5mo was sleeping through, now wants to eat TWICE a night!!

[jenicagirl]

My almost 5 month old was sleeping through the night since about 8 weeks.  Then about a week ago she started waking up twice a night.  I tried patting her back to sleep and she gets mad.  She wants to eat.  She wakes up at 1am and 5am pretty much every night.  And after the 5am one, she doesn't really go back to sleep, but rolls around playing with her feet until we all get up around 7:30am.  I've tried un swaddling her, reswaddling her, putting her on her tummy, back, side, etc.  But she wakes up at the same two times and wants to eats.

Here is her day schedule:
E 7:30
A
S 9am
E 10:30
A
Eat baby cereal at 12:00
S 12:30
E 2:30
A
S 4:30 (45 min - 1hr)
E 5:30 pm
A bath
E 7:45pm
S 8pm sleep for the night
Wakes to eat at 1am and 5am

Its pretty much a 4 hour but that morning A & S just isn't long enough, I've tried.  Also, a few weeks ago she had a growth spurt (I think) and was wanting to eat every two hours with one hour A & one hour S each cycle.  I posted on EASY board and got great advice.  So she got that figured out and now its the night, lol.  She is breastfed and really just started to eat cereal last week.  Oh, and she shares a room with my 2 year old so I can't let her fuss too much or I have two babies awake, lol!  She has recently disovered her feet as well as rolling from her front to back.

So do I just keep feeding her and it will go away as she grows out of it?  Or do I try to do something to fix it??  Thanks!

[jess, lukeys_mom]

hello,

the thing that jumped out at me is that she just started cereal. every lo is different so for some it's fine, but for many babies this causes sleep disturbances.  can you try cutting this out for a week and seeing if her night wakings tend to reduce?

[jenicagirl]

Still waking up .

Now its somewhere between 12:30 and 2:30 and then again between 4:30 and 6:30.  She is eating cereal at lunch time and then a little bit of food at dinner time.  So far just sweet potatoes.  Should I cut out just the cereal or all the food?

I forgot to add that I was pumping for a while (thrush) and when I'd feed her a bottle at those times she didn'/t eat very much - I could give her one or two ounces and she would go back to sleep.  But if I let her, she'd also take a full feeding.  When she wakes up now I don't let her nurse as long as she wants, just a few minutes.

[spanna]

Hi there,
this is pretty much what we experienced when Lo hit 14 weeks. It continued for a while and I got frazzled, and the I discovered BW!! Thank God!, otherwise I think I would have ended up in the loonie bin....

I noticed a couple of things here:

Solids started - and it seems you've tried to eliminate them and sounds like it hasn't made a difference....

Wakes at same times - sounds like "habitual waking", have you considered "Wake To Sleep" ? (Pg 191 of Tracy's TBWSAYP book)

Goes back to sleep after a little food- sounds like our LO. She would do the same thing and I realised it wasn't the food she needed, (I had misread her signs), but comfort and reassurance. I weaned the milk right down, then switched to water, and she lost interest!, (and stopped waking) eventually. However. i wouldn't try this is she is having a GS

Has recently discovered her feet and started rolling - GS 's play havoc with sleep

I never had to resort to "W2S" (thou I was on the verge of it), but I did do PU/PD a few times..though sh/pat would often work first off.

In the TBWSAYP book there is a case study about this exact situation...I just spent 10 mins trying to find it to give you the pg number but I can't see it for the life of me, (perhaps someone else can my weak and feable brain today!) anyway it basically talks about using I think PU/PD to eliminate the NW's (oh wish I could find it!)and how the first night was the worst and then it improved after that!.DO you ahve somewhere else, (maybe arelative) that you older LO could stay whilst you try something like this???(not always poss i know.)

Anyway I'll have to go now, but I hope some of this is helpful adn that I haven't rambled too much
HTH
Anna

[jenicagirl]

Thank, I haven't eliminated any food.  She actually slept last night from 8pm to 6:30 am.  But I didn't do anything different.

I have tried the W2S, for three days, didn't seem to work.  In fact, I'd do it and then she'd still wake 30 min to an hour later!

I've tried comforting her, she just gets more ed off until I finally pick her up.  I've tried patting, I've tried just laying a hand on her back, I've tried rubbing her back - all with the same results.  She has discovered her toes as well as rolling over, but those seem to more affect her going to sleep rather than her waking up as she isn't moving around when she's awake in the middle of the night.

I was weaning the night feedings down by a minute every three days.  I may try that again and then do the water - she doesn't like water, lol.

I may try to just cut out the cereal, too.  And leave the food.  I have noticed she's been farting a lot, so maybe its gas.

I actually had my older daughter go stay with my SIL for a week so I could work on the baby, but that was the week she decided to have a growth spurt and I was nursing her every two hours round the clock, lol!!  So much for the night time thing.  At least that passed finally!

[spanna]

That's fantastic! I'm so pleased she slept through for you......I think smetimes we want to fix things and feel thatwe are doing something, as we are getting worn down,.....when all we can do is sit out the storm!
Hope you got a good nights sleep