I put my daughter to bed, with a solid bedtime routine, at 8pm every night. She is swaddled and happy. She will sleep until around 11 or 11:30 and then wakes up to eat. For a while she was also waking again around 3am or so, and I was feeding her. No problem there, until she was only taking an ounce or two. So I figured she was only waking for the attention and not the food. I go to her room, comfort her, give her the "binky" and reswaddle if necessary. That was working great until about a week ago. Now she starts waking up around 1:30am and continues to wake up every hour, at a minimum, until morning. I comfort her and she goes right back to sleep. Then she's up again. I can't seem to break this cycle and now I'm starting to be really sleep deprived because I can't get more than an hour at a time.
I just started cereal before bedtime (by spoon) and that totally does nothing as far as making her sleep longer. That whole concept went right out of the window. I just want some suggestions. I feel like I have tried just about everything. We even brought her into our bed one night so I could at least get one night of sleep and she still woke up constantly. Thanks for any suggestions!
I know this is an old question but just in case someone else has the same issue they might be interested in what happened. We ended up taking away the swaddle blanket. After about two nights with no swaddle she stopped waking up for a while. That and I quit offering her a bottle when she did wake up in the middle of the night. The pediatrician told me she's a big girl now and doesn't need the swaddle anymore. It did seem kind of funny after she said that to me. I guess I was just thinking I was doing the right thing but it turned out I was only aggravating her sleep.
It is developmental. They start sleeping more lightly and awake more easily.
I would back away from the cereal until 6 months. It can upset baby tummies and lead to allergies. My daughter got really bad gas pains from rice cereal and she wouldn't touch oatmeal.
I started co-sleeping at this point too, because I had to get some sleep to get up in the morning.
Maybe you could try a night or two without the swaddle. When I moved my son into his crib at 6 weeks he did not want his swaddle anywmore. He fussed or cried everytime he woke up. I took it off after the second night. After one or two nights he was back to his longer sleep sessions! Good Luck!
I had that same issue - and attributed it to my going back to work. I don't know if that fits your situation. My lactation consultant called it "reverse cycling", and basically suggested that she was waking up at night so she could see me, since she wasn't seeing me as much during the day. There really wasn't a whole lot I could do about it until she got through the adjustment period. If it's not that, I would consider ear infections and teething as other possible causes. Good luck!
If your baby is healthy, she may be getting her nights and days mixed up. I would be tempted to just let her fuss it out and go back to sleep on her own. You need your sleep!! If she cries too loudly, pehaps you and Dad can take turns geting up with her. If you think she just wants attention and doesn't have any real needs, firmly tell her that night time is bedtime not social time. Babies understand what we say before they are able to speak. Be firm and kind but don't give her the social experience she wants. AF
Hey H.,
Sleep deprivation does not sit well with anyone. I am a mother of a 4 year old girl, a 2 1/2 year old girl, a 1 year old boy and am due with my 4th baby in August and I am a huge fan of putting little ones on an eating/sleeping schedule. In fact I could not have survived having my precious children so close together in age without such scheduling. It sounds like you had a pretty reliable routine in place and now maybe your baby needs to "cry it out". It can be pretty tough at times to hear your little one cry herself to sleep, but in the end everyone (including her) will be sleeping more soundly. Best of luck.
M.
Try adding a breastfeeding session or two during the day/evening (or bottle). If tha tdoesn't work, then talk to the doctor about starting solids - your baby may be on the bigger side and need more calories.
try adding the cereal to pumped breast milk or formula, whichever one you use, at her last feeding. my son went thru the same thing a couple of weeks ago and i stared the cereal in the milk and he's back to his regular schedule. he's 3 months old. i wasnt gonna start cereal until 4 months but i could tell the milk just wasnt holding him anymore. i use Earth's Best organic rice cereal.
It sounds like she is overtired. Try putting her to bed earlier.
Hi H.,
Sounds like your baby has gas from all the food before bedtime.
Go back to just formula when the baby is hungry.
She could be swallowing air from her Binky giving her gas.
Call your local children's hospital and talk to the nutritionist.
Get involved in a support group for mom's :http://attachmentparenting.meetup.com
Hope this helps. Good luck. D.
You may want to have her ears checked. I have two chilren and when they start waking up in the middle of the night (when they normally don't) it's usually because of an ear infection. Also, if she is teething, ear infections sometimes go hand in hand. Good luck.
HI H.,
This happened to me as well. I felt like it started after her 4 month shots. ( Not that that had anything to do with it but she was fine before her shots) I think we tried and thought of everything that has already been mentioned. We did the wedge in the crib. We had her ears checked. We brought her into bed with us. I slept on the living room floor with her so when she woke I could have some little toys and still lie down besider her getting some "rest". We tried letting her sleep in her swing, which the first few nights seemed like a godsend. She would sleep 2-3 hours in her swing!! But alas, after a few days it was back to waking every hour. We tried rocking her, giving her cereal, just about everything. Then one night I put her in her crib and I used those wedge things to prop her on her side figuring that might work. Well on her side didn't work but she rolled on her tummy and slept 5 hours!! We had tried everything for almost a month so she was close to 5 months when this happened. I started putting her to sleep on her tummy and she has slept better ever since. The first few months she's sleep through the night waking twice (much better than every hour) then around 7 months she started waking once around 1:30am. I would give her a bottle and now I have weaned it down to only 2oz. She is almost 10 months now and sometimes sleeps through the night, sometimes wakes once. She is definitely a tummy sleeper like her mommy and although it was hard in the beginning to put her on her tummy, it was the best thing I did. I talked with her doctor and he said as long as she was able to roll over (which she could only do one way) and lift her head - she should be fine. I also have no bumper or blankets or anything in the crib. (now she has some toys in her crib and a gloworm) Talk with your pediatrician and see what they have to say. Hope this helps.
