My baby is almost 5months old and still waking every 3 hours day or night!?! HELP!

[NZMama]

Okay first of all I dont expect my baby to be sleeping through the night and dont mind getting up to 1-2 times a night for a feed but she is still waking every 3 hours just as she did when she was a newborn.

The first suggestion was hunger, she is still breastfed and will feed off me before I offer her solids. She will eat a tablespoon of farex mixed with formula 3 times a day and has taken to this fine. She used to take a bottle both expressed milk & formula (when I went out), now refusing to even have the teat in her mouth (but thats a whole nother thread). I dont think that it is a hunger issue as she isnt interested in feeding when she first wakes in the morning prefering to wait an hour or so before demanding breakfast.

She dislikes dummies and will not take them, so a comforter is out of the question.

I dont think that wrapping is an issue as she will drop of to sleep very easily at night and will sleep peacefully for 3 hours.

Does anyone have any suggestions please? Her current sleep pattern is very draining.

One thing that I have noticed is that if I place her in bed with me after her last night feed (her father gets up for work at 3.45am) she will sleep for 5-6 hours straight.

Help please?? :sleeping:

[Priscilla]

I totally feel for you. Except my DS wakes every two hours, not three. Like you, mine's been doing that since birth. Unfortunately for me, its getting worse......

I've experimented with different dinner times, different amount for dinner (DS is on solids), even switching bath and dinner times, different bed times..... NOTHING works. Not for me anyway. And I'm co-sleeping as well.

I'm at my wits end so am really considering controlled crying as a last resort. From your post, it sounds like you're not doing controlled crying so my fingers are crossed for you that you don'thave to go down this road!!!! :fingerscrossed:

Sorry I don't have much words of encouragement.... but I have plenty of hugs for you :hugs:

[Mummabear]

Sorry, I don't have any resounding words of wisdom for you :o. If she's sleeping okay in bed with you then it could be a separation anxiety thing - would it be a major issue if you co-slept with her until she was ready to go it alone? (my DH won't hear of co-sleeping so I understand that it's not something that is always possible). Other than that I really don't have any suggestions for you. We did a form of controlled crying, which ended up being 'cry it out' and not 'cc' but it tore my heart out to listen to my boy cry and I won't ever do it again :shame: . I can't lie though, it did work and he's now a very good sleeper (we did it for 1 night), with occasional relapses where he wants a bit of extra Mummy time in the middle of the night. My DS lately has been rather unsettled and won't stay asleep for very long (I think it's teeth) and I've found that to ensure he stays asleep I have to sit in the rocker in his room and rock him until he is sound asleep and then put him down. If he's still slightly awake, he'll go off okay, but wake again shortly.

[mysonroger]

hello. you must be so tired, and that sucks. i'm not sure what to say, except that you could ask your child health care nurse for suggestions and readin g material. i, personally, would go down the controlled crying route.........i have used a loose version of it in the past. but i think it was a combination of a bit of controlled crying and a bit of patting and just teaching baby to drop off to sleep/resettle on their own. i think i made some of it up along the way.
i will keep reading this thread to see how you get on.................

[NZMama]

Aww Priscilla I feel for you because I know how I feel after 9pm-12am-3am-6am feeds and drained is putting it lightly. I think its the fact that its been happened for 5 months on going now thats made it so tiring. I could not imagine 2 hourly or worse......you poor thing. :hugs:

Ive kind of tried controlled crying during the day. I leave her to cry and resettle herself for a little while before I go upstairs to calm her. Ive been doing this for the past week and she seems to wake for a bit then calm down. Although I must admit I had to turn the baby monitor down to a low volume because I find the sound of her crying distressing :crying: and my DD has a great set of lungs...lol

I havent attempted the controlled crying at night however because that presents an even worse nights sleep as I end up with the 5yr old DD foot in my ear (how do they manage that with their head still on the pillow?) as DD2 wakes her and she has nightmares....hmmm. She she squishes into bed between her father & I for the rest of the night. One night when I did try it my partner jumped out of bed stumbled downstairs came up with a dummy, lent over the cot looking for babys mouth (all half asleep mind you) as baby and I looked on from the bed in amusement. I let him do it for 5-6minutes (purely for my own entertainment lol) and had to say 'erm what are you doing, Ive got DD in my arms here'. It was just like a reflex lol. He usually sleeps through her waking in the night.

