Posted by
crj
20 yrs ago
A mini survey...
1. Do you have a boy or a girl?
2. What age did your baby start sleeping from your last night feed to your first morning feed, for example, 11pm - 6:30 am?
3. Do you Breast or Bottle Feed? On Demand or on Schedule?
4. Did you notice any patterns before they did this the first time? For example, baby usually wakes up at 3/3:30 - but then varied with 2:30 and 4:15...
5. Did they continue every night to sleep through after the first time? Or was it more like once a week, then twice, etc...
6. Any other comments?
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My daughter started sleeping through the night from about 2 months old.
I tried breastfeeding but she never took to it so reluctantly I had to change to formula and bottle feeding. The first month everything was feeding and sleeping to schedule, every 4 hours or so.
The beginning of the second month was when things started to change. Her last feed would be something like 11-11.30pm and then I would be the one waking up ready for her feed at about 3am. When she didn't wake up for her feed, I really wasn't sure what to do and being a first time mum I was really anxious, so I paced the room for about half an hour thinking, 'should I wake her or let her sleep?' Eventually I went back to bed and my daughter woke up at around 5.30am crying for her milk.
After that night, she didn't really vary from this routine except that she would wake up later eg. about 6-7am by the third week and has continued to sleep through the night since.
I have no idea how she came to sleep overnight so suddenly as I never varied from her daily routine from the first month. I suppose it's just that she was getting stronger and didn't need her feed as much during the night, which was great for me as I managed to get my sleep:)
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crj
20 yrs ago
Waffle HK ->
Waking 4-5 times a night!!?? oh my, poor you, that is awful.
Is she hungry each time? Or just looking for comfort?
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1. Boy
2. Started at around 2 months as following: Will go to bed between 7 and 8 pm, then wake up at around 1 am and then again around 5 am. Then sleep again until 6.30 am. Then up for the day with two naps (each 2 hours in the morning and afternoon).
3. Breastfeeding on demand
4. Baby started to go longer stretches when he was around 5-7 months, but then started teething and wakes more again.
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misza
20 yrs ago
Hey Waffle,
looks like our kids are same age and going through same phase. She used to sleep so nice: feed at 7pm them 10:30pm then 4 am and 10 am. Since Saturday she wakes up for a feed at 10:30 and then 1:30, 3:30, 4:30,6:30 am. and finally after the 6:30am feed she was able to sleep till 10am. It's like going back to days when I had a new born!!!!!!!
She is sucking on her fingers or on her blanky and she has just a few cat naps during a day: 40 min each. I hope tonight going to be better!
She is also on a small side, born at 3.25kg by 4 months 5.68kg putting on average 0.5kg per month looking plump, healthy and strong. Last week I have introduced formula S-26 (only one feed a day). I was wondering maybe it's something about it?
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1. Boy
2. At 2mths but only lasted for a month & a half as move to shanghai when he was 3mths turned everything topsy turvy - still ain't sleeping thru' the night @ 13mths but I blame it on me - the jargon, I believe is "accidental parenting"!
3. ON demand breastfeeding but very naturally structured - every 3hrs except during growth spurts (more frequent)
4. Yes - he demanded feeding sometime btwn 22h00 & 23h30
5. Everynight for 1 mth (see point 2)
6. Perhaps irrelevant, but @ 13mths not sleeping thru' the night, have noticed he goes to bed @ about 21h00, wakes up restless btwn 01h30 & 02h00 (suckling for 1min calms him down to sleep) & again btwn 04h00 & 05h00 (1min session again)
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waffle hk, I'm no expert but I've read loads on sleep since mine was a wee one and was waking like yours is. Mine was little and tracking on a low curve so at that point I basically felt I needed to feed her every chance I could.
But one thing I realized (after a few months of this) was that she was waking EVERY sleep cycle and hadn't learned to go back to sleep without first having a nice warm milk snuggle with mummy.