B.
I went through this SAME thing!
My son got on a solid sleep routine and started sleeping through the night between 8-10 weeks old and then when he was about 5 months old started waking several times in the middle of the night. We talked to our pediatrician about it and he told us not to feed the baby at night and that if we were comfortable with it, to let him cry it out. He said that babies need to learn how to put themselves back to sleep and if we kept running into his room every time he woke up, it would be a lot harder to deal with down the road (especailly when he moved into a bed).
The other issue was that he was still exclusively on breast milk. I had a checklist from the book Super Baby Food:
-Can your baby sit upright in a highchair?
-Does your baby seem interested when you or others eat?
-Does your baby pick up objects and bring them to his mouth?
-Has the baby who used to sleep long stretches suddenly stared waking up in the middle of the night?
If so... your baby is ready to add solids to his or her diet.
So we started feeding our son 1 or 2 small solid meals a day. His first foods were rice cereal, oatmeal, avocado and bananas (of course introduced one at a time).
We did listen to our doctor and we let him cry-it-out. It was really hard for me, but I kept looking at the clock and realized that he actually only cried for a few minutes and fell back asleep. I think that it was a combination of the extra calories, and learning to self-soothe, but after about a week, he stopped waking up (or at least, he stopped crying when he woke up and put himself back to sleep), and he has slept through the night ever since (he is now 15 months)
Good luck.
Hi H.,
Is her bed in a room where she sleeps alone? If so, she may be a little one who desires the presence/comfort of sharing a room. May seem a bit odd, but one of my three children was exactly that way. I remedied the temporary problem by placing the crib in the room with us.
When she awakens, is unsettled, visibly upset, crying? If not, then once you've changed her let her fall back asleep in her time. Doing otherwise may encourage her to pursue your company and unduly limit your rest.
One final thing, you may want to have her checked. The continual reduction in food consumption may be cause for concern. Better safe than sorry.
Much success
ABB
Hello -
My 4-month old was doing similar things w/ waking & feeding. He has reflux, which we think was part of the problem. Additionally, if he gets a stuffy nose (from a cold or the reflux) he can't eat as much at a time b/c he can't breathe through his nose while he eats, so then he eats smaller amounts more often. We use a humidifier in his room at night for the congestion, and he takes meds for the reflux. Also, when he is really stuffy we use Baby Simply Saline in his nose and then suck the liquid back out w/ one of those plastic bulbs. Another thing is that he doesn't like to sleep flat b/c of the reflux and it makes his congestion worse, so we put a wedge under his crib sheet (which sort of works, but he tends to slide down it) or we let him sleep in his cradle swing (not great, but it helps him, so....) These things help a lot for our baby - good luck to you!!
J.
HI,
are you giving her the binky everytime you go back in the room? She might be waking from that...she loses it and then wants it back. You give it to her and now she's learned to wake up and cry for it?
Just wanted to let you know you are not alone! My 4 month old is up with me right now (or should I say I am up with HIM!). I'm anxious to read the responses you get to see if they'll help me too. Good luck!
She may be teething. This causes extra drooling and that may be filling her up so she doesn't eat as much. Diarhea can also be a symptom of teething.
Babies don't sleep the same way older children and adults do. Their light sleep stages are much lighter, which means that they are much more likely to wake up if they are experiencing any discomfort.
She may be going through a growth spurt, though if you are formula-feeding, I would just expect that she would drink more at regular feeding times. If you are breastfeeding, it can take up to a week for your supply to adjust, though it usually doesn't take that long.
She may be teething without any external signs, and that discomfort could wake her. An ear infection will also cause wakefulness and doesn't always come with a fever or other symptoms.
It's 3am and I'm just as desperate as all of you! My baby was sleeping through the night wonderfully up until about 3 weeks ago and she's 4 months now. We were in the hopsital for 11 days with an infection and so I thought this had caused her sleeping schedule to get wacky, but it sounds like everyone is having a problem with their 4 month old!
She still sleeps in a bassinet beside the bed. My husband wants to put her in her crib and let her cio and I'm getting so desperate for sleep I'd much rather bring her into the bed with me as I know this will calm her. I am not ready for her to cio yet but will gladly let her maybe in a month or so if nothing else works.
She's bf and our schedule is:
10pm massage/bath/feed
1 am up soothing her
3 am up soother her
4 am bf
6 am bf and up for the day
She has 3-4 30min-1hr naps during the day with usually 1 3 hour nap.
Tonight she's been up every half hour. The only thing I've found that helps is to swaddle her again which we stopped doing at 6 weeks because her arms were too wild. Swaddling helps calm her enough to sleep from 10:30pm-4am which is pretty good but I'm still sleep deprived and miserable. She's starting to roll but hasn't completely so the swaddling doesn't worry me yet. In a week or so I think she'll be able to roll all the way over so swaddling will not work then because I'm too worried about her face planting. I don't feel any teeth coming in but she really calms down when I massage her gums so maybe she's teething?
We are planning the transition to the crib on the July 4th weekend since I have some time off of work. I'm not looking forward to it! It's painful getting up every hour with her when's she is laying 1 foot away but to do it with her down the hall sounds like even more fun!
I'd be interested to hear what other moms have done that seemed to help get through this sleeping regression hump.
I think your giving too much attention. At the times you believe she is actually hungry you should go in feed, change, arranger her sleeping or whatnot and not go back in until you believe she needs feeding again. I think you going back and back is giving her a reason to wake up. She wants you attention and has figured out to get it more often at night when she used to not.
