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Gaaah! 5 m/o waking at exactly the same time each night ... driving me nuts

5 replies

CountBapula · 08/03/2011 02:33

DS is almost 24 weeks and his sleep has always been questionable, but particularly crap since 15 weeks when he started waking every 1-3 hours (4 month sleep regression I think).

About a week ago we did one night of gentle sleep training at bedtime (pupd/shh pat) and he will now go in his cot awake and go to sleep at night with just my hand on his head/tummy and a bit of shushing, which is real progress as he was always rocked to sleep in our arms. He also now sleeps right through the evening, doing a 3-4 hour stretch and waking around 11pm when we go up to bed.

The last few nights, though, he has woken like clockwork between 1.30 and 2am. He is not hungry, as DH can settle him without a feed (I can't, probably because I am the food source - he is EBF - so I usually just end up feeding him if DH can't get up). However, DH can't do this every night because he's getting exhausted at work.

Once he goes back off he usually wakes again around 4 for a feed and sometimes (but not always) then goes through until between 7 and 8 am.

Why is he doing this and how can I get him to do a longer stretch? The night of the sleep training he did two beautiful 4.5 hour chunks but has been doing this ever since. I am knackered and just want to have three hours' sleep in a row!

We do the baby whisperer EASY thing during the day, with 3-4 naps a day usually lasting 30, 45 or 75 mins - going to sleep after 1.5hrs' awake time - and he goes to bed between 7 and 7.30 following a consistent bedtime routine.

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ledkr · 08/03/2011 02:52

am too up with inexplicably waking 5wk old-not hungry or anything else,have rowed with dozy dh as you do,and stormed downstairs.Grin
i remember my older dcs getting into a habit of same time waking i think it goes off evetually,could try a drink and dummy or out him to bed a bit later,it really does spoil being a mum doesnt it,this night stuff,but ive had 5 so we dont learn.

JudysDreamHorse · 08/03/2011 09:39

Could you try the wake to sleep thing? Waking him up before he does (think it's in the BW book). Know that might be stupidly risky but could be worth a try. I'm not very sure how it works though.

CountBapula · 08/03/2011 10:48

ledkr oh I'm with you on the dozy rows! Horrible Grin

judy just looked up wake to sleep - yikes! Quite a high-risk strategy with babies like ours as you say but maybe I'll give it a go at the weekend so DH can pick up the pieces if it all goes tits up Grin

Not sure what the benefit to me is though. I still have to get up in the middle of the night to stroke his face or whatever - or is it that eventually the baby gets used to it and stops waking at that time? Confused

I suspect wind/GI problems might be causing it - they were last night, anyway ...

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sedgiebaby · 08/03/2011 12:15

My dd was doing this, worse actually... and I made the decision to restrict to one feed a night recently after she started to skip on feed herself quite often(dd is 5 months) but then she could not make her mind up when she wanted this feed, then additional wakings were creeping in = worse than before with two feeds a night!

The last wk-10 days I get her up myself half the way through the night and then every waking she is put back to bed like you with shush/pat, she did not wake after her dream feed last night (3 out of 7 nights now). Not that I pretend to know how babies think but I wonder if she would stir in the night thinking 'is it booby time now? I'd quite like a little sip and go back to sleep like that' and so this way, if she wakes up there is no booby, she is dream fed only. I think it is working - just an idea...previously I would always offer a feed, but She's as fat as could be so I don't feel bad about it and she's not hungry in the morning as it is so could probably go all night (but I'm not brave enough to try that one!)

CountBapula · 08/03/2011 13:29

That's interesting sedgie - so what time do you get her up? DS wakes naturally between 10.30 and 11 most nights so I treat that as a dream feed, but maybe I should get him up at 10.30 and see what happens. Problem with him is that he's so difficult to get to sleep in the first place, I've never had the heart to wake him up!

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