Mornings suck- Please help!

mamatotwins0812

I am about to lose my mind and need some suggestions bc I'm clearly doing something wrong. My boys go to sleep at 9:30pm. Normally they sleep til 2:30 (although sometimes only 1:30) and then they are up to eat. After I change, feed and pump, I am back in bed at 4. One LO will only sleep until 5 am (so 2 hours for him, 1 hour for me) and then the only thing I can do is bring him in bed with me where we play the paci game (he drops it out I put it back in) for an hour until I then tell DH to feed them. Right now (7am), he is up again after eating at 5:30, so only took a 1 hour snooze. 

In addition, my other LO refuses to eat his early am bottle. My DH will usually get him to take an ounce if he's lucky. Therefore he isn't really eating from between 3 am and the next feeding at 10am. Right now he's wide awake too so I thought, oh good he's hungry, but I tried feeding him and he wants nothing to do with it. He's just up.  

My dilemma is that I cannot go on like this for much longer. I am basically getting my 4-5 hour block (on a good night) and then that's it for me. It's been 3 months and I feel like I literally am never going to sleep again (mind you this dilemma is newish, I was up way more frequently in the beginning).  Second dilemma is my LO not eating. He eats well throughout the rest of the day, sometimes leaving some but finishing for the most part, but how can a little guy go 7 hours without eating?? He's doing it no problem then but can't do it at night. Clearly if he was hungry he'd eat but I'm the one who is freaked out. I thought it was supposed to get better as time goes on but it seems to be getting worse for me. Sigh. 

Please help ladies, I am a tired, tired mama!!! 

jcath

Have you tried a dream feed? It sounds like at least one of yours is ready to go for a while without eating - it's just the wrong timeslot.  I always heard by 12 lbs or 12 weeks babies could go 8 hours without eating (doesn't mean they will, just they can) Dreamfeed's don't work for every baby but it worked great with my oldest son.  Put them down normal time - wake them up between 11 and midnight, feed them in the dark and quiet, put them right back down and hope that holds them past that 1-2 feeding.

Worth experimenting a few nights. 

emilyec1

I wish I had a solution for the early morning start but I did want to say I am in the same situation! My guys have a feeding around 5 am but they never sleep very well afterward. They'll have fitful sleep for about an hour and then the want to be up after that. I have been letting my DH off duty for night feedings as long as he starts helping out around 5 am when he usually wakes up. He'll try to get one to sleep and will take the one who is crying more into the nursery to rock them. I usually get at least another half an hour to hour out of the deal before he has to get ready for work. At 7 I give up and start the day with them. I am definitely tired and sleepy at that point still!

mamatotwins0812

I know this will probably sound ridiclous but I havent tried the dream feed because of the lack of sleep I am getting as it is. I figured if I could go to sleep right after their last feeding, at least I would get 4 hours potentially under my belt. If I wake up again to feed them I am only getting 2-3 hours. Back when they were tiny still I dropped the 11pm feeding because they werent waking up for it at all. I wonder if the same would be true now. I just feel like we are moving backwards. When I started the new schedule they slept until 3 and then again until 7, that lasted about a week and now we are 2 steps back. Sigh.

erinruns

I agree with pp that you need to move his timeslot up.  Can you cluster feed in the evenings before they go down at 9:30?  Maybe that would fill him up enough that he would get his 7 hour stretch in then?  I would keep offering the 7am bottle, since that is the schedule you want him eventually on.  Keep in mind there are a certain number of ounces they need in a 24 hour period, you just want to try to redirect when they eat them.

For the LO that gets up at 5am, my motto was always if it is still bedtime, you're in your crib.  I would try to keep him there so again, he gets used to sleeping where you want him to.  Around this age was when I pulled the pacifier since it became too much of a nuisance. 

mamatotwins0812

erinruns:

I agree with pp that you need to move his timeslot up.  Can you cluster feed in the evenings before they go down at 9:30?  Maybe that would fill him up enough that he would get his 7 hour stretch in then?  I would keep offering the 7am bottle, since that is the schedule you want him eventually on.  Keep in mind there are a certain number of ounces they need in a 24 hour period, you just want to try to redirect when they eat them.

For the LO that gets up at 5am, my motto was always if it is still bedtime, you're in your crib.  I would try to keep him there so again, he gets used to sleeping where you want him to.  Around this age was when I pulled the pacifier since it became too much of a nuisance. 

 Prior to 9pm I feed them at 6 (they eat every 4 hours during the day other than this feeding which is 3. Would you suggest I feed them 2x between 6 and 9?? I JUST started formula/BM mixed but prior to that my good eater was getting the last feeding as a full formula bottle (hoping the supplemented one who keep him fuller and last longer) and my picky eater (better sleeper) was getting all BM.