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  • Emma H

    Administrator
    May 17, 2024 at 1:33 pm

    Hi Jennifer!

    That’s fantastic news about her daytime naps! It’s great that she is starting to have longer naps too. As she approaches 6 months, you should notice she settles into a 3-nap schedule, with the last nap of the day being the shortest (around 30-45 minutes). Her morning and early afternoon naps should lengthen.

    It’s also good to hear that her wake windows are lengthening again. It can change so quickly, can’t it? It’s not unusual for that final wake window to be slightly longer than the others.

    If you feel more comfortable, you could try reducing the speed of the patting very, very slowly until you eventually stop. This process of slowing down the patting could take a few minutes. Once you stop patting, rest your hand on her chest for a few minutes before moving away. You may find that she doesn’t get as distressed if you do it very slowly. What do you think?

    Regarding overnight: Since she goes back to sleep easily after a feed for the 11 PM and 1:30/2 AM wake-ups, I recommend continuing to feed her to sleep.

    Also, just wondering what time you and your partner go to bed? If it’s around 10:30/11 PM, it might be interesting to see if going to bed a little earlier or later affects her 11 PM wake-up. It’s possible that entering the bedroom at this time might be rousing her if she is in the lighter stages of sleep or partially waking.

    For the 4/5 AM wake-up, it can be more challenging to get her back to sleep because sleep pressure is low (as she has already been asleep for 8-9 hours) and she’s likely in a lighter stage of sleep.

    In the meantime continue:

    • Keeping the environment as consistent as possible: Ensure the room is dark, quiet, and at a comfortable temperature. Use white noise to mask early morning sounds that could disturb her.
    • Helping her learn how to fall asleep on her own: As she learns the skill to fall asleep on her own, these wakes should start to naturally reduce.
    • To pause when she first makes a sound: This allows her a chance to drift back off to sleep if she is just briefly waking between sleep cycles.

    I hope this helps!

    Emma

    • This reply was modified 4 months ago by  Emma H.