Sleep experts, please help me

JoannaJes

I need to know if there is anything more I should be doing, or if what is going on with DD is normal.

DD goes to bed each night at 6:30 - 7 pm. We have a short bedtime routine, but we stick to it, and she goes to sleep pretty easily. She will go until about 11 pm -midnight without waking. After midnight, she then wakes around 2 am, 4 am, 5 am, 7 am. We usually don't feed her at 5 am. All the other times we feed her, change her diaper, and put her right back into her crib. She goes right back to sleep. She sleeps on her tummy, because she has reflux.

So a couple of questions:

Could it be the reflux causing all of these wakings? She doesn't act like she is in pain, but she is hungry. She is on Alimentum, I'm wondering if she just processes it faster?

Could it be the fact that we don't have any bumpers on the crib? At least once a night when I hear her start to wake, I'll go in there and she will have some limb sticking out of the crib.

If this is just a phase, that's ok with me. DH and I can usually handle getting up this much, but dang...waking up 4-5 times still at night is much more than what DS did at this age. I want to make sure it's not something we are doing.

MrsG NC

I don't have any advice about the AR, but regarding the limb out of the crib issue. Have you thought about breathable bumpers? That way her limbs are protected from going through, and you won't need to worry about her moving up against the bumper and not being able to breathe.

TMNTgirl

I don't really have any advise for you since we aren't doing great in the sleep department either.

But I do have a question for you - how do you get DD to sleep on her tummy. I feel like my LO would sleep better on his tummy since he is so gassy, but whenever I try to put him down that way (kinda on his tummy/side) he's okay for 5 mins and then starts moving his head around too much and gets fussy with his face straight down. And when he sleeps flat on his back he wakes up after 2 hours of sleep passing gas.

JoannaJes

I'm not comfortable swaddling DD because she sleeps on her tummy. She needs to have her arms free to be able to lift her head up if needed.

Believe me, I own like 5 million swaddle blankets. DS was swaddled until he was almost 6 months old. : ) So if I could swaddle her, I would.

She sleeps in a sleepsack.

She's not that into a pacifier.

I've thought about breathable bumpers, but just haven't pulled the trigger yet on that one.

crazgrljes

I don't know anything about reflux, so I have no advice about that. I would, however, suggest that you not change her diaper during the night unless she definitely needs it. And I would consider bumpers- regular ones if you feel like she has good enough head control, breathable ones otherwise.

Hopefully it's just a phase and she'll grow out of it. Do you have a good daytime routine, and does she take good naps? For us, a good routine helped with naps, which helped tremendously with DS's nighttime sleep. Good luck!

JoannaJes

I'm starting to think that maybe it's more reflux related than anything else...changing her diaper after every feeding wouldn't be causing her to wake more. And frankly, if she drinks 4-5 bottles at night, one diaper isn't going to hold all of that liquid.

I think she might be comfort feeding. She gets 15mg of Prevacid once daily, in the morning. Maybe I should split the dose to control nighttime acid. I read that there is an acid dump around 2 am...which might explain why she does such a good stretch between 7 pm - midnight and then it's all downhill from there.

erika260

Have you considered a later bedtime?

mandvik

My little guy had acid reflux.  Try the prevacid at night or as you said, split the dose.  I found that he needed it more at night than during the day, so that is when we gave it too him.  Also have you tried raising the head of the crib.  Even just a few books under the legs will help, even if tummy sleeping.  Good luck!

JoannaJes

mandvik:

My little guy had acid reflux.  Try the prevacid at night or as you said, split the dose.  I found that he needed it more at night than during the day, so that is when we gave it too him.  Also have you tried raising the head of the crib.  Even just a few books under the legs will help, even if tummy sleeping.  Good luck!

Thank you, that's exactly what I am thinking about doing. Yes, we have two textbooks underneath each leg at the front of her bed. Anymore more than that and we have found that she just rolls down to the bottom of the crib quite quickly.