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It was nice while it lasted...
After 5 months of pure luck and having a wonderful sleeper - my 5 month old has started regressing in her sleep. Basically, since she was a couple weeks old she would sleep at least 4-5 hours at a time, wake up for a feeding, and then immediately back down for another 4-5 hours. It was wonderful. I even thought we skipped the 4-month wakeful when she started sleeping 8pm-4am straight without even stirring. Lately she's been fighting bedtime (she's really cute about it, since she just wants to smile and play with us) and is waking up between 1-2am for a feeding and then every couple hours after that. The only thing that quiets her down is nursing for now, although I don't think she's hungry since she only nurses for a little while before she's back asleep.
I recently ordered Ferber's book and we're starting solids this weekend, so I'm hoping we can start sleep training at 6 months, but in the meantime I'm exhausted.
I was at the pedi yesterday for a follow-up appointment and she said this recent sleep thing could be related to a bunch of things - teething, separation anxiety, etc. I'm going to see if moving her bedtime up earlier will help in the meantime. Man, a 4 am wake-up call sounds downright dreamy right about now...
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Re: It was nice while it lasted...
have you tried doing a dream feed? maybe if you made her bed time a little earlier and then fed her around 10 or 11 before you go to bed, that would pre-empt her waking in the middle of the night. I know it's worked for several of the moms on here (including me!).
best of luck to you!!
I have no advice for this post because I just wrote a post about sleeping myself with very similar questions
. We must've been writing them about the same time.
I'm so glad I read this because I TOTALLY forgot about the dream feed. It's amazing how much stuff I forget. For a long time DD#1 "STTN" but I forgot that DH used to get her out of the crib and give her a bottle around 10pm before he went to bed. It's time to reinstitute the dream feed!
DD really has been teething non-stop but the only teeth that have really bothered her were the first 2 on the bottom and the first 2 on the top and only for the week before they broke through. I didn't *know* it was teething until after the fact, but I suspected. She would scream when we laid her down (it's not uncommon for it to be worse laying down and worse at night). Night 2 I tried some tylenol, and that really helped. So that week she got tylenol before she went to bed. And then a week later - a tooth appeared and it confirmed my suspicion.
Off to the beach
DS 7/18/2010
Handy 2.0 Due Early August
2011/2012 Races
12/17/2011 Christmas Caper 10K
2/11/2012 Have a Heart 5K
3/17/2012 DC RNR Half Marathon
4/22/2012 10M Parkway Classic
10/28/2012 Marine Corps Marathon
my pedi recommends sleep training after 9mo, not before so I didn't attempt anything before then
This. And she's getting close to 6 months so it could be a growth spurt as well. If this is the only interruption of sleep you've had with your wonderful sleeper, what's the rush to sleep train? Give her a few weeks to get through whatever milestone she's working and I'm sure she'll get back in a groove.
TTC #1 Cycle 14 - IUI#1=BFN, IUI#2=BFP | TTC #2 Cycle 8=BFP!!
we've had similar challenges, except that DS doesn't like to stay asleep when he goes down at 7, or 8. Only if it's super late, like 9 will he stay asleep for a few hours before waking to eat. Things got a little better when we introduced cereal and other food and made sure to feed him food around 6, then do our bedtime routine and nurse around 7, then to bed by 7:30. He was on a decent routine of waking up around 10:30 or 11, then 3, then 7. Still more than I'd like, but not unbearable.
The last few nights though, he was waking up every 3 hours or so. So, last night I decided to make sure he ate really well and try a dream feed - and it worked!! Here's what we did in case it helps:
I fed him fruit and cereal with breastmilk (since he tends to eat that better than veggies), it was about 4.5 oz total around 6pm. Then we skyped my parents, read two books, got into jammies, and nursed. I put him down around 7:30. He woke up briefly around 8:30 but just had to give the paci and he went back to sleep no problem. Then around 11:15 I dream-fed, never tried it before but it must have worked. He didn't stir until about 6am, and then he put himself back to sleep without fussing until I woke him up at 7:30! I will absolutely be doing this again tonight, let's hope it keeps up!
Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I don't want to sleep train if I don't have to, but I want to be informed about it to see if it's something we need to do in the future, possibly at 6 months if I think we're ready. I think she is just naturally a good sleeper but I got concerned when she was waking up 3-4 times a night for food because that's not like her and I know she doesn't need that much milk at night since she eats fine during the day. I would be happy to just hold her and rock her until she went back to sleep but all she wanted to do was nurse. There's a lot going on right now - DCP is on vacation so we've had both sets of grandparents visiting and taking turns watching her, she was sick and I'm sure the teething isn't helping. I'm hoping next week whens she goes back to her regular routine, she'll start sleeping a little better. If not, we'll work it out!
UMDbride - We are going to be starting solids this weekend (she's VERY interested in our food lately) so I hope that will help her sleep a little more soundly. Thanks for offering up your routine. I hope it continues for you! Keep us posted.