That little revelation made me start to push night feeds forward, 15 minutes a day, until they rolled off into morning. (I figured any wake up after 6 a.m. was reasonable for breakfast and started the day.) Interestingly, after the first couple of nights it went quite quickly because she was learning to settle without a suckle.
Mine was older than yours, I wasn't so clever at 4 months. But she really was small so I'm not sure I could've or should've pushed her as young as that. We did it very gently, she was learning a new skill and I was helping her.
I don't know if this applies to any of your babies. Even if it's teething, it still sounds like sleep cycle wake-ups, so some pain relief probably makes sense before they get in the habit of fully waking up each cycle (we used baby tylenol/panadol).
Anyway, I feel for you guys, it's exhausting what you are going through. You'll feel like completely new people with the first good night.
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nkj
20 yrs ago
Hi!
1. Girl
2. 2.5 months, last feed at 10/10.30pm then sleeps until 7am
3. Bottle fed (breast feeding didn't work out, no milk) On Gina Ford Schedule - loosely followed
4. Baby used to wake at 3-ish, then went to 4-ish then 2 weeks later suddenly it was all the way until 7am. We finally dropped the 10pm feed at 4.5 months and she is now almost 6 months and sleeps from 7pm until 7am. I can only put this down to a feeding and sleeping routine and letting her cry (for no more than 7 minutes max - we timed it)
5. This pattern has stayed the same with the occasional 6.30am waking, but now she just chats to herself and unless she is really getting upset I don't go into her room until 7am.
6. I think a routine is great as my daughter is (generally!) a happy, energetic child who goes to sleep with really minimum fuss at 9am, 12.30pm and 7pm, and eats well (most days!!) at the times suggested by Gina Ford. I follow this routine VERY LOOSELY. I find any changes take about 1-2 weeks to become routine so perseverance is really important.
Good luck!
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Hi,
1. Girl.
2. Around 2 months old, last feed 10.30pm and she then slept until 7am.
3. Breastfed on schedule.
4. Not really!!
5. She has consistently slept through, with the odd exception due to illness.
6. A routine worked well for us and we also 'VERY LOOSELY' followed the Gina Ford plan.
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crj
20 yrs ago
Thank you everyone, hopefully even more people will comment.
I have:
Boy
2 1/2 months 10 lbs, not sleeping through yet
Breast Feed on Schedule
Feed at 7pm, 11:00pm, 6:30am.
Usually wakes around 3ish, but has done 2 or 4 on some nights instead of 3.3:30.
Sleeps well at night, absolutely no daytime nap routine despite my best efforts!! Also, not a great eater... but has his good days.
I have heard 13 lbs / 3 months as a magic number, but from the comments above there is a large variety of answers!
Lots of inspiration above... looking forward to more than 3 hours of consecutive sleep!
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swmbo
20 yrs ago
1. Boy
2. About 5 months for a month only.
3. Breast supplemented with bottle for 7 months then bottle. We kept a rough schedule but we were flexible. If he had a big feed I'd give his next feed late but wouldn't push it out more than an hour or so. If he had a small feed then I'd give him his next one when he was hungry even if that was early.
4. Not really, but as he got older he probably woke later in the night (instead of 2am at 2 months, 4am at 4 months), but it was still highly variable what time he woke.
5. Varied alot to start with. Would sleep some nights and not most others for first couple of weeks.
6. Solids did seem to help a bit - started at about 5 1/2 months. But teething at 6 months meant night waking again. Overall our son would sleep through the night for say a month (with occasional night waking) and wake through the night for the next month (with occasional sleeping through) until about 12 months. Sometimes it was due to teething or illness, sometimes travel or visitors disturbed his pattern, and sometimes it seemed to be due to nothing in particular. Then again at about 15 months we moved house and went through 2 months straight of night feeding, anywhere from 1am to 5am! He would drink a whole 270mls and then settle back to sleep. If we didn't give him a bottle he just wouldn't go back to sleep for literally hours.
Tried the 10pm dream feed at about 2.5 months for a couple of weeks but didn't work - still woke in the middle of the night for a feed.
