Attachment Parenting
Am I the reason she wakes up every hour?
My DD is 5mos & we've been bed sharing off & on since she was born, consistently the last 2mos. Lately at bedtime I've been able to nurse her in my bed & then get up & leave. Sometimes she's already asleep, sometimes she's not & puts herself to sleep. She will normally wake to nurse around 1am & 5am, up for the day @ 7am. Since last Sunday night she was been waking every.single.hour starting at around midnight. She fusses but isn't fully awake, DH can get her settled back down by patting her tummy for a few minutes but if I'm next to her she just fusses & starts crying until she gets booby. I can not continue like this, I'm sleep deprived & frustrated. I LOVE sleeping with her & really want to continue but am I the reason she keeps waking up & hasn't been sleeping well? Any thoughts or suggestions would be so appreciated!! TIA!
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Re: Am I the reason she wakes up every hour?
DS has been up every 1-2hrs at night for the past 2 months! I kept hoping he'd grow out of it. We don't bedshare but he's in our room in his crib and it's exhausting, won't go back to sleep unless he nurses. If I couldn't take naps with him during the day, I would be going insane by now.
Don't have any advice, but I can commiserate.
My baby and I have been in the same room since birth and she was a great sleeper, even STTN for months, until she hit 4 months. Now she's a nightmare (7 months). She's up every hour. She just never transitions into deep sleep. I think I've decided it's my snoring that is waking her during the transition
I'm just trying to tough it out and hope she gets used to it soon. It's a catch-22 because the less she sleeps, the more tired I get and the more tired I get, the louder I snore and the less she sleeps....
it could be the proximity of milk. it could also be milestone related - if she's just started/abou to start crawling or anything else, that will disrupt her sleep.
if you can swing it, maybe sleep somewhere else for a few solid hours - or take advantage of the weekend and get your h to be on morning duty while you catch up on sleep.
just like you have to put your own mask on 1st on an airplane, you have to make sure you're well rested - even if it means adjusting your sleeping arrangements.
fwiw - about that age we started putting baz to sleep in his room, and now he's there for most of the night - unless he's sick or teething and then he's in our bed around 1 or 2 am. he's on a floor bed.
good luck! and remember - in 13ish years, you're going to be wonder how in the world you kid can sleep 18 hours day ;-)
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There is a growth spurt around 6 months, sometimes it comes a little early. They want to eat round the clock or at least more frequently to help build your milk supply to support them as they grow. Since they can be busy little babies during the day and she is so close to you at night, she may be nursing more frequently at that time.
Try offering more milk during the day and letting her cluster feed before bed. The extra milk intake may help ease the waking at night. It's a stage and it will pass.
I can mostly offer sympathy...maybe a few suggestions.
That time frame is really difficult sleep-wise for lots of babies. We have always part-time bedshared, because I don't sleep well with DS in bed with us (not enough room, and he is attached to nipple ALL NIGHT LONG), but at that age and until 9 months, DS was waking up every hour to eat even in his crib!
What changed at 9 months (and I don't know what age this is appropriate for), is that I got really sick and DH had to try harder to sooth DS before just bringing him to me. We got him down to only waking up every 2-3 hours just by DH getting him back to sleep and DS realizing he wouldn't get food every time he woke up. It was hard, though. And we're STILL fighting with sleep issues at 18 months!
TBH at least in my case, I don't think we would've been able to make progress at all if DS were in our bed full time. But that is because of his personality more than anything, so maybe you'll have better luck!
This is the 4 month wakeful. I got a lot of advise from ladies on this board with older kids so I will try to 'pay back':
As PP says this is often a difficult period for babies sleep wise, my DD also started waking up every hour and went to wake up every 2. hour, pretty much until 8 months. The way I dealt with it was bedsharing. I simply lay down with her and fed her during the night whenever she woke up. DH and I also took shifts to go up to her when we weren't in bed yet (and she slept in her crib). After reading NCSS I tried not to nurse her to sleep but this had no effect on when she would wake up and how often during the night. I was not comfortable with CIO but at around 8-9 months we started leaving her for a few minutes in her crib, often whimpering and she would learn to fall back asleep herself. Still I always recommend reading both Ferber (second edition) and NCSS. They have lots of good advise and information and you can take what feels right and use it or try it out.
It is really tough and this is the age where I think many start CIO because it is so hard to wake up all the time. I'm sure it works for some but I didn't have the heart do do actual extinction CIO (and I don't believe in it as good parenting anyway).
Keep up the snuggles and remember this is just a phase (I know that is so easy to say on the other side, but DD sleeps really well these days and did since 11 month or so, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, LOL).
in response to the advice to try putting LO in their own crib or even in their own room to get them to sleep longer. We've been dealing with DS getting up every 1-2hrs for the past 2.5months now (redid the math from earlier post). Over 1.5months of that included trying him in his own crib in his own room and it made absolutely no difference for us- it just meant that I had to walk down the hall every time
Maybe that it would work for others though.
We're now back to co-sleeping/bedsharing again and hopefully DS will grow out of this phase eventually. He's currently teething again (got his 1st two at 4.5mos) and working on crawling- crossing my fingers that it'll get better once he's mastered that.