LO was up four times last night. I think it's time to bust out the space heater in her room. We live in a big older house so the upstairs gets cold and I'm too cheap to turn up the heat to 80 degrees so it stays warm upstairs. It was pretty chilly in her room. Momma's tired this morning.
LO has been waking the past three nights around four & staying up for a couple hours before going back to sleep. This on top of all of us still trying to fully recoup from being sick makes for two tired parents. DH & I are taking turns sleeping today. Oh & my coughing wakes her up too whenever I lie down so that's been rough. 4 month sleep regression I guess. Finally got a crib but it's not set up yet. We figured we'd squeeze her in the rock n play since her nose has been so stuffy but that seems to be improving now.
Dear Beastie Boys, Thank you for your soothing melodies and calming lyrics. They really help my little guy fall asleep. I wish the Beastie Boys Pandora station would play more of your songs so I wouldn't have to waste my skips just to find your musical gifts. Your songs work every time he is overly tired and just needs to sleep. Or really any time he is cranky. Again, thank you thank you thank you! Sincerely, A tired mommy
Poor lo wouldn't go to sleep until 10 last night when normal bedtime is around 730. I think her cold was making it tough to sleep. She's feeding now at 330 so hopefully she'll sleep in a bit today. And hopefully Asshole Cat won't start screaming for us to get up starting at 5 like he did yesterday. I wish we could just lock him out of the bedroom but when we tried that it caused extra screaming outside if the door so it was almost worse. Plus it punishes Good Cat who likes to sleep with us all night.
Finally got my phone back ugh it's been rough without it and I've missed reading all your posts!! But now that we have hit 14 weeks it's like clockwork ....so fussy and clingy and the last two nights waking up every hour or two I'm so tired
I get up at 5am for work so on the weekdays when LO wakes I get up for that feed. On the weekends DH just sleeps through the wake ups and I STILL get up at 5am! I wish he would get up, but then he would sleep in forever and be all like "I'm tired!" All day so I wonder if it'd be worth it.
@mellymar Ugh, that sucks about the phishing, so sorry!
Thanks for thinking of me! So sweet. We went back to 3 and 4 hour intervals last night. Not great, but better than 2 hr intervals.
Still trying the tricks from my ladies here. I was able to get LO back down without feeding once. DH got up twice but wasn't patient with LO, which didn't help the crying so I had to take over.
I keep wavering on "he's hungry and this is just him" vs "this is crazy, he needs to learn to sleep." Looking forward to our pediatrician visit in 8 days!!!
So LO has been rolling to her belly since we put her in the crib but after five min on belly starts crying (because she can't roll to back...) so we spent all week flipping her back to her back multiple times per night like 1-2 hour intervals. Last night after first the first flip I inserted paci and patted and shooshed her on the back (no flip) that little head went down and didn't wake up for 6 hours..... WHAT? obviously I checked multiple times for breathing. Fed her at midnight and got another 5 hour stretch. no breathing checks this time cuz mama was sleeping too! I thought she didn't like her belly, boy was I wrong! She just wanted her paci!
I reccomen the book the happy sleeper ( I think that's the name) I've been reading it because I torn knowing I need to let her fuss a little but also to soft to let her cry at all. It phrases the technique as 'taking a curious stance' when your LO crys. See what happens after 20 sec. 30 sec. If I don't allow her to try things herself she'll never have the opportunity to learn how to fall asleep on her own.
@SmashJam my DH is the same way. He doesn't complain but he's the grumpiest guy ever for pretty much the whole next day & doesn't get a thing done around the house. Or he'll sleep half the day away if it's the weekend & I still get no help. Also the grumpiest when I wake him so unless I'm desperate I just get up. It's not worth it. If he gets his sleep he's the nicest guy ever.
My LO slept in her room all night for the first time. Still in the rock n play but that was a good step for me. She took a snooze from 7:30 (normalish bedtime) til 8:30, then up til 10:30, which was unusual. She didn't do her two hour 4 am wake up (thank God!) & I only had to get up to feed her twice which is really good for us. Got a couple four hour stretches, again good for us! Thought she might sleep in but nope. We have no schedule.