Also had a phase at about 4 months when he would go to sleep at 6pm and then wake at around 2am, and be up and raring to go at 5am. Was difficult to shift that pattern forward as was winter in Aus and by 6pm it was dark.
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Todge
20 yrs ago
1. Girl
2. 6 Weeks
3. Fed every 2.5-3.5 hours - usually 3 hours on the dot.
4. Often had to wake bub for the 4am feed - but had house guests so didn't try letting her sllep through till they left - she probably would have gone through at 5 weeks.
5. On advice from friends, we followed the Baby Wise program by Garry Ezzo (just a book available from Dymocks, Page One etc) as, after reading it, it seemed logical. Bub is now 14 months old and still sleeps through the night. She wakes on the odd occasion (say once every two weeks or so) and a quick cuddle is usually all that's required before putting her back down to sleep. My wife Breast-fed for the first six month and expressed so bub had milk while she was at work. We supplemented with powder milk towards the end of the breast feeding period.
We kept a routine that had some flexibility - like I said we'd feed her between 2.5 and 3.5 after the START of her last feed (sometimes feeding took up to 40 mins - especially when she was little). So she'd feed at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4 pm and 7pm, 10pm, 1am, 4am. We dropped the 4am after about 3 1/2 weeks. The 1am after 6. She wouldn't wake in the middle of the night crying and was always bright and happy in to morning - our daughter spend the first week of her life in the ICU unit and was underweight - but we had weekly checkups and she was gaining weight well and her health got better and better.
She's continued to sleep through the night but obviously, after injections etc all bets are off and she's had one or two rough nights from sickness, but when she's well she sleeps 11-12 hours a night.
Now at 14 months she wakes at 6:30ish am, feeds by 7, then goes down for a sleep at 8:30am, often we need to wake her for her 11am feed, then she goes back down between 12:30pm and 1pm (depending on her showing sleep signs - rubbing eyes, yawning etc), sleeps till about 2:30-3pm, then up, a quick feed at 3, play the rest of the arvo with an occasional sleep from about 4:30-5-5:30pm, then dinner with us at about 6pm, bath and off to bed.
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crj
20 yrs ago
Boy
11 Weeks tomorrow, and he slept through last night (10 wk, 5 d) from 11:30pm to about 6am for first time!
Breast Feed on Schedule, but have not managed to establish a daytime nap routine - although I keep trying...
Our last scheduled feed is 11pm, and first one 6:30am. He usually woke up around 3 or 3:30 am. But the two weeks before he did some nights at 3, but others at 2 or 4.
Also, he has never been a great eater, but the past week he has been eating more per feed.
Last night he ate at 7, I woke him at 11 for that feed... and this morning he started to cry a bit at 5:15 or so... but not a lot, so I waited, then at 6:00 he really cried so I got him and we had breakfast at 6:15.
(I of course, woke by habit at 3, looked at the clock and went back to sleep... did this again at 5, but was so excited could not sleep!)
I am sooo happy, but am aware that he could easily wake up at 3 again tonight... The comments above also show that it is likely that around teething or other stressful times it could go all crazy again... but I'll take what I can get for now :)
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1. Boy
2. He's now 4 months and started sleeping through during wk 12
3) bottle fed from wk 2. been following gina ford quite closely during the day but we could never get him to dream feed. therefore we just used to wait for him to wake up at night to feed.
4) we would give him evening feed at 7pm, and then wait for him to wake up at around 11pm for another feed, and then at 2am etc... but suddenly he wouldn't start waking up until 12am, and it got later and later until he only fed once a night at around 2am, and then slept until 7am.
and one night he slept all night from 7pm until 6am!!
he has pretty much slept consistently through the night since from 7pm - 7am which is quite amazing considering he has been diagnosed with possible silent reflux and is the most difficult baby to feed.
