[Thu Nguyen]

It’s been 4 consecutive days since she first starts waking up at 5-5:30am and seems impossible to put down, regardless of her bedtime the night before. In the past 4 days, she went to bed from 7-8:10pm, doesn’t matter what it was, she still woke up at around 5-5:30. Her feeds typically were at 11pm and 4am. It wasn’t hard to wind her down (~10’) but she stirred alot even in our arms and woke soon after being put down the cot. Do you have any idea what happened and what I should do to help her sleep through this hour and wake up from 6:15am?

[Thu Nguyen]

Hi Emma,

Thank you so much for all your recommendations. We’ve been applying your strategies over the past few days and have noticed some improvements.

Since we last spoke, her night sleep has been a bit inconsistent—no clear pattern yet. On some nights, she sleeps well with a 6–7 hour stretch followed by a 3-hour one. On other nights, she wakes every 2.5 hours. Because those wakes are close to the 3-hour mark, I’ve been offering a feed, which sometimes means waking up three times during the night.

She also occasionally wakes around 5:00 am, just 1–2 hours after a feed, and it’s been difficult to resettle her in the cot. On a few of those mornings, we’ve ended up contact napping with her until our desired wake-up time. So far, we’ve had a mix of good and not-so-great nights, but overall, we’re feeling fairly happy with how things are going.

Some nights, she wakes around 10–11 pm, while other nights she sleeps through that period. I think we’ll just continue observing this wake to see if it becomes more consistent. When she does wake, we always pause first to see whether her cries escalate before intervening.

Regarding the 3-nap day example you gave, should we follow that schedule strictly? For instance, if it’s nap time but she’s not showing any cues, should we still wind her down for sleep? If I don’t, the day often turns into a 2-nap day, as she can comfortably stay awake for 3 to 3 hours and 15 minutes. Especially now that we’re feeding her right after waking in the morning as you suggested, she tends to show sleepy signs around that 3-hour mark.

I also have a few questions about sleep while traveling:

1. Long-haul travel to Vietnam:
   We’re flying from Brisbane to Vietnam, with an 8-hour flight to Singapore, a 9-hour layover, and then a 6-hour flight to Vietnam.

• Depart Brisbane at 6:00 pm
• Land in Singapore at 12:00 am
• Layover until 9:00 am
• Arrive in Vietnam at 3:00 pm (GMT+7)

What might her sleep look like during this journey? How can we help her get back on track quickly once we arrive in Vietnam? If she experiences jet lag, how should we handle it?

2. Disruptions from late dinners and social events:
   While visiting family in Vietnam, we’ll likely have many late dinners or social gatherings.

• Is it okay for her to have occasional late nights?
• Or should we try to minimise disruptions to her bedtime?
  I’m concerned that many nights of late nights (e.g., bedtime at 9–10 pm instead of her usual 7–7:30 pm) might create a new habit that will be hard to break once we return to Brisbane.

3. Sleep arrangements while traveling:
   Do we always need to bring a travel cot with us for her naps and night sleep? We’re worried that if we let her co-sleep with us some consecutive days when we travel, she may struggle to return to her cot when we’re back in Brisbane.

Thanks so much again for your support—we really appreciate your guidance.

Warm regards,

Thu

[Thu Nguyen]

Hi Emma,

It had been the different nights for us but luckily it has passed.

But it hasn’t be back to how great it was before this night waking.

She is now sleeping through the night but wake up instead of first long 6h stretch then followed by 3h stretch, she often wakes every 3hr, ending up with 3 feeds per night. There were also couple nights with no pattern at all: first stretch 3h, second 4hr. Also couple nights, she woke once or twice before we go to bed at around 10:30, but we could settle her easily.

1. Her wake up time is around 6:15-6:45 90% of the times. The other 10%, she wakes +/- 15’ of this window

2. Her nap routine starts (if without feed) when I see her rubbing her eyes after couple yawns, I put her in the sleep bag, walk her up the stairs in her room, bring down the curtain (if not already), turn on the white noise machine, sing her Twinkle twinkle little star, then put her down when she is drowsy. I have had a few chance putting her down wide awake but most of the time drowsy. If she is breadtfed right before her nap, then I still do all the same steps except instead of singing to her, I put her down straight away. These days she normally sleep for 1-2hr per nap. If she wakes around 30’, I would spend 10’ to wind her down again, if not successful then I would start next wake window.

3. Up until last week, she still had 3 naps per day (I had described it at the start of our conversation above) but since her night waking issue, we have tried 2 naps per day and still are doing it until now:

6:30 wake

9:45 first nap

11:30 wake

2:30 second nap

4:00 wake

7:30 bed time

All her naps are now in the cot in her room (even with the 3 nap day, last nap used to be in the carrier, is now also in the cot, we can now wind her down easier for the last 30’ nap, so she naps in the cot)

4. We haven’t start the pyramid settling yet, since I think we’re fine with light rocking her to sleep a bit, and she doesn’t really wake up much at night except for those days that we have just passed. Should we have to teach her self settling? And is it the solution for excessive night waking? I normally wait for her cue for her naps, so often I only have to sing twinkle twinkle little star twice then she becomes drowsy, I then put her in the cot and she can falls asleep herself. Sometimes on good days, I can put her down awake and she falls asleep by herself