I get up at 5am for work so on the weekdays when LO wakes I get up for that feed. On the weekends DH just sleeps through the wake ups and I STILL get up at 5am! I wish he would get up, but then he would sleep in forever and be all like "I'm tired!" All day so I wonder if it'd be worth it.
This describes my situation exactly. The days where I wake at 5 for work, and lo doesn't wake until I'm gone, and then dh complains that night about being tired, I want to stab him. Sleeping until 6 is a great luxury for me. Sigh.
LO's cold is in full force...it's so sad listening to her rattling trying to breathe. Hopefully this will be brief.
@Marcantonio - good to know! Our LO has been rolling to her belly at night some & then gets PISSED about it. I'll try paci/patting tonight & see how she does! Thanks you!!
She was up around 3am for a while! I even woke up DH to try to get her down. She ended up in bed with us. I'm thinking the leap/14 week thing bc she's SO fussy this week/weekend.
Our pediatrician at our four month visit said that we should try to start disassociating feeding from sleep. Meaning that if you feed baby right before putting him to sleep he doesn't learn how to fall asleep without that. The pediatrician said we all wake up during the night but we have learned how to put our own selves back to sleep without eating (confession: I do eat sometimes in the middle of the night). She said to rotate the order we do things at bedtime so he eats first, followed by change into his nightgown and then reading a story. It has been a little harder because we used to let him basically fall asleep while he was eating and now he whines and fusses a little bit before going to sleep. The pediatrician said that eventually baby will learn to fall asleep without the dependence on food and will be able to do it himself when he wakes up during the night. So this is a really long term tip... but I think worth consideration.
I pump at 4 am if LO hasn't waken yet but I think my alarm wakes him. And if it doesn't he wakes up wanting to nurse right after I've pumped to empty so I admit I'm extra loud to prod him awake. I feel like it's for his own good though as he gets extra milk out but feel kind of bad. He wakes up before the alarm enough though too that I can't just pump earlier before he wakes. I think I overthink this all... My milk production is just so much better at night. At least we can sleep in after that for as long as he wants
Our pediatrician at our four month visit said that we should try to start disassociating feeding from sleep. Meaning that if you feed baby right before putting him to sleep he doesn't learn how to fall asleep without that. The pediatrician said we all wake up during the night but we have learned how to put our own selves back to sleep without eating (confession: I do eat sometimes in the middle of the night). She said to rotate the order we do things at bedtime so he eats first, followed by change into his nightgown and then reading a story. It has been a little harder because we used to let him basically fall asleep while he was eating and now he whines and fusses a little bit before going to sleep. The pediatrician said that eventually baby will learn to fall asleep without the dependence on food and will be able to do it himself when he wakes up during the night. So this is a really long term tip... but I think worth consideration.
I've unknowingly started doing this. If I feed him before bedtime, I usually spend a little while talking to him while we both lay on the bed, then I wrap him in his swaddle sack, then I sit with him and gently bounce him while reading to him from my book. The talking to him part adds another 10-15 minutes to the bedtime routine when I'm usually pretty beat and just wishing for my pillow, but he's usually in a decent mood after this meal, so its not too hard to just hang out for while. And I enjoy reading to him the story his name came from. When I do it this way, I only get maybe 7 pages in before he falls asleep. It takes DH longer to bounce him to sleep on the ball (tho that still works)
Lucie's List had a newsletter a month or more ago that said if you can do the "put baby down drowsy not asleep" by four months, the rest doesn't matter and you're on track for easier sleep training or habits or whathaveyou, after the 4 month regression. So the one thing I can say is that 9/10x LO will put himself the rest of the way to sleep, in his bed. I hardly ever nurse to sleep, and if I do, it's a nap on a fussy leap/growth spurt day, and we side lie and nap together.
Now as for the MOTN, no... That's where we are starting to work on not nursing. But honestly, he doesn't ever seem to just have a small snack and use the boob for comfort. He really eats any time he's allowed at night.
Thanks, @MaliKaela for this tip! (And for making me laugh re: your own MOTN snacking!)
