Night Feedings/waking

piedpiper07

DS does a total of at least 6 night feedings a night plus other wake ups.
Is it pretty safe to say he does not need all of those feedings?? How are you supposed to know? My mom is pushing CIO.. And I agree in some aspects that I can't run to him for every little noise, but at the same time not sure I have what it takes to really let him cry all night long.
Is there something in between to encourage him to drop feedings or sleep longer than 20 minutes at a time? I have tried no cry sleep solution, and have been trying since 6 weeks. He eats 3 meals a day and gets tons of milk. I just don't get it. Ideas?

kdjudd

I'm completely against crying it out. Some babies need more food and less sleep than others. It is possible that your baby is one of them. Have you read "The Fussy Baby Book" by Dr. Sears? If I was you I would check it out! You might be one of us lucky ones who has a high needs baby! My daughter is that way. The good news is that high needs babies tend to be more advanced, compassionate, and aware of their surroundings! They are a huge blessing.

Keep trying different things until you find something that works. For example, my daughter plays up until she gets drowsy which is usually anywhere between 9:30-12:30. Then I snuggle with her on the couch for about 30 minutes to an hour until she starts to squirm and get fussy. That is when I know she is ready to go to bed! Once she is in there she sleeps pretty well for a few hours. Then we normally have to get up and feed her, but after she eats she is back asleep and goes straight back to bed! 

jjt616

Are you nursing at night or bottle feeding? I ask because if you are nursing there is no way to know howich he is eating at each night feeding. If you are nursing try feeding him a bottle of expressed bm and that way you can see if he is truly hungry and needs to eat or if he is just sucking for comfort . I let dd CIO but she never cries for more than three minutes. If it was longer than that I wouldn't be able to just let her cry but that's just me.

acbfreire

My LO goes through phases where she wakes frequently to STTN. I believe that if she wakes up and needs comfort/ food I should be there.

She sleeps in her crib next to me. I let her fuss for a few minutes before picking her up. Sometimes she will go back to sleep. Sometimes it escalates and I pick her up and nurse her.

I nurse her on the couch and sometimes nap while she is eating. I found a safe position where she cannot roll of turn.

How often does your LO eat during the day? How are his naps?

piedpiper07

I am nursing so I really feel like I just can't let him cry. This is getting so frustrating!

piedpiper07

acbfreire:

My LO goes through phases where she wakes frequently to STTN. I believe that if she wakes up and needs comfort/ food I should be there.She sleeps in her crib next to me. I let her fuss for a few minutes before picking her up. Sometimes she will go back to sleep. Sometimes it escalates and I pick her up and nurse her.I nurse her on the couch and sometimes nap while she is eating. I found a safe position where she cannot roll of turn. How often does your LO eat during the day? How are his naps?

It's like pulling teeth to get him to nap. I spend the majority of my days attempting naps with him. He BFs every 1.5 hours and has 3 meals of solids a day. He is a big boy at 23 lbs and has been eating solids since 4 months.

jasminelorraine20

We don't do CIO, but DS also doesn't wake up as frequently as yours. He'll wake up at the most 2 times in the MOTN and I nurse him back to sleep both times. Maybe you can try sticking a paci in his mouth and soothing him back to sleep without feeding?

acbfreire

piedpiper07:

acbfreire:

My LO goes through phases where she wakes frequently to STTN. I believe that if she wakes up and needs comfort/ food I should be there.She sleeps in her crib next to me. I let her fuss for a few minutes before picking her up. Sometimes she will go back to sleep. Sometimes it escalates and I pick her up and nurse her.I nurse her on the couch and sometimes nap while she is eating. I found a safe position where she cannot roll of turn. How often does your LO eat during the day? How are his naps?

It's like pulling teeth to get him to nap. I spend the majority of my days attempting naps with him. He BFs every 1.5 hours and has 3 meals of solids a day. He is a big boy at 23 lbs and has been eating solids since 4 months.

When my LO naps well and I can put her in the crib, her nights suck. So lately, I am back to letting her nap on me - she wakes up as soon as I put her in the crib... I am mostly SAH now, so this is working for us. At night, what works best is for her to eat before 8pm, bath, the cluster feed from 8:30-10pm. If her last meal is late and she is too tired, she won't nurse enough and will wake as often as every hour.She can go as long as 6h on a good night. She sleeps is the crib at night.

Maybe you can play around with your LO's meal time at night and see if that helps. BM has more calories per once than solids,

violajack

We've recently gone from STTN or just one wake to feed to up every 2 hours or less. This is what I do. If it's been less than 2 hours since the last feeding, I offer the pacifier first. If he spits it out a few times, I will offer the breast after that. If it's been more than 2 hours since the last time he ate, I'll just offer the breast first. 

My DS has not been eating well during the day though, and I know he's taking in quite a bit of milk during the night feeds. He just won't nurse or nap while we're out anymore, so we come home and have marathon nursing sessions followed by long naps, but it's not enough and he still needs to eat a bunch over night.  

Danaz1

I say cry it out.  I used sleep easy he didn't wake up as much as yours did and he never cried more then 5 minutes. I disagree that some children don't need as much sleep  children need their sleep and naps.  You are going to go crazy if you don't do something soon.  Your child will not be hurt or hate you if you let him cry.  At some point they have figured out that crying equals mommy and food are there  even if they don't need it. 

MalloryRudy

Our Pediatrician told us that there was no reason to get up in the night to feed our LO and if we did, she would then associate falling back to sleep with having to eat.

emberlee3

Do you nurse in bed?  When DD was EBF, I bedshared and let her nurse as much as she wanted.  I had to wean her due to multiple food protein intolerance, and bottle feeding definitely sucks at night! 

There are lots of gentle sleep training methods, if you feel like you need to try something but don't want to CIO.  Do what feels right to you.  6 night feedings is a lot.  He definitely does not *need* to eat that often.  He may have a frequent need for comfort, though, and he gets that from nursing.