LO not sleeping at night during the week

huxtable

DD slept great before I went back to work.  She would sleep from about 10:30p-4a, eat, and then sleep until about 7.  Since I went back to work, she'll only sleep on this "schedule" on the weekends, presumably because I've spent all day with her.  During the week, she wakes at 1:30 and again at 5ish and sometimes wont go back to sleep.  Anyone else's LO do this?  I'm exhausted by the week's end....good thing she sleeps during the weekend so I can catch up!

carrie4g

Ahhh... I remember those days. One thing to do is at this age her bedtime should be more in the 9 p.m. range. I'm sure you've heard it before - sleep begets sleep. Do your nighttime routine with her and try to inch her bedtime back to around 8:30/9pm. Also, do you do a "dream feed"? It is where you go in right before you go to bed (say 10/11 pm) and feed her. if you're breastfeeding, you can lift her out of her crib and feed her in her dark room or if you bottle feed just give her a top off in her crib (babies naturally suck in their sleep at this age). Another suggestion is to use Huggies Overnite diapers. That will hopefully keep her from waking up from a wet diaper.  The waking up at 5 a.m. and not going back to sleep is typical at that age. My DS did that and I was still on maternity leave and home with him so I don't think what you're going through would be any different if you were home with her all day. Also, at this age they go through another growth spurt which means getting up more in the night. That's why the "dream feed" works so well. keeps their bellies full!  Also, I would go to bed when my DS went to bed at 9 pm and then my DH would do the dream feed.