Since before 8 weeks, K has been a pretty good sleeper and sleeps in her own crib. If anything, she's pretty predictable and seems to like routine. She's almost 12 weeks now. We've gotten a few 9+ hour stretches in between feeding/waking even! Though usually we get one 6.5-7hr stretch per night. This week, we were even able to get her into the crib drowsy, and fall asleep with the sea-horse. I felt so lucky!

Suddenly, last night was AWFUL! She would not stay asleep in her crib for more than a couple of minutes. She would wake up crying and not be able to fall back asleep on her own. But if DH or I picked her up, she would almost instantly fall back asleep. Put her down, she's awake and crying again. This went on ALL NIGHT. DH held her till her 3:30am feeding. I held her until after her 7:30am feeding. Finally, out of sheer exhaustion, I left her unswaddled and let her co-sleep in bed with us. This got me a 2.5 hr stretch, until I got out of bed - she instantly woke up. Daytime mood is excellent. She is sweet and happy as can be and babbling a lot! I will say all week she has wanted to be held more, but content to just be held and look at everything, just so alert and aware.

Tonight, again, we haven't been able to put her down in the crib for more than a few minutes before she wakes and crying ensues. On top of that, she has been bursting out into WAILING and not much seems to comfort or soothe her. I even tried to give a paci after she had nursed to sleep for 1/2 hr (but she wakes as soon as I move). I finally got her to calm down by hugging her real tight (even though she was swaddled). Even then, she would have these "about to cry" expressions in her light sleep. DH thinks she has growing pains.

I know "clingy-ness" is a characteristic of the Wonder Weeks, but she is still 6 days early according to her EDD or 3 days early according to her birth-date. She has been showing a lot of the 12 week leap signs and growth since last week, so I am wondering if the sleep is affected because of this? Or is this a growth spurt? We think she is freaking out when she wakes up and realizes she is alone. This wasn't a problem for the last 4 weeks - I often see her wake and fall back asleep on her own.
I'm worried we're going to have to end up co-sleeping again if this continues!

Please tell me you experienced this too and that it's part of the Wonder Week or growth spurt? And if so, when did things go back to normal?

P.S. I'm TERRIFIED of the 4 month sleep regression now, if this is just a glimpse of what it'll be like!