waking in the middle of night

[noonan7522]

My little one has followed BW since he was born.  I went back to work for 4 weeks to finish the school year and things were a little messed up.  He wouldn't nap.  I have now been home for 2 weeks.  My LO will take his naps like a champ.  I put him down he falls asleep within 5 min.  Same thing with bedtime.  He puts himself to sleep at 8:00.  He is presently following the 4 hour easy plan.  He wakes at 7-7:30 a.m.  Each nap is anywhere between 1 1/2- 2 hours.  He does a catnap early evening.  Usually in his swing while mommy and daddy make dinner.  I have done the dreamfeed since day 1.  Problem is he has never slept through the night.  The older he gets the worse it is getting.  He will wake around 1.  I can resettle him.  Then around 3.  I have tried to feed and some nights I have not fed.  Depending on if he can be resettled.  Then he wakes around 4:30.  The past couple of nights he will not go back to bed after he wakes at 3.  My little man is 14 weeks old and I am beginning to think he will never sleep through the night.  Any suggestions.  I have followed the book to the letter and haven't seen anything but good naps.  Maybe I should drop the dreamfeed?

[macsmum]

Hi there
 Trust me i am no expert my lo is 5 months and still waking twice a night, i did the df for about 10 nights and he just kept getting worse, you may want to try dropping it and see what happens?
I stopped the df and he went back to only 2 wakings instead of 4


Emma

[chargerfans]

Probably too early to be sleeping through the night. Is he breastfed or bottlefed? Breast milk digests faster so they do tend to wake up more. My little one still isn't sleeping solidly through the night (11 mos).

It seems like one thing always happens. If its not hunger it teeth. If its not teeth its sickness... hang in there your time will come someday!

Could you increase the amount you offer during the day? That might help if he consumes more during the day he will need less at night..

[noonan7522]

Thanks for replying.  I dropped the dreamfeed 3 weeks ago.  The first 2 nights he got up twice.  Now he is only getting up around 3.  He still goes to bed around 8.  I decided to give him a bottle before he went to bed.  So instead of eating at 7 p.m.  He now eats at 6 and 8.  On days that he gets up at 8, he only gets the 8:00 bottle.  I rearrange the night time according to when he got up in the morning.  He is sleeping much better.  He can settle himself right away and sleeps till the morning.  So much better then the dreamfeed thing.  I think it was disturbing his sleep pattern. 

[brid]

Hi,
I'm having similar problems - my 4.5 month old still isn't sleeping through either - she did for about 1 month - went from about 9pm to 6am - she got sick recently though and has reverted back to night feeding again - two 4oz feeds! - i've seen some postings on here where diluting the night feeds has been suggested and have posted a question to see if anyone can tell me how to dilute i.e. how much formula to how much water etc.  You could try it if you've heard of it - sorry i couldn't be of more use - but trust me you're not alone! - if you like i can let you know when i know more(?)
Brid.

[tryinghard]

I started to dreamfeed when my lo was about 3mo. I did it for 5 weeks. Sometimes she would make it to 5 but i too found that she frequently woke twice after it as well. I thought it was disturbing her sleep. So I stopped it to see how far she would go from a 7pm bedtime. She normally woke at 3 or 4am for a feed. After a few weeks of this I was geting tired of waking then to feed, so i thought i would try the DF again. By this time I had started to introduce formula so it was easy, i would make the bottle and give at 11pm- when she was asleep- didnt take out of bed just fed her where she was sleeping. It worked straight away. Consistently slept to 6 or 7 without requiring another feed. I then stopped the DF gradually as solids were introduced. I wish i could tell u why it didnt work b4 then when i started again it did. I guess my point is if u r not happy with the way things r, it may be worth making a change- but as long as u give the new method a decent go- at least a couple of weeks.

