Help with night waking please!
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Topic: Help with night waking please!
Posted By: Kellz
Subject: Help with night waking please!
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 12:55pm
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Aiden sleeps 12 hrs at night, usually feeds twice in that time, but wakes up, up to 6 other times in the night. If I go straight in and give him his dummy as soon as he starts grizzling then that is all that is needed til the next time when I do the same thing. If I leave him he winds up and winds up til hes screaming (I never leave him more than 5 mins), but then hes wide awake and so is the rest of the house, and then I resort to giving him the dummy and he needs hugs etc as well to calm down, then will go back to sleep til the next time.
He is fully bf, feeds approx 3 hrly from 6am-6pm. Roughly does feed, play sleep- up 1 1/2 hrs then sleeps 7.30am-9am, feeds then we go out and he only has a nap in the car or buggy, then home and feeds at 12, then has another 1 1/2 hr(ish) sleep, feeds at 3pm, then usually has a short 45 min nap, then play /bath then quiet feed in the dark at 6pm and then bed. I have tried to get rid of the dummy, and to replcae this with a cuddly blanket and given him access to his hands to try and stop me having to give him the dummy so many times in the night. He now sleeps in his sleeping bag, in his cot for all sleeps , with his taggie blanket, and goes to bed wide awake as soon as I see a tired sign, and self settles to sleep within 1-5 mins with no dummy. I do give him the dummy if we are out and he is crying cos hes tired, but this is not every day. His night feeds have no certain times, if he waskes aorund 9-10pm I feed him then, hoping for a longer stretch from then, but usually he wants feeding 3hrly after that. If he does a longer strecth its always from 6pm, and will go 6hrs ish, then feed 3 hr after that. I have tried a dream feed but he either wont feed or wakes up fully and then wakes every 3 hrs after that. Well sorry for the novel, thats pretty much his story in full, lol. Really hoping someone can help me with what I can do to stop the inbetween waking, or what might be causing it? I need more sleep! 1 1/2-2 hrs in a row is not enough! |
Replies:
Posted By: notenufchaos
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 1:48pm
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when you first put hm down and he self settles is this with the dummy? if it is then it could be that he is just waking wanting the dummy put back in i have friends who have had this problem and the only way to resolve it was to stop giving the dummy full stop and start from scratch getting them to learn to self settle without the dummy. sorry i cant be more helpful Lucy wouldn't sleep no matter what due to lactose intolerance and usually Katie is a good sleeper - and i could not convince either of my girls to take a dummy lol
------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">  DD 1-25/05/2008 DD 2-2/2/2010 |
Posted By: Kellz
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 3:23pm
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Isla was a shoking sleeper, Aiden is a million times better but its just the in between feed wakings that suck!
Yeah I forgot to say that I have got him to self settle on his own without any help, no dummy, just put to bed wide awake in his sleeping bag with his taggie blanket. |
Posted By: crafty1
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 4:03pm
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sounds like the dummy to me too. I'd get rid of that and see if it helps. ------------- http://lilypie.com">  
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Posted By: Kellz
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 5:02pm
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Im reluctant to get rid of it completely cos its easier for me to be able to give it to him, but I think my only choice is to get rid of it.
Its hard cos when we are out and hes tired hes a screamer, and the dummy will instantly shut him up and he falls asleep. Its hard to always be home when he needs to sleep too cos of doing stuff with Isla. We have something on every day of the week! Always in the mornings tho, so we are out the same time each day, and apart from picking her up at 3pm from daycare 3 days a week we are home all afternoon- Mum does a lot of those pick ups for me too. Im just gonna have to not use it all all I think- its just so much less stressful for me to if I just give it to him, but gotta stop all these wakings! Im scared of letting him cry when hes actually hungry too, cos his night feeds are not at the same times each night. Maybe I should try again to dream feed him, and then try to get him to go through til 6am? Hes never lasted that long tho, 7hrs is the most he has gone between feeds. Am going to try having a lamp on in his room cos one of my firends suggested today that maybe its too dark in his room at night- its pitch black cos we have the door shut so he doesnt wake Isla/she doesnt wake him etc! |
Posted By: Helen1
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 8:32pm
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One thing we did with both of our girls was to give a bottle of formula about 10:30pm. We would wake them to give the bottle. This seemed to settle them for a decent stretch (up to about 2am), and because DH could give them the bottle and I went to bed about 7:30 to 8pm, I got a good sleep and could cope with waking the rest of the night.
