Habitual waking

[Aarons Mum]

Hi

I am new to posting on this site.  I have been following "Baby Whisperer Solves all your Problems" for about 10 days now with my 6 week old & we finally seem to have got things sussed (at least 85-90% of the time).

I sudddenly twigged with shush/pat this morning & Aaron has gone off to sleep without needing his dummy (which was in danger of becoming a prop).  Now I feel more confident with his routine & his signals I would like to tackle the next problem - habitual waking.

He routinely wakes between 1-1.30am and 4-4.30am.  It is entirely my fault, I'll be honest.  My health visitor told me to feed him every 3 hours, which I took to heart (not knowing any different) and was quite anal about it!  Therefore if he woke in the night 3 hours after he last fed, I assumed he was hungry & offered my breast.  Aaron, of course, was happy to accept!

He never cries to be fed in the night - I am woken by him grunting & smacking his lips. This again may be because I've conditioned him to expect to be fed??

Last night we started to try "wake to sleep" but my husband set the alarm incorrectly the first time so Aaron woke me at 1.20am.  We tried again setting the alarm for 3.30am when I got up & roused Aaron.  He then slept till 4.55am (the furthest he's got past 4.30am) but would only feed for 10mins & fell asleep on the breast - I roused him by reswaddling him.

I would really appreciate advice & feedback from others who had similar problems as I am determined to stick to my guns (and the BW technique as it's been so successful so far).

Look forward to hearing your stories

Mairi Clare

[Jaime]

hi Mairi Clare,

sounds like you're making some excellent progress so far!

at 6 weeks i don't think you can really consider it habitual waking.  they are still so little that they need at least 1 feed at night, and sometimes 2.

what i would do at night is wait for him to actually cry out for you, and then feed him.  he may surprise you one of these times and actually go back to sleep - though i wouldn't expect it for a few more weeks!

HTH 

[Aarons Mum]

Thanks for advice - I do expect to still feed him in the night but it feels like the dream feed is not achieving what Tracy implies - managing to last more than 3 hours at night.  I was hoping it would get him through till closer to 2 - 2.30am then with another feed at 5ish before starting again as 7am as she suggests should happen.

Aaron is certainly feeding well during the day - 25mins at a time - & is gaining weight (is on 75th centile for weight), so I'd hoped that he would have enough calories after the dream feed to keep him going for longer.

If it's a bit early at 6 weeks to expect this, when (approx.) should he be able to go longer?  Tracy says in her book that at 6 weeks you should be aiming to start removing the 2am feed - we haven't even got to it yet!

Any more ideas - I seem to spend a lot of the night now trying to pacify him & work out if it really is hunger or just general grunts & moans (all in the dark!).

In anticipation

Mairi Clare

[GG]

Mairi Claire, my ds is 6 mo and he's still waking every 4 hours to feed.  He gets a full feed every time (from both sides!) and he's not waking at the same exact time every night, so I know it's not just habitual.  If you feed your ds well during the day, you should expect to feed him at least once during the night until he's at least a few months old.

I agree with Jaime.  Don't go to him until he cries.  Let him grunt and fuss all he wants as long as it's not crying.  ;-)  You may just be surprised that he goes back to sleep.  If not, then I'd say feed him.  However, make sure that he doesn't fall asleep while he's eating.  Try waking him by sitting him up and make sure he is awake (though sleepy is okay) when you put him in his crib.  Do this for a few nights and you'll know if he's waking out of habit or because he's hungry.