sleeping

[NICCI]

jack is 4 months old and has never slept through the best he does is 11 till 4, he is boobie fed and still feeds every 2.5 hours!!!! he has a loose routine of bath feed cuddles with daddy then bed!! last night i was chatting with DH about it and he blames me for jack not sleeping through!! (i dont know why i sulked at this point of the conversation) im annoyed because i recently asked DH 2 help me get jack into a better routine when he was off work 4 a week but he said he didnt want that because it meant that he wouldnt get to see much of jack when he got home from work! anyway back to the point i really tried to settle jack last night it took me an hour to settle him in his moses basket!! but now that he has found his hands he keeps pulling his dummy out but cant always find his hands to suck in time!! should i give him a comfort blanket to hold??? and please tell me what you did to get your LOs to sleep thru what routines do u use!! im getting to the point where im sooooo tired and fed up (doesnt help thatmy sisters two week old sleeps thru and i keep getting that chucked in my face)

oh my gosh sorry 4 the rant

 

[First Baby White]

Hi Nicci, Harry is the same in terms f sleep although he is bottle feed so would love to see everyones responses
Harry's routine is bath at 7-7.30, bed at 8, dream feed at 10, up at 1-2 for feed then up and ready for day between 5-6. I am also knackered now and like you a relative has a 3 weej old that sleeps through
Just realised i crashed your thread without helping, sorry

 

[maria1976]

Hey honey, Ruby is just over a year and boobie fed and has never slept through, she still wakes about 3 or 4 times in the night, more faffing than anything else although we do co-sleep. Not sure what advice to give you, im sorry, but good luck getting him into a routine

 

[mum's the word]

Have a think about what times you would like him to be sleeping and work out a routine. what time is your o/h home from work (ie if he's home by 5 there should be no prob with a 7 p.m bedtime?) Or 8 p.m if that suits you. Set aside a week to concentrate on establishing the routine then when it's running smoothly you can be more flexible, I know a lot of people are put off by being tied to a routine but I had such an unsettled baby I HAD to do something.
Start introducing 2 regular daytime naps in the cot at exactly the same time everyday, with no more than 3 hours between naps/sleeps, it doesn't matter if he doesn't go to sleep during these periods initially, you are just setting up a sleep pattern for him.
With patience a routine comes together in just a few days, it's boring at times and very stressful when they cry pitifully if they're not used to being put into a cot awake, but I found a feeding and sleeping routine solved a lot more probs than it caused.
It's all about doing the same things at the same time, bath and a winding down session in the evening, naps at the same time during the day, keep it up for a week and you should see a result.
You can expect 2-3 naps a day lasting between 1 and 2 hours and 12 hours at night, of course there will be the odd bad day/night but by starting the sleep training during the day you wont be so impatient and can experiment more.

 

[LisaJ1986]

Angel is breastfed and doesn't sleep through. I moved her from moses basket to the cot and that helped a bit as she could spread out a bit more. I get it thrown at me too coz my nephew sleeps through and Angel should and put her on bottles/follow on milk, blah blah!

She seems to alter her routine too. At the mo she doesn't settle til midnight, she'll get up 4 times in the night, and lie-in til 11am!

 

[Sherlock]

My understanding is that from about 12 weeks breastfed babies don't *need* night feeds and their bodies are able to cope with overnight sleeps for 8 hours, sometimes a bit more. If we keep feeding them without trying to see if they can go longer without feeds then their bodies get more and more used to it and it can become harder to drop night feeds as they get older.

We went with dropping night feeds on a weekend. We didn't do a dreamfeed before we went to bed but did feed LO if he woke. However I was not convinced he was hungry each time.

The weekend we dropped the night feeds OH was the one who went to him each time he stirred and fussed. He changed nappy and settled LO back down. I stayed away so LO would not smell me or the milk. Within 3 nights he was sleeping through. He went from 8pm-6am. Has done this more or less ever since.

Also with dummies at night it can be more hassle than its worth. Your LO is still young enough that you can ditch the dummy cold turkey and you might have a grumpy baby for 24 hours but he will soon forget all about his dummy and not miss it. If you are having to keep getting up to put it back in at night and he wakes then I'd throw it out and be done with it. Your LO will soon get used to not having it and if you can get through a few nights of not feeding unless its really really needed then all being well your LO will start sleeping through a bit better.

Also your LO might settle better in a cot now over a basket. Have room for arms out and moving round a bit. We moved into a cot with LO at 6 weeks and never looked back. He slept much better in there.

 

[DaisyRose]

Hiya,

It is really difficult! What I've tended to do with my girls is gradually make their bedtimes earlier and earlier until they're going to bed at about 8.30ish. I've started putting Ruby down at about 9-9.30 but she's started waking in the night again (I think some of the problem is that she's got a cough). Now she's older I don't rush to feed her if she wakes (sometimes she's awake for ages talking in her basket; sometimes she'll cry a bit and drop back off but if she really screams I'll put her in bed and re-settle her with a feed).

Good luck - it'll all fit into place in the end. I know how difficult it is having an OH who gets home from work late as I have the same problem and the girls go to bed later than most kids because otherwise they'd never see him in the week. You just have to do what's best for you but have a chat with your OH about setting some routine ground-rules.

 

[NICCI]

thank you so much 4 the replies ladies there is some really good advice!! ill take it on bored and let u know how it goes!!

 

[BabyMagic]

For some reason people tend to ask if our babies sleep through a night. As if that was the most important factor how well you as a mother and your baby are doing.

For me it is more important that I have a content and happy baby who clearly seems to enjoy life. But then I may be biased as my goal hasn't been trying to get my LO to sleep through a night. We co-sleep and she still wakes up - sometimes once, sometimes more. It has never really bothered me, and I am lucky as I don't really feel tired. For me it's important that LO feels loved during the night, in the same way as she does during the day.

If it does bother you that your LO wakes up, I like the sound of Sherlock's advice.

At times, I know that my LO is not waking up because she is hungry and I try to give her a cuddle first without feeding straight away. She has recently had a few restless nights (maybe teething - you never know with babies) and I have ended up feeding her more often, if not for nothing else but to comfort her in whatever is bothering her.

Have you tried to nap with your LO during the day so that you wouldn't feel as tired? Good luck