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Breastfeeding
OntheWater
member
Nighttime hunger?
OntheWater
member
Good morning ladies,
I am still struggling with my almost 8 month old waking at night...and I don't mean waking like 3-4 times a night. I mean waking every 1-2 hours throughout the night. We've been working on the No Cry Sleep Solution techniques. She dozes back off for a half an hour or maybe on a good night, an hour. The next waking, I nurse (assuming maybe it is hunger). Then she'll sleep an hour or maybe 2 on a good night. You may recall from my other postings that she slept through the night from 6 weeks until 6 months. I know that's rare and don't mind her waking some, although we are at a ridiculus amount of wakings right now. She didn't wake this often as a 2 week old! I am struggling with whether this is truly hunger (in which case I will feed her whatever she needs!) or just disturbance/doesn't know anymore to get herself back to sleep (in which I will send DH in to do the NCSS techniques). I would like to have DH go in more often and see if we can get her sleeping better, but I am so afraid she's actually hungry. I honestly don't know how to tell!
When she does nurse for these wakings, I would say she nurses eagerly for 3-5 minutes then dozes off (her normal daytime sessions are 20 or so minutes). I also wonder if I should be up'ing her daytime solids. Because I fear that she'll nurse less, I have been slow on increasing solids. Over the course of the day (2 meals), she has about 2-3 tablespoons of cereal and maybe 2 ice cubes squares worth of fruit or veggie. Maybe a couple of puffs or yogurt melts while we eat. I don't push solids much as I know it's just fun right now. I do wonder trhrough if she's not getting enough and making up for it with nursing sessions that she didn't need for the 6 week to 6 month timeframe. I've noticed that at the begnining of my 4 day work week, my supply is soooo cranked up. I was home the last 3 days, and my 11 a.m. pump at work netted 10.5 oz. I'm sure I will get another 7-9 at 2:30.
Sorry ladies, just looking for ideas, suggestions...thoughts on whether I should try having DH go in more often or just keep feeding every hour to 2 over night. I'm at a tired loss. I just keep asking questions lately as I monitor the progress of this fabulous 8-week-long sleep regression.
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Re: Nighttime hunger?
I think she is reverse cycling - this started 1 week after I went back to work. But not in the sense that she refuses bottles during the day - shes with grandparents right now and takes anywhere from 9-13 oz while I am gone. (I feed at 7:30, then at about 5:30,5:45). This has been going on 8 weeks now - she was at the pedi late in the week it started because she was due for her 6 month check up, but not since. Nothing was showing then and this is 8 weeks later - ear infections, even if they were there, would typically work themselves out by then. Not ruling it out completely, just not thinking that's a key issue given the length of time. Maybe I will call though. She's been working on crawling and we are almost there. 8 weeks though? Minor indications of teething here and there, but maybe for the past 2 weeks. I analyze these things daily to determine whether we should be a little more aggressive with our NCSS techniques/DH going in or if there's really something going on. She's one of the happier babies that I have ever seen, but it is starting to impact her the last 2-3 weeks (not to mention us!) and DD1 is starting to have disturbed sleep even though she's down the hall. (I may put a sleep machine in her room for a while to drown out the noises for her). Your last statement is soo very true- I have always told friends with babies having problems to just get through the next 2 weeks. Most baby issues are short term and by the time 2 weeks pass, you will be off this problem and onto the next. So I initially told myself to get through 2 weeks! And here we are 8 weeks later....I wouldn't mind trying some sleep training at this point, but I can't bring myself too - partly because I'm too tired, partly because I'm afraid she is truly hungry, etc.
I know increasing solids rarely works and don't tend to fall into that school of though. However! At 8 months old, DD1 (who I pumped for) ate significantly more solids than I seem to be allowing DD2 to do. LOL! I assume that DD2 increases my milk supply enough to get what she needs, but I worry that I should be feeding her more solids! I see her moving around like a monkey all day and know that she must have a higher need for calories at this point - I just hope she gets it from the extra nursing sessions.