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April 2012 Moms
Night Wakings
Just wondering, for those whose LOs still wake up at night for food, (or if they did, and now they don't but because you did some sleep training), what is the "Criteria" you used or will look out for when making your decision about letting the behaviour continue?
For me, hubby has said a couple times that at some stage she'll just have to "learn not to want food" in the middle of the night. To which I said, piffle. If she wants to eat in the middle of the night, she wants to eat and I'm feeding her.
However, she is still only 4 months old and generally I feed her only 1 - 2 times per night. She does wake more often since the 4 month wakeful business hit but usually if I leave her she'll talk herself back to sleep. When it's a "food waking" i can tell, as the crying escalates quickly. I am wondering if at some point I'll have to "do something" about this or willI just keep feeding her? To be honest right now I'd rather just keep feeding her, it is easier as i feed her and then she goes right back down so it's only a 15 minute disruption, rather than the much longer time it would take to try NOT to feed her while she screams. BUt I worry about "bad habits". Mostly because sometimes people give me weird looks when I say she still eats 1-2 times in the MOTN.
So what say you? Did you have a hard stop where you were just like, no more night feeds and thats that?
I'm wondering if by 6 months I'll have to read Ferbers book or something.
She is EBF which I think has a lot to do with it. I feel that in the evening after pumping all day at work there may not be enough in there for her perhaps?
ok, sorry this got a bit long.
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Re: Night Wakings
DS wakes between 0-2 times per night now that we are nearing the other side of the 4 mo wakeful. I'll try to soothe a little in the crib first and if he doesn't settle, then I feed.
He usually eats around 11-2 and 4-6. Sometimes, he will skip the 11-2 one and rarely (about once per week/every other week) he will STTN. He generally settles easily right after he eats and does an entire feeding, so I am assuming he is actually hungry.
For now, it works for us and is much better than the numerous wakings he was doing before. We will revisit it if he continues when he is much older. We EBF.
Ds2 is under weight so I am all about if he is hungry let him eat, hoping he evens out and by 6 months-ish drops the feeding. We stopped snacking feedings by having Dh get up with him, he calms right back down and goes to sleep if he is not hungry... If I get him demands to eat no matter what.
Ds1 slept through the night starting at 14 weeks till 18 months and is now a crappy sleeper, so things will change around for different stages just depends on your child, have my fingers crossed that ds2 is a crappy sleeper he will be better as a toddler!
10 pound rule? I thought it was "double birth weight" rule and was thinking... oh almost there now.. But yeah, she's been ten pounds for a looong time lol.
I feel like sometimes I am so lucky she is a "good sleeper" when I read about people whose babies wake many times, won't go back to sleep, wake at 5 for the day etc. I mean, really she does great, she goes down at 8-9pm wakes twice and then at 630am I wake her before I leave, then set her back down where she babbles to herself a while and hubby usually reports that she wakes between 8 and 9am. Which I think sounds great.
At the weekend when I am not working she usually wakes twice but since I don't wake her at 630 to feed, she will wake herself at 730 - 8 for the day.
But then I read about people whose babies sleep 12 hours without a peep and then I think... hmm... maybe M is NOT such a great sleeper. It's hard not to compare to others! Or to not listen to random folks at work who tell me she should be STTN by now and that she needs formula and cereals
I think I'll just continue feeding her when she wants it for now. She doesn't just suck a minute then drop off, she definitely empties a boob...
H was the first to encourage her to go all night w/o eating. We alternated nights, and I'd always pop up at 4 when she woke up to eat, but one night H just stuck her paci back in and she went back to sleep. That was really all it took for us to start encouraging sttn.
That said, if you don't mind getting up to feed her, then I wouldn't worry about it.
I'd rather not get up, however giving her a paci doesn't work, nothing does except feeding her. She becomes more and more inconsolable if I try not to feed her at these times.