Our pediatrician at our four month visit said that we should try to start disassociating feeding from sleep. Meaning that if you feed baby right before putting him to sleep he doesn't learn how to fall asleep without that. The pediatrician said we all wake up during the night but we have learned how to put our own selves back to sleep without eating (confession: I do eat sometimes in the middle of the night). She said to rotate the order we do things at bedtime so he eats first, followed by change into his nightgown and then reading a story. It has been a little harder because we used to let him basically fall asleep while he was eating and now he whines and fusses a little bit before going to sleep. The pediatrician said that eventually baby will learn to fall asleep without the dependence on food and will be able to do it himself when he wakes up during the night. So this is a really long term tip... but I think worth consideration.
I'm reading this as my kid just fell asleep nursing. I will say that this is happening less and less though. I'd like to say that I lay him down and he goes to sleep. The reality-he cries and we rock with white noise until he falls asleep and then I oh so carefully put him down.
@Marcantonio this is us too (flipping onto his belly and then getting mad about it). This morning, he actually found his thumb and went back to sleep on his tummy for about 4 hrs! We were amazed and psyched to get a bit more sleep.. Before DS1 woke us up chatting about "so many big cars" and lawnmowers over the monitor. Kid loves anything with wheels. And I actually love listening to that sweet little voice, so not a bad way to wake up!
Buhhhh. LO is taking forever to get to sleep. She's out then up every 10-15 min. I have sh*t to do bc I didn't do it today bc she didn't want to nap. I sure hope and pray she sleeps for a long stretch for me.
Our pediatrician at our four month visit said that we should try to start disassociating feeding from sleep. Meaning that if you feed baby right before putting him to sleep he doesn't learn how to fall asleep without that. The pediatrician said we all wake up during the night but we have learned how to put our own selves back to sleep without eating (confession: I do eat sometimes in the middle of the night). She said to rotate the order we do things at bedtime so he eats first, followed by change into his nightgown and then reading a story. It has been a little harder because we used to let him basically fall asleep while he was eating and now he whines and fusses a little bit before going to sleep. The pediatrician said that eventually baby will learn to fall asleep without the dependence on food and will be able to do it himself when he wakes up during the night. So this is a really long term tip... but I think worth consideration.
Our pediatrician told us the exact same thing. She also told us that he doesn't need MOTN feelings anymore- he gets 28-32oz during the day, so she said if he is crying at night, it's for comfort and not bc he is hungry. After a few nights of 4-5 wake ups, I figured I might as well try it- I stopped feeding him in MOTN, and started doing my bedtime routine backward-eat, bath, pjs, story, snuggle. We've done it for four nights now, and he gets better every night. 3 of these 4 nights he has STTN, and one of them he woke up, and after I gave him his pacifier he soothed himself and fell asleep again for another 5 hours.
He doesn't even finish his first bottle in the morning, so I don't think he is hungry if he wakes up... It was definitely a comfort thing for him.
I took for granted LO sleeping through the night. For about a month he's been doing amazing, sleeping in his crib for about 9-10 hours. It made going back to work really easy, and I even bragged about him (which I knew would come back to bite me!)
Well he's been sick for about a week now, still on the tail end with a stuffy nose. When he was sick he was having A LOT of blow out poops. The last couple nights he woke up around 2 or 3 with a poop so big it'd be through his diaper, sleeper, swaddle, and on the crib sheets. I attributed this to him being sick, but it wakes him up every night and he seems to be mostly over his cold. Since transitioning back to work, I am now giving him mostly formula and only a couple bottles of BM that I pump in the morning and night.
When he was just on BM he never had any blow outs whatsoever. Ugh. Let's pray this will pass!
I EBF & my 4 month old wakes every 2-4 hours at night (usually, sometimes longer). I don't always nurse her when she wakes (depends how long since last feeding her) but my pediatrician said she probably is waking out of hunger. Just throwing that out there since other pediatricians have said differently. Probably depends on the baby & if EBF vs formula, etc. Also I'm a fan of Dr Sears' "The Baby Sleep Book." My friend (mother of four)gave it to me. She used these methods with her kids & they seem to be sleeping fine, her youngest is two now). It talks about how nursing for comfort isn't necessarily bad. It just depends on what you want & what works for you & your family. Really gave me some different kind of sleep advice than what you traditionally hear. Changed my way of thinking & I'm a lot less stressed about it all now.