5) the only comment i have is that sometimes, rather than waking the baby to feed during the night, perhaps leaving the baby to establish its own sleeping pattern might allow the baby to sleep longer. when we used to wake ours up to feed him we realised it wasn't working as he just wouldn't feed, so leaving him to sleep for as long as he liked seemed to work better. remember, babies don't always have to be full to the brim to sleep through the night - adults don't always sleep on a full tummy, they sleep when they're tired!
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1.Girl
2.11 mos
3.bottle since birth
4.slept at 9:30 pm ,8oz of milk second feed at 3am
usually she knows her routine of feeding and would cry around that time as to let you know shes hungry.She woke up at 7 am ans would have another milk.
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crj
20 yrs ago
constructive comments please...
Our boy is now 3 months old... he has slept through (from 11am feed to almost 6:30 am feed) for a total of 5 nights in 3 weeks.
Boy.
Breastfed on schedule
10 weeks, 5 days - he slept through three nights in a row.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
Then he went back to night waking.
Then Sunday he slept through again.
Then another week of night waking.
Then this Sunday he slept through again.
But Monday he was back to his usual wake up.
The differences are:
Now when he wakes up it is not always 3:30 - it varies between 1:30 - 4:30 am - not regular.
Eating - When I look at the amounts he eats on the days he slept through - there is no pattern - on days he ate more he did not sleep through, on days he ate less sometimes he did.
Activities - 2 of the Sundays we went out, but the first three nights he slept through we did not, they were just 'normal' days.
We have tried sending my husband in to check on him to change his nappy, etc... but each time (bar one) he seems genuinely hungry and I fed him.
Any inspiration out there?
Any ideas, or do I just need to wait and hope and wish for more sleep?
Thanks...
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ok - just a thought. i can see you're breastfeeding him. is is possible that he may need a supplementary bottle at night before bed? when one breastfeeds you can't always tell how much they drink at each feed....
when my son started sleeping through, the first few weeks he did sometimes lapse back into middle of the night waking but that was only for about 1 night every 4 for about 2 wks.
we always try to 'fill him up' at the evening feed but now he gets so tired he's been known to go to sleep before having all his food and still sleep through. what naps does your son have during the day? mine only has two now (9-10am, 12-2pm).
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Waffle hk, I'm no expert on babies and definitely no expert on breastfeeding as I had reverted to bottle feeding rather early on in my baby's life. The reason I mention supplementary bottle is that in some books it does mention that by this time of night, the mother might start to run low on milk from her breasts, especially when the baby's feeding well during the day, and some books suggest trying to give more milk at this time. It can be expressed or formula. I have no idea how much since it's pretty diffficult to see how much breastfed babies actually drink throughout the day. I suppose you'll have to be the judge of that.
How about cutting back on her naps during the day? My boy is nearly 5 months and he gets his last good nap from 12-2pm (2 hrs). He has an hour from 9-10 (wakes up at 7am) and if he's really having a hectic day on the playmat or when we're out and about he might sleep for 1/2 hour at about 4.30pm. But that's it! As a result, he's completely exhausted by 7pm and ready for bed.
Of course all babies are different and if your little one is stressed and wants you there, then you really can't deny her the love she needs.
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crj
20 yrs ago
I thought that it was food related too...
But last night, he only ate:
7pm - 11 minutes
11pm - 10 minutes
and he slept until 6:00 am!
BTW he normally only eats 20 minutes, so he is a fast efficient eater - 10 or 15 is not unusual for him.
so now I am really confused!!
It does not seem to relate with how much he eats if last night is anything to go by...
I have friends who feed their babies formula at 11pm because it takes longer to digest and they want the baby to sleep through. While that is great for them, we have decided on breastmilk only for 6 months, so we will not opt to do this.
I just hope he does it again... and wish there was something I could to do encourage his nighttime sleeping... now we know he can, but can't find anything to help him do it regularly.
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some non conventional suggestions -
white noise - a fan, an air purifier - something to give white noise - according to some sleep experts, this is effective.
Limiting day time sleep - you haven't really talked about how much day time sleep is, and I know that you didn't have a set nap schedule before - perhaps you are still on the more flexible one? If the day time naps and feeds are established, perhaps the night time will be easier.
