March 2011 Moms
Any sleep training "experts" out there?
DD goes to sleep at night just fine and when she wakes up she is usually easy to get back to sleep. The problem is she wakes up anywhere from 2-8 times a night. I believe the 2 times are still needed for her to eat. she eats about every three hours during the day, is EBF, and no solids (except rice cereal for reflux). But when she wakes up more than that it is because she want the paci or rolled over funny or whatever. Is there any sleep training method that addresses lowering the number of wakings at night or anything that has worked for you?
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Any sleep training "experts" out there?
We were up every 2 hours at night until about 4 months. We EBF and haven't started any solids. Now we are only getting up maybe once. I think there are all these different methods that you could look into which may or may not help. I've heard really good things about the baby whisperer. Personally I just think that they will just keep getting up until their body is ready to sleep longer.
Sometimes I wake up every couple hours at night. Some nights I wake up hungry in the middle of the night (like last night I totally wanted a meal at 3am). I think that she will eventually get it. I tried getting my husband to get up with her but I would wake up anyway so I just would go and nurse her back to sleep.
This is totally off topic. Do you feed on demand during the day? I've been reading posts on the breastfeeding board about people only feeding 4 times a day. Alice wants 4 feedings before noon. I"m sure she eats like 10-12 times a day (I can't keep track). She is a porker almost 17lbs at 4.5 months. About how many "meals" does your daughter get in during a typcial day?
I don't mind waking up two times to feed her. It is on the nights that I have to wake up more than that to put her back to sleep that I hope to get some help with. I am a SAHM so I don't wake DH up during the week unless I'm really frustrated, but on the weekends when I do, it is the same as you, kind of pointless because I hear her cry first and have to wake him up anyway, so I kind of might as well do it myself!
As for feeding, I fed on demand at first and at my 6 week appointment, my midwife suggested spending a long weekend working to stretch her to 2 hour intervals because I was frustrated with sometimes feeding after 2 hours and sometimes after 10 minutes. She said DD was definitely capable of going 2 hours between feedings. That weekend we gave her her paci, played with her, and generally distracted her until it was about 2 hours and after a few days of that, she normally stuck to that routine. As she has gotten older the amount of time between feedings has gradually lengthened on its own and now she normally eats every 3-4 hours during the day. I think she eats about 8 times in a 24 hour period. She is 5 months and weighs about 15 pounds. Hope that helps!
Not an expert but I have been reading "Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child" - great book- and I think the advice would be to go to DD only when you think she is hungry. So if it has been 3-4 hours after you have fed her. Otherwise let her try to get back to sleep herself. She will never learn this is she doesn't practice it. Yes she might cry and some people think this is horrible. Make your own judgement.
Decide how long you think it is acceptable for her to cry. WATCH THE CLOCK-5 minutes can seem like 30 if you don't. If she reaches your predecided limit go in and soothe her. She may surprise you and go back to sleep herself. I have done this and my baby only wakes up 2 times a night to feed.
Think about getting this book. It actually gives times for naps based on age and gives real advice - not just vague suggestions. BTW DD takes 3 naps a day and last week the afternoon one was at least 2 hours and she goes to bed by 8 pm and sleeps to 8:30 am. Not record setting - but a great improvement from where we were.
I nurse LO at 11ish and then not again until 5 or later. If he wakes up in between, I don't go in. It took some getting used to (those first few nights were hard, but he's getting the idea). At 5+ mo, your LO def can go more than 3 or 4 hours at night without eating..she's getting the calories she needs during the day. She is going to call for you as much as you're willing to go to her. If that's 8 times, she'll call 8 times. You're treating her like she's a newborn and it's a slippery slope.
I've read Mindell, Ferber, Weisbluth and Bogg. I'm no expert but I've done a lot of research on sleep and it has become a bit of an obsession (ask DH lol). Good luck!
So Carinamarie... How long do you let your son cry? I'm just curious b/c we did Ferber with our older son and it worked great. We did it at 4 months with Marcus and it definitely cut down on the waking, but recently he's been waking up two or 3 times at night. He'll nurse then be awake, then scream. The other night he was up for 2 hours. I tried Tylenol as well, thinking it may be teething.
I know that he sometimes needs to cry. At naps, I put him down when he's rubbing his eyes and I have to let him fuss/cry once or twice before my patting or popping a binky in will work.
Make a pregnancy ticker
this only I have yet to follow it as strictly as the book mentions as well. My pedi said to do this when I/he is ready
Great book though, I rec as well!