Waking every 2 hours after injections

[fibeee]

4 month old DD and I had made some great progress with sleep training after the dreaded regression hit. She was able to settle herself to sleep with her thumb for naps and bedtime and went back to longer stretches at night without waking.

Cue the 16 week injections and our progress has gone backwards again. She can settle herself to sleep when put to bed. But she’s waking every 2 hours and expecting a full feed before passing out in my arms.

I am delirious with sleep deprivation, so emotional all the time and don’t know what to do to help the situation. She’s sleeping 2-3 hours In total during the day so longer naps don’t seem to be the answer. I offer her the boob every couple of hours and she feeds until she’s had enough. Can anyone who has been through this advise?

Sorry should have added her injections were a week ago now.

What is her day routine like? Is she exactly 16 weeks?

Seeing as it's been a week, and she's 16 weeks, this is much more likely to be regression than jabs.

What we did was work out how long DD could go between feeds during the day (about 3 hours) and then if she woke before that point DH would go in and settle her (no boobs, so worked much better than when i tried). Otherwise i fed her.

@GenevaMaybe she’s 18 weeks old. Didn’t have her 3 set of jabs until 17 weeks.

Our day routine is we get up around 7.30am. I offer her a feed then and after every nap and when she’s been awake for 1.75 hours then I put her down in her crib for nap time. She goes to bed around 6-6.30pm.

@Bitchinkitchen thank you for your reply. I am currently doing all the night wakenings. DH is under a lot of pressure with work as most of his colleagues have been furloughed and he’s being expected to pick up the slack. He also gets up at 5am. I would feel too guilty right now waking him
and asking for help. He is a great help in the evenings and at the weekend.

At 4 months sleep cycles lengthen from 45 mins to 2 hrs at night. So your baby is waking every sleep cycle, which means she has either lost the ability to self settle, or is over/undertired.
Giving her a full feed when she wakes is absolutely fine and normal but then do try and avoid falling asleep in arms. Sit her up and give her a good burp or even change her nappy before putting her down in her crib. Also make sure night feeds are in a dim room with minimal interaction or stimulation.

With regards to daytime sleep, you could try getting into a 3-nap structure. You need a nap around 9-10, then 12-2.30 and 4.30 - 5pm.
Bedtime can then be 7pm and I would do a dreamfeed at 10pm and expect one more night waking after that.

She was able to settle herself to sleep with her thumb

Her mouth and hands will grow and change shape significantly, and constantly for months.

Try a dummy instead. Much more consistent.

@FATEdestiny

She was able to settle herself to sleep with her thumb

Her mouth and hands will grow and change shape significantly, and constantly for months.

Try a dummy instead. Much more consistent.

Not sure shoving a bit of plastic in her mouth to keep her quiet is really the answer. If the baby has managed to find her thumb, that's generally a much better option. It's not the shape of the digit that provides comfort, but the action of sucking. Change in thumb shape is gradual, so she'll adapt!

I'd completely disagree that a thumb is a better option. But each to their own.

@FATEdestiny

I'd completely disagree that a thumb is a better option. But each to their own.

What's the basis for that?

It's a matter of opinion, but since you ask in my professional view (as a baby sleep consultant) dummies are the single best and most effective sleep tool for getting independant sleep without any tears.

For more detail on why, have a search through my (literally) thousands of posts on the matter here:

www.mumsnet.com/SearchArch?search_origin=mobile&mustmatch=dummy&dontmatch=&nickname=FATEdestiny&fromDate=&toDate=

I have been exhaling the benefits of dummy use on the Sleep Board here for many, many years... like a broken record.

Dummies are ACE

@FATEdestiny

It's a matter of opinion, but since you ask in my professional view (as a baby sleep consultant) dummies are the single best and most effective sleep tool for getting independant sleep without any tears.

