BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Night Wakings => Topic started by: elisclark on August 30, 2005, 16:24:13 pm
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My son Evan is 8 weeks old, and I was told not to feed him in the middle of the night while doing the pat/shush or pu/pd method. How many hours go by that it is okay to feed them if they wake in the middle of the night?
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Is he breastfed or formula fed? Formula fed babies can usually go a little longer between feeds. Dd is breastfed. At 8 wks, her last evening feeding was about 9pm. We'd feed her once during the night, and again between 6 and 7am. However, I know alot of lo's who are feeding twice during the night at that age.
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He is breastfed. The past 3 nights I have not fed him until after 7 hours from what I read from the book...I was able to get him back down using the pacifier and pu/pd method...But between the hours of 4-7am he wakes every hour, so I was thinking he is hungry...
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Same thing in our household. He goes for 3-4 hr stretches. If I don't feed then, he wakes every hour. He's on a 4hr. EASY. We eat more in the day but it hasn't helped.
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Have you fed him at night, or do you pacify him?
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At 8 weeks, I would feed him when he wakes, especially if he's hungry. I think shush/pat (which is what you would use for a baby of his age) is more for if you know he's not hungry. Many breastfed babies need a night feeding - you can check out the breasfeeding board, as I know lots of moms there still have night feedings. Do you dreamfeed? That might help him to go longer stretches through the night.
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I nurse every 3-4 hrs. but not when he wakes inbetween. Sometimes he eats a full feed. We don't use the paci anymore because he prefers his fingers. When we DF, he still wakes up in 3-4hrs.
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when you know they are hungry you shoudl feed them and try to ensure they take a full feed. even a bottle fed baby can wake 1-2 times in the night as it depends on how much they have taken in (dd2 can take beteen 4-8oz so it really varies). even on formula dd2 could not go on a 4 hr routine until 5 months so every child is different.
if you know they are just waking up from habit or a disturbance... and they don't just resettle themselves then you use pat shh and PU/PD depending on their age and temperment.
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Thanks,
Yeah, I think tonight I'll do at least the 4am feeding with a dream feeding around 11 and see how it works. It seems that if he's waking every hour after 4 he's hungry, and if I have to turn it around at 3 months when he can control his fingers to suck on then so be it.
Thanks for all your input, it has been a great help :)
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This might be a stupid question, but how do you know if they're hungry in the middle of the night or if it's habit? He does the same thing every night, (up every hour after 4)....just curious...
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if you are unable to distinguish from the sounds/cries he makes, then i found offering food to be the only way to eliminate the :?: if they are not hungry most will turn away from it, cry etc. also use context of time... if you fed lo at 3am and the next waking is 4:30 you can assume it is not hunger and resettle
last night dd2 cried out at 9:45pm (very unusual) and we figured maybe she was hungry earlier than DF so offered the bottle and she refused so we put her back down and she went back to sleep. even at 6 mo sometimes we are not sure so we try and SHE shows US
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We were up every hour between 4am and 7am for the first 3months. I could always hear churning in his belly and loud gas. I think that is what caused it. I didn't burp him for those night feeds because I thought he would wake up. Now I do massage and it works to release it and he sleeps from 4am until about 7:30. The moves that work are Water Wheel, I Love U, Son/Moon and pulling his knees to his chest for 30 seconds. I also try to burp him when he is 1/2 done but not at the end.