how do i know if my baby needs sleep training?

oooCarrieB

or if she just isn't eating enough during the day?

She used to sleep from 8pm-3am, nurse and go back to sleep until I got her up at 6am. Now she's sleeping from 8pm to 1:30am, nursing and gettting up again at 4am. She's almost 5 months old, and doesn't eat a lot while I'm at work. She usually takes only 8oz. and then nurses 3 times when I get home and has some cereal.

tokenhoser

8 oz doesn't sound like much to me when you're at work. I think it's normal for her to make it up by nursing more overnight. Are you coping? That's generally the actual drive for sleep training... when mom can't deal with life anymore on the sleep she's getting.

You could try a dream feed before you go to bed. That might help her sleep an extra hour or two if it is hunger that's getting her up.

Athena0809

tokenhoser:

8 oz doesn't sound like much to me when you're at work. I think it's normal for her to make it up by nursing more overnight. Are you coping? That's generally the actual drive for sleep training... when mom can't deal with life anymore on the sleep she's getting.

You could try a dream feed before you go to bed. That might help her sleep an extra hour or two if it is hunger that's getting her up.

I'm glad someone asked this and to see your answer. I had been wondering if I need to start sleep training with all these talks about it and/or sttn. LO isn't sttn, in fact he's regresed to waking every 2-3 hours. I do believe he is genuinely hungry  and I'm coping, so I'm ok with him not sttn.

tokenhoser

Steph&Harry08:

tokenhoser:

8 oz doesn't sound like much to me when you're at work. I think it's normal for her to make it up by nursing more overnight. Are you coping? That's generally the actual drive for sleep training... when mom can't deal with life anymore on the sleep she's getting.

You could try a dream feed before you go to bed. That might help her sleep an extra hour or two if it is hunger that's getting her up.

I'm glad someone asked this and to see your answer. I had been wondering if I need to start sleep training with all these talks about it and/or sttn. LO isn't sttn, in fact he's regresed to waking every 2-3 hours. I do believe he is genuinely hungry  and I'm coping, so I'm ok with him not sttn.

To be fair, there are different elements of sleep training. I do think working toward having a baby that can put him/herself to sleep in a crib is an admirable thing that will likely improve bedtime for everyone. I just don't think that sttn is a MUST DO goal for every 4-5 month old. If you're happy, do what makes you happy.

oooCarrieB

I'm generally opposed to dream feeding because I don't want LO to get used to eating when she's not hungry. I just wish I could make her be more hungry during the day while I'm at work.

 I can deal with the amount of sleep I'm getting. I just don't want LO to get in the habit of waking several times during the night. She can put herself to sleep just fine at night. That's not the problem.

kacelle

DD eats normally when I'm gone for a few hours every day, but she's been sleeping poorly lately.  Last night, she slept from 7:30 to 11:30, ate, woke at 2:30 to eat, woke at 6 to eat, and was up for the day.  If she keeps this up, I'm going to have to look into some sort of sleep training.  She doesn't nap more than a few minutes during the day, so I'm not coping too well.

Mrs.Purdue

what if you don't feed her when she wakes up?  if she'll take a paci and go back to sleep, or just be rocked and go back to sleep, then I'd say she's not hungry and you could do some sleep training. 

if she gets more and more upset and the only thing that calms her is eating, and she appears to be having a full feeding at those middle-of-the-night times, then i'd say she's not getting enough during the day and would address that however you feel like it (or not).  

 

MarJo03

Reverse cycling?