With Amelia we also swaddled her up until recently. It helped her settle and stay asleep and we have weaned her from the swaddling with no trouble. I would just say to try a couple of things and see what works best for you. It might be that you ditch the dummy altogether. I know this is something you don't want to do but it will probably only be a couple of days to a week that you have issues and to be honest it's not much different than the issues you have now. Good luck. I would say that you should do what works for you. The 2 things I said above worked for us. All the best. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: Kellz
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 8:51pm
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Thanks for the ideas. Aiden has always preferred to have his hands up, so up until recently he was in a Wrap me Up, but I weaned him out of it and into a sleeping bag so that he could cuddle his taggie blanketa nd suck his hands instead of dummy.
I cant give Aiden any formula - I am intollerant to cows milk, Isla was allergic, and Aiden is already very intollerant to even the slightest ammount of soy milk in my breast milk, so breast milk only for him. I express after morning feed but can only get about 50-70mls per day, so it takes several days to get enough for a bottle, so cant do that unfortuatly, and I cant get him to latch on to bf a dream feed either. |
Posted By: tiptoes
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 2:32pm
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Cooper did a similar thing from 3 months to about 4 1/2 months and then all of a sudden started either sleeping through or waking only once. So fingers crossed for you that it's just a phase and things will improve soon.
Could you try swaddling again? Just in case that helps, as maybe he's flinging his arms around and waking himself up. Oh yeah and white noise - we play it all night, so maybe some kind of white noise or music all night? Just realising that 3 months was probably around the time we moved him from our room to his own room (duh) so could have been him getting used to that. Anything similar with you guys? What about warmth of the room? Is it between 16-20 C? ------------- http://alterna-tickers.com">  
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Posted By: Kellz
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 2:48pm
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We moved him into his own room at 7 weeks. He was more reglarly going 6hrs from his last evening feed til his first night feed, then waking 3 hrsly after that but the in bewteen feed waking are getting worse and worse, as bad as hrly some nights.
I did think about swaddling again, but I only recently weaned him out of it as part of the getting rid of the dummy process so he can have his hands to suck/ and cuddle a blanket to settle instead of dummy. He was already doing alal this waking even when he was swaddled. He tummy sleeps anyway so dont have the arm flapping around issue. We have the radio on on static all night and for his day sleeps, always have. I do wonder about the room temperature tho. Dont want to have to buy a thermomenter, but might borrow one fr a few nights just to see what the temperature actually is. We have a heater in his room which comes on and off at programmed times during the night. |
Posted By: millymollymandy
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 3:28pm
| Check his hands for temperature, if they are cold he needs to be warmer. Personally I'd work on getting rid of the dummy and trying to encourage the taggy blanket as an alternative. Sounds like you are actually about 90 percent there though. |
Posted By: Febgirl
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 5:07pm
I think it might be a phase too. 4 - 5 month age is notoriously bad for night waking, even if bubs was sleeping well before that. Personally I'd just keep doing what you've been doing and see if things improve in a few weeks time. ------------- Two little girls under 2! 