In the end I give in and feed her anyway so it just adds extra (very sad) time to the waking. But I wasn't sure if I should be "toughing it out", and putting up with a bit more crying time. My instinct says no, feed her the poor wee one. In the face of babytears I am weak. I feel like she is truly hungry but I could be wrong it could be habit (since it does happen at approx same times)
During the other wakings, I don't even go in there. I hear her, she cries/complains a bit, I wait, she eases off on crying and just babbles a bit, then goes silent. I don't mind a few minutes of crying, but it's the escalating crying becoming really really bad crying where she starts choking a bit... I can't handle it. And as soon as I pick her up I'm toast. No way I'm escaping without giving her the boob.
I guess i have just adjusted to this. I don't usually sleep more than 4 hours at a time, but now that I have a better routine in place and I get to bed earlier, I do get usually 7-8 hours of sleep just a bit broken up. I feel much less zombie like most days.
When she does STTN I am going to feel like superwoman from all that unbroken sleep lol
Really it depends on your LO and a lot of times I think your milk. My SIL didn't have very fatty milk (you could tell when she pumped, not much fat settled on the top) so her LO was waking 2-3 times a night until 6 months, at 6 months she switched to formula feeding and her LO started STTN. I have hella fatty milk and my LO goes from 8pm to 8-9am on the weekends (or 6:30 during the week). She does have a random night where she wants to eat and I feed her.
I think an EBF baby can do 1-2 night wakings to eat for up to a year and be totally normal. I could tell my LO was over needing night feedings when she started only eating for 2-3 minutes, so I started giving her a pacifier put her to sleep and she stayed asleep.
I am sooo glad I am not the only parent with this issue!! My LO just recently started STTN then stopped this past week, DD is 4.5 months old and is EBF also. We have done some sleep training, however, I am still completely enjoying nursing her to sleep (one of my bad habits I know) but it is the highlight of my day after working FT. I know at some point she will stop
DD will soothe herself to sleep at some points in the night, but if she cries and wimpers ongoing,I know that she's truly hungry and will get up to feed her. We did try cereal with disasterous results, LO woke up repeatedly with tummy aches, so needless to say solids are waiting until 3 months.
Good Luck!! Will be keeping my fingers crossed!!
i'd say my milk is probably medium, I do think I have enough for her in general as she gets bottles all day while I work and I generally pump enough for the next day, and she doesn't seem to want more.
I met a girl this weekend who had the fattest baby I've ever seen (23lbs at 6months) and she was EBF. She said she suspects her milk must be like heavy cream! Her baby does STTN.
M is medium weight (65th percentile) and long (90th), so she's no peanut. But she's definitely not a fat baby at all. Sometimes I wonder if it is just the baby, or if I had more/fattier milk to give would she have a bit more chub to her. Chubby babies are so darn cute!
I'm thinking when I start giving her food she might do a bit better then, load her up on avocados before bed...
I still nurse to sleep at night too. I don't really feel it is a "bad thing" as I enjoy it and she enjoys it I suppose. She has her whole night time routine and boobie before bed is part of it. I don't know why I'd have to stop this though as eventually it will stop itself as she'll have weaned.
She can clearly fall asleep herself without nursing, so I don't know if the night time nursing is still an issue if this is the case. In the morning, after her 630 am feed she is usually wide awake and giggly, yet I set her down like this and I leave, and she does go back to sleep even though she doesn't seem at all sleepy. And when I "nurse to sleep" at night sometimes it doesn't actually put her to sleep anyway, it depends. Sometimes I nurse her and set her down and she's still awake and just talks to herself for a while before drifting off.
LO can wake up 1-2 times a night. It varies. She can go a good 4.5hr stretch from 9-1:30a then wake up. I'll feed her at that wake up. Sometimes, she'll then wake up 2hrs later, at which time, I'll just try patting her bottom and not feed her to see if she'll fall back asleep. If she goes 3hrs, I'll tend to feed her b/c then she's up at 6:45 for daycare. At 4months, she was 85th% at 16#10oz