Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease Help Me!

[lukaelmo]

My DS is 4 months old now and sleeps fantastically during the day, settles easily at night but constantly wakes at night from about 2am on!!! I have tried lots of things, but mostly tried to be consistent, for about a month I fed him at 11pm and then gave him the dummy till his next feed at around 5am. He would usually wake around 3am, take the dummy and settle for about another hour. Then the same thing, wake, dummy settle, etc until DH got up and took him for a walk so I could get some sleep. When that didn't work after the month, I started popping him down at 7pm and letting him wake, feeding him and then settling him back down. He would usually wake at around 2am for a feed and then do the same as before, wake, dummy, settle, etc...

From what I can tell there are two problems that wake him up at night:

1. When I wake him for a BF at 11pm, he is really sleepy and so does not feed well.
2. The bigger problem seems to be that the reason he wakes at night is that his bowels get going and this wakes him up!!! What on earth can I do about changing his bowel habits!!???

Has anyone else out there got a problem like this?

[katesmom]

Yes, my dd didn't sleep at night until recently and she's 2.5. It was awful. I wish I had the magic answer for you. I wish I'd had it then. ((hugs))

[stormanet]

Heya :) It sounds horrible all this waking for you!! Unfortunately I can't speak from experience as my little man slept through no worries from about 5 weeks. I have read though that you could try bub on a little cooled boiled water for that 2am feed to keep them going a bit longer without food.... If bub is getting upset due to bowel movements I don't know what else you can do!! It sounds exasperating!!!

Good luck :)

k

[lukaelmo]

Hey Stormanet, when you say that your little man slept through from five weeks, what times did he sleep from and to? And how much did he weigh? Were you BF him??? I am soooooooo envious!!!
Katesmom, how on earth have you coped for 2 and half years with broken sleep???!! Noooooooooooooo!!!

[stormanet]

heya lukaelmo :)
Christopher slept 7 till 7 from 5 weeks with a top up feed at 10:30pm until he was 14 weeks.... I used the Gina Ford "contented baby" book like a "childrearing for dummies guide... and I guess I was lucky in a way that breast feeding didn't work out so I expressed for Christopher until he was 12 weeks old and fed him by bottle, which meant that hubby could also feed him for me. Another thing the book talks about is daytime sleep.... we made Chris stay awake during the day and only have set maximum times for daytime sleeps at 3-4 months for 3 hours only... an example of a daily gina routine was
7am baby awake, nappy changed and feeding no later than 7- feed from both breasts or take a full bottle then stay awake for 2 hours... (we used to use water and washers and all sorts of horrible tricks to keep him awake in the first few weeks... by 3 months he knew the routine better than we did )
8am- bub encouraged to have a good kick on playmat for 20-30mins. Wash and dress baby, remembering to cream creases and dry skin.
9am-settle drowsy baby, half swaddled in the dark with door shut no later than 9 am.(our room was downstairs, light, and had household noises, but he still slept like a log). He should sleep no longer than 45 mins
Wash and sterilise bottles and expressing equipment. (or have breaky yourself )
9:45am open curtains and unswaddle baby so he can wake up naturally.
10am baby must be fullly awake now regardless of how long he slept.
encourage bub to have a good kick under playgym.
11:00am- feed from both breasts or full bottle feed.(It took us a while to push this feed back to 11.)
do not feed after 11:30 as it may put bub off next feed.
11:50am change nappy
12:00 put bub to bed.. sleep 2 hours
2:00-2:15 Awake and feeding by 2:30pm (awake naturally as before)
Full feed
Do not feed after 3:15pm
(changing this from book to our reality for what we did for the next bit)
Straight after feed offer bub water from sippy cup.
Afternoon nap for about 45mins to an hour
4:45 wake up naturally
5:00 kick and play
Gina then says bath at 5:45
feeding at 6:15
we found we needed to split feed and do a small feed before bath... bath at 6 then rest of feed after bath...

REad a book or play...

bub to bed at 7

wake bub up at 10:30 for a feed.... and you shouldn't hear from them till morning.... she has all sorts of stuff to read about sleep and early waking, and what to do... in fact you can't just jump into the routine at his "age appropriate time". My sister put me onto this book as she struggled with her little man for about 9 weeks... then started the routines... and he actually slept 7pm till 7am from 10 weeks.

We kept waking Christopher up, more from my paranoia than his waking.

Oh and in answer to your other question... he was a biggish bub... born 8lb 6 )

ANyway I'd recommend this book or if you don't want to do the whole routine thing like we have the maybe try cutting back his daytime sleep as it sounds like bub is doing his night time sleep during the day.

Good luck.... pm me if you want to chat further :)

[lukaelmo]

Wow, stormanet, thanks for such a great reply.

I have the little man on a schedule somewhat like the one you posted, the main difference though, is that I don't stick to definite times. To explain, I mean that if he wakes up at 5am I feed him, then I feed him 3 hours later, at 8am. But if he wakes us at 4am, I feed him then, and then 3 hours later at 7am. Does that make sense? So he has a schedule, but not times as such. I am wondering if this is a good thing or not. He seems pretty happy with it, and last night he slept from 8pm 'till 3.30am, and then through to 5am. This is not my ideal situation, but it is a big improvement on his waking every hour from 2am!

So anyway, now I am wondering if everyone else out there is sticking to a timed schedule, or indeed something else again.

[Tea Lady]

I was never that keen on a timed schedule (I tended to go with the flow a bit) but I think it depends alot on the bub - plus, I've had my share of probs so it's not like I'd recommend doing everything exactly how I did! But, I would say if some things are working for you, I wouldn't change them - I'd focus on the other things that aren't working.

When you say his bowels get going, do you mean dirty nappies, or just gas? If it's just gas, maybe you could look at what you're eating before his last feed? My bub has probs that way from time to time and I figure it must be to do with food.

[BIANCA-mummy of 2]

I would not worry about what time exactly I fed him but I think you said you would wake him at 11 for a feed?? I have never woken up my bubs for a feed. If they are asleep my advice although everyones diff I would leave him if he is really hungry he'll wake but sometimes they just get use to a routien of waking to feed and use the breast as a pacifier for comfort. Does he have a good long feed every feed or is he a little snacker like my 1st rascal was?? They are sooo beautiful and melt our hearts but they are really clever too hehehe cheeky little munchkins. :p