[brid]

Hi,
just wondered if anyone can help me - I posted in July when dd was just 4.5 months old and I was having trouble getting her to sleep through - she's now 7.5 months old and still no joy...
She's usually in bed asleep by 7:30 but wakes 3 times a night for feedings (5oz each time).  I tried giving her just warm water a couple of nights ago (recommended on another website) but to no avail....she just screamed until I gave her a feed in the end.
Can anyone suggest a way that I might begin to train her to sleep through the night?
Not one to feel sorry for myself but I'm a fulltime working mom (a Mechanical Engineer & spend most of my day doing maths) and I'm just so exhausted I feel like giving up completely.  Lately I've become really weepy aswell which isn't helping the fact that I work in a male dominated/orientated industry.
Any help whatsoever would be so very much appreciated.
Thanks.

[macsmum]

How is lo feeding in the am when she gets up?
if feeding poorly at breakfast u may want to try to water down the night feeds a little each night until it is practically water do it slowly over a few nights say 7 or 8 and hopefully she should start to take on more milk in the am when she wakes, i did this with ds and it worked a treat but he was only ever getting up once to feed say at 3 am?
what other things have u tried to do to resettle, pat/shush or pickup/putdown!!!! they really do work i did pat/shush for the other wakings when ds was getting up 2 or 3 times once i had eliminated those i then tackled the one at 3am when he was hungry?
hope this helps
Emma

[brid]

Thanks Emma,
dd wakes because (I'm pretty sure) she's genuinely hungry - I don't think she takes in enough liquid during the day and that's half the problem - she's too busy crawling!!!  She has breakfast at around 8:30 - 9:30 and never drinks anymore than say 3-5oz at a time (even during the night).
Thanks for your advice, I'll give it a try and see how it goes for a few nights
Brid.

[Petra-Kate]

Brid -
 
I am no expert - heck my DS stopped sleeping through!   

What is your daughter eating in the way of solids?  I am wondering if increasing solids during the day would help your daughter sleep through the night.

I hope this helps.  If nothing else I can sympathize - I am also a full time mom in a male dominated world (lawyer).  It may be just plain old exhaustion but if the weepy feelings don't go away after a good night sleep, you might want to talk to your doctor - just to make sure it is not post partum depression.  Do you have family or friends that can come over and spell you for an evening so you can sleep through?  A friend of ours did that when DS was colicky - mana from heaven!

Again - I hope this helps and I feel for you!

[tiredmomof2]

I know my little Gavin is only 3 weeks old but I need some help in getting him to sleep a little longer in the night. I was breast feeding but switched to formula since he would fall asleep after eating 5-10 minutes and then would wake up an hour later screaming for food. Now he wakes up every 2 hours. I try to rest when he rests during the day but it is hard when I also have an energetic 4 year old who also needs attention. I have tried putting him on EASY but he will not go more than 2 hours without food without screaming and I do not like to let him cry like that. Sometimes he seems hungry after only an hour. He usually eats 2 oz of formula at a time - I've tried to give him more but he refuses it. Also after every feed he seems to either drift off to sleep or cries for more but when i feed him more he won't eat it. I am exhausted and frustrated. With my first child I put him on EASY and it worked like magic - he slept through the night at about 6 weeks. Maybe I don't have the patience this time but it seems so much harder. Any advice would be great. Thanks! Tiredmomof2

[macsmum]

I  am not so sure with this cos lo is so young but when my ds was a snacker my hv told me to make him go longer by just putting up with him fussing till he had gone 3 hrs then he would feed more, but this is easier said than done so i gradually increased time between feeds by 15 mins each time, so it would go something like this.
8am hungry again at 10am make lo wait till 10.15 then hungry again at 12.15 make lo wait till 12.45 and so on by the end of day 2 my ds was already going 2 and 3/4 hrs on his own between feeds so i could stretch it to 3 hrs easy.
hopefully by making your lo wait a little longer each time he will take more at each feed, i know its not easy to make them wait but it can be done.
hope this helps if not someone else will have an idea?
Emma