1 mth old...still waking up every 2 hrs a night/ Babywise

NikkiRaymond

My daughter will be 4 weeks old on Friday.  I am following the Babywise schedule of eating every 2.5 hours (except, if she cries, I DO NOT make her wait, I feed her - let's be clear, before I get responses telling me parent directed feeding is cruel, etc). I wake her up out of her nap during the day to eat if she has not woken.  Then I let her wake up naturally during the night.  She will wakes up about every 2 hours at night time. 

Do you think the day time waking her up might be creating a night time waking habit? The book says the opposite, ...but I'm starting to wonder since it seems like your babies all sleep longer than 2-2.5 hours at time at night, unlike mine!!! Thoughts, please?

Renee070806

ds woke every two hours until he was three months... dd sleeps five to six hours a night... every baby is so different.

i am a huge believer in never waking a sleeping baby.  try not waking during the day and see if it helps.  gl!

BelhurstBride

I've never read the book, but until recently DD ate every 2-3 hours around the clock- at her own choice. (I never woke her to eat.)

LovePink2850

I think 4 weeks old is kind of young to train. But-- that's just my opinion.

Lambie.

First, as far as I know BW says feed your baby if they are hungry. The 2.5-3 hr schedule is a minimum. That being said, we have been doing this and DD has been giving us a 4-5 hr stretch at night so obviously the day time waking doesn't bother her. How many times are you feeding her during the day. Are you making sure she is taking a full meal when she eats and not just snacking?

auslyn804

I would definitely try not waking.  If what you are doing doesn't seem to be working, then try something else.  It couldn't be much worse right?!

As pp said, all kids are different.  DS woke every 2 hrs forever.  I never slept more than a 2 hr stretch until he was 6wks old and was still getting up 2-3 times a night with him when I went back to work at 14wks.  DD has been doing much better and has 8 hr stretches most nights.  

carole&clark

I haven't read Babywise but I think it could be. If your baby is used to eating every 2.5 hours and always does, I would assume she wouldn't distinguish a difference in night and day when she wants fed.

My DD is 6 wks and sleeps at least 5 hours at a time, usually 6-8 hours. I let her nap 3-4 hours during the day. She usually wakes up after 4 hours because she's hungry.I only wake her if it gets to be more than 5 hours.

Your baby knows when she's hungry and will wake up and tell you. Again, I haven't read the book but I just think that that would develop bad habits.

 

NikkiRaymond

Lambie.:

First, as far as I know BW says feed your baby if they are hungry. The 2.5-3 hr schedule is a minimum. That being said, we have been doing this and DD has been giving us a 4-5 hr stretch at night so obviously the day time waking doesn't bother her. How many times are you feeding her during the day. Are you making sure she is taking a full meal when she eats and not just snacking?

Yes, BW does say feed your baby if s/he is hungry, but for some reason so many people think that BW makes the baby wait until the schedule...so I like to put that disclaimer on there before I got negative comments.  People seem to have this opinion without even reading the book.    Anyway, I do feed her every 2.5 hours, occassionaly every 3 hours.  She gets an average of 9 feedings in 24 hours, sometimes 10.  She definitely takes a whole feeding each time, as that is something I worked on from Day 1.  She's not a snacker.  I just thought I'd get opinions, as my Mom brought it up to me yesterday that it might be creating that habit, but I had been trusting the book (and research?) all along.  Glad to know it doesn't seem to bother your DD.

aknjcp

DS wakes a little more than DD ever did. DS is now 3 weeks and just started going about 4 hours at night. He started cluster feeding in the late evening though - he nurses about 2 times on each side from about 8:30-11:30 PM. During the day he feeds about every 2-3 hours.

MFalor

I read Babywise and I remember them saying that you shouldn't feed your baby a set times... rather, to have a flexible schedule.

Anyway, as pp said, each baby is different.  Mine happened to prefer eating a larger amount, less frequently.  Try soothing your baby back to sleep at night, without feeding her.  If she falls back asleep, then obviously she wasn't that hungry and if you're consistent, she'll start sleeping longer stretches. 

doubledutymama

Renee070806:

ds woke every two hours until he was three months... dd sleeps five to six hours a night... every baby is so different.

i am a huge believer in never waking a sleeping baby.  try not waking during the day and see if it helps.  gl!

