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10 w.o and night time routine/night wakings (long)

5 replies

mishkamoo · 18/12/2008 10:24

DS will be 11 w.o on Monday. BF and his longest ever stretch between feeds has been 5hrs, but has only done this once, and didn't go to sleep straight away (grr!). We started trying to do a bedtime routine of bath, feed upstairs and then put down but bath seemed to make him harder to settle, and got very frstrated at spending an hour trying to settle him, only to give up and bring him downstairs with us, where he would kick happily in his moses basket smiling at us for another hour! Now, I feed him downstairs and let him kick about til he starts grizzling, then let him fall asleep on me and carry him upstairs when we go to bed (about 9.30 usually). If he feeds at 8ish, he usually wakes up 11/12 and then every 2hours after that. When he wakes up he is sucking furiously at his fist, and on DH's shoulder if he picks him up to try and comfort him, and it's as if he hasn't been fed for days! He will go 2.5-3hrs quite happily between feeds in the day. He then dives onto boob and guzzles for 5mins, then starts to fall asleep and has to be prompted to keep sucking intermittently for another 5mins before he falls off, and I put him back to bed. He was settling quite quickly again after feeds, but we have just made the transition to cot (in our room) and he is very fidgety now and throwing himself around. Also after 5am feed, he then is very unsettled and wakes again at6am. I settled him again this morning by lying him on his tummy which scares me a bit.
He settles himself to sleep for his 1st nap in the morning in his cot really well, but gets progressively more difficult as the day wears on. During the day we are in a reasonable routine and I am pretty good at putting him down for a sleep when he is tired, although by the afternoon, I usually let him fall asleep on me, so he gets a decent sleep as he really tired and will only nap for 30-60mins in cot. In the evening it all seems to go to pot, with trying to get food ready and eaten, and have showers etc ourselves.
Am I being unreasonable wanting/expecting him to be doing beter than this? One book I read said that if they are waking for feeds at nightmore frequently than every 3hrs then they are starting to develop sleep problems .
He has had a couple of colds recently, and we have just moved him from moses basket to cot, and I think he might be having a growth spurt as he's been feeding every 2hrs during the day the last few days, do am I being mean if I start trying any kind of sleep training stuff?
Sorry for loooong message, any help/advice would be fab-I am v.tired!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
MrsMattie · 18/12/2008 10:30

Just a quick response - will try and come back and answer in more depth in a minute (3 yr old tiugging on ym sleeve!)

First of all - 5 hours is an amazing stretch of time for such a young baby to be sleeping. I'd say 2-3 hours is much more the norm, especially for a breastfed baby.

Secondly, the '3 hours at night or they must have sleep problems' thing is absolute GARBARGE. Their tummies are very small at this age and they need to feed frequently. Also, your milk supply is at its highest at night, which is why babies often feed more frequently then.

Thirdly, if he is less settled in the cot than the moses basket, perhaps you could try swaddling him to make it more cosy?

I'm not a fan of sleep training babies so young - think it is a waste of time - but others may think diofferently and offer different advice...

Lastly - you are doing really well. The first few months can be hellish - the sleep deprivation and the lack of any time to yourself - but (famous annoying but TRUE words coming..are you ready? )...it will get better.

MrsMattie · 18/12/2008 10:30

excuse bad typing!

jujumaman · 18/12/2008 11:02

He's not developing sleep problems - far too young, so don't worry about that. It does sound like a growth spurt.

He might have a bit of wind if he's thrashing about in the morning, maybe there's something in your diet upsetting him (with my dd1 it was fruit juice, when I stopped that she was instantly far more settled). And swaddling is also a good idea.Also worth seeing a bf counsellor about tips on getting babies who start nodding off to keeep feeding (seem to remember you sort of pump your breast but sadly not more details - anyway, it really worked for me and made my dd1 go much longer between feeds)

If you have a reasonable routine in the day you are doing really well. And as Mrs M says it will pass. Honest.

ches · 19/12/2008 17:55

Far too young to worry about routines. THEY don't even start to process them until about 13 MONTHS so until then it's just for your own sanity really. (That is, routine is helpful, but they don't understand what comes next until around 13 months.)

Divejaney · 20/12/2008 22:48

Wow - your ds sounds exactly like my ds was at that age. He could go 3 hours in the day but only 2 hours at night. Also with the finiky feeding towards the end of the day. I was really knackered and also I kept reading in the books that he should be going longer. I was getting really fed and and frustrated.

Really does sound like you are doing everything right as much as you can with some routine. I think he is doing fine. I posted about ds and felt better when everyone responded that he was perfectly normal for his age - as is your ds

I'm sure things will get better with time. We are going a bit better now 17 weeks and have even had a couple of 11.30 - 6.30 stretches (miracle!) but he is still not a great sleeper. Just keep at it and don't worry about the books too much. I think some babies just sleep better than others.

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