Babies: 3 - 6 Months

STTN Question

Ok, I am in shock because the past 2 out of 3 nights my LO has STTN. 

Sat night she slept from 8-6:30 am without waking for a feeding.
However, Sun night she woke twice--and I think it's because she got thrown off on her bedtime. She didn't go to bed until 9 because I decided to go to a church function and we got home late. She was so tired she barely wanted to nurse before bed so I don't think she got a full feeding in. She woke up at 11 and wouldn't go back to sleep w/o nursing but she only nursed for like 5 min then was out, so I don't think she was truly hungry. Then she woke up again at 4 and had a full feeding then. 
Then last night she slept from 7:50-6:15 am without waking. So I don't know if this is going to be a sporadic thing or what.

So, my question is..now that I know she can go all night without eating, how do I know if/when I'm supposed to feed her or not when she wakes? Before this she usually went a 6-7 hour stretch and then the past week or so it turned into 8 or so hours before waking 1-2x a night to eat.
I don't have a problem nursing her if she wakes, I just wonder if I should set a time, say 8 hours from the time she went to sleep, and try to get her back to sleep without nursing if possible, unless of course she is actually hungry. (Also this sounds good in my head but most times she will NOT go back to sleep without nursing, she won't necessarily be crying but she'll fuss or just keep her eyes open and look all around forever and never fall asleep until she nurses).

I also realize growth spurts and other things may cause her to want to nurse more than usual. I am just new to this whole STTN thing and wanted to know what you mamas do if you have a baby that STTN but wakes occasionally.

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Re: STTN Question

  • And I realize this might sound like a stupid question to some, it's just that sometimes it's hard to know if she's truly hungry at night or not, because I just recently got her to start taking the paci for naps...and she will take it sometimes at night, but alot of times wants to nurse back to sleep.
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  • I always try to soothe DS back to sleep without nursing first to make sure he is actually hungry.  He was STTN and then took a turn and was up three and four times a night for about three weeks so we decided to start stretching him back out.  Of course, since nothing goes as planned he chose the same night to start stretching his sleep out on his own!!  My plan was to make him go 3 hours between feedings no matter what, the next night 3.5, next 4, and finally 5.  This is what Ferber recommends.  He has actually increased the time between overnight feedings on his own by an hour a night for the last couple nights so I'm not worrying about it.  At this point, after 5 hours of sleep if shushing, rocking, etc, won't work I'll feed him, but part of that is because he is so tiny.  If he was a bigger kid I might lean toward a longer time span.  

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  • First, I would try to break off nursing her to sleep.  You'll never know then if she wakes if she is hungry, or just wants comfort.

    Once my lo started sleeping long, but inconsistant, streches, and I knew she was able to go all night without a feeding, I would go through a list of things before offering her food.  I would offer a paci first, then pat or place my hand over her arms/chest to quiet her down, shush her, and retuck her arms in her swaddle.  If she was still fussy, I'd pick her up and burp her as sometimes it was just gas.  Then try bouncing her on the excercise ball for a minute or two.  if none of those worked, then I fed her. 

    Also, for us a tell tale sign was if her eyes were open or closed.  if they were open when I went in, or right after I picked her up, then I knew she was awake & hungry so I could skip right to the bottle.  If her eyes stayed closed while she cried, then I knew she just wanted to be soothed back to sleep.

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  • That is the 1 million dollar question. My LO was sleeping through the night and now he is getting up several times a night and a few nights ago was up 5 times ugh! I first try to give him the paci and pat him to sleep/put on his music, if that doesnt calm him quickly i will feed him. I have been able to get him to sleep without feeding which I was surprised because previously he was nursing before bed and then sleeping until 4 nursing and then going back to sleep for a few hours, I was afraid he would want to nurse every time. Hopefully he will sleep again soon.

