26 week old Baby/ Breastfed, wakes frequently at night

[Scotlandfly]

Hello there,
I am a young mum.
My little one is breastfed and we recently started weaning. But so far he only takes a couple of spoonfuls at night and thats it.

During the day he drinks about every 2-4 hours for a full feed.
At night however he wakes about every 1-2 hours. And he has done so from birth. By now I am quite exhausted as he straightout refuses dummies and bottles.

When I am not home little one becomes formula milk from a sippy cup and tends to do ok with that. but he never drinks that much from the cup.

I am always very patient with the wee man, but it gets to the point where I want to cry thats how exhausted I am. I do my best and he is thriving, weight gain etc is perfect. But how can I get him to sleep more during the night for longer periods without letting him CIO. I dont want him to get security issues and I dont believe in letting him cry.
But shurely there must be something I can do, right?

Any suggestions? How do you handle these prolonged periods without much sleep?

Scotlandfly

Hello, I found the key to getting dd2 to sleep more at night was to teach her to self settle. I'd always fed her to sleep and the real crunch came for me when she turned 8 months and no longer fed to sleep! Do you feed your ds to sleep? I also didn't want to do CC as I hate hearing babies cry. For us we established a bedtime routine (not strict though), but we were pretty strict about dd2 going into her cot (still in my room) awake. We then sort of followed Andrea Grace's ideas. Patting, shushing, singing to sleep. Also refused to feed till minimum go 3 hours had passed from bedtime.

This has really improved things for us. Dd2 isn't sleeping through but she is sleeping in large chunks. Takes 5 mins waiting next to her cot till she's asleep, then she wakes a few hours later but resettles herself very quickly, usually has small bottle between 12.30-1.30am (just stopped breast feeding this week), then probably wakes again 2/3 hrs later when I pop her into bed with me . Also found that Dp was very useful in helping to settle when I knew a feed wasn't required due to his lack of boobs!

Hope some of this helps x

Hy,
thanks for the input.
We have a etablished bedtime routine which helps him settle initially:
-evening weaning
-bathtime
-bedtime story & quiet play
-long mum cuddle
-put down into cot & mobile on
With this he usually settles in about 5-10 min till he is sleeping.

I try not to nurse him to sleep and most of the time manage to put him into the cot drowsy where he settles himself.
After frequent wakings this does not seem to work though and he goes into the cot semi-asleep.

Could you try encouraging more feeds during the day in the hope that he'll start to need less during the night?

Also what is his nap routine like during the day & what time does he wake for the day?

I think it's a case of trying to get him up early (7ish?) lots of activity & fresh air between naps. As much milk/solids as he will happily take and then trying to space out night feeds gradually?

It is extremely difficult though. You sound like a fantastic mum.

Thanks Mobly,
we get up usually between 6am and 7am.
It is lots of fresh air and play, I take him for about three walks a day. 1-1 1/2 hours. Feeding during the day has just ceased from very often to a bit less.

Guess for now I ll just have to try to slowly feed less at nights.
Its hard sometimes :(

We had a somewhat similar problem. I coslept for a while with DD latched on much of the time because it was the path of least resistance, but what solved the problem was sleep training. (She was 9-10 months when we did this.) She wasn't waking from hunger. She was waking because she was overtired and couldn't get herself into a deep sleep, so she would scream after almost every sleep cycle.

How are your LO's daytime naps? Sorting these led to better sleep at night for our DD.

(I'm not suggesting you use a method you aren't comfortable with -- there are methods like No Cry Nap Solution by Elizabeth Pantley that might be good to start, if you think sleep might be part of the problem.)

I dont know. I think part of the problem is my partner, too.
Sometimes I feel scrutinised.

If Little one just makes noise and I go he gets angry with me saying that that pick up/ comfort was not neccessary and that I make him dependent on outside comfort.
Then next time I think ok, just noises not screaming, lets see if he settles himself again with his blanket. Then I get told off for leaving him on his own and not going there. It drives me mad, I am overtired and almost 100% of Babycare and housework is my responsibility.

When I am really tired I have let him sleep next to me couple of times, which my partner does not approve as he is afraid of rolling over him in his sleep.....

I dont know, I just want him to sleep, not be told off al the time, too.
So tired and I think its a bit unfair, I know it s not perfect, but I am a good mum and I always do my very best. Can he not cut me some slack?

Omg have I just posted this and not realised?!?! Dd is 29 weeks and exactly the same. Only difference is she eats LOADS during the day do god knows what her issue

hand holds with op

One thing I recognised is that Little One sleeps better if he had plenty of rest during the day.
Like naps every two hours that are between 30 min and 1 hour long.
So yesterday for example he had 4 hours daytime sleep.

Sometimes I feel like Little man checks if someone comes when he cries because he s not dirty/wet/ hungry/ farty/ burpy......
So I think it might be a combo of overtired and not quite able to settle himself.