Breastfeeding Question - Valdosta,GA

I know you want to sleep all night, but you are going to have to ride this one out. She will eventually sleep all night again.

I agree with the other moms who say she's likely going through a growth-spurt which has caused her sleep habits to rapidly change.

Both of my kids were close to 1 year before they stopped needing a nighttime feeding - both slowly weaned themselves off the volume.

As much as we want to get a good night's sleep, this is part of having a baby. I have to constantly remind myself that being a mom is much bigger than me - their needs, especially at that age, supercede ours in many ways.

As a point of perspective - I couldn't nurse my daughter at 4 months because I had cancer and the chemo drugs would have been toxic to her. I'd take the stress of not getting a full night's sleep over the fear of dying before your children know you any day.

Good luck.

I would suggest just nursing. Especially if she is taaking a full feeding. She is hungry! Probably just a growth spurt. It'll eventually pass. 4 months is too young to let her cry or try to make her wait.....

Quite honestly, I would just "suck it up" and keep nursing. My baby (#2) is now 10 months old and I still nurse her about 2 times each night. Last month was really bad (at an average 4 nursings) cuz she had a bad cold, with runny nose and lost of coughing.
Nursing is the best you can do for her and for you, I know sleep is nice (I remember vaguely!) Do you work out of the house? If not, take an extra nap during the day when little one is sleeping (and the older one is either at school or busy) If you are working, try to get some "relaxing" time in if at all possible.
It might just take her a bit longer to get back in the swing of things, babys are creatures of habit
Hang in there it'll get better again!
Take care
M.
(Army wife and mom to a 7 year old and a 10 month old)

sounds like the ear infection ushered her into a growth spurt or just a need to eat. chances are even without getting the ear infection she would have started waking again. my son was up about 3 times a night from birth to 3 months then he went to 5 or more times until 7 months before sleeping through. If it were me i would feed the baby and put her back to sleep. she is telling you what she needs and it is best to listen to her because she is the only one that know exactly what she is feeling. it is hard get good sleep when you have a little one but it is worth the price to see their smiling face everyday. You will be up in the middle of night at random times all the way through her life. if it isn't for feeding, it will be a bad dream or she wet the bed or you will be up worrying about where she is at 1 am when she didn't come home by curfew :) good luck

Ear infections are the worst!!! My son (now 4) has been getting them sense he was 10 months. he slept through the night 12 hours at 3 months and at 10 months was up constantly!!! I have a 3 month old now and I noticed that when i nursed her she would eat at 10pm and getting up at 4am. I pumped to make sure she was getting at least 3 to 4 ounces and she now goes down at 8:30 or 9 and waked up at 6 or 7. So my suggestion to you is try to pump and make sure she is eating close to what she eats during the day if not all of it. If that doesn't work then I would think she is ready for the rice cereal. She is for sure hungry. Good luck!!!

I would consult a cranial sacral therapist to work on her skull and sacrum. Something is stuck alright and it is from the ear infection. Remember that everything in the human body is related and linked to everything else. This is a non invasive gentle approach. She wants to keep nursing all night because it is opening up her TMJ and middle ears. She instinctively knows what she needs. They can cure her of future infections as well through moving the energy blockages which create allergies. Bad cells attract more bad cells like a cycle. Good cells teach the others how to behave.

In an older child I would suggest giving water, but as your Daughter is only 4 months maybe try pushing her 15-30 minutes later each night until she is back where you want her. It will take a bit of work but might be worth it!

I'm wondering why you are concerned about switching to formula yet. Do you intend to wean your child from the breast? You don't have to stop breastfeeding, as you've already established that you pump your milk so I'm confused why you feel formula needs to be added.

In any case, at 4 months of age, it's quite normal for a baby to still want to nurse during the night. EVERY baby is different, as is every situation that comes up. Your baby may not necessarily be "stuck" in anything. Babies wake up during the night for various reasons: illness, boredom, thirsty, genuine hunger, wet/soiled diaper, and most important reason of all is teething. Have you tried co-sleeping with her? You can latch her on, if she wakes up, while you go back to sleep. It's a great arrangement for you and baby, if it's something you might want to try. I wouldn't suggest long term co sleeping, but just until she gets through whatever is bothering her, which could very well be teeth coming in. She's not too young to give a little cereal to at bedtime. Mix a little cereal with breastmilk (or juice or water) and then top her off by nursing her. I began giving cereal to my babies at 4 months and then nursed them to sleep. None of my babies began sleeping through the night under 4 months consistently. I have 3 children.

