new mum desperately needs some sleep advice

[MunchkinJess]

new mum here in need of some.sleep advice. we had our little one on 10th October she is coming up to nearly 3 month old.

I have got into a small routine with her of bathing her between 6 and 7 , a baby massage and then a bottle. she goes down anytime between 8pm to 9pm. she self settles at night quite well, during the early hours or day not so much, not without a crying meltdown she will sleep for about 4 or 5 hours. so is up around 1am to 2am. I get up keep the house quiet and dim, feed her and burp her. get her back down after that she will only sleep another 2 hours and I am up most days from about 4am.

the lack of sleep is starting to get to me ( could be cuz I have been unwell lately too) my partner helps alot too but he works shift work so.needs his sleep which isnt happening.

is their anything I am doing wrong? I am going back to work when she is 6.months and I am panicking that I wont be able to cope if sleep doesnt get much better.

she is formula fed

any advice would be so helpful

Try dream feeding her at midnight in her own room with no interaction or settling her down for 10.30 to get past the 4 am waking.

She could be having a growth spurt so waking due to hunger so you could up her bottle intake for the last feed and see if she can last longer.

sorry to sound thick but what is dream feeding and how do I do it ?

Sorry. dream feeding

Why up at 4am, keep her in nursery n attempt to get back down till at least 7am.

In same boat with DC2, poor sleeper

Could she be overtired - that's not much sleep at night. Could you try putting her down earlier, say 7-7.30 and then doing the dream feed?

Unfortunately she is in her crib in our room. we live in a small flat and will be moving to a house in about 4 weeks so boxes everywhere so she wont have her own room till we.move..not ideal but it's the best we can do for now.

Awww love
Maybe it's best for your DP to have a few quite nights on couch then you can stay in bed and feed, he may appreciate the peace n you will appreciate the bed?

Your right. I feel so bad cuz he is a fire fighter so he does two nights at work and never sleeps obvipusly. I keep telling him I can do more nights but he is adamnt to do his part and help out. I do think when we move and she has her own room.things will improve a bit m but I do want to start working on the sleep at night. im going to attempt a dreamfeed tonight

Op - that's sounds awful. You must be exhausted. I have three boys, and luckily was able to get them to sleep thru from three months. Your little one should be ready to sleep through now, but it requires a few days of relatively strict routine. I followed a modified version of Gina Ford.

There are a few things you need to do:

1. baby sleep times during the day - 2 naps. One long one around 2 hours at lunch time and a shorter one in the morning. When your little one is up at 4am when does she next nap and how long for ?

2. daily milk intake - she may not be having enough milk during the day. She should be taking 4 full feeds during the day and then a dream feed.

3. the dream feed - around 10pm give her a bottle and most likely she will take it whilst still sleeping. Hopefully she will start to skip the 1am feed as she will be full from dream feed.

4. self settling is important.

Good luck ..

ahhh maybe this is where I am going wrong she drinks about 3 to 4.ouncea every 2 to 3 hours. I tried to increase.to 6 ounces but.she kept either spitting.out anything past 4 ounces or . just stopping at 4 ounces full stop.

so its not wishful thinking that she could start sleeping through soon?

your points are very helpful and I am willing.to try anything at this. point

Try splitting the feed in half, give her 3 ounces and then a bit of a break and then wind her and give her the rest 15 mins later. Then do not feed her for about 2 1/2 hours. Her capacity will steadily increase. Also feed her before her bath and then again immediately after her bath. Babies get thirsty after a bath so it is good time to fill her up. Sounds to me like she isn't getting enough milk during the day.

so I did a dreamfeed last night at 11ish and she techinically slept from 8pm till 3:30am then took nearly 6 ounces ( I took your advice on upping thr milk and feeding it to her slowly) she went down at 4:30am and woke at 7:30am

still needs work but its a small improvement and she woke with a smile on her face

Ah munchkin! that is great news

Great news. Today try the feeding before and after her bath aswell. Best of luck.

thanks all I am trying all the steps you kindly suggested also moggy... fingers crossed

last night was awful

any helpful tips on dream feeding techniques , I think.im doing it all wrong. do you need to wind them after ?

I got her down for 3 ish am she is as up 50.mins later howling, up to her old tricks of being.up from 4am but I soothed her, winded her and put her back down amd she slept till 7am . I would leave her to cry a little as.i know generally there is nothing wrong with her other than bad habits but as we live in flats im.sure the neighbours would want me to skin me alive.

getting the 6 ounces down her is difficult even with a break ... at the moment im getting about 5 ouncea down her.

its a new day and will.keep plugging away. 7am feed took an hour to get 5 ounces down her, changed her into day clothes and she went down at 9am.in her crib for her short nap.

will.keep trying

Hmm - sounds like she may have woken because she had wind. At three months you do need to wind her. Keep going sounds like it will just take a few days to bed down the routine. 5ounces is fine. She'll increase her intake steadily.