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Houston Babies
PAGAS
member
Sleeping advice needed
PAGAS
member
F has consistently STTN from about 4 weeks on. She had been sleeping 10 to 12 hour stretches of late (last month or so). The last two nights at 4am on the dot, she wakes up. She isn't hungry, she just wants to smile and play. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes to get her to retun to sleep, which she does for about 3 more hours.
Anyone gone through this? Any advice?
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Re: Sleeping advice needed
she is probably going through a growth spurt/developmental push. this happens at 3 mos. these developmental milestones are bigger and more important as she gets older, but not always things that you can see.
think of it like this: you have something really good coming up socially or even at work. you can't sleep- you get up in the middle of the night and get a snack and double check your email or travel itinerary. your mind is buzzing from the excitement. then you go back to sleep. this is what is happening to F. some neurons in her brain are firing something and she is excited about it. she can't sleep, just like a grown up before a vacation....
i have said it on this board a million times- you can't start bad habits in babies b/c you can't start ANY habits in babies. whatever a baby is doing is subject to change at any time. luckily, it's mostly phases and as long as parents keep consistency in the routine, they usually go back to what they were doing before...
but be prepared. as soon as she gets back to STTN, teeth or something else might happen. also, there is a well known wakeful period around 4 mos (maybe she is hitting this early)
https://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/4mo-sleep.html
Natalie hit the 4-month wakeful period early, like rayskit10 mentioned. At first it was just one waking, but became more and more since she realized it was fun to wake up because she got to nurse (comforting does nothing for this child, she has to be nursed back down). We did CIO a little after 4 months...the waking just became too much. None of us were well-rested and she showed no sign of coming out of it on her own.
dd decided she wanted to play this morning after a night terror. she's woken up before at 4am or so (usually if she crashes out really early the night before she's up earlier than normal). we hear her babbling on the monitor and as long as she's not fussing, we just leave her alone. most of the time she goes back to sleep on her own.
I guess it's all relative but that would be a wonderful night for us.
There's a great book called The Wonder Weeks that explains what happens during developmental pushes. Some call it sleep regression, but they have so much going on in their little brains as they are growing at such a rapid pace that it causes them to be more wakeful. Due to these spurts he's also wanted to feed when he previously hasn't needed to. I've gone through a few of these with C and he's never been much of a sleeper anyway so you can imagine what MORE wakefulness was like at times. I was literally up every hour-45 minutes.
One thing I've tried really recently that has worked is letting him go down at 7 when he wants to but treating it as a nap. I then go in and feed him about 8:30-9pm and then gently wake him and do his bedtime routine about 9pm. He's back down by 10 after another feed and will sleep a good solid 5+ hours before nedding to be resettled again. It's not been an exact linear progression, of course, but things are working better on the whole. Again, that is a great night for me so I know it's all relative. Hang in there, it will settle down again just in time for teething.
During that fourth month a baby's awareness of the environment definitely increases. It sounds like you've got a good sleeper on your hands to begin with, which is a plus. If you're not already doing so, give her a few minutes before going to get her just to see if she'll settle down on her own. Take any nightlights out of her room. Chances are that your phenomenal sleeper will be returned to you eventually. I've never heard of a baby that didn't eventually have sleep disruptions at some point.
Ditto the person who recommended asking the nanny if her daytime sleep habits have changed.
I wonder if anyone else is sick of you being such a know-it-all?
No need to wonder if anyone is sick of your rudeness. That would be a given.