My friend's pediatrician told her that if she wanted to get her baby to sleep longer streches at night, to move her baby into his own room. She said that the baby can smell mom at certain distances, so sleeping with or near your baby causes them to want to feed more often. At 9 weeks the baby was still waking to feed every three hours through the night. Since taking him to his own crib and room, she said he has been giving her 4-6 hour stretches at night. I'm tempted to believe this, but have outgrown our house and baby bunks with us until we can move. I'm half way tempted to roll her bassinet into the hallway! Do you think there is truth to this?
My baby is 6 weeks old and does give me some 5-6 hour intervals at night, so I'm not desperate to move her for sleep. My friend however was after 9 weeks without more than a 2 hour stretch of sleep. So for her sake, I'm glad she put baby in his own room. I think Catherine C nailed it best that baby can go through noisey sleep cycles which cause me to get up and feed when otherwise she would have drifted back off to sleep. I do think I'd get better sleep if I could put her in her own room and at about three months, I think I'll simply have to find a way that her sleep noises don't have me up so often. As for the co sleepers, the responses were predictable and judgmental as always. Co sleeping has me up every 15 min. in a panic thinking I've smothered my baby! I'm glad so many people are able to do it and feel good about the amount of peace and sleep they get. It doesn't work for me. As for moving baby into the hallway, I'm not there yet.
Yes, thats why it is harder to wein a baby off the breast than it is a bottle. A Bottle you can get rid of but lactating breast you can't. Connie
yes it does, but thats a good thing in my opinion. Babies need to eat throughout the night. Babies dont need to fit the idea of convenience, and their little tummys dont know our schedules.
Im a definite advocate for co sleeping, its better for the baby in every single way possible to be near mommy.
Arrange it so that you can sleep for longer stretches by going to bed earlier. Dont push the baby into the hallway....:(- that makes me sad just thinking about it
*i really did not see this as judgemental, to each their own i suppose
I just about lost my mind. My first was SOOOO easy and then came along my second and he was a challenge but my 3rd...a time or two I thought I might pull out my hair. She started sleeping through the night as soon as I wheeled her bed out of my room. As long as she was in my room we were up every hour! So at least for us YES being able to smell me made a difference. All of mine were in their own room by 3 months and that screamer that nearly drove me crazy, well 6 weeks was her magic number. I don't know that it would have bothered me so but I had at 1 and 3 year old to chase after, I couldn't be up all night with a fussy baby.
Well all I can say is as soon as I whip the boobie out of the bra my 4 month old starts aiming her lips in the right direction...lol and as far as where the baby sleeps our little bundle of joy sleeps all night in the living room. Mainly because I can't sleep through the little noises and we don't want her in with the older two yet. She does just fine in the livingroom.
Both our kids slept much better when we moved them out of our room. I think in our case it was because we would wake them up every time we coughed, rolled over, etc. It might be worth a shot, but how old is your baby? When they are little they will need to nurse often, and it is not as convenient to go to another room to feed the baby.
I've been told that the noises that we make while sleeping can wake the baby up more often, and then they smell you, and want food. Have you moved her across the room? Are you leaking at all? My daughter is able to sleep through the night in our room, but if you want to give it a try, why not?
When I first began to co-sleep, I used one of those baby beds that fits inside a bed - this eased my worries about rolling over on baby (bought it at a children's consignment shop). That being said, it did take up some space.
Although co-sleeping at first disrupted my sleep, I discovered that it allowed me to respond quicker to my baby and avoid him from fully waking himself up. Also, once my baby hit the 5 month mark and no longer needed to be burped after a feeding, co-sleeping was a life saver (and a sleep saver). Once I got the hang of nursing while lying down, I no longer had to wake up fully in order to nurse and could fall asleep while nursing as well.
In my case, I don't believe my baby wakes up because he is smelling my milk - because oftentimes I am wearing heavy pj's or rolled away from baby. I also, don't "leak" like many other women do - so there really is less opportunity for the baby to actually smell my milk.
Also, co-sleeping isn't for everyone - I just wanted to encourage you because for me it got easier as my baby got older.
They do know that you are there and wake up to nurse more. My son slept with us until he was 9 months old, and he was still waking up every hour to nurse and would freak out if he woke up without a boob in his mouth. The first night we put him in his own room, he slept his first ever 8-hour stretch. If your needing more sleep and can handle having your baby away from you at night (which is so incredibly hard on Mama, I didn't sleep for a week because i was constantly listening to the monitor and worrying that he must be dead because he was so quiet!) try moving your babe away from you for the night and see how it goes after a couple nights. Best of luck!
My girls slept in their own rooms starting the day we brought them home from the hospital. I think babies may be able to smell you, but I don't think that's the root cause of them waking up. Babies, like children and adults, go through sleep cycles where they become more active, and then go into deeper sleep. It's important for babies, just like adults, to go through full sleep cycles undisturbed. Babies often SOUND like they're awake and may even make crying noises, but if you leave them alone, they'll settle back down and go into a deeper sleep - however if you pick them up, they wake up and then you've got to do something to get them to sleep again (usually feeding them, which they may not need).
So, I liked having the baby outside of my room because, as you know, if your baby is truly hungry AND awake, you'll know about it! But if they're just going through a noisy sleep phase, you won't be woken up by this, and they'll get to go through their whole sleep cycle undisturbed.
In my opinion, the idea that babies always wake up every 2 hours all night to eat, and that this is normal, is a complete myth. Babies can go through the night without eating (or just eating once) by around a month old - my babies were fat, happy and healthy. I used the Babywise method and it worked wonderfully! I have many friends who have used it, too. Babywise does recommend having the baby sleep in his or her own room for the reasons I described above. When baby gets a nice, long sleep, she'll be much happier than if she wakes and snacks all night long.
Good luck!!
I think so. I noticed that when my son occasionally cosleeps with me. It makes them restless sometimes as well
