how do you do it?!?!

[sazzylou]

Izzie is over 4 months old now and has never slept through, she's never even shown any signs of sleeping through. Even my HV said she should "definitely be going through the night" and has even suggested we start weaning her now to get her to sleep longer. I dont know what im doing wrong She goes to bed at 7, wakes up at 11 for a feed, then sleeps until 3am ish, another feed and up again at about 6am (sometimes she stays awake for up tp 2 hours in the night just being noisy for no reason! ) Its doing my head in I know its not the MOST terrible routine ever, but i keep popping in here and reading about all your LO's going through...im starting to think it'll never happen for me.

When she wakes in the night, do you reckon i should just not feed her and hope she gets the hint? Any advice would be great. Shes been like this for weeks, theres been no improvement, And my HV said because she's above average fr her weight that should help with the sleeping (16lb 8oz 2 weeks ago) Also she only sleeps about 2 hours in the day.

Id just really like a full nights sleep

 

[sarah2807]

i don't know much about this but from listening to friends with more than 1 child a lot of it seems to be down to the child not just what the parents do. i know peope who have done the same thing with 2 children but had different sleepers. my lo is quite good at night and usually wakes up once. she even managed to sleep throgh a few days ago, but i don't do anything special, just bath her at 7pm, give her some time under her mobile then bf her before bed. she's really good and settles herself to sleep and is asleep within 5 mins.

our nightimes were easier when our lo moved in her own room, she is really noisy and somtimes i'd think she wanted feeding when she was just whining in her sleep! now i just hear her when she cries 2 be fed!

however in the day she is really hardwork where sleep is concerned and raarely sleeps more than 30 mins at once and takes a lot of rocking etc to settle.

i guess every baby is different. she'll get there in the end.

good luck.

 

[LisaJ1986]

Angel doesn't sleep through. We had a few nights when she did, then was back up 3 times a night. Gave her rusk and she slept through about 5 nights, now we're back to 2 or 3 times again. So weaning doesn't really make a difference, not to us anyway.

 

[IsaB]

How much is she feeding during the day? Can you add in a day feed or increase bottle volume per feed if formula feeding? Maybe she's just not getting enough calories during the day - especially if she's not sleeping much and therefore using more energy?

 

[Manda&Thomas]

does she need the feed in the middle of the night? have you tried settling her without feedingh her? maybe with a dummy or just a 5 minute cuddle she may just be in the habit of waking up now and so just feeds because its offerded

xx

 

[floppit]

If it's any help Freya is 5 months and no way sleeps through - she did between week 6 and 10 giving me false hope! Although she is asleep upstairs before us we don't usually get to bed till about 12 - I will then get woken for 2 lots of feeds (sometimes an hour long using both breasts) before our alarms go off at 6am and another day begins.

I'm coping by catching a nap in the day, reminding myself it will pass, and remembering how tired I've been through some past stuff I've done which are often the best memories too. I'm trying to get myself through it rather than get her to sleep.

 

[charlie84]

Calleigh wakes in the night hun.
She used to sleep through until a few weeks ago where she now wakes up and last night it was every three hours and she went to bed at 8pm.
Calleigh also has a feed at every wakening and if i didnt feed her she would definately not to back to sleep

I am hoping when i start weaning that it may help her sleep better, but i know this is not always the case. So another few weeks of sleepless nights till then

 

[Tillytots]

James has slept through about 8/9 times - even then he still fussed all night but didnt wake up properly IYKWIM. He is back to feeding at 2/3am then 5/6am and then he is WIDE awake by then

I read in a baby sleeping guide the other day that babies sleep better if they have good naps in the day. Maybe she needs more nap naps? James does seem to slep longer when he has good sleepies in the day ( prob 4 - hour long naps)

Im still waiting for the full nights sleep though so my ideas are prob rubbish

 

[Sherlock]

Hmmm

Well my LO is a bit younger and sometimes will go 6-8 hours through but often still wakes 2-3 times a night. Only rarely until recently did I do anything other than feed/change him and pop him back in his cot.

