question formoms whose babies sleep through the night...

pischkepear · August 2012

Do you wake your baby to feed before you go to bed. I have read that it can help them sleep longer, but my husband is cautioning me from waking a sleeping baby. I've noticed that she sleeps for a longer stretch when bed time is around 10:30, but recently she has given up her evening nap and we've been moving bedtime closer to 9:00. A good night we get a 5 hour stretch before waking. more commonly 2-3 hour sleep periods.

thanks!

angelfire02 · August 2012

I don't know how common it is but our babies kind of moved their own bedtimes earlier and we just followed their cues. So they started out with a late night bottle at like 1100pm, then moved it to like 10, 9, and when they were still sleeping through the night when they ate at 9, we just went back from there. Now if they eat around 7/730pm, they will stretch until 7/730am. I also won't go get them up before 630, unless they are screaming. They have started to nap better also, they are only awake for 60-90 minutes before they go back down and it has made a huge difference for us.

JulesFo · August 2012

pischkepear -- love your LO's name-- it's mine as well.

For awhile, I would do a sort of dreamfeed around 10, then started moving it closer to 9. I decided to drop it once she would either:

- stay asleep and barely eat

- she'd wake up and still not eat all that much

WIth these 2 things, I felt I was more disrupting her sleep than adding to it. I'd say try it, then follow her cues....try a dream feed and see how it works for you guys.

mommasqueak · August 2012

time depends for us, from night to night, some nights her last feeding ends at 8:30pm and other nights her last feeding is 10:30pm, regardless of the timing, she will stay asleep for 8-9 hours ever night. i have noticed that she will feed for a good 30-60 minutes for her last feeding of the night, so she kinda choses for herself i guess, she will fall asleep at my breast, and if i can transfer her over to her swing without waking her up, she tends to stay out for the night.

she started sleeping through the night for us, about 2 1/2 weeks ago. just kinda did it on her own.

i make sure the lights are out, and our tv is on mute (we sleep in the same room atm) and she has a little triceratops night light i keep on for her. no matter the time of it, between 8-10pm i try to keep the routine the same. i don't talk or make faces, i just hum, or do the shushes, if she happened to wake up.

right now, every now and then, she will awake in the middle of the night with a sharp cry/whine, and i quickly get her binky in her mouth, and it seems to soothe her enough to fall back asleep.

i NEVER wake a sleeping baby. my lux seems to enjoy her sleep VERY much, and unless she really is hungry, she won't eat. feeding on demand has taught me her hunger cry, and unless that is it, she won't feed. she will refuse the breast flat out.

freezorburn · August 2012

I nurse DS to sleep and he usually goes down for the night around 9:30pm, but he occasionally has a fussy night where he goes to bed closer to 11pm. We usually do a night feeding around 2 am and then our next feeding after that is as early as 6 am but sometimes DS will sleep until 8am.

FTR, I don't think there's anything wrong with waking your baby to feed him/her. I don't understand what terrible thing people think will happen if you wake your baby.

When DS was newborn, MIL kept using "never wake a sleeping baby" as a reason to keep holding him just a little longer, every time I wanted to feed him. It got so that he was going 4-5 hours between feedings as a newborn, so he did not gain his birth weight back fast enough. At 16 weeks he is still having weight gain issues, so in our case, terrible things will happen if I DON'T wake him for that nighttime feeding.

mysteriousmommy · August 2012

We never wake them. We put them down to bed between 7:30p and 8p and until about 2 weeks ago they were both sleeping through the night. My daughter has started waking up at about 4am wanting a bottle, but she just goes right back to sleep afterwards. I think it has something to do with teething because it started around the same time she started drooling a lot and chewing her hands.

Anyway...no. We never wake a sleeping baby in this house.

