waking every 2 hours. advice needed please.

[fob]

ds is 5 months old.
bf though started weaning few weeks ago. also teething, dribbling but no fever or anything.
goes down at 7 no probs after final b/feed then sleeps until midnight, then wakes 2, 4, 6.
up until now he only woke once for a feed (around 3)
am i doing anything wrong? i'm shattered!
i go back to work soon and this pattern will kill me!
i have tried searching old messages, but maybe some more experienced m-netters can point me in the right direction.
many thnks

Hi Fob,

Well I think we are getting somewhere! The last few nights she has only woken once or twice, although last night was a bit more intense. This is what I am doing with feeds during the day if its any help, as advised by my hv:

6am - breast
8am - solid brekky
10am - breast
12pm - solid lunch
3pm - breast
6pm - big solid dinner (veg then fruit or yoghurt for pudding)
9pm - final breast

I am then feeding her between 1 and 2am if she will not go back off on her dummy, and then not feeding again till 6. Im hoping she will eventually just not bother waking, but who knows? At least getting a decent stint of uninterrupted sleep, and it feels wonderful. Also we've been sleeping upstairs and I have chucked out the baby monitor, so I can only hear her when she is DEFINATELY not going to put herself back to sleep. I have also been putting a little teething gel on her gums if she wakes in the early hours and that seems to help lots. Think I can see a little un coming through

If you want to try swimming have a look at the little dippers website, they do courses in lots of places all over the uk and are great. The exercise really does tire them out!!!

I can't imagine going back to work like this though esp full time.

My dd2 is 5 months old and we have just been through this. What worked for us was to put dd2 in her own room. I think we must have been disturbing her. The first night she slept through until 4am. Instead of me feeding her DH rocked her back to sleep. The next night she slept through! DH gives her a dreamfeed of ebm at 10/11pm.

Take a look at the british victims of abortion website \link{http://www.bvafoundation.org\this} it mat help you with your issues. There is a helpline to enable you to talk to professionals if you don't sort this out now it will just eat away at you if you are unable to talk to your, hopefully now ex-partner!!

Please let us know how you are getting on. Hope you are ok.

Sorry I have posted this to the wrong thread (I am very new to this game and still getting to grips with it- I think a few brain cells have gone a miss recently - it's being soooooo tired!!)

i'm putting ds down at 7pm and he's out for the count for at least 4 hours. then he wakes, and dh shoogles him back to sleep.
however, it seems to be getting no better at night. he still wakes, and i end up feeding him in bed and he goes to sleep for another couple of hours.
i feel so sorry for the wee fella as his teeth are really giving him jip, and i feel i want to do everything i can for him.
so i'm convinced it's his teeth that are waking him up and not his hunger.
sorry for the ramble, but i'm obviously sleep deprived!!
my hv says - "oh he's just getting big" when i mention the night wakings.
ooooohhhhhhhh i'm so tired!!!!!!!
sooz, i'm going to have alook at the little dippers website. i can also see the wee mans teeth through the gums!

Fob

Stupid question and maybe I missed it... But if you are convinced its teeth, have you tried giving some calpol or neurofen? If it IS teeth he shouldnt then wake, and if he does despite painkillers, then it probably isnt pain...

my dd2 is 6/12 she kept waking through night then 2 nights she slept through the next ev i felt in her mouth and she has got first tooth she has slept through since then buy the way fob your son only needs a pint of milk a day a least what feed do u do solids morn after or ev i find if she has dinner and dessert she sleeps better she does have 3 meals a day put him in his own room we did dd2 sleeps 100 times better my dp woke her up every time he turned over

New strategy (from the Good Sleep Guide...) DD now in her own room which helps lots, she is only waking once for a feed and according to my new sleep bible I am to reduce the length of the night feed by 1 minute each night until hopefully she will not wake. If not, on to Controlled Crying, which they call sthg much nicer, but essentially the same. 12 mins last night, so in 12 days?.... The book is quite good and makes a lot of sense, will let you know if it works.

You could try Nelsons herbal teething powders or external cheek massage with 1 drop diluted chamomile oil in a carrier oil for those poor gums.

sorry i haven't logged on for a bit and thanks for the replies.

dtg - i have given him calpol and popped a wee bit of calgel on his gums.

i suspect you are right - i'm beginning to think that he is waking out of habit and i feed him because i know it sends him back to sleep. i know this is naughty.

i'm also concerned that he might not be getting enough milk during the day, as i pop him on both boobs and he doesn't seem to be getting enough.

can anyone tell me - does you milk "dry up"?

also - kasdie and suzysooz - i think imay have to follow and put him in his own room.

all this is tied up with the fact i return to work in less than two weeks and i'm worried whether i'll be able to express off enough milk for him during the day.

i could really really do with some advice on this!!

bumpity bump bump.

has anyone been in the position that they are worried about expressing off enough milk before going back to work?

i think i may only manage one bottle....

i might have to start a new thread on this.

one last pathetic bump.....

Hi fob

I feel for you I really do

my DD2 was like this and I posted in exhaustion and frustration at that time

she had never slept through the night and was doing exactly as yours is at that age

in the end we did the following

1. moved her to her own room (nearly broke my heart but I am sure I was responding a bit too quickly to the murmurings)

1. reduced feeds to one by using DR Ferber (solve your childs sleep problems) - I think the strategy was to reduce the volume of feeds each night until nothing left - I couldn't quite do that but we did manage to get her off two of the night feeds

1. more recently (when she was about 9 months old, ie a month or so ago) did dr F again and reduced feed from 4oz to 2oz (if you are still b'feeding he says reduce length of time) and after one night where she cried for about an hour on and off (DH was there to help sooth her) she has slept through blissfully from then, even when in the worst throes of teething

so there is light at the end of the tunnel

can't help much on the b'fing when back at work as I found it all too much and gave up shortly after going back, DD2 was about 7.5 months. But I know others have done it really sucessfully.

good luck with it all, it is stressful enough without that worry too!

Hi Fob, just to let you know that I am going through exactly the same thing with my 5 month old dd. She has never slept for longer than three hours, and at her worst wakes every 40 minutes. I am on my knees! I have no advice, having spectacularly failed to cure my own problems, but it is nice to know I'm not the only one...

thanks to both of you.

i have started a new thread on this.

i do feel pretty anxious......