I had thought about the seperation thing, some people mentioned putting an item of my clothing in with baby, but loose things in the cot are a big no no for cot death. She sleeps one step away from me in her cot so thought that was close enough anyway...I was told babys can smell their mum up to 20ft away...maybe not. But in order to catch up on sleep from those really terrible nights I give in and put her into bed with myself, I never go into a deep sleep but a light sleep which lasts 5 hours feels better than a deep sleep for 2-3. I refuse to put her into our bed when her father is in there as I just know he is the kind to roll on top of her, he is a heavy sleeper unlike me and I assume the position of a forward playing a game of rugby holding baby as if she were the ball in one arm and fending DP off with the other lol.

Soooo Im running out of options and need more sleep. But thank you very much for your tidbits of information. I think the best source of information always comes from other mothers. I was most definitely going to bring it up at my next child health care appointment............

Priscilla I wish you luck with your little boy and his sleep patterns, if you do manage to find something that works could you please pass the precious information onto me? I will also send it to you ..... theres still hope :fingerscrossed:

[kadownie]

I hope you find something that works for you soon.. it's hard isn't it. I have twins- one is a great sleeper (most of the time) but the other wakes constantly through the night- I have him in bed with us now so no one is really interrupted- I don't really even notice when he wakes now- he has some boob- after a few minutes I tell him enough and he goes back to sleep. They are 20 months- so a bit older.

[NZMama]

Kadownie, wow I honestly dont know how mothers of twins do it. Here I am bearly managing the one baby with odd sleep patterns and there you are with 2 babies.
Not to mention still breastfeeding at 20 months........well done!:D

[tanni_83]

do you have bed rail from dd1? if you put it up on your side of the bed and sleep your dd beside it with u in the middle that will get you soome sleep and prevent ur dd from rolling out.... or i know you might like to share with dh but how about a matrass on the floor and just you co-sleep with ur bub, its not a long term solution but after a week your body will b back to normal to be able to handle a more in depth solution
hth

tanni :hugs:

[kymmy]

sorry I don't have much advice
just to let you know you are certainly not alone
my 6 month old still wakes several times during the night
As you know time will pass
Do you think you will miss those baby days?
I can hardly remember my older two as babies
so i enjoy my baby as much as i can
before he learns how to drive before I do!

[NZMama]

Hi tanni_83. No I didnt bring anything from my first DD with me. My second DD was an unexpected suprise and when we moved from NZ to Australia I wasnt planning anymore children in the immediate future so left all my baby gear behind in NZ. But that definitely would have been a good idea.

Hi Kymmy, Yes you are right.....I do try to spend as much time with my bubba as I can because I am more than aware of how fast they grow *gazing at my 5 year old*. I dont mind her waking in the night its just the lack of sleep that I was having issues with. I also noticed the use of 'wahanui' in your signature....that wouldnt happen to be maori would it? lol

BUT good news all....well I dont want to jinx it lol. My daughter seems to be all but sleeping through. She is waking for just the one feed now. She may wake 2-3 other times but I just re-settle her and we both go straight back to sleep. She even let me sleep in till 9 on mothersday..... do you think she knew?
Normally going down at 9 sleeping till 2, then she is fed, changed and we have cuddles in the dark before she goes down till 7.30-8 the next morning. She has been doing it everynight for the past week. So fingers crossed that this is the new rountine.

As far as I can see nothing has changed with her routine....so it is strange but Im not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Thank you everyone for taking the time to offer your suggestions:)

[kymmy]

NZmama, hubby is Maori and a big mouth!
The lack of sleep issue
All I know is I can't manage without enough sleep
I co-sleep and breastfeed
I sometimes go to bed early
last night it was 7:30
I NEED MY SLEEP

KIA KAHA!