- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Breastfeeding
jlsimon56
member
Waking at night
jlsimon56
member
Oh let there be an end in sight.
My LO is 6 months and some days (correct age in ticker). First she had RSV, then she finally rolled back-to-belly so we stop with the swaddling....and now she is up at least 4x per night. Last night, she was asleep by 7:30, but was up at 10, 11:30, 2:30, and 4:30. I leave for work at 5 and she was cooing while DH changed a poopy diaper.... She will go to daycare at 8.
For the 10pm wakeup, DH says he shushed her back to sleep but it took awhile (I was sleeping, don't remember this). But the other wakeups, I fed her. I KNOW she can go longer at night - she used to only wake 1x per night, between 1am and 3am.
We put her in her crib awake and pat her bum to relax her. She jerks her head to the side a few times (weird?) and settles in. Lately, that has been taking longer and longer. We play the same CD (Diana Krall, pretty soothing). There is a nightlight that glows blue/green.
Oh! We also started giving foods. We are doing a combo of BLW and purees. So the only FOOD she's gotten is some pureed peas, and a chunk of banana bread that she swallowed very quickly. (I mention, in case this is a contributing factor?)
Routine goes like this: 6pm I nurse her. Then we turn the music on and she gets a fresh diaper, lotion, and PJs (she has eczema). Then we read Goodnight Moon (she just tried to eat the pages). Then I sit with her in the chair and tell her nice things about the day. Then I walk over to the crib, talking still, and lay her down. I tell her I love her, hope she sleeps well, and pat her bum a little. Then I leave, closing the door. This is around 7ish (nursing takes 20-30 minutes).
If she fusses, I leave her. If she CRIES, I go back in. and repeat the I love you, sleep well, and bum pats, then leave. Repeat until she is no longer crying. The bum patting has slowly taken longer and longer.
When she wakes at night, I bum pat first. That makes her scream more. So I pick her up. She sucks on my neck, and frantically grabs at my ponytail (I think that is just where her hands are, she's just grabbing at anything). So I feed her. She was always a slow nurser. So this takes 20-30 minutes. She pulls back so she's laying on my lap. If I pull her off the first side, she fusses. After the second side, she is asleep. I put her back in her crib. The dog barking does not wake her.
I do that each time she wakes, pretty much.
I need help. And more sleep. My morning commute is 45 minutes in the dark. I don't want to be sleepy for it!
I wrote everything out in case someone sees something huge that is an issue. We were using The Sleep Lady but she just says to go in a soothe the baby back to sleep. I need more details than that! We can't CIO b/c my heart would break. I've heard that babies freak out if they fall asleep in your arms and wake up in a different place (crib). True? Seems far-fetched.
Thanks.
P.S. I am posting here b/c I like this board best, and you all will understand how important BFing is to me. If I need to feed her all night, I will.
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Waking at night
To be completely honest, my daughter didn't consistantly sleep through the night until November at the age of 9 months. She had cholic and reflux and was generally a horrible sleeper her entire life. I slept through the night maybe 10 times prior to thanksgiving at 9 months old. At 6 months old, we did sleep training (CIO) and it worked wonders. It broke my heart to listen to her cry but we were able to put her down in her crib awake and she falls asleep on her own without fussing after we did it. It was amazing and it worked so well for us and our daughter. Our pediatrician said that at 9 months she should be able to sleep through the night and not have to eat so after Thanksgiving, we decided to cut out night feedings as she was waking around 2-3am every night to eat. She was old enough(9 months) to sleep through the night without getting fed. Since doing that, she occasionally wakes up and when she does, we don't even go into her room. We let her self soothe and fall back to sleep on her own. Now she's sleeping more often through the night- maybe once or twice a week she wakes up fusses for a minute or so but goes back to sleep on her own and we don't even get out of bed when she does it.
Long story short, but sleeping will come sometime. I would suggest maybe putting her to bed later and feeding her right before you put her down. Have you tried moving out her bed time? We played around with times and we found that a later bed time works the best for her and we adapted our bedtime routine around it: Our night time routine starts around 8:30 with a bath every night, clean diaper, lotion massage, brush teeth, Pj's, put her in her sleep sack, then we go into her room, turn on the humidifier, I feed her in the dark quiet room around 8:50 (there is a night-light) and then we go say goodnight to daddy and then turn on her sleep sheep and I lay her down awake. She's typically in bed by 9pm and sleeps until 6:30 when I feed her then she goes back to bed until 7:15 Monday-friday and sometimes as late as 9am on weekends.
Just go with the flow and it will get better... it has to get better, right? Good Luck!
Our end to the night wakings (for the most part) was sleep training at 6 months at the recommendation of our pediatrician. She basically said that he can go 8 hours without eating at that age, and it was time to teach him to self-soothe to sleep and to sleep at least 8 hours.
We did the sleep training (Ferber's method, more or less) and it worked wonders within a week. It's hard to listen to him cry, but our pedi was completely right that he was old enough and smart enough to start manipulating us. He knew if he cried, I would come get him and feed him, so he did it. A lot.
He used to sleep from 8pm to 6am (and we would have to wake him!) although lately he has started waking up at 4 or 4:30 and we have a hard time getting him back to sleep. Still working on that issue... he almost always wakes up between 1 and 2, coos a little, and goes back to sleep on his own.
I do think that they sleep better when they fall asleep in the same condition that they will wake up. If he falls asleep in my arms on the couch downstairs, and I put him in his bed without waking him up, he'll always wake up screaming at the 1/2 am waking.
When are you giving solids? I found that he slept better if I nurse him for his last meal. I know they say that solids keep them full longer, but not in my experience. (although I don't think that this would cause major sleep issues like waking every few hours).