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Behaviour/development

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Night time awakenings - please help!

3 replies

coolpink101 · 24/09/2013 08:47

DD is 5 months old - from 11 weeks she was sleeping 11-12 hours a night, which was bliss. This lasted only a couple of weeks though, and she started waking/getting restless at about 4am - but we just popped the dummy back in, gave her a few shushes, and after a while she would settle herself back to sleep. But over the last few weeks, her restlessness at night has got worse - she now tends to wake up at about 1:30am, flailing her arms and legs about and playing for at least an hour (sometimes longer) before we can finally get her back to sleep - only for her to wake at 4am doing the same thing again. She doesn't cry - just thumps her legs up and down, and makes a few chatty noises - she's still sleeping in our room (we're planning on moving her into her own room soon).

The big question is - should we feed her when she wakes at 1:30am? She's a really good baby, and only ever cries when she's tired, so it's hard to know if she's waking because she's hungry (we put her to bed at 6:30pm, so by 1:30am she has slept 7-8 hours without milk). We fed her last night and she gulped it down (although she's also a really good eater - she never passes up an opportunity for food, so it's hard to know again if she really is hungry). We just don't want to start a bad habit of her needing a night time feed - as she has gone 9 weeks so far without needing one. I asked the HV about it and she was no help at all, so we're at a loss what to actually do.

Should we feed her at night? Or is it best to just try and comfort her back to sleep? Or is this just a phase and she'll soon drop the night time feed again? Any advice would be most welcome!

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PoopMaster · 24/09/2013 09:00

Hi coolpink - I'm not a professional but 5mo seems young to completely drop the night feed if DC are waking up. DD1 certainly was still regularly waking for a feed at about that time, if they are hungry they wake up so it's hard to know when it's a "false alarm", personally I'd rather err on the side of feeding. I wouldn't worry too much about creating any habits either, she would suddenly start waking up again for a few weeks then sleep through again...I never questioned it, just went with whatever she was doing at the time. I think from 6mo when she was in her own room I used to wait 5 mins to see if she'd go back to sleep on her own, if she was chatting to herself I used to just leave her to it and only go in if she cried. A lot of the time she just fell asleep again, wasn't hungry just "switched on", especially if she'd had a busy day before.

Hope this helps - btw she's 2 now and we have a whole new set of sleep conundrums Grin

coolpink101 · 24/09/2013 11:40

Thanks poopmaster for the reassurance. We definitely feel fortunate that she appeared to drop her night feed so early as we know others still night feeding their babies of a similar age. We're just not sure if she's hungry or not - as quite often she looks like she's just having fun playing - and so didn't want to just give her milk if she doesn't need it - thereby creating a habit of needing milk at night. People have told me to ignore her if she isn't crying as she just wants to play, but her playing is rather loud and keeps us up too. Once she's in her own room it will be better I know.
What kind if age do babies normally drop night feeds altogether? Will it get better once she's more able to move about and crawl around in the day - causing her to tire herself out and so sleep better at night?

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PoopMaster · 24/09/2013 12:47

Honestly? No idea about ages when stuff is meant to happen, after all they are individuals so it's not really worth even thinking about or comparing. Plus they go through growth spurts where even if they've been sleeping through for months they suddenly get hungry at night. I'd just follow their lead, it's much less stressful (that's been my philosophy with DD2 and she's thriving, I'm more relaxed - it's awesome Smile)

I'd say it made no difference with DD1 whether she had a busy day or not whether she slept more. Sometimes she did, other times she seemed to wake up excited.

I'd say if in doubt - always feed, and if you're having trouble sleeping with a little chatterbox, it's time for their own room!

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