GF baby - continued night time wakings after a cold

[princesskitten]

My 7 week old ds was pretty text book Gina baby - waking between 2 and 3 for a feed and showing signs of dropping this at six weeks. Then he got a cold and had very broken sleep post 2am feed as he was so blocked up. Now almost two weeks later he is still waking up once or twice a night for no particular reason - in fact last night he was smiling at me in between the screams. I feel he is too young for CC but don't know what to do to get him back on track. He is also going off routine in the day because he is sleeping too much but I find it almost impossible to wake him up short of lying him on a cold hard floor.

Anyone been through anything similar? Am worried about this just getting worse and worse - my dh says we should go the tough love route and let him cry it out - what do you think?

Hello Princesskitten, I do sympathise, it's hard when they've been so good in their routine and then get a cold and it all seems to go wrong. My ds who is also in GF routine is nearly 11 weeks and had a really bad cold last week following his first set of jabs. At that point he had already been sleeping through from the late feed until 7 am so I was determined not to start feeding him in the night again if he woke. That sounds very cruel I know, but when it came to it, he only really stirred a couple of times for about 3 nights, fussed a bit (sort of half crying) and I left him to settle himself which thankfully he did. I did prop up the head of his Moses basket a little bit which seemed to help. I did find that whilst he had his cold he was sleeping for longer during the day and got very anal about this hoping it wouldn't affect the nights, but thankfully it didn't. One afternoon he catnapped pretty much all afternoon following the 2.15 pm feed and I was paranoid it would completely muck up his settling well at 7 pm but it didn't. So, sorry I haven't got much practical advice. CC is really a very personal thing and only do it if you can bear it and not feel too guilty. I used cc for dd and ds, I'm not an uncaring, hard mum, but it really only took a few nights and the problem was cracked. The other thing is that I think if you can do it, then it hopefully avoids these problems in the future. Certainly my dd even when she was teething or had a cold, although she could be a complete pain in the bum during the day, always continued to sleep well at night because she could settle herself back to sleep.
My only advice is to stick with the routines and it will come right

Thanks Melly - thankfully last night he slept from 2-5.30 uniterrupted and then just needed a bit of settling back to sleep until 7am. So hopefully we are on the road to recovery. Now the next thing is WHEN is he going to drop his night feed? He really is showing absolutely no sign of doing this - although he started taking less at 2am I couldn't get away with just water. He looks at me like I am a mad woman when I try! Also shouldn't he be going till 3/4 by now - he has never slept a longer block than 4.5 hours - all my NCT friends babies have so am feeling pretty frustrated about this as well. I know I should just chill out but need to feel there is a light somewhere. Is there any chance that he will just miraculously drop the feed without him gradually going later and later?

Am I right in thinking your ds is now about 9 weeks Princesskitten? How heavy is he and is he breast or bottle fed? My ds went from waking at 2 am or thereabouts at about 2/3 weeks to gradually lengthening out to about 4 am ish by 6 weeks but by that time I had changed to bottle feeding him. After that he all of a sudden started to go from the late feed at 10.30 pm through to 7 am about two weeks ago when he was 9 weeks. Don't be disheartened by this, or by what your friends' babies are doing. They are all different and your ds will get there very soon I promise. Just keep doing what your doing, and you will get a nice surprise one night very soon. If you are breast feeding would you consider topping him up with a bottle or giving him expressed milk at the late feed to push him through a bit longer in the night? I think for breast fed babies this is very often why they take a bit longer to go longer in the night, especially boys
Please let us know how you get on, I'm no expert but ds is my second baby in GF routines and it's great for me to pass on advice or tips now rather than be asking for help from others all the time (although I still do a fair bit of that). What is your ds like during the day, I could do with some help on tips to get ds to wait for his 10.45/11 am bottle

He is 8 weeks old and weighs 12lbs. He is bottle fed and has been since he was 2 days old. Had a nightmare last night - he woke at 1am - I tried to hold him off with dummy and cuddle but we are staying at the in-laws and didn't want him to wake everyone up and had MIL flapping around asking me tons of questions about what I was going to do, so I fed him at 1.30am. After that feed he woke up at 2.30am and I just about beat MIL to him so I decided to take him into bed with us (WHAT would GINA say!) as was starting to get a bit stressed out by the interference. Once in bed with us he woke on the hour every hour till 7am - horrrible. I guess it wasn't a typical night but I just feel like we are never going to get there.

Am making big effort to keep him awake and alert more today. The other thing I have noticed that I wondered might be waking him is he has very loud wind "from the rear end" as Gina would say. Anyone got any tips for that?

