Reply To: New Frequent Wakings

[Maddie Maughan]

Thanks Emma.

We had the worst night yet two nights ago where baby was up every 45mins-one hour and there were two points in the night where she was up for two hours – the second till 5am when I eventually gave up and got up with her. The night before last was really good – she was up every two hours, but I fed her and she went straight back to sleep each time. Last night was a little less good. She slept initially for two and a half hours with no false start which is unusual. She. then did some two hour stretches, but a few 45min-hour ones as well, but she did go straight back to sleep after feeding each time. She’s been awake at around 6am the past two mornings.

We’ve been practicing getting her into her big cot for her first nap of the day, which has been really hard and so far we’ve only managed a 20min nap in there! I’m sort of worried about the change in environment feeling like a big step for her, but also felt it makes more sense than doing it in her Moses basket or next to me cots given she’ll be moving into her own room fairly soon.

I had to feed her to sleep yesterday whilst out with friends just to get her to nap because she hadn’t for a while and was getting very cranky, but I’m really trying not to. It does mean that I come away looking like I’ve been attacked by a cat whilst she scratches and pulls at my top desperately trying to get to my nipple! But I think she’s definitely getting the hang of it at bedtime.

Do you think there’ll be a point where she’s understood that there’s no feeding to sleep, and we can then start trying the settling pyramid properly? I’m still trying as much as I can to put her down before she’s totally asleep and doing some shushing and patting in her cot so that she gets used to settling in there. Sometimes it takes a few attempts and I only have to lift her out and hold her still for her to calm down, so we definitely need her to get used to settling in her space.

Anyway, just keep practicing and I’ll let you know how it all goes! Hoping that we’ll have it cracked in a few weeks – am I being too optimistic?!

Thanks

Maddie