Good Sleeper Now Waking up a Lot?!

Hi K.,

I breast feed my child until she was 1.6 years old. Most breast fed children will want to "feed on demand." They love the attention and the warmth from the boob. My daughter Madelyn would wake up every few hours until she was two. Honestly ----you have many long nights ahead of you. All I can say is that these precious little babies are growing and just when you think you have them in a groove they either get sick or have a grouth spurt, gas, or are teething. I love Dr. Sears who is great on giving advice. I'm sure as you talk to more mothers you will come across a few who will recomend that you "ferberize" or let her "cry it out". Think twice even if your pediatricain is recommending it. I just decided that I was in it (breast feeding) for the long hall and made peace with being sleep deprived. I knew that breast milk was nthe best thing I could give her. If you can sleep with your child it makes this whole process much easier. Plus it is great for milk production. CHILDREN ARE DIFFERENT, no such thing as a "good sleeper" or a "bad sleeper." Be very careful about labeling. I can say that my daughter is now 2.6 and she is sleeping through the night, off the boob and is amazing. She recieved what she needed as an infant. P.S. Breast feed babies never get dehydrated --this is HUGE when she starts to get sick and trust me she will around 1year... www.askdrsears.com aslo check out "high needs babies" Good luck, enjoy her and always go with YOUR gut feeling :)
L.

Hi K.,
My daughter did the same thing it lasted 3 weeks. What I do is put her to bed around 9 and at 10: 30 I pick her up while she is sleeping and feed her. She sleep eats and sleeps till 8.
I hope this helps you.

my baby does the same thing. i was also feeding her everytime she would wake up because it was the easiest solution but now i just rub her belly and giver her a pacifier and she goes back within a minute or so. does she take a pacifier? i find picking her up does not work, it ends up disrupting her sleep even more so i just try to soothe her but keep her in her bed. i've heard between 4-6 months the sleeping patterns usually change but it will (hopefully!) pass.

Hi K., to me those noises sound like happy noises which lots of babies do, I am a baby night nurse and your baby sounds perfectly fine do not introduce food at night let her be if she is not upset because this is the age as a breast feed baby to sleep through the night. Good Luck!!!!!!!

Hi K.. My son is 6 months old and the EXACT same thing started happening around 4 1/2 months. I believe it was caused by not napping enough during the day, although I didn't know it at the time. How long/often does your daughter nap during the day? At 4 1/2 months, my son suddenly wasn't napping well and his prior great nighttime sleep habits suddenly went out the window.

(According to my doctor), don't fall in the trap of feeding her at every night waking, or you will create a bigger problem for yourself (and her). If it has been 4-6 hours, you can feed her one more time in case she's hungry (since she is exclusively breastfed), but if its more often than that, you should instead soothe her, give her a pacifier, or let her cry it out (I haven't done that last one yet, but it has been recommended...) I got the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book and it did have some great advice about naps, but I haven't followed it totally yet because it is, basically, a cry it out book. The best advice it has give me was to put the baby down for a nap after only 1-2 hours of wakefulness (which may mean 3 naps a day, the last one being more of a cat nap). I was letting the baby stay up way too long before the first nap (which may be at 9 am) and it was creating the problem. He still isn't a fantastic napper, and has almost never napped 3 times, but he is so much better, and now he is sleeping 8:00-6:00 pretty regularly. Some nights he wakes up once for a feeding but others he doesn't (like last night -- Yea!).

If you have any interest in continuing to correspond on these sleep issues, let me know. I also am exclusively breastfeeding and am back to work full time with a nanny, and the nap thing is still somewhat difficult. I'd love to have someone to compare notes with along the way, because most people at this point have their babies on formula so their advice isn't that applicable.

Good luck!
D.

Hi K.-
My daughter did the same thing when she was the same age. I'm not sure if it's a developmental thing, or what, but it passed. I too, exclusively breastfeed and I remember thinking maybe she was hungry. Most nights we let her cry herself back to sleep (we did the Ferber method), but of course if it got really bad I did feed her. Just be careful that feeding her doesn't promote her waking up just to be fed. If she went 10 hrs straight before, she can do it again.

As for the swaddle, we stopped using it just after she turned 3mos. It is a wonderful thing and if your daughter is not fighting it, I don't see why you should stop it right now. Our daughter was breaking out of it so much that we knew it was time to teach her to sleep without it. That is when we did the Ferber method. We figured we might as well do everything at the same time regarding teaching her how to sleep. She is a great sleeper now at 5 1/2mos. She sleeps 7-6!
Good Luck!
S.

i have this problem, too.

hi K.; everything you're dealing with is totally normal and happened to me w both my kids who are breastfed; that's the good news. the other good news is that this is how you sustain a strong nursing relationship, this is how you bond with your baby and develop trust because you meet her needs, and this is how your baby puts on weight and gets big and gorgeous.

the bad news is you're gonna be tired and there's probably not anything you can do to 'fix this'.

but the real bad news is this; if they haven't already, people, i.e. strangers, your family, your pediatirican, your friends, are going to ask you "Is the baby sleeping thru the night?" and they're likely to judge you if you say no. it's too bad that most people, even peds, are in denial of the fact that little babies aren't by nature meant to sleep thru the night at this age. nursed babies especially wake up a lot. when people ask you about sleep, it's code for, "are you a good mom?" so say yes, and don't let yourself in for a lot of insult. because here's the big news of the day, you are and AWESOME mom; know how i know? YOU'RE NURSING YOUR BABY, keeping her on only breastmilk which is so incredibly important, and, you're here looking for intelligent help.

i would urge you to go to a La Leche League meeting to talk about your situation because everyone will be compassionate and helpful there. they DO have a strong parenting agenda with which you might not fully agree, and that's fine, you take what helps and leave the rest. but exclusively breast feeding moms get the most accurate, most realistic, most up to date information on nursing babies and thier sleep and health issues and challenges through this organization.

also you can try reading the Dr Jay Gordon website; just google his name; he'll explain clearly why it's importnat NOT TO TRY TO FORCE SUCH A YOUNG BABY TO SLEEP THRU.

don't be fooled by a baby who "can go 10 hours" tiny babies will sleep for amazing amounts of time. but as soon as they start to grow faster, they need a lot more food. waking up more, not less, is healthy and normal. most babies can't sleep more than 6 or 7 hours until they are at least 10 months old. my 1 yr old goes to bed at 7 and sleeps till about 530 with 2-3 wake ups to nurse. my 2.75 yr old didn't sleep thru the night till 6 months ago.

so it may not be what you want to hear, but it is reality. try to just nurse the baby and tuck her back in as often as she needs it without focusing too much on the sleep interruptions for yourself; the most important thing is that she get as much breastmilk as she needs, really. she'll pay you back by being brilliant and gorgeous, i swear.

good luck,
J.