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chelle wrote:Posted By: AandCsmum
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 6:46pm
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You could always put his dummy on a chain. Worked a treat for my little man. Just make sure it's not chained where it could drop across his neck. ------------- Kel http://lilypie.com"> 
A = 01.02.04 & C = 16.01.09 & G = 30.03.12 |
Posted By: Kellz
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 7:11pm
| Febgirl- its not a new thing, he has always woken multiple times a night between feeds, but its getting worse, and I need to get more sleep as Im going back to work 2 days a week at the end of this month and will not be able to do that if Im not getting more sleep. I havent had more than about 2 hrs max sleep in a row since he was born, and I still need a nap most days. |
Posted By: Febgirl
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 9:27pm
 - that must be really stressful knowing that you're going back to work soon - I didn't realise it had always been bad. Have you had a look on the Sleep Store website, they have some really good ideas there other that what people have already mentioned?
http://www.thesleepstore.co.nz/sleep+information/Infants.html - Sleep Store info ------------- Two little girls under 2!
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Posted By: Kellz
Date Posted: 14 May 2010 at 8:10am
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Thanks- yeah Im always looking at their site, its great! I was reading that babies wake more fully after sleep cycles from 5 months so if they need anything to get back to sleep then they will only need it more, that prompted me to fix the problem now, plus the going back to work soon thing.
Have been following their suggestions over the last 3 weeks by weaning him out of wrap and into sleeping bag and taggy to replace dummy. Only usuing dummy at sleep times etc. Well we had a great night last night! He went to bed at 6pm, fed at 9pm, woke at 11.30ish so I got him up for a cudle cos I thought he may have wind and also he hadnt pooed for 9 days and was farting heaps in the evening. He calmed down quickly with a cuddle, began to cry when I put him back to bed but was quiet by the time I got back to our room! Fed at 3am then slept til 6.30am! Thats such an improvement! So pleased! He hasnt had dummy since the 5 mins he had in the night before, woo hoo! |
Posted By: Helen1
Date Posted: 15 May 2010 at 8:13pm
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So glad you had a good night. It makes you feel that you are getting there. Go with your instinct of what works for you. Our Karitane nurse said to me that "you are the parent and you decide how things will be. If something is working for you then go with it. If it stops working for you then you need to change it." Great advice but boy it can he hard to implement.
Hang in there and all the best. ------------- http://lilypie.com">
http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Kellz
Date Posted: 15 May 2010 at 8:27pm
| Thanks! Last night was the 3rd night, and I got Aiden up at 9.15pm for a feed and I was so suprised that it turned into an actual dreamfeed cos he didnt wake up at all and fed well. He was back in bed in 15 min, then woke for a feed at 2.30am-up 15 mins, then slept til 6am! So stoked with that! |
Posted By: Babe
Date Posted: 16 May 2010 at 6:43pm
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I'm so glad to read this!!!! I've been thinking I'm doing something wrong with Ty coz hes not sleeping so good but obviously its a fairly normal baby thing!!! -------------   
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Posted By: Helen1
Date Posted: 16 May 2010 at 8:02pm
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Well done. Seems like you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. ------------- http://lilypie.com">
http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Kellz
Date Posted: 17 May 2010 at 7:29pm
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Its still going well! He now hasnt had the dummy at all for days, and wont be having it again.
He still feeds then does to bed at 6pm, then either wakes or has a dream feed around 9pm, then will sleep 5-6hrs and feed around 2am/3amish, then go through til 6am. He did wake at 12.30 last night but I left him and he was quiet after 5 mins and slept 2 more hrs, and he didnt wake Isla up either, yay! |
Posted By: LJsmum
Date Posted: 18 May 2010 at 10:09am
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great news! about ditching the dummy and more sleeping at night. I have to get rid of the dummy too, it is such a life saver when out and about but is becoming a sleep aid.
I found dream feeding to be excellent too. glad your getting more sleep! -------------  
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Posted By: Kellz
Date Posted: 18 May 2010 at 4:55pm
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Thanks! The dream feed has only worked that once, since then hes been waking aorund 9-9.30pm for a feed, but oh well, that works for us anyway! Im not expecting him to sleep through the night without a feed, so it doesnt matter that the pm feed is at 9pm rather than 10pm cos Im still gonna feed him once in the night after that anyway, so he doesnt need to last from 10pm til morning.
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