Great 'day sleeper', waking at night!?

[lovebeingamum!]

PLEASE HELP!! DS is 6mo and is a great sleeper during the day, but wakes up once (at the moment) during thie night (usually 2am). I'm at a loss how to handle this... do I/should you/can you use CC only once a day, in the middle of the night, or will that confuse him? :confused:

At the moment he's bottlefed to sleep during the day and has 2x hour and a half sleeps, sometimes another nap thrown in, depends on what we've done during the day.

It's just the night thats killing me... it started when his two bottom teeth came through, and now it seems like he's rolling over to sleep on his tummy and waking himself up. (Is it cause he's nearly crawling?? he's getting around comando-style at the moment... just learnt that too:D. Do I stick it out until he's crawling and see if it sorts itself out?) Even I'm not able to help him back to sleep 'cause he seems frustrated that he can't get comfy on his tummy... he usually crys for 45min, has some more bottle, then goes to sleep.

Since he's so good during the day, I'm not at 'that place' where I can leave my little boy to cry and get so upset just to do something he's doing ok 99% of the time. :crying:

[blueeyes]

He may be waking up because he is hungry. How much of the bottle is he having? If it is the majority then he is hungry. You could look at implementing a dreamfeed around 10.30. This might take him through to the morning or at least close enough. My boy is the same age and has a dreamfeed and wakes up between 5 and 6.30 has a quick bf and back to sleep. This might be the go for you if you want to eliminate the feed.
You would need to find out if he is hungry before you try cc I would imagine. Can you think if you were hungry and someone wouldnt let you eat? Get rid of that component first and then you could try to implement settling issues.
If he is beginning to crawl around, he will be using more energy thus needing more milk to get by.

[lovebeingamum!]

That sounds great Mel... I will definately try that tonight. :thumbsup:

I completely agree with you ("Can you think if you were hungry and someone wouldnt let you eat?"), and thats how I feel about CC too... if I was sobbing my little heart out and the people I love just ignored me, it certainly wouldn't make me feel any better!!! And considering I attend to him during the day when he cries ('cause he only cries for a reason...) I can imagine it would be very confusing!!

I know if my be different 'cause your bub is bf, but how do you go about dreamfeeding?? If hes on a bottle, is it okay for me to leave him in the cot and do it, or should I pick him up and give him a cuddle too? :confused:

Thanks so much for your reply :)

[maddysmama]

Hi

When my bubs was the same age we were having the same problem. Because she could self settle fine 80% of the time I didn't think resorting to cc was appropriate. So we just rode thru it and settled her with a feed/rocking when she woke during the night and I found once she mastered crawling at 7 months she was fine again. She still goes thru a pattern of 3-4 nights of waking up but then sleeps well for the next couple of weeks and so on.

When I dreamfed her at that age (we stopped at about 7 months when solids were established), I used to pick her up out of her cot, give her a feed then put her back down. Most of the time she stayed asleep, but if she woke up she was so relaxed she'd go back to sleep easily. I did know a mum who would just give her bub a feed while she lay in the cot. I tried that but my bub would turn her head to the side and heaps would dribble onto the cot and leave a big wet patch!

hope this isn't too much rambling...trying to type with bubba on my lap!

[TLCC]

I agree that seeing if he is hungry is the best move to start with. You mentioned he sleeps well during the day but is fed to sleep...it could be that he is moving around more at night now with his comando crawling but unable to settle himself (as you said he has trouble getting comfy).

I know its a horrible thing to think about since he sleeps so well, but you might have to try to get him to settle during the day without using a feed to put him down so he knows how to settle himself. Then if he wakes up during the night (which our 22mth old still does sometimes), he can hopefully eventually resettle himself without much involvement from your part.

I couldn't do CC either so completely understand your need to not do it. I used pick up put down, which means you put them in the cot awake, if they cry pick up and cuddle till they stop then put down again. You can talk to them calmly and say time for bed now etc and eventually they learn to drift off to sleep. It can take an hour the first few times but generally only takes a week or so of doing it consistently and then you can put them down awake and leave the room and they go off to sleep.

Hope this isn't too much rmbling..good luck

[blueeyes]

I pick him up, he still is in a deep slumber and take him into my room and feed him - this is generally where I feed him most of the time. It is all dark and quiet and he feeds to sleep (or deeper sleep) and I put him back. Most of the time he doesnt even stir, I am not even sure he knows what is going on.
I have heard of people who do the dreamfeed in the cot so as not to disturb bub, and these are bottlefeeders, so that may be the way to go.
We have had success with this from the time we started, which wasnt that long ago as I was letting him sleep through to 2 - 2.30 but I got jack of waking up, so it is the way to go in regards to your own sleep and to their's as well. They arent waking themselves up, you are controlling it and it seems to work.
Apparently, it is advised to stop it once they are settled into solids but it is up to you. We havent begun solids yet so we are continuing. As a bf, it is a lovely quick feed which I love.
It also could be like it was suggested above, he is learning a new skill and could be trying it out and waking himself up and cant resettle at that point in time.
Let us know what you try.
Mel