Author Topic: Need advice about night waking to nurse, please!  (Read 1241 times)

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Offline butterflyes3

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Need advice about night waking to nurse, please!
« on: November 16, 2005, 17:08:24 pm »
Hello Everyone,
    One week ago I started changing my 5 1/2 mo old son, Jackson from sleeping in the sling to doing PUPD (mostly PD with Pat/shh) for his naps and getting him into his own bed. (INFO: 5 1/2 mo old, exclusvly breatsfed, swaddle and binky sometimes for sleep) I also started putting him in his own bed at night instead of being the all night co-sleeping breast-feeding buffet that I have become the past several months.  He still doesn't nap very well, but we are slowly overcoming the 25 min naps and now attacking 45 min naps. I know that poor sleeping during the day can lend to poor sleeping at night which may be part of the problem with continuing to wake at night. So I have a couple of questions about this transition. Jackson continues to wake at least every two hours at night. Nighttime seems harder than naps to settle him down,and I am starting to think it is because he wants to badly to nurse. Whenever he starts to root around I offer him a pacifier which sometime he'll take, other times he scream louder. Last night it took me two hours of his screaming, crying and kicking before he went down for the night. Then he still only slept for two hours before waking to start the fight over again. What what I'm wondering is this: If I nurse him every 4 hours at night, isn't he possibly continuing to wake sometimes hourly on the off chance he'll get to nurse? How can he differenciate between my nursing to feed vs me caving in and nursing to soothe? (which I'm not doing anymore). My second question is aout his crying. It is starting to wear on me. He cries before naps, when I resettle him for naps, before bed, at night when he wakes. This Textbook/spirited baby seems so angry about the changes. I guess I thought that by one week on consistency it would be smoother. Please, please - I would love your ideas on bedtime (or naps for that matter). Doesn this usually take weeks to accomplish 'success'? I beg you all for help, I'm so tired and frustrated. Blessings, Yvette

Offline sara_derek

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Need advice about night waking to nurse, please!
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2005, 05:04:51 am »
Hi Yvette,

With a spirited baby, you will definitely hear (very loudly) about how he feels with changes in his life!  THat's built into his personality.  With this type of baby, you need to be very reassuring and very consistent.  If  you keep with it and don't cave in, he will learn.  I know it is so hard to hear the crying all the time; just keep reminding yourself that it's his only way of communicating.  You've come so far already - just keep on truckin'!  Are you "tanking him up" at night before he goes to bed?  You might also give that a go if you're not currently.  That way he has a lot of calories before he goes down.  HTH!
Canyon 12/27/02
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Offline seaflower

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Need advice about night waking to nurse, please!
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2005, 20:02:22 pm »
Hi Yvette, I have no advice to offer you, just wanted to let you know I am dealing with a similar problem. DD still wakes up regularly during the night, I used to BFeed her every 2 hours, now I resettle her and only feed every 4. Two weeks on and she is still waking up all night long!!! :(  (just posted on the general sleep forum).

One thing that I managed to change is to get her to fall asleep without a fight - I just put her to bed very early before a nap or for the night, and sit there with her and read. It takes her about 20mins sometimes of blabing to herself before she starts closing her eyes, but rarely screams anymore. Good luck!
My little princess is 2.5 :) Textbook/Angel/Spirited toddler
My little munchkin is few weeks old and doesn't understnd EASY!