Small wake-ups for no reason??

[michybelle]

My 14 week old son has always been good at night and about 2-3 weeks ago he started to go through from 7pm to approx 5-6am. However in the last week or so he has started waking at about 1am, and then again at about 4 am and sometimes 5am as well. This does not seem for any reason and he is not upset or needing a feed, becuase as soon as I put his dummy in, he goes straight back to sleep without any crying and maybe a few grunts. Not sure what to do to stop this as these wakings almost seem like clockwork and I am reluctant to leave him to ccry back to sleep without the dummy for feed it will build into proper crying and then he will struggle to get back to slepp at all. Any ideas?

[brightside]

Its very common for babies of that age to wake once or twice (or even more times  ) in the night. Unfortunately it goes on for a while. My DS has been doing it for weeks! If the wakings are at the EXACT same time every night, give or take 5 mins or so, then you could try 'wake to sleep' as the wakings could be habitual. Set your alarm for 1 hour before the usual time and then just stir him slightly. Not to wake but just stroke his cheek until he turns his head. Do this for 3 nights to break the habit. I've done it and it works really well. I would also try to wait a little while before you actually go to him when he wakes or he might never learn to settle himself. I usually go when the moan starts to escalate. I also wouldn't feed him unless you are certain its hunger. If he is settling so quickly with the dummy though, sounds like its not hunger.

[yaya]

Had a question along the same lines....does wake to sleep only work for habitual wakings? DS wakes quite a lot at night but never really at the same time PS: 6 mo

[brightside]

I'm pretty sure its only going to work if the waking is habitual and is at the same time each night. Sorry 

[Elphyrafire]

Yaya-
The reason w2s maybe won't work for your wakings is b/c you need to know when to go in and poke him and the only way you can do that is to know when he wakes up ( it must be in the deep sleep cycle that comes before the wake- usually about an hour to and hour and a half before). Hence- akes up at 1:30 EVERY night- go in at 12:30 EVERY night.
However, I have read about one mom that just poked her DS every 1hour and 1/2 through the night regardless- say at 10:00,12:30, 2, 3:30, 5, and it worked. That was because he was having too many wakings to count.
HTH

[yaya]

N, its def not habitual, last night he woke every hr after 12pm! I 'm really lost as to why and what to do about it???'''

[Elphyrafire]

Yaya-
You could post your schedule for one of the moderators to help you. I did and they gave me great suggestions. We got our nightwakings down from about 7 or 8 in a 12 hour stretch to only about 3 or 4 and those wakings aren't even "wakings".  I used to be up every 2 hours for 45 mins with a wide-awake child who wasn't hungry or in pain or wet. I was at a loss. I still am on some nights. I often don't get it why my baby does this but other babies seem to go the whole 12 hour stretch. i am so jealous! I hope DS snaps out of it eventually!
I feel your pain!

[yaya]

Aww thanx Elphyrafire!
Yep am very jealous of 'sleep thru the night babies'!!!

[shimmer]

Yaya-
You could post your schedule for one of the moderators to help you. I did and they gave me great suggestions. We got our nightwakings down from about 7 or 8 in a 12 hour stretch to only about 3 or 4 and those wakings aren't even "wakings".  I used to be up every 2 hours for 45 mins with a wide-awake child who wasn't hungry or in pain or wet. I was at a loss. I still am on some nights. I often don't get it why my baby does this but other babies seem to go the whole 12 hour stretch. i am so jealous! I hope DS snaps out of it eventually!
I feel your pain!

Last night we had 7.  nice to know i'm not alone.

[erinsmum36]

Hi - wonder if you could all help me out. My 9 week old is on 3 hr EASY. She has never had a dream feed as I started EASY at about 3 weeks and she was already sleeping from 7pm - 12:30am. Now her normal night feed time is between 3:30 and 4:30 am. I never feed her to get her to sleep for naps or even at bedtime, but I have a problem with night wakings. We have only had maybe 4 in her total 9 week life when I would say that they were not hunger related. Yesterday she had her first jabs and was a little more moody (normally cries less than 1 hour in a day) but otherwise fine. She woke at 1am, 'noising' and thrashing around (had broken out of her swaddle). I hoped it would settle but eventually became a cry and once it didnt break off I lifted her up. I know I am getting neurotic about the idea of feeding to sleep and desperately want to avoid the prop, so I took her into another bedroom and tried ssh/pat. After 15 mins it didnt work and she was mouthing at my neck as she does when she is really hungry. So I gave her a bf. As I earlier suspected she only fed for 2-3 mins and then came off. I reswaddled and put her back in her cot (awake) and she got herself back to sleep (as per all night feeds).
Q. Was I a prop, or was a feed the right thing to do, given the mouthing, and the jabs earlier?
Q. She refuses a dummy 99% of the time, which would probably have solved the problem.. how can I get her to take one?
How long should I do  sssh/pat  once holding her before giving up?

Finally,as I said, I have never done dfs - what is the latest age you can successfully introduce them, and do you think I should given the normal wake pattern (i.e. sleep from 7pm - 4am)? I am terrified of starting them and her still feeding at 4am but then refusing to drop the df too! thanks in advance!

[brightside]

erinsmom: I wouldn't worry too much at this stage about feeding to sleep. She is still only young and as long as you don't feed to sleep for the majority of the time, I don't think you are causing too much of a problem. Of course, I wouldn't just automatically assume its hunger and would try shh/pat first like you did. If you certain its not hunger, then shh/pat for as long as it takes. Could be around 40 mins. Once she is a little bit older you'll soon learn whether she is genuinely hungry or not. There is no reason why you shouldn't do a dreamfeed now. I think it would really help actually because she is likely to go through a growth spurt in the next few weeks and a DF helps to reduce the number of wakings in the night. As she gets older she will be able to longer between feeds so you could wait it out but then if you feed around say 5.30am, it will put her off her her morning feed at around 7am (the best time to start the day). As for the dummy, if she doesn't seem to want one, then I wouldn't push it. She's been ok up to now and they can just cause more problems later on.

[erinsmum36]

thanbks brightside - good thoughts about the growth spurt. You are right about the 5:30am feed - funnily enough thats when she woke last night and then we both slept in till 8#;30 this morning! Having said that wether she wakes earlier in the night or around 5am, I am always having to wake her in the morning, be it for a 7 or 8 am feed. - is this normal? The temptation to join her back in dreamland is huge but I do wake her so she doesnt miss out on a feed. Do you think she is sleeping in because she is compensating for the night wake up or is this normal with her age group?

[shannon S]

Erinsmom,
Hi there.  I just posted a reply about my daughter who didn't take the paci until she was 5 months old....but it made a huge difference.  I explained how we got her to take it.  check out "Another reason (other than hunger) night wakings can occur".
I do also think that the dreamfeed can help.  I remember exactly when I stopeed feeding my lo in the middle of the night because it was the exact same time that she started taking the paci.  When she woke up, instead of feeding her, I just put her paci in and off to sleep she went.  She did the same every night after and no more night feedings.  But I always gave her the dreamfeed at 11:00.

I used to have a very hard time getting my lo back to sleep when she woke (before she took the paci). She still  woke up a lot, but once she took the paci, it was veryy easy to get her back to sleep. So for me it was soooooo worth it...Even if it meant getting up 4 or more times to put it in.  Better than being up for hours!
hope this helps.
shannon