I have an 8 month old daughter who was still getting up to nurse between 4 and 5:30 AM. She had already slept through the night a couple of times, so two weeks ago, I cut her off. She got up and cried around 4:15 the first night and after 10 minutes, went back to sleep until 6:15. For the last 2 weeks, she has continued to wake up at 4:15 or 4:30 and cry on and off or babble for up to 45 minutes. Then she'll go back to sleep until 6:30ish. How can I get her to stop waking up so early? I think if I go in her room, it will make things worse. I just want a full night's sleep! I know she can wait to be fed until around 6:30, so why is she still waking at 4:15? Will this end? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Well, after 2 weeks of trying to get her to sleep later, I gave up for a few weeks. After switching up her feeding schedule, she would get too tired and sleep through feedings. It wasn't worth it. I waited a few weeks until she was ready to go from 5 feedings a day to 4 and then I tried again. She still cries out around 5:30, but goes back to sleep until 6 or 6:30. Today she slept until 6:45!!! Thanks for all of your support!
I know this advise is not particularly "polically correct" but I used to put a little bit, an ounce of cereal in the last bottle of the night. This worked with both my children. They were sleeping through the night by 2 months (son) and 3-4 months (daughter). They are now 22, and 21 years old and are both are very thin. So I don't think that the adding of cereal had any adverse reactions
gogizone
Hi L.,
I don't have this problem...as of yet...but remember reading something about it called habitual waking. Their little bodies just get in a habit of waking at a certain time. You know it's habitual waking if your baby is waking at the same time everyday. The author's solution (which sounds crazy, but may be worth a try) is to set your alarm for an hour before tha habitual waking time, go in and stir your baby awake a little, so that they wake up a little bit and this throws off their body clock and ends the habitual waking.
The book I am referring to is called, "The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems".
Good Luck!
Ok....here are my thoughts/questions....
What time does she go to sleep at night? If she is going to bed around 8/9pm.....and waking at 4:15/4:30...that is 8 hrs w/o feeding...(not bad). I myself would feed her....thats just me! Now if she was waking at 3 and 6, thats another story. She prob could wait till 6:30am to eat, but they go through growth spurts now that you can not even feed them enough ...LOL....This will end, but also being breastfed, she may not get as full as she would eating formula(which may be true although dont go and give her formula to sleep through the night)...LOL.....Good Job for still breastfeeding.....Is she on any baby food? Cereal?
More food all day long. It really works. I didn't learn this trick until my daughter was one unfortunately, but it worked right away when I started. My son has been sleeping through since 3 months.
Add more feedings during the day (not just right before bed) for a few days and you will see the difference when her body understands it's really full. Even if you think she's not hungry-she will eat more! My step sister (mother of 12) got all of hers to sleep through by 3 months this way. It works!!!!
I agree with Celeste's post...if she's sleeping more than 8 hours, than that's great for you! We have ours a "snack" of cereal before he went to bed at about that age (at our ped's recommendation). she might just be hungry :) I do't think there's a growth spurt at that age, so depending on what solids you have her on now, it may be time to introduce a snack. But you should probably ask your ped about it since every baby is different.
All babies are different, I have 2 children and the oldest one woke up through the night until he was 2&1/2.The youngest one slept through @ 5 months.It's good to let her put herself back to sleep.She is learning to comfort herself & that is a skill all children need to have. If you really want to get a full nights sleep try feeding her more meals throuhout the day.It does work,Try to stay away from foods with high amounts of sugar in them.Some fruits have high amounts of natural sugar in them,just check the labels.With both of my boys, I gave them oatmeal or rice cereal about 45 mins. before bed.It worked with one of them.
I had the same issue...my daughter is now a little over 9 months old, and I wondered if she would ever sleep completely through the night. At around 7-8 months during the week she would sleep totally through the night 30% of the time. She would go to bed around 7:30 and get up at 4:30 and I would nurse her and then she would go back to sleep sometimes till 9 (or whenever my husband got up to take her to my inlaws). On the days she slept through the night she wouldn't get up till 8-8:30. About a week ago she just stopped waking up and will sleep about 12-13 hours at night. I've heard all babies are different and some need that night time feeding more than others. Other moms have told me that it took their babies till 10 or 11 months to sleep through the night, and others said by 5 months. I know that if my daughter does wake up and start cring at an odd time at night, I have to make my husband go in there to check on her...make sure she has her pacifier, etc...because if she sees me, she will want to be picked up and fed. I don't really know how you can make her stop waking up, but it seems like she's already a pretty good sleeper and just needs to learn to put herself back to sleep in the morning hours. Maybe a white noise in her room would help. Good luck.
my daughter is 10 months and she does the same thing. i wouldn't worry about it, but maybe that is because prior to the last 6 weeks or so she woke up constantly so to me 4:30 is not that bad. i don't get her up- like you said they will typically just play and babble to themselves in those early morning hours and then drift back off to sleep. i would let her continue to do that, it means she is learning to self soothe which is great!
OK so I fed my daughter every 4 hours. 5-9-1-5 and so on. Well I was feeding her at 9 pm and then she would go to bed and I would wake her and feed her at 1 so I could sleep the rest of the night. Well the dr said not to do that, let her sleep. So I changed the schedule by a half hour and believe it or not she slept through the night. She may have woken once or twice because of habit but then she was fine. So just let her sleep and fuss she will be fine.
