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Upstate NY Babies
Bad sleep habits
J did have a little period where he stopped sttn but it only lasted like 2 weeks and things were fine. The twins started teething at 4 mths and haven't slept through the night since. Last night Justin had to pee at midnight, then B was up at 245, nat was up for a bottle at 340, then B was up again at 400- 430 "talking" in the swing, then Nat was up at 600 again for a bottle. I'm losing my mind I'm so tired. B will go back to sleep if I put back in his paci and put him in the swing for a minute. Natalie... if she doesn't get a bottle within like 15 seconds she starts screaming as loud as she can. The twins share a room and Justin is right next door to them. I rush in with the bottle because I can't deal with all 3 up at 4am. It's been happening between 3:30 and 4:00 every.single.night I don't know if it's that she's truly hungry or I've just created a bad habit. I haven't really been pushing solids on them because Nat never seemed "ready" with her tongue reflex til like 2 weeks ago. So I guess the questions in all this rambling mess...
* How do you break the nighttime feeding habit (if this is a habit)? Especially if you have more than 1 kiddo...
*Would pushing the solids make more of a difference if it's that she's hungry?
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Re: Bad sleep habits
I really have no advice, especially for dealing w/ 2 babies. Do you really think she's hungry? Have you thought about doing some sleep training w/ her, now that she's closer to 6 months? I know it would be hard to let her CIO at all w/ B in the room too. There has got to be some way to sleep train twins though, right?! Do the girls on the multiples board have any advice?
Brew an extra pot of coffee today!
And good luck. I hope everyone sleeps better tonight!
DD didn't sleep through until she was 10mos old. We tried having DH go in instead of me and tried letting her CIO and after an hour of her crying I just would feed her-I figure it takes me 15min to feed her and get us all back to bed rather than us all being up for over an hour in the middle of the night. Even when we started solids, it didn't change anything overnight....even though everyone said when she started solids the waking would stop
I still rarely get a good night's sleep and mine are 2 and 4. If I let one cry, the other is up and wide awake. It doesn't take long before everyone is stressed right out, then everyone is miserable and grumpy all day. These are the days I want to quit being a mom. I think I have gotten more than 6 hrs of sleep just one night out of the last week, and it was last night, yay! On the sleepless days, I have found I need sugar with the caffiene to stay awake, and eye lid toothpicks. Since babyfood has less calories than nutrition than baby formula, I doubt feeding solids will really make a difference. 7-8 hours of night sleep is normal for babies that age.
No real advice...both boys dropped the nighttime feeding pretty early, but hopefully we do not experience the 4 month wakeful stuff people talk about..
Is she taking enough oz during the day? Maybe cluster feeding in the evening would help? A takes more bottles, closer together in the evening (he dictates this) and sttn.
Good luck!!
Ohh man, so sorry you are having such a rough time! I can't imagine! Do you have anyone that could come help you out during the day for a day or two so you could try and catch up on some sleep?
From studying and watching T, I'm really not too sure if I believe in "creating habits"...especially when it comes to stuff like eating. I really believe that they know what they need whether that's more sleep or more food, etc. I think 5 months old is still completely acceptable for middle of the night feedings. That's still really really young and if she's wanting to eat chances are she really needs it. Maybe she's going through a growth spurt right now. I always say their little bodies go through so much in such a short amount of time and when they are that young and can't talk to us, we really have no idea what they are going through and need to try and put ourselves in their shoes. I have had to give myself many of pep talks to get through some of these sleepless times and also remind myself to have patience and that none of these bad periods last forever...even if it feels that way right then. They are all phases and will pass.
I was also never a believer in the pushing solids wives tale early either. Our Ped told us it's a myth and that it really doesn't help them sleep better if anything it sometimes makes it worse because their digestive track is not mature enough yet to handle the food and know how to break it down.
We did sleep training by then - but I still fed them if they woke in the night. We did CIO/Ferber for naps and going to sleep at night so they learned to soothe themselves and then the night wakings slowed then stopped.
White noise is a BIG friend to our house!! Both kids have white noise machine in their rooms and we have a cheap-o box fan running in the hallway.
If B is fine - I would put him in a pack-n-play in your room and sleep train N in her room.
I'm sorry for the sleep deprivation!!!!!!!!!! Ugh - it's the worst.
Yep- I think we think alike. They have a "rain" noise machine and they were sleep trained in the 1st few months. From 6 wks until 4 months they would just fall asleep- no rocking, no bottles, no shushing- I thought I got so lucky. Now all the sudden it's like they've forgotten. I let them fuss/talk themselves to sleep before naps but it's like the in the middle of the night Natalie turns into a ravenous eater.
I doubt I'm the best source of advice; I don't have more than one child and DD just started STTN in the past couple of months, but...
DD didn't stop waking to eat until sometime around 12 months old. It was clear she was eating and not just seeking comfort so I didn't push it. Even at 17 months she's usually up around 5am for a feeding before going back to sleep for an hour or two.
Formula and breast milk have more fat and calories in them then any solids you'd be starting at this point, so I doubt you'd see much of an improvement with starting solids. I'd personally wait until they were showing developmental signs of being ready.
DD2 8.22.13
MMC 1.4.17 at 16w
Expecting #3, EDD 1.29.18