MelissaMiso · August 2012

We've been blessed with a good nighttime sleeper. She was doing 6 hours from the beginning. Now she averages 9 hours a night. My pediatrician said at her first appt that if she's sleeping, let her sleep. For the first two months, she would cluster feed later in the day which I guess was "stocking up" for the hours of sleep and she'll nurse for a longer time during the first feeding of the day. She's gained weight steadily. I say, let sleeping babies sleep.

winter-shock · August 2012

DD moved her bedtime to 7:30, wakes at 3:30 for a nurse goes right back to sleep until about 7. I never wake her!

PotomacSt · August 2012

My DD regularly sleeps 9-11 hours at night.

I used to wake her up to feed her before I went to bed when she was younger, but haven't done that in at least a month.

She sort of set her own bedtime... especially since I've been back at work and have to wake her up at 6:40 to go to grandma's. We used to put her to bed at 9 PM, now she melts down if she's not in bed by 8.

stemms8810 · August 2012

winter-shock:
DD moved her bedtime to 7:30, wakes at 3:30 for a nurse goes right back to sleep until about 7. I never wake her!

This sounds like me DS. He is always ready for bed between 7 and 8pm. I nurse him right before bed. He will sleep until anywhere between 3:30am-5:45am. It varies from night to night. All I know is I am getting more sleep! He will also go back to sleep for another hour or so after that.

fryrat · August 2012

If she is drowsy, whatever time it is, I feed her as she's falling asleep. It helps to top her off, so to speak, so she can sleep longer. She usually is ready for bed around the same time her next feeding would be, so I know she needs the food. since she's getting BM, it doesn't last as long in her belly as formula would. She usually goes down around 7:30 or 8, and sleeps till 6:30.

tryston123 · August 2012

MelissaMiso:
We've been blessed with a good nighttime sleeper. She was doing 6 hours from the beginning. Now she averages 9 hours a night. My pediatrician said at her first appt that if she's sleeping, let her sleep. For the first two months, she would cluster feed later in the day which I guess was "stocking up" for the hours of sleep and she'll nurse for a longer time during the first feeding of the day. She's gained weight steadily. I say, let sleeping babies sleep.

THIS almost exactly

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desertsun · August 2012

I'm so jealous of all these people whose babies sleep for 7 or more hours at night. I thought after I instituted a bedtime routine that he was starting to sleep longer more often, but then he seemed to go back.

Now we are lucky to get one 8 hour stretch once a week or so. Most nights, one 5 hour stretch and then 2-3 hours at a time, same as you, OP.

I used to wake him to do bedtime routine (bath, lotion, pjs, nurse) but lately I have not to see if maybe that helps. And he will often sleep longer if I let him sleep, but it doesn't help me if he starts sleeping at 6 pm and I'm not ready until at least a couple hours later, you know? And if it's just a 4 hour stretch, then I'm up every 2 hours ALL night.

So frustrating.

IsaacA · September 2012

My LO always gets super fussy at 7:30-8pm. He usually eats from then until 9pm, our bedtime. I'll change his diaper and put on vaseline (to protect from Diaper Rash). Bring him in our room, swaddle and BF him for 15minutes-1hr (how ever long he wants to BF for). I BF him in our bed while I'm awake. When he is asleep, then I move him to the RnP and he'll sleep until 8-10am. He falls asleep between 9;10:30pm.

I noticed that he will sleep all night IF his arms are covered (long sleeve onesie, sleeper), his arms must be out, swaddled armpits down, feet covered.

I do not swaddle him during the day, he takes 4-5 15min. naps during the day.

Good luck and see what works for your baby. Mine likes routine, so I follow his natural rhythm.

jwood816 · September 2012

DD is ready for bed between 7 and 8 pm, usually closer to 7. I usually then wake her up around 10:30 to BF her to 'top her off' and she will then sleep til 6:30-7:30am. I am thinking of not waking her up that one last time before I go to bed because recently she's been not wanting to go back to sleep right away and has been staying up for an hour or so afterwards, but I am hesitating because I really dont want her waking up at 3 or 4am which I am guessing would happen. I may try it one night and see how she does, we will see

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