4mth old waking up happy but SO noisy - any suggestions?

[perapera]

Hi

My DD (4.5 mth) has taken to waking up around 2 or 3 and then 4 or 5 but not crying or seeming hungry/distressed as she used to, but just blowing bubbles, whooping etc. She's in our room so it's impossible to sleep so I usually pick her up and feed her until she goes back to sleep. It seems weird to be feeding her when she doesn't seem to be hungry but the alternative is for me to have no sleep. She's not waking at the same times every night so I don't think it's a habit.

She usually goes to sleep around 7, then I wake her at 11 and feed her again. So that 7-11 stretch is the longest she does.

Does anyone have any suggestions about what I can do to get her to sleep for longer stretches? Or advice about what to do when she wakes up?

Thanks!

[flamingnora]

AH! That is SO uncanny! My DD is EXACTYLY the same! Born on Feb 5th so just over 4 months. Goes down like a dream at 7pm & has to be woken by me whenever I go to sleep for a dream-feed, which happens to be around 11 most nights. For the past 10 days she's been waking around 4pm, gurgling & "chatting" to herself. She's right next to me so I cannot sleep through this either! I have been giving her a dummy & soothing her back to sleep without feeding her or picking her up. She will then wake up again after that once or twice & I do the same until 7am when I finally feed her (like your DD she does not seem at all hungry when she wakes up so I am trying not to feed her). Could this be teething? Just a phase?! Would also love some ideas/tips if anyone has any...!

[lackaDAISYcal]

I would just leave her to fall back asleep again on her own unless she were making hungry noises.

[AbingdonGirl]

Have you tried not doing the dreamfeed? Ds would go down wonderfully at 7ish and then wake at 10:30-11ish for a feed and then sleep until 6ish. At about 14wks i had to start waking him for for the 11ish feed and then he would wake again at 2 and then 4 and then 6, or just not sleep!! He wouldn't make any fuss, just kick about really, but like you I would think he should be asleep, why isn't he asleep, GOD he's noisy, he'll be asleep all day and then i would end up feeding him to sleep. I decided one night that I couldn't be bothered to wake him (and told DH 'tough!'). I assumed he would wake himself and low and behold he slept until 5, fed and then went back to sleep until 7:30! I'm not saying it's the answer for you, but it did seem to be for us.

[perapera]

I would like to leave her to go back to sleep but she's so noisy that I can't bear it! If I thought it would just be a few days then I might be able to, but because it doesn't seem to be a habit exactly, I don't know if it really would just be a few days. She won't take a dummy either so I can't do that...

flamingnora - how long does it take you to get her back to sleep when she wakes up in the night? And are you not feeding her in the night at all?

[Booboobedoo]

I'm with Abingdongirl: try dropping the dream-feed. My DS was the same at that age, and if left would sleep from 7pm until 2am. I went to bed at about 9:30 for a little while, and got a four-and-a-half hour chunk of sleep.

[perapera]

That's interesting AbingdonGirl - I sometimes wonder if the dreamfeed is actually doing any good. I keep hoping that she'll have a longer stretch after it, but it seems that her longer stretch is from 7 and then we just disturb that for not much gain. It's worth trying I guess - maybe waking her at 11 is just disturbing her for the rest of the night?

[perapera]

Thanks Booboobedoo - I'm going to try it. We'll see what happens. Going to bed now...

[Booboobedoo]

Good luck!

[AbingdonGirl]

My dd wouldn't even do the dream feed, even when tiny!

DS just seemed to get to the point where it did seem to disturb him more and he seemed to have a bit of the 'well you wanted me up, so now i'm up!' attitude. I now get him down at about 7:30ish and it varies, but he will awake 6-7:15ish.

Give it a go, nothing to lose!

[flamingnora]

She gets back to sleep pretty quickly (within about 5 mins) when she wakes up. The problem is she then wakes up again and again - still showing no signs of actually being hungry but just being noisy. It might be that if I feed her she'll sleep through until 7am (I might try that tonight!) it just seems strange to feed her if she's not showing any signs of being hungry...? I will try dropping the dream feed - worth a go.

[flamingnora]

She gets back to sleep pretty quickly (within about 5 mins) when she wakes up. The problem is she then wakes up again and again - still showing no signs of actually being hungry but just being noisy. It might be that if I feed her she'll sleep through until 7am (I might try that tonight!) it just seems strange to feed her if she's not showing any signs of being hungry...? I will try dropping the dream feed - worth a go.

[perapera]

Well I tried it and she woke up at 11.15..about an hour after I'd gone to bed - grr. I seem to have trained her to need the dream feed.

But at least that meant that when she woke up to do her bubble blowing at 3am I was so tired that I didn't get up immediately, and she did go back to sleep. So I'll definitely try leaving her for longer next time.

BUT - because I resisted feeding her until 5, when she next woke up, she wasn't hungry at all this morning. So now it's nearly 9 and she's hardly eaten. That makes me think that she definitely doesn't need to eat when she wakes in the night. But it's so hard to resist at 5 am!

[AbingdonGirl]

Oh! Sorry perapera. Must be the weather ds had a bad night. He didn't poo all day and then had stomach ache until about 4 when he..., well there was an awful lot of it!!

It is hard to resist at that time. I have to admit if ds wakes then i feed him, mainly because he is so loud I think he'll wake dd and I don't want them both up! I try to resist giving him a full feed. I let him have one (I tend to bring him into bed with me and lay down to feed), but then try to withold the second and get him to snuggle, then put him back in bed and try for some more sleep. He seems to then wake a 1-2 hours later and has the other one which seems to put him back on track for the day.

You just need to find what suits you. My friend would rather feed at 2 or 3 as her dh works shifts and gets home between 4&5 and she doesn't want disturb him as he's getting to bed, but that is my worst nightmare. DD gets up at 7:30 so i wouldn't get any chance to lay in!