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Feeding/Sleeping through the night...
Just curious on when your babies started sleeping through the night.
D is nine weeks and gets fussy for his 3 am feeding, but when I pick him up and put his pacifier in, he falls back asleep on our bed and he'll sleep until 6...However, if I put him back in his crib we will do that dance for another hour until he wakes up and realizes he's hungry.
The doctor said let him sleep because he's a big boy and he's well nourished. However, I didn't explain that he falls back asleep only with us; a habit I am hoping to break soon. I also go back to work in a few weeks and I don't want to have to do that "dance" every night until he wakes up and then feeds. Any suggestions? Is it just a mtter of time before he adjusts himself?
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Re: Feeding/Sleeping through the night...
your baby is nine weeks, enjoy it while you can. Some babies sleep great from the first night they go home, some take a few months to sleep through the night and some take much longer. The later, is more common.
At 9 weeks, you are NOT creating a habit, you are just tending to your infant.
I think 9 weeks is too young also, babies don't know how much they weigh and that they're not supposed to be hungry just because they're a certain weight. Like you said, if you put the paci back and it works then he can probably drop that feeding. But, there may be a growth spurt in a few weeks where he will need that feeding again.
I am of the "whatever works" camp of parenting. THere are a lot of books that tell you what they're supposed to do at a certain age, but in my experience, babies don't read those books. You won't create a habit that little. I would put alexis in bed with us all the time and she napped in her swing almost exclusively until she was like 9 months old. I did the no cry sleep solution and it worked. She would wake up at night, sometimes once, sometimes more put it was no more than us putting the pacifier back in, but she was older - maybe 4 months.
IMO - do what works. If you're not comfortable co-sleeping then don't do it, but be flexible and remember that babies have their own timeline for STTN, and then when you think they've got it and are sleeping great, something will happen - teething, cold, phase, and they're back to waking up! good luck
So true! Your baby is still a newborn. You're responding to his needs.
If it's normal development to walk any time between 9 months and 18 months, then maybe there's a wide range of normal for STTN.
There are safe ways to cosleep including putting baby in an arms reach cosleeper. The bed has to be safe (firm surface, limit pillows and bedding), the parents have to be safe (not sleep deprived, no drugs- including cold meds, no alcohol etc) and the baby has to be safe (placed on his back.)
Dr Sears has a lot of sleep info on his site.
FWIW, Andrew STTN (the medical definition of 5 hours) around 11 weeks. Then it went a little crappy when he started teething and so on. He coslept with us and slept in his crip for naps. We had no problem getting him to sleep in his crib when it was time. He was ready for the move. But I still bring him into bed when he's sick or teething.
I think you do whatever you need for the entire family to get sleep. If you cosleep, just do it safely. There are ways to transition the baby to the crib when it's time.
It seems a bit early to me too. Mine is still eating in the middle of the night. She usually doesn't finish the bottle and falls asleep. It's much easier to feed her than to fight with her to go back to sleep. My older one didn't sttn till after 3 months old either.
You're probably not creating a pattern for him, he's still too small, but you're creating one for you. You'll fall right in to putting him in your bed every time you think he wants it, it'll come back and get you when he's older. We used to put DD1 in the car to get her to fall asleep when she was fussy, then we ended up having to drive in the car every night for like a year! It was our own fault. When we finally decided to just get her to sleep in her bed, after a few days of keeping at it she did, no need to drive. Didn't even make her cry it out, I just stayed in the room until she fell asleep. It was us who thought we had to drive.
Thanks ladies! Last night I tried as long as i could. I held off 1/2 an hour longer than normal before putting him in bed. However, he was grunting for like 45 minutes before that and I know that means gas (for him) so I put him on the bed to rub his belly and lift his legs and then we fell asleep.
I am co-sleeping safely! Thanks for the advice and I do love it, but anyone I mention that to freaks. I just need to follow my instinct I guess!
Thanks again!