I'm new to poster and I'm also a new dad. Not sure how many dads post, but hey, I think the routine of waking to shush and feed multiple times per night is causing my wife some grief. Perhaps someone out there can help us.
My daughter is only breastfed and eats usually for 20-30 minutes at a time.
Her rough daily routine is:
6-7 am wakeup
7 am feed
9 am 45 min nap
10 am feed
12:30 pm hour nap
1 pm feed
4:30 pm 45 min nap
7:00 bath
7:15 feed
7:45-8 bedtime
She wakes up at least 3 times to eat each night
We've tried this schedule since she was just 8 weeks old and the baby hasn't learned to sleep through the night. We hit a rough spot around 3 months when she teethed her bottom two teeth and also was in the middle of a growth spurt. She were picking her up from her crib whenever she cried and feeding her 3-4 times per night to get her to settle down. When she cried and when she still does cry at night it starts as a whimper but ends up as screaming for up to 90 minutes until she is fed or somehow falls asleep.
When she eats she immediately goes back to sleep and usually for another 3 hours, but what's often the case is she will wake up at 11, 2, 4, and 5 because at the end of the night she has more energy I guess. When she wakes up she whines until my wife gives in and feeds her.
To settle the baby if it hasn't been three hours in between feeding we generally pat the baby on the but and shush her.
We've tried multiple sleeping techniques: swaddling, a Baby Merlin, back sleeping, stomach sleeping, bare crib, putting some stuffed toys in her crib to make her feel more secure, dead silence, and a loud noise machine. We feel like we're out of ideas and wonder if anyone can help break our little girls habit of waking up so much at night.
