MOTN wakings - does your LO cry?

bumpuser9130703

This might sound like a dumb question but, when your LO wakes up in the middle of the night and you feed them, are they crying when they wake up? I ask because we are thinking about moving LO to her crib to sleep (instead of in the PNP by our bed). Right now she never really wakes up crying. Around 4:30-5:30 she starts moving and grunting a lot more (she's noisy at other times in the night but usually just for a minute every so often and then she stops), sometimes making whimpering noises but not actual cries. Right now she is 2 feet from my head so I can pick up on it pretty easily. When it starts and I pick her up her eyes are still closed but by the time I change her diaper they are open and when she starts eating it's serious eating, not just comfort nursing, so I feel like she must be pretty hungry at that point. I just worry that if she's in her room I won't pick up on the quieter noises on the monitor and we'll sleep through that 4:30-5:30 feeding. Don't get me wrong, I'd be happy to have more sleep, but not if she's hungry. Also, the grunting and being noisy continues after she's changed and eats so I think it also might just be a morning REM sleep thing (and the after eating noises are part of the reason we want to move her!) Am I overthinking this? Should I have been waiting for her to cry the whole time? Should I be setting an alarm to feed her sooner like I did before she passed her birth weight?

Extra info - her weight is not a concern at all. She jumped from the 19th percentile at birth to the 61st at 8 weeks. Her pedi told us at her 2 week check up (when she had passed her birth weight by about a pound) that it's totally fine to just let her sleep, but not to expect more than 6 hours since she's still a newborn. At this point she regularly sleeps 6 1/2-7 1/2 hours (and that's from her going to sleep to me waking her when the whimpering/grunting starts).

Any other advice on going from room sharing to crib?

SweetPeaK26

If you plan to use a monitor then you'll hear most of the grunts etc anyways. There's no right or wrong way as long as you aren't ignoring her.

I bed share, so I'm right there. I usually wait till she's actually starting to fuss, because she grunts an wiggles in her sleep all the time. Then I change her if she needs it, which she hates, so she'll fuss harder or actually cry for that, then I lay back down and hook her up to me. Then we both fall asleep.

With our older two, they room shared with us (after the bed sharing till 6 months) till 11 and then 14 months. I didn't go to them unless they were actually crying in their cribs.

I don't know if that helps you at all, but that's what we do.

crkreativekids

Chances are you will still hear her grunting, but even if you don't those grunts are the initial stages of her waking up. Odds are if you let her go a few minutes she would be fully awake and crying, you just pick her up before she gets to the full on crying stage.

HisChamaoleGirl

I'm really glad you brought up these questions and concerns because I am wondering the same things.

Zmommy2

My DD has never cried for the middle of the night feeding.. She's 6 weeks tomorrow. But like you said she is fully awake by the time I get up, usually go pee real quick and then actually get her up to feed. I usually wait to change her diaper until after she nurses one side, more to keep her awake, but if I change her first the crying usually starts. As for the monitor thing, you'll probably still hear the grunts.. Put the volume up high if you need to. But if you don't hear her grunting I would think she would start crying pretty soon after if she's really hungry.

bumpuser9130703

AFwifelife said:

I don't pick DS up until he is actually crying.  I also would pick him up as soon as he made a noise (so that he wouldn't wake up DH) but I realized that he could have slept a little longer.

We moved him to his own room at 4 weeks in his RnP.  Everyone has gotten much more sleep since we've done that.

Yeah, I think not waking dh is probably part of the reason I jump so quickly. (I SAH, he works, so I do all the wakings).

And it's funny because she is sleeping great! Me? Not so much. I jump at every grunt.

Heffafish

We have a monitor, so can hear her through that even when she is just grunting. When she wakes up she will usually just fuss for a little bit grunting and groaning before she starts to cry. I usually leave her until she is just about to start crying as she often grunts and groans for a tiny bit and will go straight back to sleep, so I just wait to see of she is actually waking up first before I get up.

ravenclaw1

I'm honestly not really sure what wakes me up. She's almost never actually crying, just little wimpers (she sleeps in her own crib/room and has since day one)

I sometimes think it's just instinctual, and I just wake up the same time every night to feed her.... not sure what it is. It's nice, though, that she never cries at night. Keeps H sleeping and it's easier to change/feed her while she's happy.

raeyn

I don't touch her at night until I hear a full out cry, but my baby still wakes up every 1-3 hours all night long. I would die of happiness if she slept until 4:30, but I'd still probably wait for a real cry on the off-chance that she'd sleep longer.

database6

I wait until her grunts get more frantic or serious if that makes any sense. She isn't crying yet, but I know she is about to. I only do this to get some more sleep (usually about 30-60 mins) until she is actually fussy. If she was sleeping longer stretches though I'm not sure I would wait as long, now it's just pure exhaustion. I don't have any advice in getting to the crib though, we tried and it didn't work so we've put that on hold for now, but I will be checking this thread for suggestions!

bumpuser9130703

Thanks everyone for your input! I think we might just give it a try tonight... EEK!

ammiddleton3

I usually get up before he really starts crying. I hear him start to smack his lips a lot and squirm a lot and let out grunts. I almost always get up before he really starts crying, partially like others have stated because I don't want to wake DH. He will be staying in our room for quite a while longer though as the nursery is on the other end of the house and I'm just not ready for that!

RoosterWrangler

I get up during the serious grunts, before the cry. In the middle of the night it seems like its easier to get him back to sleep if I catch him before he starts crying. Once he cries, he's really awake.