5. No, she doesn’t take pacifier

6. I feed her every 3-3.5hr but, the feeds depends on her last night feed. Say if the last night feed she has is at 5am, and she wakes up at 6:15 then we I feed her again at 8 -8:30am, its likely she will fall asleep for her first nap. This is why I’m wondering whether I should just feed her again at about 6:30-7 after getting up, so she will have for chance falling asleep without breast. So the wake, feed, play, sleep routine does happen if she doesnt sleep at the breast, often when her feed happens to be at the beginning of the wake window

7. When she wakes overnight, we are always able to follow the wake, feed, sleep routine. No issue

8. I haven’t tried that yet since except for that one day off to 3.5 wet nappies, she has always had 5+ heavy wet nappies and gained weight beautifully

9. Her night waking is not consistent these days. But first wake is often at 10-11 and second is at 2-3. Usually third wake is at 5 but sometimes she just gets up at 6:15-6:45am

Do you think we could do anything different to improve her day even better?

With excessive night waking, is self settling a solution? Or is it her being uncomfortable or in some kind of pain that will resolve itself after a few days?

Should I feed her right away even though her last night feed is quite recent so she can follow the wake feed play sleep routine?

Thanks,

Thu

[Thu Nguyen]

Hi Emma,

Thank you for your email

Our doctor couldn’t find anything concerning. My baby is totally healthy after being quick checked of temperature, ears, mouth. Her heart was also listened. The doctor seemed not really worry about her nappy count as her weight is tracking 50% beautifully. I dont agree since breastfeeding issue only start happening yesterday, that means it wont draw any attention on the weight chart. My baby’s behaviour on the breast today was the same as yesterday. I had to actively offer feeds every 2 hours, then we ended up with 5 heavy wet nappies today..

[Thu Nguyen]

Dear Emma,

Thank you so much for your advice on naps in my last post. We’ve been following it—reading and responding to her cues for the first two naps, with a bit more structure for the third nap to keep bedtime consistent—and it was working well.

As I mentioned before, my now 4.5-month-old has generally been a great night sleeper. However, that changed four days ago. Since then, she hasn’t had any long stretches. After being put down at 7:30 pm, her first and second wakings were about 2.5 hours apart, and I’d feed her back to sleep. The real difficulty starts after 1-2 am—she wakes very frequently and can’t stay asleep for more than an hour after being settled. My husband and I take turns helping her back to sleep by rocking or feeding (if it’s been close to 3 hours since her last feed). Sometimes we resort to contact sleeping just to get some rest ourselves.

Over the past two days, we’ve tried some adjustments:

Day before yesterday: We took a more drastic approach, limiting total daytime sleep to 1 hour 20 minutes (normally 2.5-3.5 hours). She napped for 30 minutes at 10:30, 30 minutes at 13:30, and 15 minutes at 16:30. She was very fussy from being kept awake longer, but nighttime sleep improved noticeably. She still woke every three hours to feed, though, instead of her usual 6-hour stretch followed by a feed and another 3 hours of sleep.

Yesterday: We tried a gentler schedule: 45 minutes at 9:00, 1 hour at 12:30, and 15 minutes at 16:30. For the last nap, we had to wake her from deep sleep (we felt bad about this, as we prefer her sleep to be natural and unforced). We waited for her sleepy cues before putting her down. She went to bed at 8 pm. Between 8-11 pm, she woke three times; she couldn’t get back to sleep on her own, but my husband easily rocked her back to sleep. At 11 pm (3 hours after her last feed), we gave Panadol in case of pain/discomfort, I fed her, and then she slept for 4 hours. She woke at 3 am, I fed her, she slept 50 minutes, then woke twice within the next hour. After the second waking, my husband held her for about 30 minutes to achieve deeper sleep before transferring her to the cot. She then slept until 6:30 am.

Here’s some recent development info in case it relates to the sleep changes:

She’s become very mobile: crawling on her elbows (tummy still touching the floor) and changing direction to reach toys. She also throws her arms and legs straight up while on her back.

She started teething about 2 weeks ago. Her first two teeth (barely visible) seem to be the bottom canines (or nearby – we haven’t seen a dentist yet, but they’re definitely not central incisors). She’s become fussier since teething began.

Do you have any insight into what might be causing the sudden, frequent night wakings? And do you have suggestions for improving her sleep? We aim for a natural approach—we don’t want to push her beyond her readiness. That means we’re okay with gently waking her if she’s had a full nap and seems ready to be awake, or rocking her back to sleep if she wakes too early (e.g., after a 20-minute nap).

That said, our top priority right now is improving her nighttime sleep; getting her to take longer naps is secondary. Given our situation, what would you suggest as her maximum total daytime nap duration? We’re open to capping naps, but I also want them to be long enough for me to get some housework done. What do you think is a good sweet spot?

Another tangential concern: For the past 2.5 weeks, she’s started fussing at the breast about 2/3 of the time, and cries after feeds half the time. However, she still has 5+ heavy wet nappies daily and consistent weight gain. Yesterday, feeds became extremely short (2-3 minutes on the first breast), and she refused the second breast completely. Her wet nappies dropped to only 3.5. We’re seeing the doctor today, but I wanted to mention this in case you have thoughts on why it happened.