20 min naps in the day

[torsmitch1981]

Okay great thank you both of you!!
I feel we are really getting there and guess what.. He went to sleep by himself again this evening!
He was asleep by around 7.10! Had a little grizzle but not full on tears and within 5-10 mins he was sparko! Amazing breakthrough!!
I will try and get more A time as you say as he is still falling asleep on my after a feed In the day so I'll try and tackle that too!

Thank you for all your time and advice I really do appreciate it

Xx

[*Ali*]

Gosh! What is that HV on? Some LOs that age might sleep longer but most will be having regular feeds. The WHO recommend feeding as often as LO wants day and night btw. Breast milk is digested inside of 2hrs so it's common to need more frequent feeds for longer.

[torsmitch1981]

Haha I know I did think 10-5 was a long time for him to go! He's only 4 months!
We have tried a bottle to keep him a little topped up as this worked a treat with my daughter but this monkey loves the boobie milk too much so I'm sticking with it as love BF

Not a great night for us but hey ho!

9.30 feed
1am feed
3.30 woke
4am feed
5.30 woke
Big poops 6.15 (guessing he had tummy ache)

Feeding now (6.30am)

[creations]

How are things?  Still getting the longer naps and nights?  No more 20-40 min wake ups?

[torsmitch1981]

Hey sorry for the delay!

We're doing better thank you! He's managing some sleeps 1.5-2 hours in the day but some sleeps are on the shorter side of about 50 mins so better! Guessing he'll get there

Still not great at night... He does down great after his 2am ish feed but at the 4/5am feed he just won't settle which is the real killer as by then I'm so tired he gets quite trumpy so wondering if he has some trapped wind at that time of day.. Maybe digestion slows a bit then? Who knows 😂
It's hard as then he feeds on off all morning till we get up and I'm finding it hard to establish some sort of routine as cone 7-8am he's hardly hungry!
For example this morning he refused to feed from 5-45 till 10.15! If he did this at night I would be happy! It's just so hard to break this cycle... It's almost like he's a bit back to front with the feeds..

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Xx

[creations]

Hi
It sounds like there might be some snacking or feeding for comfort in the morning. Is that right?  If so I think the only way to really get back into a routine is to stop feeding at that time, so timing the feeds at least 3hrs apart and anything between use another soothing method to get him back to sleep.
What do you think?

[torsmitch1981]

Yes your right I think it's defiantly comfort!  And I do need to break this cycle to get anywhere so I'll try what you have suggested and feed every 3 hours... He's feeding bang on 2 hourly at night..
Last night
1am
3am
5am
7am

I'll try and do some shh pat when he disturbs at night and try 3 hourly between night feeds.. As he can do this in the day! I think I've become lazy at night I just feed as a quick 10 min feed and he's back to sleep.. Is there any other soothing method you can recommend?
I'm also very quick to just feed him the second he makes a noise, I'm always so tired its just the easy option but maybe he's just a noisy sleeper so I'll try and leave him x

[creations]

Sorry - I had forgotten about the 2 hrly feeds at night and was thinking about the 3-4hrly day feeds.
As Ali has already said that breast milk is digested in 2hrs I would continue with the 2hrly, but if there are feeds closer than this then take those as comfort rather than hunger.
Ali had suggested getting him put down to sleep in the day awake and that this could help with the nights lengthening between E.  Are you managing to put down awake in the day now?

If you feel you are jumping in too quickly at night then maybe he can really go 3 hrs or longer overnight, but if you shush/pat to try to settle and he keeps waking 5-10 mins later then I'd think hunger.  Sorry I'm not the best with night feeds or breast feeding, it isn't my experience area.

[torsmitch1981]

 It's okay any advice is great thank you!

Yes he's doing really well with going to sleep himself now which is a real break through! I put him down most nights just drowsy too and he goes off fine! He may stir or chat occasionally but more often than not he goes off on his own!

I'll try in the night not getting him straight up if he stirs.. I'll give him some time as maybe he's just a noisy sleeper! Doesn't bode well for when he has to go in his own room with his big sister! Luckily she sleeps through anything!

[*Ali*]

When you feed him at 4-5am are you feeding him and putting him back in his bed or keeping him in bed with you so he can feed on and off?

[torsmitch1981]

Stupidly I was keeping him in bed with me as by that point I'm so exhausted I found if easier to do this 😩 But the last few days I've been feeding and putting him back down which works better as hell then feed and normally go back to sleep for a bit but sometimes he will feed ad 4 ish back down at say 4.30 and wake again at 5.15 which kills me 😂

[creations]

Sounds like you've made great progress if he is self settling for his naps and at BT now
Great!
Try to hang on to the successes - I know you much be feeling really tired with the broken night sleep.

[torsmitch1981]

Yes he's doing really well!
Ive been quite lll with headaches dues to the exhaustion 😩
I have just done a dream feed 10-10.30pm and he's now feeding again 11.30pm
I am at my wits end I don't know what to do 😔
Also like today for example he went off to sleep all by himself at 1.30pm but then woke at 2.10 and didn't go back to sleep.,, what should I do in this sort of situation?

Thanks so much x

[torsmitch1981]

So last night wasn't great.. After feeding again at 11.30pm he then woke and fed again at 1am then woke again at 2.30! I went downstairs as I hate to admit it I was little stressed... My husband said he chatted for a bit and then went to sleep and slept through till 7.10am!! So he didn't feed from 1am until 7.15am! So he can do it!
Maybe he can smell me being next to him and jst thinks food! Or maybe I hear every squirm and feed for the sake of it resulting in him using me for comfort!
So now I know he can do longer at night I need to try and be strong!

[creations]

Also like today for example he went off to sleep all by himself at 1.30pm but then woke at 2.10 and didn't go back to sleep.

If he is regularly doing 40 min naps he may be a bit under tired for the nap. If you post a recent EAS times we can have a look.
It could be that if you get better sleeps at night then the day may also improve.

It's very interesting what you've discovered with the night sleep - is your DH able to step in and do some resettling for the times it seems it is not hunger?  Personally I wouldn't be feeding every 1.5hrs to me that is just too short between E times but I can see how it's ending up with him waking then and you not wanting to hush him back to sleep only to have him wake 30 min or so later for a 2hrly E.
Maybe you have been rushing in too soon. Tracy did say that it is normal for babies to wake for quite long periods over night and not need anything and can eventually go back to sleep. When we know about them we usually try to change the routine a bit but if you don't listen to every snuffle then you wouldn't know about them unless baby actually full on cried (in which case of course you'd go in).

Good luck, I hope you get some rest soon