Advice needed r.e. nights

[louxlouxbellex]

I'm sleep deprived & could really do with some advice.

Charlie was 13 weeks old on sat, he is not yet sleeping through they night, previously he would go to sleep about 11ish & sleep til 6:30ish then I'd change his nappy & give him a bottle & he'd sleep til 10ish. Now he does have a dummy which unfortunately he needs to get to sleep so after his bottle it would usually take him an hour to get back to sleep because his dummy would keep falling out

Anyway he has brought his night time forward over the past week & his having his last bottle @ 18:30, then going down about an hour later (with his dummy). I had been giving him a dreamfed about 230 but he was waking about 3:30 looking for more milk so last night I decided to not bother with the dreamfed & just feed him when he woke up (& I could go to bed early & prepare for an early morning waking). So he woke at 2:30 so I fed him & put him back down, he kept falling asleep & them the dummy would come out & wake him up, eventually we fed him again at 6:30 & he finally went to sleep at 7:30, & slept til 9:30.

Obviously I know the major problem here is the dummy, I tried putting him down for a nap there without it & he screamed blue murder! Eventually I gave in after 10 min of his crying & he's totally sound asleep.

I would have hoped by now he would have been sleeping through, I'm wondering if maybe he is not getting enough milk, he is currently on 7oz 5 times a day. Does this sound about right (I think he must weight at least 14lbs)? Maybe I should offer him a bottle every 3 hours instead of 4?

Failing that does anyone know what age they start to put the dummy in themselves?!

 

[Lynsey]

Hi hun. I have no advice on the dummy situation but thought I would mention that my LO is 15 weeks and not sleeping through. He also weighs 14lbs. He is breast fed but has a dream feed bottle. He is in bed by 7pm every night, we dream feed him at 10:30pm and he then sleeps until 4/5am. I breastfeed him and he sleeps until 7am. You are not alone I don't think some babies sleep through for months yet. Keep going, he might surprise you next week

 

[Suzie and Faith]

No advice but my LO is 8 months and doesn't sleep through x

 

[debecca]

Connie didn't sleep through until she was 4 and a bit months and she's a brilliant sleeper now (13 hours) so there is hope

I have a dummy lover too. She has unfortunately always needed the dummy to get back to sleep and we were consistently having to get up several times a night to put it back in until HALLELUJAH we discovered the wonder that is the dummy strap. We bought one from Boots - it attaches the dummy to their clothes / sleeping bag so they can find it at all times. They need quite good hand coordination though so I reckon your baby would have to be 5 months before he could even use one of those. Even so, you don't have long to wait before things start to improve a lot. I promise

 

[nori]

Ollie isnt sleeping through either so i shouldnt worry. He is having 6oz bottles every 3 hours. I also did what you did and decided to drop the 11pm feed and just wake when he wakes. This seemed to mess things up for us though as we had almost conquered the sleeping through thing.

I try to start the day at 7am and give him 3 hourly feeds which seems to work better. I always keep everything to make the feeds up in the bedroom just incase. All of this has gone out of the window this week though as hes been poorly.

Ollie also has a dummy and i tend to have a couple of visits to put it back in. If i dont he usually finds his hands though.

Hope things start to improve soon. i think there is so much pressure to get them sleeping through when they are still tiny. Im sure they will both fall into it soon enough.

Claire x

 

[ninjawomble]

Isla has 6oz feed about 3 hours apart in the day..but shes random..every night is different!
The other night we had 7 and half hours straight sleep, then most nights 2-3 hourly feeds, then last night HOURLY!!

Ive noticed that the amount of ounces she drinks at night is usually how many hours we will get...she takes 3 ozs we have 3 hours sleep!
She was waking fussing for milk last night..took an oz, fell asleep, couldnt wake her...hour late another oz..ad nauseam

Im dead on my feet!

Just one night feed would be bloody amazing never mind sleeping through!

 

[louxlouxbellex]

Thanks girls, at least I know I am not alone. I think I was just having a 'down' day on Tuesday. I've since managed to get him into his old routine of going to sleep at 11. Last night he slept from 11 til 5:30 then straight back down til 8:30 (no dummy incidents!)

Ninjawomble hun I don't know how you cope

 

[maria1976]

I wouldnt worry too much. Ruby still wakes loads but she is BF. I would be jumping round the room if she slept 11 til 5 .At her best she has woke 3 times in night at her worse 10 or more times, count yourself lucky

 

[fein _but_waiting!]

i've been having the same problems as you re: dummy needed to fall asleep but then waking in the night and needing it to fall back asleep or waking when it fell out. Tried controlled crying but wasnt working (he is 14 weeks on fri) and so resorted to the baby whisperer technique of weaning the dummy, which we started this morning and already i've seen progress (after using it for 3 naps and just before to put him back to sleep for the night). It's basically, offering the dummy to help relax baby then taking it out when calm but not letting baby fall asleep with it. Then when baby fusses, to try shh shhing and patting baby in a heartbeat rhythm till calm, and obviously when baby gets worked up to give the dummy again. It takes a lot of patience but at the first nap i kept putting dummy in out etc with patting and shhshing in between finally ending of with patting. It took half an hour. He slept for a half hr then woke, and i had to do the same again for another half hr. As i've put him down for each sleep today, i've already noticed a difference to the point that i can mostly calm him by patting him and only had to give him his dummy twice for a few seconds, and he basically settled himself so hoping by the weekend we'll be dummy free and i won't have to really settle him so much! much nicer way and less of a wind up for me than controlled crying but requires firm resolve and lots of patience. And once started, it needs to be seen through other wise it just won't work and is wasted effort!

Wow, just looked up and seen the masses that i've written, anyway, just thought i'd share and say i know where you're coming from and that there are ways to get rid of the dummy and have them self settle.

 

[fein _but_waiting!]

little update since last night, the last 2 times i've put him down, he's been DUMMY FREE! woohoo, just let him cry for about 30 secs, he starts to wind down, couple pats on the back then i rest my hand and he falls asleep, it feels like i have so much time now and i'm not listening to him scream away! so amazing but did not expect it to happen so fast or so easily!