After long talk with my HV, like yours she says he could/should be sleeping through by now fine and to try to not feed him unless really needed. Reason being that from about 5 months is when they start to have memory of things and will therefore be more expecting of night feeds and it becomes much harder to get them out of it. At his age babies can go 8 hours plus overnight with no feeds. She said the time we were putting him to bed was fine (between 8-9pm) and then not to dreamfeed him which I don't do often anyways. If he wakes or stirs (and does not go back in in 5 mins or so) in the night to simply pop his dummy in or to turn the mobile on and see if he settles again. It might take 15 minutes or so but often he does. Falls back to sleep and sleeps through to 5-6am then. If he really does not settle then OH checks him, changes him if need be and pops him back in his cot. If he then really doesn't settle then we get him out and he has a feed. As soon as he is fed he goes back in his cot and we leave him well alone.

I think for us the trick was to have OH see to him when he woke rather than me. He expects a feed from me whereas OH doesn't do that If I change him he gets all excited and looks to feed. OH changes him he never bothers. I've come to the conclusion is comfort feeding more than hunger as he falls back off to sleep really quickly.

It took a few nights to get this going. We did it over a long weekend so OH didn't have to be tired at work next day. Its not perfect and we still have the odd time when LO wakes at 1,2 or 3am ish. But he is being great and going back to sleep pretty well without being fed. We are going to do this for a few weeks and see how it goes and then slowly start to move his bedtime forward to around 7pm.

I've found feeding him more in the day helps. Also the evening. But then not dreamfeeding as it seems to unsettle him more and he'll wake in the night. Also what Tilly said, when my LO sleeps well in the day he sleeps better at night.

 

[Leese]

Don't worry, she's still really wee and she'll get the hang of it! James kept on with the 5.30 waking until he was over 4 months, and then we worked out that he wasn't too hungry and just gave him his dummy to settle him a bit. I think it gave him that little bit of settling that he needed. he's now eight months and has just started waking again, we are trying not to feed him as I'm pretty sure he can remember stuff now!

 

[maybebaby]

Austin didn't sleep through until about 8 months, for about a week! He then went back to regularly waking up until I stopped breastfeeding him at night at 9 months, but he would still wake up 4 nights out of 7 at least once until he was about 11 months. Even now he will have a bad night maybe once or twice a fortnight and wake up 3 times!

Babies do EVERYTHING in their own time, if she's not ready to sleep through then there's no point worrying about it. I certainly don't think it's a sign she's ready to be weaned.

If you want reassurance that it's not just your baby, go and have a look at the 'no-sleep club' sticky at the top! There are a lot of us who have been through babies not sleeping, a lot older than your LO.

You could try cutting out night feeds if you want to but I would hesitate to do that while she's so little. Chances are she still needs the feed in the night - if not for sustinance then for reassurance that mummy is still there

She will do it eventually

 

[Charlie:-)]

Maia slept through for the first time this week on both Monday and Tuesday evening. She was exactly 3 months old and I moved her into her cot in her own room and she's sleeping much better. I think we must have disturbed her as much as she disturbed us.

I keep both bedroom doors open so I can hear her and when she wakes in the morning she plays for 10/15 minutes then goes back to sleep. This morning she woke at 5:30 for feeding then woke us up at 100am, I couldnt believe it when I looked at the clock.

My friend told me she stopped feeding Lo during the night and when he woke up she just cuddled him and then put him back down and he went back to sleep. Eventually he stopped waking.

 

[Charlie:-)]

Ooops forgot to ask whether your Lo is sleeping in your room or not but maybe this is worth a try?

 

[jodie_honey]

try giving her water in the night instead of milk, she will be fine not having a feed in the night at her age, and if u persist with the water she will stop wakin up for it lol.
she will do it when shes ready hun it will come dont worry xx

 

[sazzylou]

wow, thanks for all the replys everyone!! Its great to have so much good advice

How much is she feeding during the day? Can you add in a day feed or increase bottle volume per feed if formula feeding? Maybe she's just not getting enough calories during the day - especially if she's not sleeping much and therefore using more energy?