4 months is one of those natural times that a child has a growth spurt. Sounds like this is causing her to NEED an additional feeding. If she's drinking an entire feeding worth, then she obviously is not just being needy or pacifying herself, she's actually hungry. For now, you likely need to feed her and then work on getting her back to a better sleep schedule as you can. I will say, however, that sleeping 10-11 hours consistently for an infant is not reasonable. You had a lucky streak, but that doesn't mean she was going to be able to do that forever...or that it is even the best thing for her anymore.

After the antibiotics, her intestinal flora is all jacked up and her body is probably not absorbing nutrients like she should be. I honestly would give her PB8 from Nutrition Now. For my babies, I open the capsule and dump 1/2 -1 of the contents into their mouths before I breastfed them. My kids have had PB8 theri entire lives. I also take it and only one of my kids have ever gotten an ear infection and when he did it was becasue of too much dairy. Look up candida and ear infections....and see if it was caused by your diet. I'm sure you ped will disagree, but years of experience have told me that 99% of ear infections are not caused by bacteria, but rather by candida, which is why the medical research shows that giving an antibitoic for an ear infections increases the risk of another ear infection by 33%. many peds take the sit and wait approach because of medical research.

If she is or was sick nursing is the best thing for her. This allows your immune system to help hers fight the infections. Switching to formula will not help her and doesn't give her the extra antibodies breastmilk does.
My suggestion is to actually wake her and feed her right before you go to bed. I used to wake my daughter when I was engorged and needed her to feed. I do the same thing to my 3 week old now. That extra feeding right before your bedtime may help her sleep a little longer for you so you're up at 6am instead of 3am.
You don't mention if there is a partner in the picture. Can you trade off with somebody else so that you don't get up every night but every second night? You indicated your little one will take a bottle of pumped milk so having a bottle ready for a nighttime feed by somebody else may also help.
Good luck!!

Sounds like a growth spurt and you may need to wait it out and keep nursing until it passes. If she was just nursing a little to go back to sleep it would be different, but it sounds like she is hungry! It will pass before you know it and she'll go back to sleeping longer. Probably during the next growth spurt phase you'll be shocked with her sleeping a super long time! That will help break the cycle too!

I am a firm believer on nursing so I will tell you from my experience just keep it up! What has probably happend she had an ear infection originally and now she is going through one of many growth spurts and needs that extra nourishment it will pass, if you are giving her breastmilk in a bottle thicken it a very little with rice cereal if you really want her to sleep through the night. But breastfed babies truly need no other nourishment until around six months then you start the baby food and cereal. It is a personal preference on my third child the pedatrician said to start cereal at 4 months with baby food then 19 months later I had my fourth and in that time frame the pediatrician said do not start until 6 months but I thinks it has to do with childhood obesity as to why they push back solid foods until 6 months. Goos luck and God Bless!

I had a similar problem with my now 15 month old when he was 5 mos. Unfortunately, his was respiratory and not ear, so he lost a bit of weight so docs told me I couldn't let him "cry it out" to try to drop a feeding...once his weight was back up, I did follow Weissbluth and dropped one feeding at a time (after mine was sick, he got up 2-3 times a night...imagine). Your little one may have a stuck clock or may be going through a growth spurt. They don't advise pushing the kiddos off the night time feedings completely (unless they do it themselves) until 9 months if they are still nursing a full feeding in the middle of the night. Probably not what you wanted to hear. I work full time and couldn't wait till then for sleep, so at 7 months we dropped 1 feeding at a time -- every few weeks dropped another (my little one had been sleeping 11 hours at night, no waking BEFORE he got sick at 5 mos too). If you don't like cry it out, suggest you have another adult (who doesn't smell of milk) go in and comfort at night but not feed the child. Might take a week but the kiddo will catch on (hopefully) that mama isn't coming and start sleeping through again. Good luck! I know sleep deprivation is horrible!