I was recently reading an article about how sleeping through the night is a western culture created idea, and how evolutionary wise there aren't many times that people slept from 9p-6a. Additionally, world wide most cultures sleep in communal family beds where baby probably has free access to nurse throughout the night. There is so much pressure for a baby to sleep through the night these days and people try and put some value on it. I feel "oh is she sleeping through the night?!" Has replaced the never ending "how are you feeling?" question from pregnancy. And like I mentioned previously, her sleeping has nothing to do with me she just set that for herself. But I just don't want you ladies to think something's wrong with your babies because they're still waking to feed. It just stinks that it's some ideal to STTN when that may not be what's best for the baby at the moment.
TTC: 1/2014
BFP: 9/24
EDD: 6/8/2015
Sorry for the poor man's siggy...ticker won't load regardless of how many tips I read.
Another weekend DH is home, another Sunday night where I didn't get to get my shower until REALLY late, another time I'm sitting up in bed after LO and DH have fallen asleep, waiting for my hair to dry a little before I lay down.
Trying the crib AGAIN. She has been sleeping till 3 every night for the past couple weeks but tonight in the crib she's up before midnight. Why does it seem like everyone else is having such an easy transition to the crib?!
And now I've put her down but she woke up which means an hour of sitting here with her on pacifier patrol until she puts herself to sleep.
So LO can roll over now & tonight she decided to roll into her tummy EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. we laid her down asleep. Now I know she's fine, she has great head control, but she cries about it & can't get back to back! She literally flips & cries every time. I just got her completely milk drunk just now before putting her down & she hasn't rolled... YET. HELP?! Any advice?!
@krystleshel Not here. I'm just waiting for him to get better at tummy to back. Luckily he's just randomly going to belly. Sometimes he sleeps a few hours like that, other times it is like 15 minutes. It is totally annoying. Sorry you're having to deal with it so much...
LO STTN as in "I don't need to wake up or feed her" but she definitely wakes a few times and puts herself back to sleep, I've seen it on the video monitor. She doesn't fuss or cry or really make noise at all unless she's actually hungry. I hear her thrashing about and sucking her thumb though. Right now she's 50/50 on waking up once to feed at night, and "sleeping" (not eating) straight through.
This is why I'll just continue to nurse to sleep as long as she'll do it. It's way easier, and I know she's capable of putting herself to sleep without it. She puts herself to sleep at nap time at daycare, and if she's not hungry she'll do it here too. Some nights she wants to be rocked instead of fed first. I'm not worried about it. If we have to do CIO to train her, I'll accept it and do that around 6 months. I really believe she'll wean herself off of needing to nurse to go down at night. We'll see.
She does take between 16 and 24 ounces from bottles when I'm at work and then will nurse twice those days (once when we get home and once before bed) so the nights she doesn't need to eat I know she's full. Usually the nights that she does need to feed happen when she hasn't eaten as much during the day.
@dancegurl1118 and @ciennah99 I could just kiss you. Thank you for those awesome words of wisdom (and the Dr Sears book recommendation. I love his style and have been wondering which sleep book to read, if any).
I will just plan to hang on til we see the pediatrician. I am only anxious about LO's sleep because I see so many other babies STTN. So I need to realize we are FINE and stop comparing. Easier said than done. I need to take my own advice!!
My girl is 17 weeks and up until about a week ago was sleeping 10 hours at night! All of a sudden, frequent night waking and lots of crying. She's on a great schedule and is generally pretty happy. I'm wondering if it's the dreaded 4 month sleep regression. At first I thought she was teething but now I'm not so sure. She wakes up with a big smile on her face and doesn't seem tired. I just want my good sleeper back!! This is tough!
I'm a jerk and ignored her whining because it was only an hour after I fed her. Turns out she had a giant poop that I made her sit in for 90 minutes ( She fell back asleep but I feel so bad.
TTC: 1/2014
BFP: 9/24
EDD: 6/8/2015
Sorry for the poor man's siggy...ticker won't load regardless of how many tips I read.
I'm a jerk and ignored her whining because it was only an hour after I fed her. Turns out she had a giant poop that I made her sit in for 90 minutes ( She fell back asleep but I feel so bad.
I've done this. They're growing too fast, but sometimes I wish he could talk already.
Just to clarify... I didn't mean to suggest that my pediatrician recommended letting a baby CIO in the middle of the night. She just meant that they naturally learn how to put themselves back to sleep eventually. We still have MOTN feedings over here!
