Baby wakes up constantly

[lindaufo99]

  i can think how much tired you are suffering...

my baby giry now is near 8 month , she usually get up in te morning by 7am, and then paly, then near 10:30 amp, she will nap,(befreo nap, i need to feed her) ,nap need 2 hours some times, then after she wake up, we will arrange  lunch for her, then play,
around 3:30 some times 4:00 pm, she needs nap again, this nap will need sometimes 1-1.5 hours, then, play, then have supper, go on playing,  around 8:30 pm. she is going to be sleepy, then i will feed her again. then she goes sleepping, until tomorrow around 7:00 am...

now my daughter is mixed feeding rom 4 month old gradually,some porridge ,some RICE CEREAL,and powdered milk.

[BabyKain12]

Well I thought maybe that was the case so about 30 min. Before his naps he gets 1 toy usually a teething ring or a bear nothing too interesting and we just snuggle on the couch until nap time but that doesn't seem to be helping any... I have no idea what could be going on

[Erin M]

So frustrating when you can't find a cause for wakings.  Wonder week perhaps? 

[BabyKain12]

I guess wonder week is possible it just seems like its been going on too long... It started right after 4 months and he's now almost 6 mo. I guess it's possible that it WAS wonder week and his nights just got so messed up. I just don't know how to get it back on track. If I let him cry then he just cries and cries but if I let him go more than 15 minutes then he's awake for at least an hour and he's OT the whole next day and then the next night is worse than the previous. The only thing I haven't tried is W2S but I'm afraid (although I guess it can't get any worse) he's going to stay awake... During his naps if I so much as breathe on him no matter what stage he's in he wakes up and starts kicking and turning his head and won't go back to sleep... Ped. Sees nothing wrong and suggests letting him cry (otherwise he's a great doc. And very supportive of BF and cosleeping) I just don't know what to do

[Erin M]

OK, at your typical night waking, what exactly are you doing?  I'm trying to picture it so I can see if things are needing to be changed there. 

[BabyKain12]

When he eats he goes right back to sleep but when it's not time to eat I let him rustle around a bit and occasionally he'll go back to sleep, but if not i give him his pacifier, then pat him, then I eventually pick him up and bounce him to sleep unless he cries and then if he cries a while I feed him. I've considered maybe its a resettling problem but he puts himself back to sleep sometimes? If that's the problem then how do I fix it? When he starts falling back asleep I put him back down and he'll fall asleep on the bed instead of in my arms but he won't do it before I hold him...

[Erin M]

I would try as hard as you can to resettle him where he is without picking him up (if you can) and try not to feed after trying to resettle for a long time.  The idea is that if you feed them after a lot of fussing, you're only teaching them that lots of fussing results in getting fed.  If you wait for him to fall asleep (even if it's just for 5 minutes) then it's a new waking and you can feed straight away.  I would always try (as hard as it is) to decide (usually based on the clock) right away whether or not you're feeding or not. 

[BabyKain12]

Well he woke last night after only about 3 hrs and I tried to resettle without picking up, he just got frantic so I held him to resettle. Didn't feed him back to sleep. He cried for appx 40 min. In my arms, fell asleep for a moment then woke back up so I fed him, then he slept about 2 hours which is better than the 1.5 hrs he's been going after the initial waking but it was about every 1.5-2 hrs after like usual. Should I tackle one waking at a time, or try to fix them all at once?

[Erin M]

It depends on what you can be consistent on.  I think you'll probably see progress faster if you tackle them all at the same time, but sometimes that's just too much of a demand on you. 

[BabyKain12]

I think I may have figured out the problem, and its a hard one... I noticed the past few days that during some of his naps his stomach will start growling towards the end, then last night I decided when he woke up I would try giving him a full feed instead of just one breast because usually he'll empty the one breast and I give him his pacifier and go back to sleep but he never usually eats for just a moment and falls asleep as if only sucking for comfort. After a full feed (ok almost full feed, i was exhausted but i gave both breasts) at 1:45 he slept until 4:45!! So it's only 3 hours but its FAR from the 1.5-2 hours of sleep! So when he wakes now I'm going to give him a real full feed so that if he goes to bed at 8 and sleeps his regular 3-4 hours eats about 12 and makes it to 3 and then 6 to wake up that's only 2 night wakings rather than 6! So anyways my issue at this point lies with how can I get him to eat more during the day to get in those calories instead of feeding round the clock? His schedule includes 6 bfs during the day (2 of which are between his last nap and bedtime), 3 meals of solids, and 2 feeds at night if he continues like last night or up to 4-5 partial feeds if he's being difficult...

[Erin M]

Can you post your feed times?  I think if I see them all written out we can figure out how better to stuff some more calories into him.

[BabyKain12]

Nurses at 6:00, 8:30, 12:00, 3:30, 7:00, 8:15 (nights at roughly 12 and 3am)
Solids at 10:00, 2:00, 7:15 (occasionally if he's grumpy or super tired one of these gets replaces with an extra bf rather than solids)

[Erin M]

Is he taking a lot in solids or just a little bit?
How is he doing with stretching longer between his feedings?  If it were me, I might try pushing your solids and BFs a little bit closer together (like do solids an hour after you nurse) and then trying to get to a full 4 hours between nursings -- so if he's nursing at 8:30 (which is when you're starting your day, right?), do solids at 9:30 and then bf again around 12:30, solids around 1:30, bf at 4:30, solids at 5:30 and then if you want to cluster, try it at 7 and then 8:15 -- or just try holding out until around 8 -- some babies really feed better with longer intervals between their feeds.  Do you think that might work for you?  Otherwise, we can come up with something else instead. 

[BabyKain12]

I'll try that for a few days! My main concern is that he'll get hungry during his nap and wake up but I'll never know unless I try it out.

[Erin M]

My main concern is that he'll get hungry during his nap and wake up but I'll never know unless I try it out.

I know, it's a scary leap to take!  Give it a shot and see where it gets you.  If not, we'll try tweaking some more and see what comes of it.