For more detail on why, have a search through my (literally) thousands of posts on the matter here:

www.mumsnet.com/SearchArch?search_origin=mobile&mustmatch=dummy&dontmatch=&nickname=FATEdestiny&fromDate=&toDate=

I have been exhaling the benefits of dummy use on the Sleep Board here for many, many years... like a broken record.

Dummies are ACE

Can i ask what your qualifications are, as a baby sleep consultant? It seems to be the brand new "instamummy" thing to be, do you have a website?

Sleep consultants have been around for years. Gina Ford and Tracy Hogg were both about 20 years ago. The business sector predates social media and certainly Instagram! Yes, I have a website. No, you can't get a degree (or similar) in "sleep consultancy", this does not stop it from being a need that this business sector grows from.

I'm not sure why the aggressive questioning towards me? It's not relevant to the OP. Maybe start a thread if you're interested in my biography.

Leave this thread for helping the OP, hey?

Just catching up on messages now. We had a much better night with 9pm, 1am and 5am wakenings for feeds. Hopefully it wasn’t a one off!

@FATEdestiny a dummy is not an option for us unfortunately. We’ve offered DD them in the past and she really doesn’t like them. But at least with her thumb it’s there whenever she wants it and I won’t need to keep reaching over to put it back in!

FATE has been around for a very long time on the sleep boards, recently she changed her name to babysleepuk or something. She is very interested in baby sleep and does a lot to help tired mums on the boards.

There is no industry standard qualification for baby sleep consultancy. Unfortunately a lot of people do hop on the bandwagon but cause more harm than good.

Personally I would not introduce a dummy to a baby that has done well without one. They really are a nightmare to get rid of. The OP could try the routine and other things to see if they help.

@fibeee in your op, you mention feeding at every wake up. This could be an extension of the need to suck as a sleep association. Are you breastfeeding or bottle feeding? How much is baby feeding during the day?

@FATEdestiny she is EBF. Used to take a bottle from DH before bed but for the last week has refused it. I offer her the boob every 2 hours or so during the day. She feeds for 5-10 mins and doesn’t want any more after that.

The night feeds are probably more about comfort and less about calories (and comfort is equally as important as calories, but it should be recognised as a seperate need).

Where is your breastfeed in relation to daytime naps? Do you feed upon waking, feed to sleep? Feed then settle to sleep?

Baby could be over tired. What is a typical daytime routine like, in terms of sleep?

I feed her when she wakes.

During the day she sleeps 30 mins + at a time. 2-3 hours in total. I try not to let her stay awake longer than 2 hours between naps.

Have you tried consciously reducing awake time as a consequence of her being out-of-sorts?

Might just be that her jabs caused a few days where she needed extra sleep, but she didn't get enough and has ended up in an over-tired cycle (whereby bad sleep results in worse sleep in a gradual perpetuation).

Could well just be a temporary "blip". Try deliberately putting her down earlier for naps, just for a week or so to get out of the cycle. Whether that's done by taking an earlier sign for naptime (the first cry when in floor time, for example) or if you go by the clock, try 20 mins earlier.

I'd be inclined to suggest 2h awake time is way too long if naps are 30 mins. As an approximation, I'd suggest awake time as double nap length, plus or minus 15 mins. So 30m nap = awake window 45m-1h15, 45m nap = awake window 1h15-1h45, and so on.

Thanks @FATEdestiny I’ll adjust the nap schedule to what you suggested in the last 2 paragraphs and report back incase someone else stumbles on this thread in the future.

How’s it going @fibeee?

@GenevaMaybe still lots of night wakenings unfortunately.

Trying to bring back her naps during the day to 1 hr 30 after the last wake time but she doesn’t seem tired enough at this point. There have been a couple of naps where she just chats to Ewan the Sheep instead of sleeping .

Thank you for checking in on us. I will persevere!

Try something more like this:
You need a nap around 9-10, then 12-2.30 and 4.30 - 5pm.
Bedtime can then be 7pm and I would do a dreamfeed at 10pm and expect one more night waking after that.

That schedule is pretty much what little ones and Gina ford recommend so it is quite standard and works well.