Since she was born, E has been a really good baby. She has slept 8 hours or so at night from birth, has fed like clockwork every 3 hours, and is generally a very happy, smiley baby She only really cries if something is wrong, and has always gone to bed awake so no nonsense in getting her to sleep. We even got through the 4 month fuss without too much of a fuss, for want of a better word!
However, in the past week or so her habits have become ridiculous and all routine is out the window To start with, she began waking at around 1am for a feed where previously she would sleep from 7pm to around 4/5am. This in itself wasnt a problem, I figured she may be growing and I just fed her the extra feed. BUT then it continued from here into waking at around 11pm, this would be as well as waking at 1am. Now a couple of weeks later, we have got to the point where she will go to bed at 7pm as usual without any problems, but then is up as little as an hour later and then every hour to 2 hours throughout the night
Alongside this, her feeding has gone to pot a little. She has always fed well for around 20-30 minutes at a time, one boob at each feed, and wind has never been a problem either. She would feed every 3 hours through the day, and then last feed at 6.45pm before bed. Then up at 4/5am for a small feed and back to sleep until 7/8am. But now she feeds sporadically at best. We generally start the day around 7/8am when she will have a small feed, she seems to be getting hungry as usual around 11am so I offer her the boob and she will bob on and off for 5 minutes but not feeding properly really. Then because of this, she will keep rooting for the boob for the next hour or so, but everytime I get her on, she messes about again, and in all this time she is not feeding well at all. Tbh most of my foremilk will spray her in the face, because as soon as I get the let-down she pulls off I do keep trying to get her back on to fill up a bit, but by midday she is getting tired so I put her down for a nap. She used to sleep for a couple of hours here but now it can be 20 minutes or 3 hours, it has become really unpredictable because the rest of the day is so messed up too Generally I try to get her up by 2pm, whether she is sleeping or not, and offer boob again. Same thing happens here and she will bob on and off but not feed effectively. Again she shows signs of hunger through the afternoon so I always offer the boob, but rarely will she take anything other than a few sucks
The rest of the day consists of playtime and a walk/or fetching my son from nursery. Then another small nap at about 4pm, followed by an attempt to feed at 5pm. Again similar behaviour to above. We have bath from 6pm onwards with my son too, followed by boob feed and then bedtime including a story for T. I put E's dreamshow projector on for her and she generally falls asleep within 5 minutes or so This last feed is probably the only one where she actually takes in a decent amount of milk. She will suckle happily and calmly and is always contentedly full afterwards
From hereonin though is a total mess now Every night is different at the moment, so I will describe last night as my example. She went to bed at 7pm and was asleep within minutes, as was (they share a room) She was up again at 8.40, I left her to cry for a minute or so to try and listen if anything was wrong or just a whinge, but she gradually got louder so OH went in. Popped her dummy in and she went quiet for maybe 5 minutes before crying again. Anyway, after 20 minues of trying to ssshhh her back to sleep - usually works a treat - OH picked her up and she burped. Held her for a couple of minutes until calm then back down. She cries again. He tries winding her in case it is that but she just falls asleep on his shoulder. He puts her down, she cries. Eventually I end up cuddling her and she roots for boob so I feed her. She has a snack at most and is sleepy so I put her down and she falls asleep. Now this little cycle continues all night. She will sleep for an hour or maybe 2 then is up again. We always try other things before picking her up, sometimes the dummy will work, sometimes a little sshhh will work. Other times I have to feed her, but everytime I do this she snacks rather than has a full feed. So last night I must have fed her at 9pm, 11pm, 12.30, 2am 3.45am. She soiled her nappy at about 4am this morning so I changed her then she eventually went into a proper sleep and didnt wake until 8.15am.
Now I am convinced that her night behaviour of snacking every other hour is what is stopping her feeding properly throught the day, but how do I stop this? I also need to sort out her sleeping, I know she is capable of going several hours at night because she has done it from birth, so what is this all about? Do you think this is a growth spurt at 5 months or some other fussy stage? She is definitely teething at the moment, but apart from being a little grizzly, I wouldnt say she is in pain with it. In fact, despite all the waking and crying, she rarely cries with pain, and even when awake through the night is still happy and cooing at me - NOT what you want at 3am though!!! Can anyone shed any light on this or come up with some ideas to solve it?