DS is pretty model child in the day - he eats as per Gina although i can't get him to "wait until after his bath" for his 6pm bottle and like you I sometimes have to do the 10.45 early - it depends how I am feeling as to whether I make a big effort to make him wait - I give him his dummy to chew on which seems to do the trick but if I am tired and fed up I just give in Sleep wise he often sleeps more than she says but I can't keep him awake enough - any tips on this? I think this might be knock on effect of broken nights post 2am? In the morning I find it nearly impossible to get him to wait until 9am for a sleep.

Thanks for your encouragement Melly - it makes me feel better Finding it quite hard not to take it all too seriously!

Yes, had similar problems keeping ds awake during the day for the appointed time, It did seem to get a bit easier though when he got to about 9 weeks, but prior to that there was no way he could last the full 2 hours. How much formula does your ds have? Because my dd was breast fed until 3.5 months and then mixed until 5 months, I didn't have much of a clue about bottle feeding ds. I breast fed him for about a month and then changed because it just didn't work out this time. I find that ds has a fair bit more than is recommended on the packets etc and I posted here on Mumsnet a few weeks back. Ds was very "farty" for the first few weeks especially when I was breast feeding and changing over to bottles. Since putting him on Omneo Comfort I think he has been much, much better in this department but it could be coincidence.
Sounds like last night was a nightmare for you Princesskitten but it can only get better
Just to give you an idea of how much my ds has, a typical day now is:-

7.15 am 7.5 oz bottle (have just increased this today to 7.5 oz)

10.45 am (ish!) 7.5 oz

2.15 pm 6 oz

5 pm 5 oz bottle - my ds won't wait either !

6.40 pm ish 5 oz bottle

10.30 6.5 oz

giving a total of 37.5 oz which seems a lot to me but he is very contented and sleeps well.
I'm sure if he had smaller bottles he would not be satisfied.

Hope you have a better night tonight

p.s ds waited until 10.50 am today for his bottle....couldn't believe it, bet he won't repeat the experience tomorrow though!

DS feeds as follows:
7am - 6oz
10.30 - 6oz
2.30 - 5oz
5/6 - 8oz
10.30 - 6oz
in the night - only a couple of oz. BUT hurray hurray had a bit of a break through last night - I decided he was messing about waking up at 1.30am so just cuddled him and gave him a dummy - he feel back to sleep and slept till 5am - so he had about 5oz then and then just a top up at 7.30am. This proves to me he doesn't need feeding that early so have strengthened my resolve and feel like we are getting somewhere!

How heavy is your ds? I think my ds is eating a lot too!

Couple of other qs for you - do you manage to string your ds out until 7pm - I can't make mine last longer than 6.40 at the latest. If I do we go into overtired meltdown! 10.30pm feed - how do you go about this? Do you do the fully wake him up thing and keep him awake for 1 hour?! I am nervous of doing this in case he won't settle back down ..

Hope you had repeat performance this am for the 10.45 feed!

PK :0

Hi, glad to hear you had a better night, definately sounds as if he is on the right track now. Ashamed to say that I don't actually know what ds weighs, haven't had him weighed for ages....I think he is somewhere between 12-13 lbs. Had my nose stuck in GF book again this evening and am pondering about when he should be weaned. Ds has not settled so well at 7 pm the last two nights and I think he may be looking for an extra ounce so have upped his 6.30 pm bottle. What I would like to do is cut out his 5 pm bottle and give him a bigger bottle at say 6.15 pm but he gets really irritable, crying and fussing at 5 pm which is hard when I'm trying to sort out dd's tea etc.
My ds does usually last until nearer to 7 pm now but he is 3 weeks or so older than your ds and I seem to remember that at 8 weeks he was usually in bed by 6.45 pm. I think you'll find that your ds will last out to nearer to 7 pm over the next few weeks or so.
The 10.30 pm feed.....what I do is turn the light on full in the nursery etc etc, bring him downstairs to the lounge and give him about three quarters of his bottle, most of this he has with eyes closed!! I then change his nappy, then take him back up to the nursery, dim the lights and give him the last couple of ounces. Interestingly he has always settled really well after this feed, I guess because he is still sleepy. I've never managed to keep him awake for an hour at this feed, I think because he guzzles his bottle much faster than it would take to breast fed (my dd used to take 1 hour at this feed at least). I think at 8 weeks if you aim to keep ds awake for about 40-45 minutes that is probably ok. Since my ds has been going through to 7 am I have cut this feed down to 30 minutes and thankfully he has continued to sleep through.
I am quite concerned about the volume of milk my ds is drinking which seems a lot, think I might post to see what other 11 weekers are having!! Will probably get my myself in gear and take him to be weighed this week and discuss this with hv.

