@andrej558 So reassuring! I feel like my friends kids are all sleeping through the night at 12 weeks. Or so they say. I wouldn’t even mind one or two wake-up’s, but 3-4 is brutal. I think I have it in me to get through another few months of this.
@mazince514 When he woke at 230 am did he still wake twice after that? Or did he drop a later wake up? Any chance he could have a lingering sleep association? How close to falling asleep is his bottle? Is there any help getting sleepy before bed or is he going right from awake to asleep on his own? Does he know how to go from upset—>calm—>asleep?
@bip When he woke at 2:30, I fed him 4oz and he slept his reg 3 hour window. So another wake at 5:30. I do think maybe he still has a sleep association and I’m going to space his last bottle and bedtime out a little more as suggested by another commenter as well. We do rock and snuggle a bit so he’s “drowsy” but not sleeping. I’ll try a little less drowsy. He doesn’t know how to go from very upset to calm by himself. If he scream cries, I usually go in and pay and shush. If it’s the middle of the night I feed.
@mazince514 So sounds like you did drop a feed then? If your first wake is now at 230 and your second at 530, you’ve made progress. I would work to remove the sleep association of you rocking him sleepy before bed. You may have to actually sleep train if he cries before falling asleep at the start of the night …. Ie he may have to learn how to calm himself down if you’ve always been helping him. But you have made progress so keep it up! You can start to wean the 230 feed now if you want, and if he wakes before 2 you respond with sleep training … ie check ins after 5-10 minutes but not feeding until your new feed time.
@mazince514 I found that sometimes when I pick my daughter and put her on me she will fall back asleep for another cycle or two, so it helps pushing back the feed if it earlier than usual.
I lay on my back and I put her on her tummy on me.
After 10 min aporox I can put her back in the crib. It's hard to get up though, so if you have a nursing chair that you can incline it would be best
@mazince514 When you cut the 1a feed and he started waking did you try soothing him with non food options? When we faded our motn feed, he woke for it for 3 nights because his body was used to waking at that time, but would fall back asleep if we rocked him back to sleep so we’d do that for any wakes until the next feed time. (This was before we sleep trained). By night 4 - as we were about to give up and restart the motn feed - he stopped waking and is now completely fine waiting for his morning feed. It could totally be that he is hungry or at least used to eating at that time but also that you could encourage him to adjust. If he continues waking and will not go back to sleep after trying all non feeding soothing methods then I’d go ahead and keep doing the feed and try again in a few weeks. If he’s double his birth weight and gaining normally he should physiologically be able to go longer stretches between feeds, and that’s a very grueling schedule for you. [ETA: we’ve also had luck feeding very frequently during the day, every 2.5-3h. I think the idea of trying to add some additional ounces another time during longer wake windows is a good one]
@doitenberg Good advice! I sometimes don’t have it in me in the middle of the night and just feed because I know I can go back to sleep in 10 mins rather than if I try and soothe which will last much longer. I think I’ll pick a couple nights and know I won’t sleep and try to soothe without a feed.
@mazince514 that sounds like a great plan! And it doesn’t have to take forever — you can just try each method (rubbing chest, pacifier, rocking) for a minute or so each and if it’s clearly not working move on to feeding but if it seems to be making a difference try it for longer. Good luck
@mazince514 I think it's pretty normal for him to wake up that many times for feedings at his age, my son was waking up the same amount of times sure it's exhausting for us parents but baby has to eat. Our pediatrician told us to reduce his milk intake when we went in for his one year appointment. I started offering my son water at night after he turned one for the most part he wakes up once a night to hydrate and goes back to sleep...if he's just wide awake at like 2am I'll give him milk and he stays asleep for the rest of the night but it's rare. Maybe it's too early for him to get weaned off milk at night especially if he is screaming for it baby knows what baby wants . I know trying to figure this out is so stressful but you will get through this stage.
@vita_fragilis I don’t think 3 wakes overnight at 6.5 months is usual (not saying it’s not “normal” but it’s certainly not something that is expected of babies that age). I’d expect that at 6.5 weeks, but by 6 months there shouldn’t be any physiological reason a healthy baby needs to eat 3 times overnight. Most 6 month olds, however they’re fed, are physically capable of sleeping 8+ hours at a stretch at night. If a healthy baby is waking more often to eat at that age, they’re either not getting enough to eat during the day or are eating out of habit rather than hunger, which are both fixable problems. No need to “wait out” an issue that can be resolved!
