Our 5.5m old has been an independent sleeper (95% of the time) for the past 3 months but has lately started waking up multiple times per night (when she was previously only waking to nurse 0-1 times). At the time she was on 1h30/1h40/1h45/1h45/2h windows with 4 naps lasting around 45-60 min. Her bedtime was between 7-8 pm and she tended to sleep until about 7 am the following morning. Bliss!
The wake-ups started a couple of weeks ago when she began rolling to her tummy at night (previously had just been during the day). She was waking every 1-2h and upset; we’d roll her back. Now she seems to be okay on her tummy to sleep if she’s sleepy enough when it happens and she’s able to roll herself back.
Around that time her naps became fussier and shorter as well. I was told to extend her ww to 2h per window by a sleep consultant and drop nap 4 and everything went to poop
She was cranky and exhausted all the time. I’ve always thought she was a higher sleep needs baby and seemed happiest with 14-15.5h. During this phase of rolling and extending ww she was getting 11.5-13.5h.
I shortened her ww back to what it they were before to catch up on sleep and that seemed to help her naps — she was able to fall asleep on her own again. We’re on 3-4 naps depending on whether she has one long 2h nap and the nap times line up with bedtime between 6-8.
Now her nighttime sleep is a mixed bag. The night before last she only had one wake up with a bedtime at 7 pm after 3h of total naps. Yesterday she seemed extra tired and had 4.5h of naps, went to bed at 8 pm (because her 3rd nap ended at 3:30 and a 4th nap ended at 6 — I woke her up after 45 min
), and woke every 2h allllll night. I try to follow 5/3/3 on nights like these and sometimes she doesn’t seem hungry - just unsettled. Others she’ll fall back asleep for 20min and wake up upset so I’ll nurse.
She has been nursed to sleep most nights — not because she can’t fall asleep otherwise (I’ve done without and she’s been fine) but because she has silent reflux and needs to be held upright for 30min before bed and it felt like the only way to get 2 feeds in one ww
Now I’m wondering if the 8 pm bedtime is to blame for this waking. My Huckleberry data seems to suggest she’s more restless on nights where she’s in bed at 8 pm or later but I’m not sure if I’m grasping at straws.
A huge thank you to everyone in this subreddit for your insight and help! I’ve learned so much by being here
The wake-ups started a couple of weeks ago when she began rolling to her tummy at night (previously had just been during the day). She was waking every 1-2h and upset; we’d roll her back. Now she seems to be okay on her tummy to sleep if she’s sleepy enough when it happens and she’s able to roll herself back.
Around that time her naps became fussier and shorter as well. I was told to extend her ww to 2h per window by a sleep consultant and drop nap 4 and everything went to poop
She was cranky and exhausted all the time. I’ve always thought she was a higher sleep needs baby and seemed happiest with 14-15.5h. During this phase of rolling and extending ww she was getting 11.5-13.5h. I shortened her ww back to what it they were before to catch up on sleep and that seemed to help her naps — she was able to fall asleep on her own again. We’re on 3-4 naps depending on whether she has one long 2h nap and the nap times line up with bedtime between 6-8.
Now her nighttime sleep is a mixed bag. The night before last she only had one wake up with a bedtime at 7 pm after 3h of total naps. Yesterday she seemed extra tired and had 4.5h of naps, went to bed at 8 pm (because her 3rd nap ended at 3:30 and a 4th nap ended at 6 — I woke her up after 45 min
), and woke every 2h allllll night. I try to follow 5/3/3 on nights like these and sometimes she doesn’t seem hungry - just unsettled. Others she’ll fall back asleep for 20min and wake up upset so I’ll nurse. She has been nursed to sleep most nights — not because she can’t fall asleep otherwise (I’ve done without and she’s been fine) but because she has silent reflux and needs to be held upright for 30min before bed and it felt like the only way to get 2 feeds in one ww
Now I’m wondering if the 8 pm bedtime is to blame for this waking. My Huckleberry data seems to suggest she’s more restless on nights where she’s in bed at 8 pm or later but I’m not sure if I’m grasping at straws.
A huge thank you to everyone in this subreddit for your insight and help! I’ve learned so much by being here
She had one 2hr nap (very rare for her) and yet still needed a 4th to make it to bedtime. Right now her windows are moved back to 1h30/1h40/1h40/1h45/2-2h15. 
She was already able to fall back asleep on her own even with being nursed to sleep and was taking naps independently, so if nothing else this is just helping her practice that I suppose. But that doesn't really seem to have changed the number of times I feed her at night. I don't mind that since it seems like she's actually hungry and it could be that she's ready for solids soon and/or because she seems to nurse less (in cumulative time) during the day (again, dunno if that's because she's more efficient at nursing or distracted). Lately this week (fingers crossed) she hasn't had too many other wake-ups. Sometimes she'll fuss a bit and fall back to sleep herself. She's still having some false starts, though -- haven't figured out if that's a too long or too short final wake window issue, though!