Reply To: Help with pyramid for 2 month old

[Emma H]

Hi Joyce,

Thanks so much for tracking this data—I really appreciate the effort you’ve put into it!

From what you’ve collected, it looks like the length of the wake window before bedtime isn’t making it easier for her to fall asleep or stay asleep. In fact, when she had a longer wake window of 2 hours and 40 minutes, her sleep at the start of the night seemed more disrupted.

Possible Reasons for Frequent Wake-Ups at the Start of the Night

In general, there are four common reasons why babies wake frequently early in the night:

1. Difficulty Linking Sleep Cycles – If a baby hasn’t yet learned to fall asleep independently, they often wake predictably between sleep cycles, needing assistance (rocking, feeding, pacifier, etc.) to fall back asleep. However, since your little one is self-settling for naps on the weekend and at bedtime initially—and her night wakings are unpredictable—it’s unlikely this is the cause.

   On that note, do you know how the childcare staff are helping her fall asleep? Are they holding her, patting her in the crib, or feeding her to sleep?

   Also, I noticed she tends to nap around 3–3:30 PM at childcare. Do they attempt to put her down again around 5 PM, or do they keep her awake until you pick her up at 5:30 PM?

2. Discomfort or Pain – When babies wake due to discomfort, their wake-ups don’t follow a pattern and happen at random times.

   You previously mentioned that she’s generally happy and content during the day—is that still the case? Also, when she’s falling asleep, have you noticed her legs constantly moving or “jumping around”?

3. Bedtime Being Too Late – If a baby is overtired, falling asleep and staying asleep can be more difficult.

4. Hunger – Since her final feed is part of the bedtime routine, I wouldn’t expect hunger to wake her just 45 minutes later. It’s possible she might wake 3 hours later due to hunger, but not so soon after bedtime.

   Do you still feed her overnight? For breastfed babies, waking 1–2 times overnight for a feed is typical.

One thing I noticed is that even on the weekend—when her nap schedule is more predictable—her last nap in the crib was around 5–5:40 PM, and she had her usual feed/sleep at 6–6:20 PM. Yet, with bedtime at 8:18 PM, she still didn’t enter a deep sleep until around 11 PM.

Given this, I think it would be worth trying an earlier bedtime this weekend to see if that results in a longer initial stretch of sleep. If it does, that would suggest her disrupted sleep at the start of the night is due to overtiredness.

Since she’s now around 5 months old, her wake windows are likely lengthening, and as a result, she should be dropping down to four naps a day. It’s also common for them to need an earlier bedtime.

If you’re open to trying this, you could follow the 4-nap schedule I outlined in a previous message, or simply cap her final nap in the crib at 5:30 PM at the latest. This way, she could nap from 5–5:30 PM and then go to bed at 7:30 PM.

With either option, we want to avoid her falling asleep during the 6 PM feed. To help with this, you could try feeding her in a bright, busy room to keep her awake. Alternatively, you might consider dropping that feed and instead making it part of the bedtime routine—so for a 7 PM bedtime, you’d feed her around 6:30–6:40 PM.

What do you think?
Emma

• This reply was modified 1 week, 6 days ago by  Emma H.