@lemar349 You’re going to get downvoted to hell I’m sure, but your 2nd to last sentence is absolutely true for a baby that old barring medical/growth issues. The vast majority of older babies do not NEED to be fed multiple times overnight. Either they are snacking all day long and therefore not getting enough calories and full feeds during the day, or parent has created a sleep crutch where they need the breast/bottle overnight to go back to sleep. Of course as a parent, you can absolutely continue to feed multiple times a night if that works for you, but it is not a necessity except the circumstances mentioned.
@mazince514 Have you offered two feedings in a wake window? Feed him when he wakes up (maybe an ounce less than usual) and then let him play, and feed again 1-1.5 hours later (just a small bottle). I find this works for us as we can usually sneak in another ounce at a time within each wake window!
@mazince514 Are you me? My baby is 7 months and last night was really rough, so I came looking to read (or post) about the same issue- how to troubleshoot! Last night she woke at 10, 12, 3, 5 and wake 7. Most nights are usually 10, 3, wake at 7, but it feels like things are getting worse and more in the direction of last night. I’m not so sure my issue is that my gal is actually hungry so much as she has a terrible sleep association and can’t connect cycles without boob. I also just read PLS and also offered boob at each fuss until 6 months. She also goes to sleep independently and I’ve also been feeding her about 30 min before bed to break the association. I guess all of this is to say I’m here for solidarity! Sorry we’re in a similar boat.
@meeble27 Yes it does seem to be getting worse and I definitely thought it should improve as the months go by! I think I’m going to try and get him on a feeding schedule rather than let him snack all day. Maybe he’ll take more at a time if the feeds are more appropriately spaced. I don’t know… a lot of people here in the comments are saying we just need to wait a few more months and it’ll get better. I do hope so- I’m v v tired.
@mazince514 That’s a good idea for you to try to space them a little more. And why not give it a try- can’t get much worse, I figure!
good luck here in the trenches
@cindyfernandez Hi again To clarify: “addressing this” in your sleep guide (which I’ve read so many times in the last couple months I should know by heart!) as you mention-do you mean you address night weaning? I think this is the issue I need to deal with. I’ve started by working on breaking the feed to sleep association by bumping up our bedtime feed to end about 30 min before bed (although she was never falling asleep while nursing at bedtime and she falls asleep independently for both naps and bedtime, I still thought maybe this could be our issue)- BUT our night wakings seem unchanged and intense still, so I’m assuming night weaning is the next step… ? Additionally we have 1 and sometimes 2 nights a week where she doesn’t even resettle after the feed and just cries and cries (last night. We finally brought her in our bed after 2+ hours of non stop crying). I guess I’m just so over analyzed on all this at this point I’m like, do I have to finally sleep train? Do I pursue night weaning? I think she just has trouble connecting her sleep cycles? I’m so tired and I’m struggling how to approach the next steps. But I just know I NEED next steps!
@cindyfernandez Definitely last night was teeth. *but edit to add, this no- settle behavior happens more often than teeth, at random * The crying was in between a few minutes of dozing here and there. Schedule is age appropriate I believe, we’re at 2.25/2.5/2.5/2.75 (or 3). She’s 7 months. I’m pretty sure she’s definitely still independent at naps and bedtime. I try to keep bedtime consistent too. I put her in fully awake and she babbles and/or sucks her thumb and snoozes in a couple minutes.
. I know trying to figure this out is so stressful but you will get through this stage.
To clarify: “addressing this” in your sleep guide (which I’ve read so many times in the last couple months I should know by heart!) as you mention-do you mean you address night weaning? I think this is the issue I need to deal with. I’ve started by working on breaking the feed to sleep association by bumping up our bedtime feed to end about 30 min before bed (although she was never falling asleep while nursing at bedtime and she falls asleep independently for both naps and bedtime, I still thought maybe this could be our issue)- BUT our night wakings seem unchanged and intense still, so I’m assuming night weaning is the next step… ? Additionally we have 1 and sometimes 2 nights a week where she doesn’t even resettle after the feed and just cries and cries (last night. We finally brought her in our bed after 2+ hours of non stop crying). I guess I’m just so over analyzed on all this at this point I’m like, do I have to finally sleep train? Do I pursue night weaning? I think she just has trouble connecting her sleep cycles? I’m so tired and I’m struggling how to approach the next steps. But I just know I NEED next steps!