I feel for you. When you aren't getting sleep you start to get obsessed with how much you got and the next time you will get to sleep and you start to not feel like yourself. My DD did something similar. She slept thru the night from about 8 weeks, then suddenly it all went to crap. She would be up every 2 hours or worse. She has worked it out for the most part, but every once in a while reverts back. A few ideas that came to me during this:
It seems to be growth physically and developmentally. When she is going thru a period of poor sleep, it often seems that she is really changing. Talking more, using hands etc. It usually passes eventually.
She seems to do better with an earlier bedtime. I had been putting her to bed later, my reasoning being if she went closer to when I wanted to/could go to bed, it would maximize my sleep. Not so much. Does Kai go to sleep at 11 because that's when he gets tired? Does he nap during the evening? I started managing DD's naps just a little for a few days and that helped. She takes her longest nap during the afternoon, and then if she naps in the evening it is short. (I wake her up if it is 5 or later.) By about 7, we have a little play session, followed by books and then pjs, songs and walking, or whatever routine you feel like is good. Then bed between 8 and 8:30. I rock her for 20 minutes before putting her down to make sure she is out cold. At first she would treat the earlier bedtime like sort of a nap and get up about 10, but if I just nursed her quietly and didn't turn the lights up or talk to her then she goes back to sleep for the night. Her routine now is to get up about 3 to eat, then either sleep until 7 am, or sometimes get up once more to eat around 5. When we have something going on and get to bed later, she doesn't do as well. The earlier bedtime makes bedtime easier and she sleeps better. And now she gets up at the same time in the morning regardless of when she goes to bed, which tells me her sleep patterns need to be arranged around the day starting about 7 am. Interestingly enough, her naps get farther between as the day goes on. She lasts less than 2 hours in the morning before her first nap, but it's short. Then she goes 3 hours and takes a long nap, then sometimes a 20 minute snooze around dinner time. I'm sure it's different for all babies, just takes some time to figure out.
I also started swaddling her again. Well, not really a whole swaddle but I just wrap her enough to keep those hands from causing trouble. I leave the legs free. I had quit around two months but it seems like those arms were startling her in her sleep, and if she half woke up, they started monkeying around and then she was fully awake instead of drifting back off.
Have you read the No Cry Sleep Solution? It helped me understand her sleep patterns and needs, and how they change etc.
Good luck!
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