Help with night wakings
kacelle
member
DD had been a phenomenal sleeper since birth...until this week. Up until this week, she'd been sleeping 7:30 to 5:30 or 8 to 6 fairly consistently, but occasionally waking around 3:30 to eat and then going right back to sleep (which I was okay with). Even during growth spurts, she'd only wake up once or twice to eat and make up for it during the day.
This week, she's been up more than she has been since she was 2 weeks old or so. Her first and longest stretch is about 4 hours (although tonight she woke after fewer than 3 hours of sleep) and the subsequent stretches are anywhere between 1.5 and 3 hours. She is still eating every 2-2.5 hours at least during the day, mostly BF but taking a 4-4.5 ounce bottle of BM every now and then.
I'm at a loss for what to do about night wakings. When she wakes, she refuses a pacifier (she doesn't typically need one to fall asleep at bedtime) and will not calm unless I nurse her. I don't think she's hungry, as she nurses for a couple of minutes and then lazily sucks in her sleep after that. I usually nurse her for 5 minutes or so and then put her back in the crib asleep. I feel like maybe she just isn't able to self-soothe at all anymore, although around 2 months she was great about falling asleep when placed down drowsy but awake. I've been putting her in the crib totally asleep since she falls asleep nursing, but should I be rousing her slightly before placing her down? Maybe the problem is that she wakes in the middle of the night but can't fall back to sleep without nursing? I don't want to leave her fussing in the middle of the night; it always escalates into crying and I don't think she's ready for CIO. I also worry that she might actually be hungry, but I don't think she needs 4 feedings between 8 and 6.
Sorry for the novel, but I'd love any insight from moms who have been through the same thing!
BFP #1 9/7/10, EDD 5/14/11, Violet born 5/27/11.
BFP #2 4/9/12, EDD 12/16/12, M/C Rory 4/24/12.
BFP #3 10/6/12, EDD 6/16/12., Matilda born 6/17/13.
Re: Help with night wakings
And that is why I gave up on trying to cut back on our co-sleeping. We were doing better and better up until about a month ago, and then everything went to crap. He's been waking that frequently for weeks now, and I'm not really in the mood to play hardball when we're going on vacation in 2 weeks and it will all come undone anyway.
I wish there was a nice easy answer, but I don't think there is.
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Ditto. But after nearly 4 weeks of this behavior, he slept straight from 9:30-6:30. It was probably a fluke, but there is hope
charlotte had been doing this for almost a month and i asked the docotr about it. he suggested sleep training and said it will probably come down to using cio. he also suggested moving her to her own room rather than mess up her sleep again when we do. so, friday night we did cio and i got less sleep than when i just get up to nurse her. last night, night two, she slept from eight to eight and only got up at two thirty and five fifteen. i got the most sleep since before she was born.
i didnt think i wanted to do cio or move her to her own room yet, but im glad i did. if id known how it would go, id have done it well before now.
Define "did CIO".
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We are also. DD used to only get up between 1 and 2 for a bottle and was always able to self soothe and go back to sleep if she woke up. She has been in her crib since 6 weeks old.
Now she is in "crazy" mode at night and is all over the place and freaks out and can't go back to sleep until me or DH go in, give her a pacifier and pat her back.
I hope we can all get sleep soon. I feel like a zombie most days...
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DS has never been a good sleeper, but since a few weeks ago he started waking up every two hours again (he used to wake up once or twice with stretches from 4-6 hours). He has never used a paci, at all, and he won't go back to sleep unless he eats, sometimes are full feedings, nursing for up to 30 mins and sometimes it's only 5 mins or so and I think it's only a matter of not being able to soothe himself, although almost every time I can place him back on his pnp still awake and he'll fall asleep right away. Sorry, I have no answer for you, but my point is, I'm, OK with him waking up because I'm not ready to sleep train him, I doubt we'll ever use CIO so to me it's just normal behavior from a 4 month old baby, so I just deal.
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This exactly. Ugh, so sorry!
i went in to pat, shush, replace paci at increasing intervals. usually after the second or third time she quieted down. hense why i got little sleep that night...i had to wait and watch the clock to go get her each time she woke up. and she was up at a lot
Thanks for a few more details. I think when you're telling people that things went well, we all want to know exactly what you did.
I do think I'll end up doing some sleep training soon, but I do think anything I do is doomed by vacation so I'm not in a hurry to do it only to have to do it again.
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I wouldn't be either. If you are going to do it, wait until you and DH can put your full attention to the task. It's often a daunting (yet gratifying) one.
GL.
Lisa had some good suggestions. DD has been waking up twice a night for awhile. I started cutting down on the amount of time she would spend on the breast and then put her back in the crib. Just last week she started waking up only once before she's up again at 5am. It's amazing how much better I felt just having to wake up once. It's been 6 days so far of her only waking up once. Only I'm not sure what happend last night but she was up 3 times. I think she didn't get enough to eat before she went to bed though. She kept getting distracted.
Yep. Here too.
Aw, I love to hear this!! And I think I've mentioned it before to a few of you, but it's really important that they get those cals in during the day. If Cece even misses 2-4 oz, it throws her off big time.
kacelle, your Violet sounds a lot like my son. I was his pacifier for many months. If you have to soothe her with the breast, go ahead and do that, but limit the time in the MOTN. Get her CALM and then put her down.
The pick up/put down method eventually worked really well for him. We could go in and kind of sway with him, he'd calm down and I'd lay him in the crib. No more breast. He'd get ticked, but if it wasn't a "rage" cry (I say that a lot, and I hope you guys know what I mean!) I let him fuss.
Also, you can try and stretch her feedings. This might really benefit her overall sleep. Just try and hold her off. I know you want to keep doing it on demand, but at some point...I feel like that has to stop. (gah, I said it) I did this w/ DS around the 3 month mark, because I was also feeding him every 2 at that point. Just stretch her in 10-15 min increments. Do it consistently and see what happens. It shouldn't affect your supply, either. It didn't mine
I used to worry about trips, weekends away etc., but to be honest those things haven't really negatively effected DD's sleeping. I just try my best to be as consistent as possible while we are away (same bed time routine). I worried a lot and DD seemed to get right in the groove quickly.
We won't be able to keep things the same while travelling. I'll be sharing a room and likely a bed with him. It isn't the right time FOR ME to do sleep training right now.
He is actually going back to a more reasonable sleep stage. He was waking often in his first sleep chunk; now he's back to sleeping solidly from 8 to somewhere between 12 and 2. That might not sound like enough to those of you that are STTN, but it's progress for us. I'm back to feeling good during the day. If he feels good and I feel good, that's what I'm after.
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