Same with me! My DS woke every 2-3 hours till he was 3-4 months old. Then started sleeping longer stretches and sttn at 6 months. DD started sleeping 5 hour stretches on day 10, and has been sleeping 12 hour stretches since 6 weeks old. Every baby is different~ Maybe they have day and night confused a little?  I would try to not wake her...maybe she can go longer between feeds in the day now therefore she is napping longer.

bigalb25

my husband and i had this same discussion just yesterday.  he told his sister our 5.5 week old is on a 2 hour schedule (which isn't 100% true... since her growth spurt ended she has 3 hour stretches, mostly during the day) and she said they let their LO sleep (starting around 2 weeks) until he woke up, day or night, and that he started sleeping longer periods at night immediately.  our LO already has a 4(ish) hour stretch late in the evening but then she'll still wake every 2 hours sometimes.  during the day i do wake her if it gets to 3 or 3 1/2 hours because i'm paranoid she'll make up for lost feeding at night.  he argues that she'll make up for lost feeding during the day by eating more/longer then.  i can see how that's possible but i'm still paranoid letting her sleep for looong stretches during the day will result in less sleep at night.  but i suppose it's worth a try!!! 

Lambie.

MFalor:

I read Babywise and I remember them saying that you shouldn't feed your baby a set times... rather, to have a flexible schedule.

Anyway, as pp said, each baby is different.  Mine happened to prefer eating a larger amount, less frequently.  Try soothing your baby back to sleep at night, without feeding her.  If she falls back asleep, then obviously she wasn't that hungry and if you're consistent, she'll start sleeping longer stretches. 

I would try this, and of course if she is hungry feed her. We did the prep for parenting class, ie BW with God, and it also suggests that if you know your baby is going to wake at a certain time go and get her and try rocking her through the wake time before she gets herself all stirred up. Again, if this works, and she keeps sleeping you know it wasn't a hunger issue. If she wakes up anyway and wants to eat feed her and don't panic, she may just take a little longer.

CarolinaGirl051708

It took six weeks for dd to have a four hour stretch of sleep at night. I read Babywise (I chose not to follow it), but it suggested a combination of parent-directed and infant-directed feeding, so that being said, I'd not wake a sleeping baby unless you were having weight gain issues! Good luck!

lpstl

There's no reason to wake a baby to eat unless there is a medical issue. Why anyone would use BW on a one month old blows my damn mind, she's one month old, waking every two hours is normal.

Why don't you give your DD a chance to figure out her own routine before training? You never know, she might do great with it and STTN at 6 weeks old like my guy did.

NikkiRaymond

lpstl:

There's no reason to wake a baby to eat unless there is a medical issue. Why anyone would use BW on a one month old blows my damn mind, she's one month old, waking every two hours is normal.

Why don't you give your DD a chance to figure out her own routine before training? You never know, she might do great with it and STTN at 6 weeks old like my guy did.

Thanks for your opinion - and putting it so nicely, to boot.    My pediatrician has said to wake her during the day to feed her if she goes past 3 hours.  So, I follow that advice.  Also, I'm not "training", and you do start BW after they are 10 days old. 

IrishBrideND

NikkiRaymond:

lpstl:

There's no reason to wake a baby to eat unless there is a medical issue. Why anyone would use BW on a one month old blows my damn mind, she's one month old, waking every two hours is normal.

Why don't you give your DD a chance to figure out her own routine before training? You never know, she might do great with it and STTN at 6 weeks old like my guy did.

Thanks for your opinion - and putting it so nicely, to boot.    My pediatrician has said to wake her during the day to feed her if she goes past 3 hours.  So, I follow that advice.  Also, I'm not "training", and you do start BW after they are 10 days old. 

What do you call it if you don't consider it training? I'm not flaming, but its pretty widely accepted that BW is a type of training regime