At 4 months, most babies are going through a growth spurt, as well as a developmental spurt. When babies are growing and/or learning to do something new (i.e. rolling over, sitting up, etc.) they tend to sleep a bit more restlessly. The best thing you can do is to continue to nurse her, and help her through this time. I know for my babies, once they wake up in the middle of the night, I'd just bring them back to bed with me and nurse them lying down/sleeping for the last part of the night. We both got more rest this way. I don't know if this is any option for you or not, but maybe worth a try to help get you through this phase with a bit more sleep? Hang in there, mama, you're doing a great thing for her!

Hi E.,
I am an NICU RN and not a pro about older babies and nursing, but wonder if your baby is just going through a growth spurt and needing to nurse more just for awhile. Hope so for your sake, LOL, but did enjoy savoring some time with my baby in the middle of the night when life was quiet... especially if I could nap with my baby during the day! They grow up so fast! Enjoy!
Good Luck!! Sincerely, D.
www.DebbieMooreRN.com
www.HealthyLandOLakes.com

I don't think switching to formula would solve your problem anyway, the type of milk is not the issue here. I'm sure she would still wake up to take a bottle. She needs to be retrained to sleep through the night, so this is a sleep issue, not a milk issue. How did you get her to sleep through the night the first time? My son had been sleeping through the night for 9 mos, but then there was a big change in our house with job switches and Daddy going out of town, plus he started teething. He completely lost all ability to put himself to sleep and sleep through the night. You have to retrain them to self soothe. I am not a fan of cry it out at 4 mos. I used the book No Cry Sleep Solution, I would recommend getting that and see how it goes. Don't switch to formula just to try to make her sleep. She is also probably hitting a growth spurt and getting close to being ready for solids. I introduced cereal at about 4 1/2 mos when one day, he was just starving, and no amount of milk would cut it. I could just tell he was ready. Doing one cereal feeding mixed with breastmilk at dinner for a couple weeks helped a lot. Good luck, hope you get some sleep soon.

It is a growth spurt - just nurse her and she will get past this too. My son didn't sleep through without a feeding until he was 20 months old so consider yourself lucky! Yes, the doctor told me he didn't need the 2am feeding after 12 months but he was also only 10th percentile in weight and I am convinced he really was hungry. Mamas know best...let her nurse, don't give her formula if you don't have to, breastmilk is better for keeping up her immune system and know that one day it will all be a fond memory.

C.

Even if you switch her to formula you may still have the issue of her not sleeping through the night. She may still need the extra TLC that she needed when she was sick. It could also be a growing spurt. Beleive me I understand the needing a full nights rest... you did mention you have pumped milk. Will daddy get up with her a couple nights a week and give her a bottle and let you stay in bed? That way both of you are able to get a few full nights rest instead of just one of you getting it.

Also, keep an eye on the little one... you mentioned she was on 2 antibiotics. Did she have to be switched to a stronger one because the 1st didn't work? Sometimes you can actually get other infections from strong antibiotics (kidney & UT), so there is a chance she may have one of them. My daughter is 5 and never had ear infections till she started pre-school last year... she had 1 last year and 2 so far this year. Her last one was really bad... they tried 3 different antibiotics & had her do ear drops. It took us a month to get her a clean bill of health, but it took almost 2 additional months for her to get her hearing back completely. She has JRA and takes an anti-inflamitory which makes it harder for her to tell the ear infection is coming... they usually rupture before she even tells us they hurt and fever is normal for a child with JRA... so we can't even watch for that sign. Anyways - after fighting the ear infection we had to fight a UT infection about a week later. Just a thought.

Good luck getting back you good night sleep!!! You will find it again soon.

She had an ear infection- please don't go to formula.
May I suggest checking with WestonPrice.com for alternatives.
best,k

She may be going thru a growth spurt. Bear with her mama! She's so very tiny and she's telling you exactly what she is needing right now by taking a full feeding. My daughter was a power sleeper from around 7-8 weeks old and probably around that same time she started waking for feeds. 10-11 hours is a long time for a growing little body to go without food. Hang in there! This is all the fun we mamas sign on for (: