February 2016 Moms

"Drowsy but awake"

hey ladies! I'd love to get your opinion on something :)

my pediatrician told me at 6-8 weeks I should start putting LO to bed drowsy but awake. She said this will help her sleep through the night longer. 

The thing is, my baby already sleeps through the night consistently. She's still asleep now after 11 hours straight (I just checked on her again). So is it really necessary to change what we're doing, since we're already getting the same result? She typically nurses to sleep, but not always. Last night she needed to be walked around a bit but then she was out. And often times DH will put her down drowsy, but it's not 100% of the time. If she starts making noise at night, I wait for actual crying to go in, but she always puts herself back to sleep 

what do you think?

Re: "Drowsy but awake"

  • smn14smn14 member
    My little one is the same, sleeps 7 hours solid at night and nurses to sleep or sleeps on my shoulder post feed then I put her in her cot. If it ain't broke, don't fix it I say! I've heard they regress on sleep later on so will try something when I need it, but at the moment am perfectly content with the amount of sleep I'm getting! 
  • For us drowsy but awake was a godsend and has really helped him sleep longer at night and during his naps, but his sleep needed fixing so it was worth trying something new... If your LO is already sleeping great, I don't see the point in fixing it. The biggest difference we've seen in putting him down awake is that he's gotten much better at self soothing.
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  • I say don't change it. Their habits will change later on anyway. If this works, stick with it. I'm in the same boat. LO eats, falls asleep and sleeps for 6-7 hours, wakes up to nurse and falls back asleep for 3 hours. I'm good with it! 
  • In the long run, it's technically a better sleep habit. With that said, DD1 nursed to sleep until she weaned at 22mo and it really wasn't that big of a deal. The whole point of "drowsy but awake" is so that they don't wake up looking for what they fell asleep with (nursing). Clearly that's not a problem if she's sleeping that long, so I say enjoy your sleep and keep doing what you're doing! 

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  • Thanks ladies! I just hate to change it up when she's sleeping sooooo well. The fact that I can sleep almost a full night's sleep (except for those MOTN moments of panic because I haven't heard her in a while and run in to check on her)
  • I would count your lucky stars and live (sleep) it up. My two year old still doesn't sleep 11 hrs straight very often.

    For or those of you putting baby down drowsy but awake:

    Are you swaddling? I have to wait for my lo to be completely passed out before swaddling him or else he escalates from drowsy to fully awake and screaming while struggling to free his arms.  If I don't swaddle him, he wakes within the hour with arms flying all over the place! 
  • Ugh i seriously hate you right now! I've tried putting LO down asleep, awake, drowsy but awake and she wakes up every 3hrs hungry! She went 4 hours twice and I thought that was the most glorious thing.. Id kill for 11 hours! Heck, I'd kill for 6!
  • I would count your lucky stars and live (sleep) it up. My two year old still doesn't sleep 11 hrs straight very often.

    For or those of you putting baby down drowsy but awake:

    Are you swaddling? I have to wait for my lo to be completely passed out before swaddling him or else he escalates from drowsy to fully awake and screaming while struggling to free his arms.  If I don't swaddle him, he wakes within the hour with arms flying all over the place! 
    I swaddle... He used to hate it and I'd have to force it but now it kinda calms him. I swaddle, rock him till his eyes start to close then put him down still awake.
  • tabauder said:
    Ugh i seriously hate you right now! I've tried putting LO down asleep, awake, drowsy but awake and she wakes up every 3hrs hungry! She went 4 hours twice and I thought that was the most glorious thing.. Id kill for 11 hours! Heck, I'd kill for 6!
    How much do you feed her during the day? I realized I wasn't feeding LO enough during the day (only like 5 times) so at night she was up every 3-4 hours. I started the BabyWise schedule and now feed her 7 times a day (about every 2 hours) and her long stretch changed to 5 hours. It's not an all-nighter, but it helps! And I know she will sleep longer when she's ready/able. She's 7 weeks now and wakes up once during the night around 3 or 4am 
  • 4N6s4N6s member
    I don't think I'd mess with it. Haha
  • I'm just going to leave this here. I'm not saying co-sleeping is best or that eat-wake-sleep isn't a great sleeping pattern. I just think it's really easy to read these boards and start to feel like your baby is somehow "behind" or not a "good baby." Each baby is different. They're all going to sleep through the night eventually. I think it's best to just give them what they need when ultimately the amount of time they'll actually spend being dependent on us in their lives is a drop in the bucket. If what you're doing is working - fabulous! If not, just remember your baby is not purposely being difficult.

