from 2am to 4am.  Recently she stopped crying when she woke up.  We continued to feed her because she was sucking on her fingers and acting restless.  She would always fall back asleep after being fed, so it didn't take long to remedy the situation.  Then I started wondering if we were doing accidental parenting?  Since she didn't cry when she woke up, I decided to try not feeding her.  She eventually put herself back to sleep after a little while.  I did this for the last 4 nights.  She seems to wake up around 4am-ish and go in and out of sleep until about 6:30 when we feel like we'd better get her up since she is giggling to herself, and obviously very awake.

I guess I'm wondering if I'm doing the right thing here?  She stays in bed happy (although not always asleep) from about 9pm - 6:30am.  That's great, but is her quality of sleep not as good now?  Please advise.

Here is the info. usually requested to help inform your advice.  Thank you.

Since she dropped a feeding, I increased her daytime feeds (she's bottle fed) to get it pretty close to the same amount of her total intake before.

Her example schedule: (varies daily)

6:35 (takes meds for reflux, need to have 1/2 hour before feed)
7:00 EAT
7:20 ACTIVITY
8:25 SLEEP (until 10:05, so 1 hr 40 min)
10:10 EAT
10:30 ACTIVITY
11:45 SLEEP (until 1:20, so 1 hr 35 min)
1:30 EAT
1:50 ACTIVITY
3:05 SLEEP (until 5:00, so 1 hr 55 min)
5:05 EAT
5:25 ACTIVITY
she won't catnap most days here...
7:30 meds
8:00 EAT (falls asleep at end of bottle)
in bed until wakes up around 4am, no crying, just fidgeting, sucking on fingers, etc.  Goes back to sleep, wakes up again, fidgets, sucks fingers, etc. again.

She's been on EASY for about 2.5 weeks.  She's now napping well consistently, except for the catnap which is hit or miss.

Thank you for any advice - I don't want to push her into sleeping through the night if she's not ready for it, but I also don't want to establish accidental parenting practices.

[momofclaire]

Her sch looks great to me.  Wow.  She will go down at 9:00 at no get up until 6:30?  That is great! Babies have natural times when they wake in the night.  If she can put herself back to sleep and she isn't crying for you then she's probably not hungry.  Her sleep may be disturbed becuase of overtiredness.  Could you put her to bed 1/2 hour earlier. Maybe that would help. I really think if she's not crying just let her be and don't worry about it. I don't really see any AP going on here so that's good.

[Colin Macs Mom]

I agree - you're doing fantastic!! You've got a good sleeper for sure. It's totally normal to have a night feed between 2 and 4 at that age so you're definitely not into any AP.

[katemom]

Hi, and thanks for the reply

So I'm a bit confused then...if it's normal to have a feeding between 2 and 4am, should I feed her, or stay on the path of not feeding her as I have the last 4 nights?  To clarify, she doesn't cry at all, but she does wriggle around quite restlessly as she goes in and out of sleep from about 4-6:30am.  She is doing fine putting herself back to sleep, but like I said, she is in and out of it a lot towards the end.  I don't know if it's okay for her to be like that, or if it would be better to just feed her?  But yes, I am pleased with her night sleeping either way, and am grateful.  Thanks for your input!

[Colin Macs Mom]

Waking repeatedly is usually a sign of hunger so since she's in and out from 4 - 6:30 I would say feed her. But you know her best of course so if you think she's fine without then do what you think is best.