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cri, i know this sounds very far off, but once he's done it few times, he will do it again - you've just got to let him find his own pattern, my boy in the first two weeks did wake up at funny times too, but we just left him in his cot. as long as he didn't cry we assumed he was fine. he would eventually go back to sleep.
and hkchoichoi - you're right, white noise is a great one - the number of times the helper has left him on the playmat to go vacuum the flat only to find him fast asleep 5 mins later because of the noise! quite funny!
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crj
20 yrs ago
Thanks
:) He did it again last night... so it is looking better!!
As for white noise, the A/C is on every night b/c it is hot now, so he has had that for a few weeks now.
BUT I do have my helper hoover during his daytime nap time - anything to try to get him to sleep at those times!
Daytime naps - still a struggle, but the day before yesterday he barely slept at all in the day (then slept through), and yesterday he had a huge nap (then slept through)...
Daytime Naps - I am aiming for him to nap from 9:15/30 - 10:00 (feed), 12:00 - 1:30 (feed), 4:15/30-5:00 (feed).
But he is a cat-napper - many days he just takes a very short 15 minute nap (out cold, nothing can wake him, but not at those times) and just isn't tired. Then yesterday he was out like a light from 3:30 - 5:00!!
The first one I am really trying to get to be regular is one big nap at 12:00 -1:30... yesterday he did 11:45 - 12:30, so it is a start...
It is funny, the first two months I couldn't keep him awake, now he is awake most of the time and just takes these little naps and won't go to sleep... ha ha
Thanks for the support and advice - when I wrote the other day I was just thinking that it would only ever be Sunday nights that he slept through... but it seems he is doing better this week. Like any mother, not only do I want my sleep I want to find ways to 'help' my baby... but I guess in this case there is not much I can do it is up to him.
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1. Girl
2. 10.5 weeks
3. Exclusive B/F on Gina Ford's Schedule (more or less)
4. used to wake up at 3:30, then moved to 4:30, and then slowly but surely crept up - now at 7:30.
5. This baby (my 2nd) slept through the night earlier than my first. My first didn't start until about 3.5 months.
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crj
20 yrs ago
HKCC - wow, excellent, you deserve the sleep!
We finally have 7 nights in a row and counting...
so about 13 weeks for us...
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crj
20 yrs ago
HM - how did you drop the 11pm feed?
Did he drop it himself? Or did you wean him off it by moving it a bit earlier every night?
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1. Girl
2. I didn't do a night feed as such. I'd put her down at 7pm and feed only when she'd wake in her own time - 11pm for a very short while, then 1am, then 3am and finally between 6-7am. Achieved this sporadically by about 12 weeks, and consistently from 15 weeks.
3. Breastfed exclusively to 10 weeks, then introduced formula at 7pm feed, and moved fully to formula from 12weeks. Breastfed on demand to about 6 weeks, then to schedule loosely following Gina Ford, but much prefer The Baby Whisperer approach.
4. I did try to introduce a night feed around the 10-12 week mark as was worried she'd still be waking during the night when I went back to work. This only helped to upset her when woken at 11pm, rather than extend her night sleep. She was still waking at the same time whether I fed her at 11pm or not!
5. Initially she'd sleep through about 4 nights in the week, waking the other nights at about 3 or 4am. We went on a weeks holiday in the middle of this and she woke each night while away, but when fed, quickly resettled and slept to 7am. Once back from holidays she settled into all night sleeps almost immediately and hasn't looked back since!
Comments: Like squiggles, I never did the night feed and luckily the approach worked.
