Need some advice

Abinormal

So, DD has been sleeping throught the night from 8 PM to 5:30 AM for the last 6 weeks. Last night we put her in the crib for the first time and she woke up at 1:30 AM and wouldn't go back to sleep until I put her in bed with me. I didn't give her a bottle at 1:30 AM because I really don't want her to get used to eating in the middle of the night, since she hasn't wanted a middle of the night bottle for a long time. Do you think I should have fed her? She was content to come to bed and go back to sleep with me. I also know that I don't want her coming to my bed in the middle of the night to become a habit. Any ideas on ways to get her back to sleep in the middle of the night without giving her a bottle? She does have a pacifier and I tried giving it back to her, but she wasn't interested and kept spitting it out to fuss again.

And, oh yeah, today she learned how to throw the pacifier out of the crib, yay! (please note the sarcasm)

libbyann

IMO, at 3 months, if she's acting hungry she needs to be fed...even if it's 1:30am. Yes, technically they can go all night long without eating. But not all babies fall into those textbook categories. She could be going through a growth spurt or didn't get enough calories in during the daytime for whatever reason. So if she's acting hungry, I'd feed her no matter what!

As far as getting her back to sleep w/o the bottle, the only things that have worked for us in the past are nursing, coming to bed with mom, or rocking. Rocking takes the longest and usually guarantees we'll be up with him for 30-45 minutes. But if you really don't want her in bed with you, that might be an option. 

Have you tried a breathable bumper? That might keep her paci in the crib. Hope you get some sleep soon!

Angie&Doc

Me personally, I would have given her a bottle. When my ds would wake up I gave him a bottle. If he wasn't hungry he wouldn't take it or take some but not all of it. If he was hungry he took it all. She may be going through a growth spurt and is hungry.

When my ds would wake up I always gave him a bottle. He eventually weaned himself to fewer and fewer bottles at night.

 

 

mlf625

libbyann:

IMO, at 3 months, if she's acting hungry she needs to be fed...even if it's 1:30am. Yes, technically they can go all night long without eating. But not all babies fall into those textbook categories. She could be going through a growth spurt or didn't get enough calories in during the daytime for whatever reason. So if she's acting hungry, I'd feed her no matter what!

Ditto.  DS STTN early on (~7 weeks) but every couple weeks he'd have a night where he'd wake, and we'd always feed him.  I don't think you did anything wrong last night - she would have let you know if she REALLY was needing a bottle  - but I'd still feed her at night when she wakes since she's only 3 months. 

colleenor

i would have probably given her a bottle and rocked her back to sleep.  that's what we do with max. 

bobcatsteph

Welcome to our world..that's how Caroline ended up in our bed full time.

She is too young to do any kind of sleep training so I would try rocking her to sleep. If she's acting hungry, I would feed her, if she's not, then I wouldn't. She'll let you know if she's hungry. It seems like she just wants to be soothed by her mama. Our pedi said that at 4 months they should be able to go all night without eating..that doesn't seem to be the case with all babies though.

MrsRegis

I would have done what you did. IMHO and in my experience, babies start to wake up to the world around 3 months. A newborn may sleep all night easily, but as they sail out of that "4th trimester" they become more aware of everything and may start to wake more often at night. I think it's possible that DD was not hungry and just wanted to be comforted.

My DD started a similar pattern around 3 months. She regularly STTN (7-8 hrs a night) until then. Then she started waking up after 5 hrs, then 4 hrs, then 3 hrs. I started out feeding her thinking she was hungry, but I'm pretty sure now I've trained her to wake often and only be comforted by nursing. I wish I had found another way to soothe her early on.