If you have got this far, then well done! And thanks for listening!! Somebody please help me? x
However, in the past week or so her habits have become ridiculous and all routine is out the window To start with, she began waking at around 1am for a feed where previously she would sleep from 7pm to around 4/5am. This in itself wasnt a problem, I figured she may be growing and I just fed her the extra feed. BUT then it continued from here into waking at around 11pm, this would be as well as waking at 1am. Now a couple of weeks later, we have got to the point where she will go to bed at 7pm as usual without any problems, but then is up as little as an hour later and then every hour to 2 hours throughout the night
Alongside this, her feeding has gone to pot a little. She has always fed well for around 20-30 minutes at a time, one boob at each feed, and wind has never been a problem either. She would feed every 3 hours through the day, and then last feed at 6.45pm before bed. Then up at 4/5am for a small feed and back to sleep until 7/8am. But now she feeds sporadically at best. We generally start the day around 7/8am when she will have a small feed, she seems to be getting hungry as usual around 11am so I offer her the boob and she will bob on and off for 5 minutes but not feeding properly really. Then because of this, she will keep rooting for the boob for the next hour or so, but everytime I get her on, she messes about again, and in all this time she is not feeding well at all. Tbh most of my foremilk will spray her in the face, because as soon as I get the let-down she pulls off I do keep trying to get her back on to fill up a bit, but by midday she is getting tired so I put her down for a nap. She used to sleep for a couple of hours here but now it can be 20 minutes or 3 hours, it has become really unpredictable because the rest of the day is so messed up too Generally I try to get her up by 2pm, whether she is sleeping or not, and offer boob again. Same thing happens here and she will bob on and off but not feed effectively. Again she shows signs of hunger through the afternoon so I always offer the boob, but rarely will she take anything other than a few sucks
The rest of the day consists of playtime and a walk/or fetching my son from nursery. Then another small nap at about 4pm, followed by an attempt to feed at 5pm. Again similar behaviour to above. We have bath from 6pm onwards with my son too, followed by boob feed and then bedtime including a story for T. I put E's dreamshow projector on for her and she generally falls asleep within 5 minutes or so This last feed is probably the only one where she actually takes in a decent amount of milk. She will suckle happily and calmly and is always contentedly full afterwards
From hereonin though is a total mess now Every night is different at the moment, so I will describe last night as my example. She went to bed at 7pm and was asleep within minutes, as was (they share a room) She was up again at 8.40, I left her to cry for a minute or so to try and listen if anything was wrong or just a whinge, but she gradually got louder so OH went in. Popped her dummy in and she went quiet for maybe 5 minutes before crying again. Anyway, after 20 minues of trying to ssshhh her back to sleep - usually works a treat - OH picked her up and she burped. Held her for a couple of minutes until calm then back down. She cries again. He tries winding her in case it is that but she just falls asleep on his shoulder. He puts her down, she cries. Eventually I end up cuddling her and she roots for boob so I feed her. She has a snack at most and is sleepy so I put her down and she falls asleep. Now this little cycle continues all night. She will sleep for an hour or maybe 2 then is up again. We always try other things before picking her up, sometimes the dummy will work, sometimes a little sshhh will work. Other times I have to feed her, but everytime I do this she snacks rather than has a full feed. So last night I must have fed her at 9pm, 11pm, 12.30, 2am 3.45am. She soiled her nappy at about 4am this morning so I changed her then she eventually went into a proper sleep and didnt wake until 8.15am.
Now I am convinced that her night behaviour of snacking every other hour is what is stopping her feeding properly throught the day, but how do I stop this? I also need to sort out her sleeping, I know she is capable of going several hours at night because she has done it from birth, so what is this all about? Do you think this is a growth spurt at 5 months or some other fussy stage? She is definitely teething at the moment, but apart from being a little grizzly, I wouldnt say she is in pain with it. In fact, despite all the waking and crying, she rarely cries with pain, and even when awake through the night is still happy and cooing at me - NOT what you want at 3am though!!! Can anyone shed any light on this or come up with some ideas to solve it?
If you have got this far, then well done! And thanks for listening!! Somebody please help me? x
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