Ok, those of you who have babies younger than mine (my ds is 3 months) and you talk about how your babies are already sleeping six hours make me want to cry!
My DS is still only sleeping 2 hours at a time. Once in a blue moon I can get 3 hours out of him. What am I doing wrong? I swaddle him, he goes to bed with a full belly. Ugghh, will this ever get better? I am so tired!
Re: Sleep
I'll speak up and tell ya we didn't get more than 4-5 hours out of Abby until about 4-6 months old or something! She was totally an "up every 2-3 hours to eat" kind of baby.
If you're breastfeeding, Can your DH pick up a feeding that you pump earlier in the day? Just a straight 4-5 hours of sleep would probably do you wonders if you're still doing every feed (I did, so I know!) As always, try to feed him (nurse on demand etc) as much as you can during the day so that hopefully he'll get his fill of calories and be able to go a tad longer at night.
The good news is, it WILL get better. I promise
Day by Day it doesn't seem like it but month over month it will!
DH does try to pick up one feeding at night, but DS does not care for bottles at all. We may be able to get him to drink 1 ounce, so then he wakes up less than an hour later and wants to eat again.
Thank you Taytee. It really helps so much to hear that someone else does or did not have a perfect sleeping baby. Maybe I am too sensitive but it makes me feel like I am such a terrible mom and all alone when I constantly hear about people saying that their babies sleep beautifully. I cant help but think that I am doing everything wrong.
I've just heard that BM has lots more water in it, so it is more easily digested, thus babies wake up more often to eat. Formula, not so much. So if you're BF--and it looks like you are, from your responses--that's why your baby wakes up a lot more often. We supplement (heavily) formula and our guys regularly sleep 5-7 hour stretches at night. I find that if I have pumped more BM and added it to their bottles, they have shorter sleep periods (i.e. if I have more BM to make half and half for their bottles, then they're getting more BM during the day, instead of the crap amount I usually get).
Sorry you're not getting much sleep. The swaddle and elevating one end of their mattress have helped us a lot. As well as playing a heart beat (some noise machine we have) have helped. Good luck.
Oh, I'm so sorry! I know you must be at your wits end by now. Are you FF or BF? Maybe adding a little rice cereal to the bedtime bottle/nap time bottle would help. I put in 1tsp for every scoop of formula; or 1tsp for every 2oz of BM. And then use a #2 nipple since it makes a bit thicker. (this also helps for babies w/reflux too)
What about a white noise machine or air purifier in his room? Is his room dark/cool enough?
I'm jealous! We EFF and DD only sleeps 3-4 hours at a time.
The Blog
maybe the boys keep each other company so they don't wake up as often. Caroline wants to see her mommy, so she wakes up a lot more.