Hi all,
I am venturing over from the 3-6 mo. board because some ladies suggest I post over here to see if you had this issue at DS' age and what your LO's are doing now.
We had DS' 4 month check this morning. He wakes up to eat every 2 hours at night and also eats every 2 hours during the day. Pedi says we need to stop the night feedings and just let him CIO. I told her I wasn't comfortable with it and she said that he needs to at least stretch a bit longer. I don't know HOW to do this. Every time I have tried to not feed him at night he screams bloody murder...when I feed him, he legitimately nurses and then goes right back to sleep. I SAH so its really not a HUGE issue for me at this point. As he nears 6-7 months, I may think differently, but right now I feel like he needs it. Any advice (other than to get a new pedi )?If you had an issue similar to this, what are your LO's sleeping habits like now?
Re: Venturing over for advice
Honestly, if you're comfortable with it, let it be. Pedis are there for advice and support. However, they are not with your kid 24/7 nor do they ever have to save your sanity. I trust my pedi for medical advice. For lifestyle advice, it's nice to have the perspective but it's ultimately up to me. I love my pedi but I don't always agree and that's perfectly fine.
My almost 1 year old was still drinking six bottles a day up until last week. People were all over me like crazy. Meh. Whatever. She liked it. We were happy. We're now working on cutting back. And you know what? She's now ready. We dropped from 6 bottles to 3 in the course of a week with no complaints. What I'm saying is babies do things on their own time, their own way.
For advice now, have you tried cluster feeding before bed? That worked for me for quite some time. My LO cluster fed until six months and was a great sleeper as a result.
I'm a SAHM, and my LO did EXACTLY the same thing your LO is up to. When he was 6 months old I started getting about 5 hours in a row of sleep. Now he sleeps 12 hours at night, and gives me 2, 2 hour naps a day. I GETS BETTER.
In my humble opinion I will say DO NOT ALLOW YOUR CHILD TO CIO. Your pedi is out of her mind. I was told the same thing, that "LO will never self wean, and he'll never get a good's night sleep unless you allow him to cry". That's INSANE. Your gut is telling you to nurse your child. Your gut is right. Keep listening.
LO needs you, you are doing wonderful work, you are an amazing woman. You deserve praise for all that you are doing, without any sleep. You are literally keeping LO alive from your own physical being. It's so very hard. I know, I KNOW how hard it is, but it's worth it. Sleep will come to you soon, you're in the home stretch.
To help get you through to longer stretches of sleep, ask DH if he could help whenever possible. My DH didn't get up at night until LO was about 5 months old. But if I had any sense at the time, I would have pumped just one bottle, and asked DH to take one feeding at night. Is this something that could be done?
DD was sleeping 8 hours straight at night at 4 months. We did increase day feedings and decrease night feedings starting at 3 months to help. I think waking every 2 hrs is too much.
However, I wouldn't do CIO or Ferber or any sleep training until at least 6 months.
Personally, I would continue feeding on demand. 4 months is still very young! He will change his feeding schedule when he's ready.
I feel like pedis offer "one size fits all" advice, rather than taking the specific child into consideration.
My LO has always been super hungry and an avid eater. Heck, he's just about 11 months and he still sometimes wakes once a night to eat (legitimately eats from both sides). Only you know your LO. If you think he's waking because he's hungry and needs to eat, then feed him. If you think he's waking to be comfort nursed back to sleep, maybe try giving him a paci or rocking him/soothing him first and see if that works.
FWIW I waited til 5 months to sleep train using CIO. 4 months seems really young to me still.
Good luck!
At 11 months DS still wakes up several, if not most, nights for a feeding. It is only a couple - a few times a week that he actually sleeps the whole night.
I cant do CIO either, it makes me an anxious wreck! Even at bedtime...he used to go right to sleep on his own, now he doesnt and DH and I have to go in a few times to settle him back down and try to get him to sleep.
I say if you LO is still hungry enough to eat that often, let him! Do you pump at all or do you plan to? At four months you should be able to add cereal to your LO's bottle, perhaps you can pump enough to try a nighttime or first wake bottle rather than nurse him and add cereal to that bottle to try to get a longer stretch. I know BM digests much faster than formula so this may be something you can try if your able to.
after 10 weeks of bedrest for contractions and shorting cvx they arrived at 32 weeks!
DD was still waking every 3 hours or so at that age to eat (EBF) and pedi told me to continue as is at 4 months. I also around that time had issues with the 4 month wakeful, so she started waking every 45 minutes or so which was a nightmare for a few weeks.
By 6 months she was down to feeding every 5 or so hours (so one middle of the night feeding) and it was at that point that pedi said I could drop the feeding. She said she would readjust her milk intake naturally to take more in during the day, plus she was getting solids at that point as well.
It seems like my friends/family who sleep trained at 6 months had better success than those who tried it at 4 months, probably b/c they still need to eat over night (excepting the kids who naturally drop those feedings on their own). I personally waited til 6 months. I did it then and it took 3 nights and I ended up with a 12 hour per night sleeper who occasionally has a bad night when she is coming off a cold or back from vacation etc.
We'll miss you sweet Debbie Girl (4.21.12) and sweet Cindy Girl (8.9.12)
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I think sleep questions need to be sorted out into two catagories: Breastfed babies and Formula babies. There is a pretty big difference. If you are a bfing mom, you should be getting advice from fellow bfing moms. Not that FF mom can't weigh in, but we're comparing apples and oranges here.
BM is digested much quicker than formula, so yes, a baby can most definitely be hungry 2-3 hours after a feeding.
At 4 months I was doing at least 2 feedings a night, sometimes 3. This is normal. It sucks. I'm sorry hun, that's all I got - it sucks : (
My son is 9 months and I'm *still* having this problem. Wander over to the Sept 2011 board and you'll see two post by me, one is a poll for bf babies and how many feedings are being done at 9/10 months and the other is a vent about how freaking tired I am : ) My research from the poll I did showed about 75% of us were still nursing at least once a night at 9/10 months.
Someday we will sleep again and I will rejoice when that day comes, LOL!
My DD just started dropping to one feeding during the night and occasionally sleeping through the night within the last week. She is doing it on her own without me forcing her or any crying.
My pedi said to drop the night feedings at 6 months, but I wasn't comfortable with that. She's growing really fast, so I had no problem waking with her for the 10 minutes it took for her to eat then she went right back to sleep.