thought i had it all worked out???

[beckoes]

My 12 week old DD has been sleeping through the night for weeks, would feed well during the day and have alot of naps through the day. And was gerneraly happy 90% of the time. Bed is about 5.30/6.00 after a bath and massage.

Now (this week) she wont go down for her cat naps, although i did manage to put her down for a longer afternoon sleep yesterday (about 2 hours). She refuses the breast about twice a day, is grizzly and cries alot more than normal (for her) and is so tired by 5pm that we just manage to get the bath in before she is beside herself and we skip the massage and straight to the last feed and to sleep and is now waking up about three times in the night and looks starving, feeds like crazy, then falls back to sleep straight away. (she can self settle most of the time) .

I know that as she gets older she will change dramaticaly all the time, but im just wondering if this is a normal kind of change or if it is something im doing (or not doing) ie...not enough milk, to much stimulation in the day...or not enough.
Would be great to hear other people have had the same kind of changes and what they did to make the day a little happier fot their little ones!!
Thanks

[krysalyss]

Totally normal. When they say that most babies start to sleep through by 12 weeks they neglect to tell you they start waking up again a month later. Things like teething, learning how to roll etc all affect the babies sleep. If you are following their signs eg. feeding if they seem hungry, it is very likely to be unrelated to anything you are doing. You just have to ride it through and try to catch up on your own sleep wherever you can. This may sound unhelpful but coming to terms with the fact that babies just don't usually sleep through until a lot older and that it is not related to how good a parent you are, can in fact be the most liberating thing when getting through difficult sleep periods.
Big hugs.

[beckoes]

thanks for the reply, didnt realise they started teething so soon, but thats something to think about, we have been lucky with her sleeping so long at night, i have just followed her (feed when hungry, sleep when she wants etc) and fallen into her routine, which just happens to be good for us aswell. lack of sleep isnt a problem.
she just seemed so happy in her little routine and having it change out of the blue caught me by surprise.
she slept even less today (about 1pm till 2pm this arvo and ten mins later on), cried all morning and put her down for the night by 5 cause she was so tired. still managed to have a good afternoon with lots of smiles, so atleast we know she is happy!!

[Arimeh]

they also go through a growth spurt around 12 weeks too.....