wakes 4x between 8-10pm: over-tired?

[nicolas]

My 20 wk old son has been having frequent nht wakings for the last month. It's been getting worse lately too. 
I got advice previously that he could be overtired so we lengthened the catnap, tried putting it a bit later, and extended his afternoon nap to 2 hours... Before his dreamfeed he wakes up 3 to 4 times, we bounce him back to super groggy, or sometimes to sleep and put him back in crib. sometimes he'll last an hour, sometimes 15 minutes.It is driving me bananas.

After the dreamfeed he wakes every 3 hours, and we've had a few nights where he woke every 2 hours.

On the november 2006 birthclub thread, I am reading about a lot of sleep issues for the 4th month, but I feel like there must be something I am doing  or not doing to foster these frequent wakings.  I will post my routine in the next post, I am going to find it in an old post and copy it...

if anyone has any similar experience, I am feeling at the end of my rope.
thanks in advance,Liana

[nicolas]

THis is Nicolas's mom again.
This is the routine I aim for:
Just this week I was able to extend his afternoon nap to 1.5 and 2 hours. It made a huge difference in his mood after waking. One of the evenings he slept until df, but the other he woke up 4x before df. What is going on?
a-6
e-6
s-730-830
e-9
s-1030-1130
e-12
s-1-2
e-3
s-4-5
e-530

bath and bedtime routine starts at 645, usually asleep by 730
eats a little bit at 7pm.

Sometimes after eating at 6, he will sleep until 7 and our routine is a little different.


Do I need to tweak this?

[Colin Macs Mom]

You're still on three hour EASY it looks like, and you want to move towards 4 hour or at least 3.5 at this age. Have you perused the EASY forum at all? There are sample routines in there for each age range.

What does he have going on developmentally? 4 mo is usually a tough time for sleep for developmental reasons - rolling in particular.

[nicolas]

yes, he has started to roll, but doesn't do it all the time.  he has found his feet and lots of new voice sounds. no other milestones besides rolling though.

I have trouble getting the feedings 3.5 hours apart. sometimes it works without him barely noticing, other times he is loudly hungry crying right at the 3 hour mark- so I don't know whether to push it or not...

any tips?

[ladyboggess]

ok...this may or may not hel, but my ds did the same thing for MONTHS.  There was nothing wrong  with his routines, no developmental issues going on, etc.   He just kept waking up.  Now, please understand that he has been a TERRIBLE sleeper the whole time and couldn't go to sleep on his own, so each time he woke I had to go in and help him back to sleep.  No  matter how hard I tried to teach independent sleep, he wanted  no part of it!   I am about to post this,  but he finally just grew out of it!  HE had to teach himself to sleep  better. Over the course of about 2 months he slowly started putting himself  back to sleep occasionally.  No matter what I did it didn't seem to  matter.   He had to do it on his own time. So, this might not be your case, but if you have exhausted  the obvious causes, please don't blame yourself!   HUGS TO YOU FROM  SOMEONE  WHO  HAS BEEN THERE!!!!!

[nicolas]

ladyboggess,

i just found your reply. what a sweet and helpful response! thanks,
we are going to wean ourselves from the bouncing this weekend, and I am still working towards that 4 hour cycle. That would be fabulous if nicolas would grow out of the night wakings.
I still feel like it is about something i am or am not doing- so if we make it to 4 hours and we drop the prop and he is STILL waking,than atleast I can feel guilt free.

thanks again, liana