Re: Nighttime still sucks........
Thank you for your soothing melodies and calming lyrics. They really help my little guy fall asleep. I wish the Beastie Boys Pandora station would play more of your songs so I wouldn't have to waste my skips just to find your musical gifts. Your songs work every time he is overly tired and just needs to sleep. Or really any time he is cranky. Again, thank you thank you thank you!
Sincerely,
A tired mommy
Thanks for thinking of me! So sweet. We went back to 3 and 4 hour intervals last night. Not great, but better than 2 hr intervals.
Still trying the tricks from my ladies here. I was able to get LO back down without feeding once. DH got up twice but wasn't patient with LO, which didn't help the crying so I had to take over.
I keep wavering on "he's hungry and this is just him" vs "this is crazy, he needs to learn to sleep." Looking forward to our pediatrician visit in 8 days!!!
I reccomen the book the happy sleeper ( I think that's the name) I've been reading it because I torn knowing I need to let her fuss a little but also to soft to let her cry at all. It phrases the technique as 'taking a curious stance' when your LO crys. See what happens after 20 sec. 30 sec. If I don't allow her to try things herself she'll never have the opportunity to learn how to fall asleep on her own.
Ok super long sorry!
My LO slept in her room all night for the first time. Still in the rock n play but that was a good step for me. She took a snooze from 7:30 (normalish bedtime) til 8:30, then up til 10:30, which was unusual. She didn't do her two hour 4 am wake up (thank God!) & I only had to get up to feed her twice which is really good for us. Got a couple four hour stretches, again good for us! Thought she might sleep in but nope. We have no schedule.
LO's cold is in full force...it's so sad listening to her rattling trying to breathe. Hopefully this will be brief.
She was up around 3am for a while! I even woke up DH to try to get her down. She ended up in bed with us. I'm thinking the leap/14 week thing bc she's SO fussy this week/weekend.
So the one thing I can say is that 9/10x LO will put himself the rest of the way to sleep, in his bed. I hardly ever nurse to sleep, and if I do, it's a nap on a fussy leap/growth spurt day, and we side lie and nap together.
Now as for the MOTN, no... That's where we are starting to work on not nursing. But honestly, he doesn't ever seem to just have a small snack and use the boob for comfort. He really eats any time he's allowed at night.
Thanks, @MaliKaela for this tip! (And for making me laugh re: your own MOTN snacking!)
The above makes total sense though.
He doesn't even finish his first bottle in the morning, so I don't think he is hungry if he wakes up... It was definitely a comfort thing for him.
Well he's been sick for about a week
now, still on the tail end with a stuffy nose. When he was sick he was having A LOT of blow out poops. The last couple nights he woke up around 2 or 3 with a poop so big it'd be through his diaper, sleeper, swaddle, and on the crib sheets. I attributed this to him being sick, but it wakes him up every night and he seems to be mostly over his cold. Since transitioning back to work, I am now giving him mostly formula and only a couple bottles of BM that I pump in the morning and night.
When he was just on BM he never had any blow outs whatsoever. Ugh. Let's pray this will pass!
And now I've put her down but she woke up which means an hour of sitting here with her on pacifier patrol until she puts herself to sleep.
This is why I'll just continue to nurse to sleep as long as she'll do it. It's way easier, and I know she's capable of putting herself to sleep without it. She puts herself to sleep at nap time at daycare, and if she's not hungry she'll do it here too. Some nights she wants to be rocked instead of fed first. I'm not worried about it. If we have to do CIO to train her, I'll accept it and do that around 6 months. I really believe she'll wean herself off of needing to nurse to go down at night. We'll see.
She does take between 16 and 24 ounces from bottles when I'm at work and then will nurse twice those days (once when we get home and once before bed) so the nights she doesn't need to eat I know she's full. Usually the nights that she does need to feed happen when she hasn't eaten as much during the day.
She hasn't pooped since Thursday. I'll give her a suppository today and try the crib again tonight. Maybe she'll feel better and sleep better.
I will just plan to hang on til we see the pediatrician. I am only anxious about LO's sleep because I see so many other babies STTN. So I need to realize we are FINE and stop comparing. Easier said than done. I need to take my own advice!!