Help with sleep pattern :(

lounakin

I need help or guidance with my baby! I have totally lost confidence and I don't know what else to do!!
My girl is 2.5 months now. She was a brilliant sleeper from day one (she slept 4 hours in a row as a newborn) and slept from about 10pm to about 5 or 6 am until she was 2 months old. She did cat naps during the day.
On the day she turned 2 months I flew to france for my maternity leave. The day after, she got two shots and a tongue tie snip so she was very traumatised but still slept through the night. I then took her to the south of France where it's really hot and that's when everything went crazy! It's been 2 weeks and she seems used to the hot weather. She is smiling, laughing, the most amazingly pleasant baby all day long. She doesn't cry at all. She won't nap well, perhaps a 30/60 minute nap twice a day if you really work at it.
Here's my issue. I wind her down and she finally goes to bed around 10 pm (I try to feed her to sleep as it used to be a sure thing but not anymore) and wakes up at 1am on the dot every night. I feed her as she seems uber hungry, she takes 10 minutes on the breast and falls asleep. I can't seem to keep her awake for more. She then wakes up at 3:30, I try to put her back to sleep without eating but she's too hungry then again. Wakes at 5 am, then 6:30 and wants to feed every time. The puzzling thing is after the 6:30 feed she sleeps until 10:30!! Today it's 10:30 and she's still asleep.
I tried to put her down earlier last night but my mother says I should try the opposite: not putting her to bed until midnight.
I felt lucky to have a child that sleeps but now I really understand how a mother can be so tired... I haven't slept in 2 weeks! I don't know if this is how she's going to be from now on or if she's still adapting.
Any advice will be very much appreciated!

Hannibal Smith

No, it's not how she's going to be....she's just adapting...I remember my son doing that and I thought I was going to go mad with lack of sleep. It was like his day and night were reversed. She will get over it. Mind you...our guy wakes up at 5.30 for his first feed so he's not entirely 'fixed' yet :rolleyes:

Is she feeding well during the day? She's not having any reaction or complications from the tongue snip procedure? Are you breast or bottle feeding? Is it something in your diet setting her off? It's not wind is it?

If you've ruled out everything else and it's just hunger, all you can do is feed her. To be honest when my guy woke up hungry, I just fed him because it was the easier thing to do.

If you put her down later then you'll have problems with her being over tired and that's a whole other minefield. :cool:

How Strange

lounakin why don't you feed her at 3.30 when she wakes. My son used to wake every 2-3 hours during the night at that stage. A little feed may help her fall back asleep.

We started putting our son down at 9pm from 11 weeks and brought it back gradually until he was sleeping from 7pm. He'd sleep from 7-1 so a great 5 hour stretch, dropping his 11pm feed, and then he'd wake at 3, 5, 7 for a feed. He'd then sleep until 9 or 10.

I'd go with the path of least resistence and feed her at 3.30 if that's what she wants. Regardless of bottle or breastfeeding you'll both be back to sleep a lot sooner if you feed her rather than trying to coax her back to sleep.

Also at that stage their patterns change every week so there isn't really such thing as a routine. They just want what they want.

lounakin

How Strange wrote: »

lounakin why don't you feed her at 3.30 when she wakes. My son used to wake every 2-3 hours during the night at that stage. A little feed may help her fall back asleep.

I didn't explain properly: i do feed her! everytime she wakes I feed her and she goes right back to sleep. It's the sudden frequency I'm not enjoying!

I breastfeed her (to the person who asked)

How Strange

Ah ok! I've no advice except to cosleep if you can at least from 1am onwards. It means you'll get more sleep. I used to put my son down in his crib and then move into into the bed when he woke around 1/2am

lounakin

I used to do that but the beds are a problem down here, they're old and there are such deep indentations that she has nowhere to go and rolls close to me and I can't fall asleep as I'm afraid I'll crush her. Also I think that she tends to wake up more when I'm near her as she smells the milk! I'm even thinking of sleeping in a different room as her. It's uncanny, when she takes her nap and I want to see if she's ok, she'll wake up instantly even before I get into the room but she doesn't do that when someone else goes in to check.

How Strange

Yes they definitely smell the milk.

Neyite

Lounakin, My guy is the same age, I'm also breastfeeding and like that, his naps have gotten shorter and more erratic, and he is also skipping some. Where he had gotten into a single night feed, he now wakes for 2, and feeds every 2 hrs or less during the day.

It was just after I brought him for his first round of vaccinations so at first I thought it was that, but now I'm wondering if its a growth spurt. Then just on skype to my mum and she reckons he is also teething as he is starting to drool and gnaw at his fists. And this is on top of his sore tum after feeds too. Poor mite.

But, I did read (and see it myself with this fella) that if you "tank" them up with plenty of feeds during the day, they will be less likely to wake at night hungry as they have gotten all the calories that they need. If this guy feeds loads in the evenings he is more likely to wake later in the night for his first night feed- around 5 or even 6am, so it might be worth a try to offer her more feeds in the evening and see if it works?

lounakin

Neyite wrote: »

Lounakin, My guy is the same age, I'm also breastfeeding and like that, his naps have gotten shorter and more erratic, and he is also skipping some. Where he had gotten into a single night feed, he now wakes for 2, and feeds every 2 hrs or less during the day.

It was just after I brought him for his first round of vaccinations so at first I thought it was that, but now I'm wondering if its a growth spurt. Then just on skype to my mum and she reckons he is also teething as he is starting to drool and gnaw at his fists. And this is on top of his sore tum after feeds too. Poor mite.

But, I did read (and see it myself with this fella) that if you "tank" them up with plenty of feeds during the day, they will be less likely to wake at night hungry as they have gotten all the calories that they need. If this guy feeds loads in the evenings he is more likely to wake later in the night for his first night feed- around 5 or even 6am, so it might be worth a try to offer her more feeds in the evening and see if it works?

I've been trying to get her to eat more during the day but it's 40 degrees here and babies tend to eat less in hot weather. However today she napped really well and stayed longer between feeds (therefore eating more). Also tonight she didn't go down easy and I ended up giving her a few top ups so she's sleeping now with a lot more milk than usual so fingers crossed!!