Sorry about rambling post, hope some of this helps.

I am a bit worried that my ds is a bit of a greedy guts too. I took him to baby massage yesterday and the teacher said "oh isn't he lovely - how old .. about 4 months?" i was a bit embarrassed to say "er 8 weeks actually!" I can see it is going to be a struggle getting to 16 weeks without weaning - but am not going to worry about that yet - sleep is the issue of the moment.

Anyhow - last night he slept through till 4am - what a breakthrough. I didn't feed him just settled with water and he slept till about 5.30 at which point he started moaning on and off and I got bored listening to him so gave him half his bottle but he still didn't settle back down and dozed on and off - finally going back to sleep properly at 7am. So then I woke him up at 7.30 to keep him on track. I wonder if I fed him properly at 4am if he would then sleep until 7am - but would this be back tracking? I keep telling myself if I perservere with trying not to feed him when he wakes up if he will settle without we will eventually get to 7am - or should I leave him to do it on his own? What do you think?

rambling post from me too - lack of sleep ... was so excited he slept till 4 i couldn't get back to sleep! Oh dear

This is my first message! I just wanted to say how pleased I was to read these messages about waiting for feeds. My ds is 12 weeks and can never wait for either his 10:45 feed or his 6pm feed. I feel much better now, thank you!
I've also had comments from people about ' oh, what a big baby', but he looks normal to me. Don't know how much he weighs.
I think he would wait till 10:45am if only I could get him to take more at 7am - any ideas?
He's breastfed except for bottle feed at 10:30pm.

jennyj - hi there!
does your ds feed in the night still? If he does, he probably shouldn't need to at this stage as it'll put him off his morning feed. Try offering him cooled boiled water and he'll soon get the message!
My ds was huge (still is) and just before he dropped the night feed he started taking less and less, so he obviously wasn't hungry.
If that doesn't work try cutting down his last late feed a little?

Hi bobsmum. Ds is no longer feeding in the night; he dropped that about a week ago ( hurray!). I've tried reducing his 10:30 feed by about an oz but he then wakes crying at 5am.
He wakes around 6:45 then burbles for about 20 minutes before the hungry crying starts.
Maybe I just need to be patient!

I am in the process of bringing the 10.30 pm feed forward. Have so far stuck with GF and am due to feed ds tonight at 10.15 pm. I'm hoping that he will drop this feed in next couple of weeks, certainly he is always very sleepy during this feed and sort of "farts around" with his 7 am feed, he does finish it eventually but takes ages so I am hoping this is a good indicator that he is preparing to do the magical 12 hour stint well, I can live in hope can't I. It's funny isn't it, when you follow GF you sort of always strive towards that next step and beyond and the only way I can make myself feel better if my ds hasn't conformed exactly to the book, is to listen to other mums moaning about how their kids didn't sleep through until they were 5 years old.....hmmm, think I will stick with GF then thanks very much.
Princesskitten, just to reassure you, my ds went from having a minimum of 4 oz at his middle of the night feed to dropping it completely so don't despair. He never did the water thing, I tried it once and his face was a picture !

Wow - 12 hours ... I am soo jealous Melly! Did your ds just drop his night feed over night then? You didn't have to influence at all? Have decided today following all the advice on the other threads to give him another couple of weeks and try and up his daytime feeds a bit more before ttrying to influence again. Need to get my strength up!

Like you I am terrified by horror stories from friends whose children will only sleep in their bed with them whilst having their head stroked at 5 years old - AGGGHHH I know this is making me over concerned about problems that most likely aren't even going to arise!

One other thing - DS is so noisy huffing and puffing post 2am feed I find it really difficult to get back to sleep - he is in the room across the hall so we have doors propped open as monitor drove me mad. Don't think there is any advice here - just thought I'd have another moan!

jennyj - don't reduce the amount of milk at the 10:30pm feed until you've brought it forward to 10pm, then you can start reducing it little by little until you get to about 2oz which is just a mouthful really.

Don't bring the feed forward till you know your ds is sleeping till 7am (cos then you know he's definitely able to go the distance )

When ds was ready to drop the 10pm feed (at 5 mths - began weaning 2 weeks later), for the days running up to it, he just looked sooo unimpressed about being woken up and used to give us a look as if to say "I'm sorry, you've woken me up for this??!!!!"

And then, lo, the magical 12 hours descended upon the Bobsmum household and they were very joyous.