Our baby's sleep time saga

Emma seemed like a miracle sleeper to us given that she started sleeping all the way through the night by just over 2 months of age (we're talking from 8pm straight until 7am!).  However, we had to mess her up by going to Australia and back so she's had to make big adjustments to her sleep schedule twice now.  And since we did that, she hasn't truly slept all the way through the night anymore because she'd wake up around 4am for a short feed.

Since we got home, she went back to her waking around 4am for a short feed schedule, but then just over a week ago she also started waking up around 1am or so for a short feed too.  Sometimes she'd wake up at this middle of the night time and babble quite loudly for awhile and then the babble migrated into a wail.  She wasn't taking her pacifier well during that phase either so the only way I could calm her at those times was to give her a quick feed too.  So, then I was up at least twice per night feeding her.  At least she still slept for about 6-7 hours after we first put her down (the average sleep time for a baby her age), but I really enjoyed her sleeping longer for sure and was starting to worry that she was reverting back to what most 4-month-old babies do (sleep for only up to 6 hour stretches at night).

One factor that I thought may have started the extra wake ups was her figuring out how to wriggle her hands (and sometimes whole arms) out of her swaddle.  Or perhaps the fact that she'd been battling some bad nasal congestion too.  However, we stopped using her swaddle and it was still happening (to which we then thought maybe not being swaddled made her wake up more too).  Or maybe she was teething?  It was so hard to know.

Either way, we had to stop using the swaddle blanket at night since she rolled over, and even when we try using it one more night she once again wriggled her hands and arms out multiple times per night.

During this time period, since she sleep schedule was already all confused, we decided to move her into her own bedroom too.  That didn't change things the first night or two, but luckily after those first few nights, she started taking her pacifier again when she'd wake around 1-2am, and then she'd sleep until 4am, which is when I would go ahead and give her a little feed (to help alleviate my fullness!), and then she'd sleep until 7-8am after that.  Whew!  Pretty much back on track!

This whole episode reminded me, however, how quickly things can change with a baby.  So many things happen in phases, just like this little sleep confusion period, and that just when you think you have a system worked out that you like, the baby goes and changes it up.  Thanks to this reminder from Emma, I know remember this kind of thing happening a lot with Evan too.  Babies...they just like to keep us on our toes!  I am at least thankful that, for the time being, Emma is letting me have a bit more sleep again. :)