This is why the HV told us to start weaning her For her age she should be on around 7oz...but she just wont have it. She'll have 6oz tops, and she's quite a sicky baby so if we try to get her to have anymore she'll be sick (althoug youve only got to look at her after she's had a feed and she throws up )

does she need the feed in the middle of the night? have you tried settling her without feedingh her? maybe with a dummy or just a 5 minute cuddle she may just be in the habit of waking up now and so just feeds because its offerded

xx

My HV said that mayve she has got into the bad habot of eating in the night, just because we always feed her, but its so hard at 3 in the morning to just keep giving her a dummy. I think maybe i do feed her too quickly just because im so desperate to get back to bed!! Definitely gonna try leaving it a bit longer tonight...hopfully she'll go a bit longer

I read in a baby sleeping guide the other day that babies sleep better if they have good naps in the day. Maybe she needs more nap naps? James does seem to slep longer when he has good sleepies in the day ( prob 4 - hour long naps)

Maybe Iz does need more lseep in the day She has about 2 - 3 hours all day (somtimes 4 ) and she gets VERY unpleasent if she's tired... but then when Beth was at school (before the hols) and it was quieter indoors, she had loads of sleep and still wasnt sleeping through, lol, i thought maybe she was having too much...

Ooops forgot to ask whether your Lo is sleeping in your room or not but maybe this is worth a try?

Yup she's in her own room. She was always waking up hitting the sides of her baskets so we put her in her own room at 8 weeks! She definitely sleeps better in there, just doesnt sleep long enough for my liking

i don't know much about this but from listening to friends with more than 1 child a lot of it seems to be down to the child not just what the parents do. i know peope who have done the same thing with 2 children but had different sleepers.

I think one of the reasons im worrying so much oos that Beth was sleeping 7+ hours a night from 6 weeks!! She was a great sleeper... I just worry that im ballsing up somewhere, and now HV has told us to wean im worrying about that!

try giving her water in the night instead of milk, she will be fine not having a feed in the night at her age, and if u persist with the water she will stop wakin up for it lol.
she will do it when shes ready hun it will come dont worry xx

Im definitely gonna try this i think. My HV advised this with Beth, but she slept through so well we never had to try it.... Might get her to try a little bit in the day first so its not too much of a shock to her when thats all she gets a night, lol


Thanks for all the replys anyway. Its really good to have all you ladies for advice I dont know why ive let it bother me so much really Silly eh? Its just so crap when you think youre doing something wrong (which rationally, i know im not Grr... im a paranoid mummy...)

I know she'll sleep through ONE day...wont she...? lol

 

[kalia]

DD slept through once.
She only takes 6oz a feed and if we try to give her more she just leaves some. Our HV said she should be sleeping through the night and that weaning might help. It sounds like she was speaking rubbish though.

 

[newmum]

Austin didn't sleep through until about 8 months, for about a week! He then went back to regularly waking up until I stopped breastfeeding him at night at 9 months, but he would still wake up 4 nights out of 7 at least once until he was about 11 months. Even now he will have a bad night maybe once or twice a fortnight and wake up 3 times!

Babies do EVERYTHING in their own time, if she's not ready to sleep through then there's no point worrying about it. I certainly don't think it's a sign she's ready to be weaned.

If you want reassurance that it's not just your baby, go and have a look at the 'no-sleep club' sticky at the top! There are a lot of us who have been through babies not sleeping, a lot older than your LO.

You could try cutting out night feeds if you want to but I would hesitate to do that while she's so little. Chances are she still needs the feed in the night - if not for sustinance then for reassurance that mummy is still there

She will do it eventually

Exactly my experience. I tried a range of things but it just made the whole thing more stressful. My LO only stopped having a bottle in the night at about 9-10 months old and even now when she is teething sometimes she can't sleep without it.

SHe had started sleeping 'through' whatever that means at around 10 months but not every night. And now a few weeks later she is teething again so was up 10-15 times in the night.

She will gradually start sleeping longer but it may take a while.

 

[Babylicious]

harrison used to sleep through now hes up two or three times

 

[Xena]

My daughter didn't sleep through the night until she was past 2 years old.

My son is 12 months and definitely doesn't sleep through the night - he wakes up several times.

My dad says I was the same - I used to wake up during the night several times every night until I was 2.

I'm just not lucky lol.

 

[maria1976]

Ruby is 10 months and still wakes about 5 times a night just faffing!! Last night was the max and was up every hour coz of teething