    https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/james-mckenna-co-sleeping-expert_b_7119782.html
    I didn't read the article but I really needed those words today! I'm sure I'm not the only one :) 
  • I'm still swaddling my LO. If not, he wakes himself with his arms. He's very touchy feely with his hands, if they're not contained, then he's rubbing them together or all over his face and stabbing his eyes, so for now he's better being swaddled in his Halo swaddle sack. I feel like I'm very lucky with how he sleeps, usually from 9pm to 630am. I keep waiting for the ball to drop and his sleep habits to become terrible! I do rock him and hold him with his binky and he usually goes to sleep. When I put him down, majority of the time he wakes and I Just give his binky back and "shhhhh" him and walk away. He either cries and I go back in or he goes to sleep. 
  • @middy411 she usually eats 6-7x during the day time (every 2-3 hours) but maybe I could try to get another one or two in.  What time does your LO go to bed? I've heard an early bedtime helps them sleep longer but that doesn't seam to help much either. I start bedtime routine around 7 but she usually won't actually sleep until 9ish. 
  • tabauder said:
    @middy411 she usually eats 6-7x during the day time (every 2-3 hours) but maybe I could try to get another one or two in.  What time does your LO go to bed? I've heard an early bedtime helps them sleep longer but that doesn't seam to help much either. I start bedtime routine around 7 but she usually won't actually sleep until 9ish. 
    Your bedtime routine might be too long if she's not sleeping until 2 hours later. I think 30 minutes is the longest we ever do
  • tabauder said:
    @middy411 she usually eats 6-7x during the day time (every 2-3 hours) but maybe I could try to get another one or two in.  What time does your LO go to bed? I've heard an early bedtime helps them sleep longer but that doesn't seam to help much either. I start bedtime routine around 7 but she usually won't actually sleep until 9ish. 
    Were in the same boat... Bedtime routine starts between 6-7 depending on the day and is about 10 mins plus a feeding but he'll fight sleep for an hour or so afterwards and has to be rocked/walked 
  • @ashton2190 lotion, pjs, swaddle and feed takes about 30min.. Then it's 1.5hr of fussy on/off crying until she will finally go to sleep
  • middy411middy411 member
    edited April 2016
    I didn't know that about the early routine. My LO fights all her evening naps and won't go to sleep until after 9 usually. She's nursing now and will probably be awake after. When she goes down next it will be for the night. I would like to nurse her before she goes to sleep but she usually goes down after a typical eat-wake-sleep cycle. I tried waking her to nurse once and she was so tired that she barely ate and then woke up more frequently that night so I decided against doing that again 
  • Yeah. My guy goes down later too. Usually he'll nap on me in a wrap in the evening pretty happily. But he's a total barnacle baby and likes being attached to me. Which is cool. I like the snuggles. We do shower, massage, nurse and then he usually sleeps for about 5-6 hours starting between 9 and 10. Will wake up for a snack and then sleep for another three. We bedshare so I just side lie to nurse and fall back asleep which is not disruptive at all. He usually has a pretty solid morning nap too. 
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  • The "drowsy but awake" thing has helped me get him to nap (well...sometimes...it can be like pulling teeth to get him to nap...but he does nap better now that we put him down drowsy but awake) but he falls asleep himself around 9. Like other babies above, he really fights sleep all evening and BAM. He's out right around 9 for 5+ hours. 
  • tabauder said:
    @ashton2190 lotion, pjs, swaddle and feed takes about 30min.. Then it's 1.5hr of fussy on/off crying until she will finally go to sleep
    Gotcha. That sounds really rough. Mine does that sometimes where literally the moment you try to put her down, you can see her face screw up and get ready to scream her head off. It's rough. Hopefully you find something that works for you!
  • Just curious, If you mamas know that baby doesn't sleep until 9, why are you starting the bedtime routine so much earlier? I'm confused. Hoping baby will start going down earlier? 
    *E 10/2012, H 7/2014, F 2/2016*
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  • @MississippiCatfish that was the original thought... There is now mounds of self doubt! LO will be tired, yawning, disinterested but will end up getting overtired and miserable so it ends yo taking longer for him to fall asleep 
  • srecupido said:
    @MississippiCatfish that was the original thought... There is now mounds of self doubt! LO will be tired, yawning, disinterested but will end up getting overtired and miserable so it ends yo taking longer for him to fall asleep 
    Overtired babies are the. Worst. Hoping it gets better:(
    *E 10/2012, H 7/2014, F 2/2016*
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  • @MississippiCatfish
    Sometimes there are 2+ missed naps in there before 9, so we can see baby is tired. We do our best to get him to finally sleep and are lucky he apparently sees 9 as lights out time.
  • Putting LO down DBA always results in tears here. And the longer that goes on, the more overly tired he gets and the worse the attitude becomes. Nice theory. Wish that were my unicorn.
    S & A married 8.12.2013
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  • VitaLunaVitaLuna member
    edited April 2016
    PaniaO said:
    Putting LO down DBA always results in tears here. And the longer that goes on, the more overly tired he gets and the worse the attitude becomes. Nice theory. Wish that were my unicorn.
    This. This was my day! She finally went to sleep, and then was up every 10 minutes crying (not fussing, but screaming crying) for the next hour.. Even after I threw everyone in the car and went to run errands (which always puts her to sleep). It was a disaster!

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  • So I've tried it a couple of times since and I've determined that it just doesn't work for her. Either she lays there and talks to herself for 15 minutes and then cries, or she screams before I even leave the room. And I can't handle Cry It Out, so I'm not going to put all of us through this nonsense. Who cares if she falls asleep nursing or being rocked? I know later on I'll wish that she needed me to fall asleep and miss the days when we could rock together in the glider. 
  • =caenis= said:
    @MississippiCatfish
    Sometimes there are 2+ missed naps in there before 9, so we can see baby is tired. We do our best to get him to finally sleep and are lucky he apparently sees 9 as lights out time.
    I haven't been around lately so I'm just getting back to this.  SO frustrating - I hope it's getting better for you!!
    *E 10/2012, H 7/2014, F 2/2016*
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  • Any ideas on how to get my LO to stay up later? He's to the point that he's sleeping between 5-7 hours at a time, but he's going to bed between 6:30-7:30. I'd like for him to stay up until at least 8, but 9 would be better. The problem is he absolutely loses his shit around 7 every night. 

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  • I say don't change. LO will be 10 weeks tomorrow and sleeps through the night and only wakes up once around 4am most mornings (I get up around that time anyway). So long as he gets his bath around 8-8:30pm he usually nurses to sleep or just falls asleep being rocked. Its been like this the past few weeks and is working so well. I'm not changing a thing!

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