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  • I'm kind of in the same situation as you.  Last night my lo slept from 7pm until 5:30am without nursing.  He did wake up around 12am a few times but I just stuck his pacifier back in his mouth and he fell right back to sleep.  Usually he wakes up two times a night and I just feed him because I'm never sure if he's really hungry or not and I know he will go right back to sleep.  I think I'm going to stick to my guns and try not to feed him until 5:30am and see what happens.  I just hope this lasts!!
  • imagemeg211:

    First, I would try to break off nursing her to sleep.  You'll never know then if she wakes if she is hungry, or just wants comfort.

    Once my lo started sleeping long, but inconsistant, streches, and I knew she was able to go all night without a feeding, I would go through a list of things before offering her food.  I would offer a paci first, then pat or place my hand over her arms/chest to quiet her down, shush her, and retuck her arms in her swaddle.  If she was still fussy, I'd pick her up and burp her as sometimes it was just gas.  Then try bouncing her on the excercise ball for a minute or two.  if none of those worked, then I fed her. 

    Also, for us a tell tale sign was if her eyes were open or closed.  if they were open when I went in, or right after I picked her up, then I knew she was awake & hungry so I could skip right to the bottle.  If her eyes stayed closed while she cried, then I knew she just wanted to be soothed back to sleep.

    I was thinking I might stop nursing to sleep before bed. I've stopped doing it before naptime successfully, but kept doing it as part of our bedtime routine because she was only waking up 1-2x and I was fine with that. However, there have been several nights lately that she really didn't want to nurse completely to sleep and she would take the paci to go to sleep, it's just getting her to take it to go BACK to sleep when she wakes up. Maybe changing up the order of our bedtime routine would help though. 

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  • I have no issues nursing LO to sleep at night, so personally, I do it and will continue to. What I do is the pull-off method as she is falling asleep. It's in the No Cry Sleep Solution book. She usually sleeps from 8:30 until I wake her around 6am.

    That said, my daughter makes it preeeeetty clear if she's hungry or not (sucking on whatever she can find, drooling, specific cry). The paci won't cut it and she's not interested in being soothed if she's hungry. After some trial and error, I think you'll know what to do :)

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  • So this was the million dollar question that seemed to open a big can of worms when I asked it last week or so on tb. Regardless, this is what I have decided... If DS wakes up before midnight, I give him his paci and he konks back out asap. If there is an odd night where he is really upset or seems hungry, maybe due to an off night or not full bedtime feeding, like you described, then I'd happily feed him, it happens. When he does wake up and he has been wide awake, upon picking him up, he seems very hungry-- mind you his first (and only) wake-up has been around 5/6 am. So my new rule is, if it has been a while after his bedtime, then I feed him. The Sleep Lady book says you can choose to do a set-time feeding to try to eradicate night time feeds, but whether choosing to do the first wake-up, as long as its 4 hours past bedtime, or the first wake-up past midnight. I have been following this and it seems to be working for me. She says if your LO is still 'early rising' for a feed around 5/6am, then wanting to go back to sleep, it can be dealt with later on by slowly going in 15 mins later each time (but I guess you'd have to let them fuss for this). HTH!
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  • I feed my daughter every time she wakes up and I've never had any issues. If she fills up enough she sleeps 8-10hrs. If not, she wakes up and I feed her for 10min and she falls right back to sleep. I don't find it to be a problem at all. It would probably take me longer to rock her back to sleep. 
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  • I'm not nursing, but I always tried every other method I had available to me to get her back to sleep before feeding.  I had to, because unnecessary feedings led to inevitable spit-up.  My list of night time interventions went in this order:

    1. Ignore, see if she'll go back to sleep on her own 

    2.  Give her a pacifier (I would go right to this first if she was really crying instead of just fussing)

    3. Rock her (this was when she was sleeping in her RnP--by the time we moved her out of it she was no longer waking at night)

    4. Pick her up and change her diaper, then try and put her back down.

    5. Feed her.  If she was still upset by that point, she was hungry.

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  • Thanks for the responses! They were all helpful!
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