do you wait til baby bawling before going to her at night?

[nadssss]

I have a lovely 5 and a half month old baby who has never slept through - up at 12am and 3am or sometimes (which is wonderful) just 2am - so not horrendous - but is taking its toll.

However, because she will generally feed for 20-30 mins at night and go straight back down, i go to her after i have heard her squawking for maybe 2 mins.

I suppose i am assuming the squawking will turn into crying so i might as well deal with it sooner rather than have her cry...

I just wondered what other people did - do you wait until full on tears before going and tending to your baby at night?

Do you think my going in to her so easily means she is less likely to ever sleep through...?

Any thoughts if people have time would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[nickytwotimes]

If she is looking for a feed, I would go and get it over with asap.
If she is just unsettled, I'd leave it.
At this age, she probably is hungry so I would feed.

[theyoungvisiter]

I have always gone quickly to mine because we live in a small flat surrounded by neighbours.

Sorry to say, DS1 was feeding at night until 2, and night waking right up until the age of 3.

DS2 is nearly 8 months and still wakes at 10, 3 and 6.

No idea if it's connected to my swift interventions or not!

[whelk]

I sprint to my dd2 for fear of her waking dd1. I think Im going to stop doing this as taking my time did work for dd1.

[dycey]

I respond straight away - I prefer him not to wake fully - but my baby is same age as yours and feeds at the same times - or more often - so will watch this thread with interest.

[MrsTittleMouse]

I didn't leave either of my DDs to settle themselves until they were over 6 months (actually 7 or 8 for both of them) because I read that until 6 months some babies are physiologically incapable of sleeping through and do really need milk in the night. After that though I thought that it was good for them to learn how to settle themselves, and then I ignored any grumbling. Well, I didn't acutally ignore it, you understand. I lay in bed listening out for every squawk praying that they would go back to sleep. But you know what I mean.

Any actual crying and I go into DD2 immediately (she's nearly 10 months) as I don't want her to wake DD1 and I've learned that she won't settle herself from that state of upset anyway.

[ches]

She is coming up on massive 6 month growth spurt and will need those feeds and possibly more.

[sazlocks]

I never left my DS either - thought it was quicker just to get up and feed him. He didn't sleep through til he was 12 months but I have no idea if that's just because that's when he was ready to do it rather than him being influenced by anything I did

[SummerLightning]

I would go to my DS usually and he slept similarly at that age. I tried leaving him a couple of times but it turned into full on yelling! At 7 months he is mostly sleeping through. Having said that I am feeding him now as he has woken early.

[nadssss]

thanks for your answers - glad to hear you are doing much the same - i will carry on - agreed on it being better that they are not totally woken up.