up all night...

[halloweenmommy]

We are up all night lately...
My dd is 4 1/2 months old and exclusively breastfed.  We got her on a 4 hour EASY schedule about a week and a half ago.  She is now napping 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 hours twice a day.  She is colicky/gassy/reluxy.  We just startd Zantac (about 2 days ago) and I am on the Elimination Diet (no dairy, wheat, etc).
Since she was been sleeping so great during the day she has started to sleep really poorly at night.  She is getting up almost eveyr hour.  I dreamfeed her at 11:00 and she is usually up around 1:30 or 2:00 and then 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, 6:30.  One night last week she was up twelve times.  Are her daytime naps taking away from her nighttime sleep?  She is addicted to her paci as well and generally just needs to be replugged to go back to sleep, but sometimes we are up for much longer (due to colic/gas/reflux - we're not sure yet).  How do I curb the nighttime waking?
Thanks,

[halloweenmommy]

Stacy,
I think she may be hungry at night, some nights.  I know that she can go through the night without needing to feed, because she has done it before in the past. (it seems like forever ago now...)  I figure she should still be able to go through the night without waking to feed, but it hasn't been the case.  With regards to the paci use - we were thinking that we would tackle one issue at a time (we got the naps under control, we're working on the reflux and night waking) and leave the paci addiction to last.  I think you are right though, I think it is a big part of the problem.  I have seen her put herself back to sleep without the paci, but I think it is easier for her to cry and get replugged.
If she is hungry at night how do I go about feeding her without screwing up my daytime schedule?  If she wakes up at 4:00 a.m. for instance and seems hungry, it is only 3 hours until her first feed of the day at 7:00 a.m.  Do you KWIM?  I also don't want to teach her that every time she wakes at night that I'm going to feed her.  However, if it will get her to stay asleep for longer than an hour at a time between the hours of 1 and 7, it would be great.
Any ideas for weaning the paci?!?!?!?
Thanks in advance,

[halloweenmommy]

Stacy, thanks so much for the great advice! 
She is eating every four hours and eating for approximately 13 - 19 minutes at each feed.  I'm not sure how much she is getting.  I do dreamfeed at 11:00.  Last night she woke up basically every four hours to eat.  Now if I cluster feed her in the evening, how would that work?  Would I feed her as usual at 7:00 and put her to bed and then cluster her at 9:00 and then dreamfeed her at 11:00?  She is waking up hungry at night, but I thought she was getting as much as she needed during the day...
I have totally weaned the paci during the day when she is awake (we used to use it quite frequently during the day).  The paci is now just a bedtime tool - every time she goes down for a nap or to bed she gets her paci.  The reason I think she is addicted to it is, when she wakes in the night, if I go in there and replug her she will generally just go right back to sleep.  She should be able to get herself back to sleep without me having to run in there and replug her.  However, if like you suggest she is hungry then the paci satisfies her need to suck for a little while and she eventually just gets up again because she is still hungry...  We'll give upping her daily intake a try and see how it goes.
Thanks again!

[halloweenmommy]

I just noticed that you are a fellow Albertan!!!

[Shine]

We had problems with nightwaking at this age due to reflux.  Does your lo wheeze / have a night time cough? This can be caused by reflux. The best advice we ever had was to stop night feeding, as this can cause the reflux lo to have difficulty breathing.  If this is the case I would introduce more solids in the day to ensure that lo is not hungry in night.  It is worth a shot as it took me one night to solve the problem.  My lo reflux became so severe that at 6 months we had to stop even giving milk before bed.

Alternatively if lo will not last all night, do not dreamfeed, but feed when lo wakes up instead, so the df milk can not come up and disturb sleep.

Good luck

[halloweenmommy]

Stacy,
We are trying your cluster feed schedule tonight.  We'll see how it goes tonight.  She ate well at 5:00 (almost as if she hadn't eatned two hours earlier) and then ate even better at 7:00.  Who knew she could take in so much food?!?  Her schedule is a bit off tonight since we were at a friend's place for dinner and she didn't go down at her usual time, so tonight may not be the best test of the cluster feed, but we thought we would give it a shot anyways.
I am familiar with Beseiker (sp?), near Airdrie, right?  We are in NW Calgary, but up until about 8 months ago we were in Cochrane.

Shine,
My lo doesn't seem to wheeze, but does cough quite a bit, especially after a crying spell.  Not sure if that and the reflux are related.  She had terrible gas up until a week or so ago as well, but since I changed my diet that seems to have become much better.  The Zantac seems to be helping as well. My LO isn't on solids yet, but I can try and up her breastmilk intake during the day, which I am currently trying to do.

Thanks so much for the advice, it's great to know that I'm not alone in this and that other people have been through something similar and to find out what worked and didn't work for them.
Thanks,

[teezee]

if your lo is waking at night it may be tummy troubles due to reflux...and if she wants to eat then it may be a 'medicating' thing on your lo's part as bm is a natural antacid.  i know with my lo i tolerated night wakings up to about 6 months as i felt horrible for her pain/discomfort and it was a hard habit to break but we did it in time of course.  if u want to start  cutting out feedings at night and upping daytime intake (not easy to get lo to take more during the day when feeding at night) you may want to slowly and gradually cut out a few min of night feeding every few nights.  this will naturally allow lo take more during the day without 'forcing' or trying to convince lo to do so.  it is a gradual process but after a little over a month the night feedings were gone and she was taking more during the day (previous to this i was lucky to get 3oz in her during a daytime feeding)...about the paci - my lo still has one to go to sleep, it is also said to help with reflux babies so i haven't bothered weaning it at this point even - when her tummy was bad she would wake for it and it was a prop but after her tummy troubles were gone she stopped waking for it and just used it to fall asleep.  have u tried eliminating anything from your diet? dairy...caffeine...citrus or gassy veggies...?
i think keeping 4 hrs between feedings and slowly weaning off night feedings will help lo take more rather than starting cluster feeding this late in the game. afterall, u want lo to go longer between feedings and cluster feeding is not necessarily letting lo learn to sustain herself for longer periods imho.