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hi there,
i've only just joined this forum after reading it for many months during my pregnancy.
i have an almost 8 week old baby boy. like crj, my son is exactly the same - a real cat-napper. i've been trying the gina ford nap times to zero success..and when i least expect it, he falls asleep!! crj, how do you amuse your baby if he is always awake? i've no time to myself in the day as i don't have any help and he needs to be entertained!
at night (since last week), he sleeps after 7pm until 2am for a feed and then starts to squirm around 5ish onwards until i feed him at 7am (if he doesn't cry, i'll just ignore him until 7am as he's sometimes still asleep, just very noisy). i am really hesistant to wake him up for a 11pm feed (ala gina ford routine) in the hope that he'll feed at 3-4am and then 7am, eventually dropping the 4am feed. i fear that he won't want to feed or go back to sleep if i wake him up at 11pm!! any advice out there? for now, i'm still letting him sleep until whenever, feed him and then if he does wake up crying before 7am, to settle him with water (he's on formula). but not sure if that's the way to go.
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crj
20 yrs ago
Wheelymate - I have to laugh, because I asked the exact same question. I was in shock when baby started to be awake after so many weeks of just sleeping... and had no idea what to do.
Check this thread:
http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/forums/momsdads/threads/79101.asp
And no, even now at almost 4 months daytime naps are not consistent - but he sleeps well at night, so I can't complain!
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ritad
20 yrs ago
i get up at least 3 times during ht enite to feed kids...two kids..they are 2.5 and 1.5....
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Yesterday was all out of order! I managed to convince him to have a nap about 3plus but he didn't want to wake up after 5pm for his bath and bedtime feed! He got so grumpy that he fell asleep on the bouncy chair after his bath and was so drowsy during his feed that he didn't finish it. In the end, he slept til 11.30pm and I fed him again. And like an alarm clock, he started squriming close to 5am and this time, he wasn't happy. So after feeding him water and giving him the pacifier, he dozed off and on until 7am when he was hungry enough to finish all his milk this time. I hope I'm not being cruel to deprive him of milk at 5am in the morning but I suspect this waking up is more out of habit than hunger as I've given him as much to drink for his size in the day and the thing is he usually has a hard time finishing his milk at 7am, which tells me he isn't really that hungry at 5am?
Ritad: I admire your strength, I cannot survive on so little sleep. But take heart, I have a good friend with a 15 month old son who wakes up twice a night for milk and she's got a 4 week old baby to breastfeed too!
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ritad
20 yrs ago
wow...so her difference of the childs age is almost like mine..i can understand how hard it is....where to get the energy..i am not sure..but i know physically i have suffered..i get tired..so tired..and i work also....full time..so the nite sleep really make sme weak...but i know....i get the energy when i see the kids..how much they prefre me ....i stay at home all the time after work....to be with them..but can't say i do any thing functional with them most of thet ime...i try..but soemtimes i am just too tired...
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Wheelymate - I think our babies are a very similar age (mine will be 12 weeks this Friday)so very curious to know how it is going. I've been doing very similar to you: putting bub to bed at 7pm and only feeding her when she wakes. I used to wake her at 11pm for a feed but we really had to work hard to wake her so we thought we'd see what happened if we didn't wake her. For the first few nights she'd sleep on till 4 or 5am! Now she seems to be in the habit of waking at about 2:30am for a feed. I can't complain as she is going from 7pm till 7am with only one feed in the middle but I have to return to work soon and obviously it would be great if she could sleep through. Any tips?
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The last week has been rough...
Previously, he was sleeping through from 7 to 7 for awhile (as i mentioned into another thread). But then he started waking up again and after a few meltdowns (from me, wondering what was going wrong, and a husband who seems to think nothing is wrong), we decided to introduce the 11pm feed. He takes this feed really well even though he is asleep. We have tried this for about a week and he sleeps until at least 4am (sometimes 5am, once 6.30am). Whe he does wake up, I am reluctant to feed him as it affects his 7am feed. In fact, i wonder if the 11pm feed is already affecting his 7am feed - since we introduced it, he doesn't seem interested in his milk in the morning!!
Sorry if I am not much help here, just a stressed out mom with too high expectations - my husband commented that i treat my baby like a robot!! We have also moved him to his own room as i just couldn't block out every breath/grunt/noise he makes. So lots of adjustment for him, maybe can comment better later on....:(
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