How to achieve a deeper sleep....
After a month of waking every 2 hours (sometimes every hour), we are starting to make some sleep progress with DD (who will be 18 weeks/ 4.5months on Tuesday) but we still have a long ways to go. About two weeks ago, our pedi had us add in cereal 2X a day (am and pm) and suggested we do a little CIO. The first night, when she woke at 10pm (after going down at 8pm) as we knew she had a full belly, we let her cry for a short bit, she did not settle herself, so I went in and rubbed her belly and she fell asleep. That was the last time she woke at 10pm (yippeee)! But, since then, we have been unsuccessful in making any progress with any of her other wakings.
She next wakes at midnight (after eating and going down at 8pm) and goes right back to bed. But, she then wakes every 2 hours thereafter. We tried again to let her cry a bit and then go in and try paci and rub her tummy and never once (except that first time) has it worked. She refuses her paci, rubbing her tummy or head does nothing and she never actually settles back down and goes back to bed. The only think that will get her back to sleep (every time after midnight) is her bottle. She'll take 1.5-2oz and fall back asleep to then wake again two hours later. The CIO did not work, she gets so worked up she starts gagging and coughing and then she is so worked up you can't get her back to sleep.
My goal is NOT for her to sleep through the night but to get her feedings down to every 4 hours or so (which is the stretch she does when she first goes to bed). Also, before her sleep went to sh*t, she was down to waking only 1-2X a night (she got sick at Thanksgiving and that is when her sleeping fell asleep) so I know that is a stretch that she can do...
Any suggestions? It really seems that after the midnight feeding, she never really gets back into a deep sleep (i.e. more than two hours). We run a humidifier in her room as well as a sleep sheep. I really would like to work on the wakings after midnight a bit to see if she can drop one or two of the wakings....Help!!!!
Re: How to achieve a deeper sleep....
This could be the horrible 4 MW and a lot of us are just waiting it out. I have nights where she will sleep 12 hrs without a peep and then ones where she will wake twice during the night just for a paci and then other nights where we are running back and forth for a paci runs ALL night with a middle of the night feeding.
Have you tried maybe a later bedtime? When is her last nap? I think honestly it's the 4 MW and it will hopefully get better within in the next couple of weeks. GL
First off, it's great that you have a 4 hour stretch of sleep!!! Are you co-sleeping? I side-feed my little guy and that seems to make the waking up a little (just a little) easier and his falling asleep easier too. My little guy (just over 5 months old) has been waking up pretty consistently every 2-2.5 hours at night ever since he was born!!!!
There were two or three amazing days of a 5 hour stretch, but that was when I ignored his 2am crying...Anyway, I asked the lactation specialist about sleeping habits of breastfed babies and she said that it's still pretty normal to have a 4-5 month old waking up to feed every 2-3 hours. I guess that we just have to ride it out
I do suspect that the little guy's personality and hunger levels
have a bit to do with waking up at night as well. I haven't tried CIO because I know from experience (car rides, etc.) that my little boy is stubborn and can cry for an hour full-steam and just like yours, he'll start gagging and won't calm down.
Personally, I'm trying to work on daytime naps. Hopefully, getting the daytime naps in place will help him sleep better at night.