Hi Mamas,
I need some advice/help. My almost 7 month old son is getting up at least 4x/night, and we all need more rest. We put him to bed between 7-8pm (depending on how tired he is) and put him in his crib. His first waking is between 9-11pm. I nurse him, then bring him into our bed where he spends the rest of the night. We tried to get him to sleep all night in his room, but with all his waking, I was not getting much sleep myself.
Let me also add that he is a very active and curious baby. During the day he is usually too distracted to eat much- he nurses best when he is tired- i.e. before a nap, and during the night. Has anyone had a situation like this? If so, what did you do, and how did you help your little one sleep more at night? I'm afraid to start weaning him at night because of his issue with not eating well during the day (I want him to get enough food!) and because he's a skinny little guy who could stand to gain a couple of pounds. I don't want his weight to drop any further, but would love for us all to get more sleep without tears.
I have read The No-Cry Sleep Solution. I have tried putting him down drowsy, but it does not work with him- he keeps waking up.
I appreciate any help from those of you that have been in my shoes.
Thanks so much!
T.
I was also thinking - not getting enough to eat during the day. Other than getting more nourishment during the day I would say start weaning off of night time feedings slowly. My son - breastfed also - woke up a lot during the night. I weaned him one feeding at a time by cutting the amount of time spent at that feeding little by little. Good luck!
I think he's waking up mostly for food. You should really consider seeing a speech therapist who also specializes in eating issues. You should be able to get a referral from your pediatrician (who you should talk to anyway to see if your concerns about his weight, and why you are afraid to refuse to nurse him at night, are legitimate. He/She may have ideas for you too.). My daughter started seeing a speech therapist for eating issues at 6 mos and it was extremely helpful. They helped with everything from what you are talking about, to my daughters hypersensitive gag reflex and overall food aversion, to picky eaters (their most common patient/client I think).
Even before I got past your first couple of sentences I was thinking, "needs to eat more during the day," and that seems to be what's going on from reading the rest of your letter.
It partly depends on how long this has been going on and whether you are committed to increasing his day and solid food intake. If he was 7 weeks old, I'd say let him nurse at night to increase supply. But at 7 months, he really needs to be working towards getting more from solids, right?
My older son went through the same thing, same age (7.5 months, I think), except he was weaned by then. I really think the only answer is to cut back on the nighttime feedings and increase feedings during the day. We were able to do it by cutting formula with water at night (eventually going to water-only bottles.) If he will take a bottle, you might start trying to replace some of those night-waking feedings with water. Within 3 days we had cut nighttime bottles to water only and by the end of the week my son was eating a lot more during the day and waking only once or not at all at night.
He was also a skinny one - 10th percentile weight and 90th height - but my pediatrician also supported getting him to eat more solids and more during the day. You may want to ask your pediatrician too, if you need the moral support. It was actually a lot more painless than I expected because we did it gradually over a few days. Good luck!
One question is, how long does he stay awake during the day? The more you keep him up the longer he stays asleep during the evening. The first time he cries wrap him up, hold him and just rock him, sing a little song, it doesn't matter how stupid it is, he doesn't know. How about some soothing music that he's accustomed to. Learn to calm down and just have a moment. All of his nurturing comes from you so whatever you're stressing about during the day is affecting him. This will develop in time and he will learn to sleep all night. Learn to make a calming environment and he will learn to chill. Talk with one of your elders about it that are close to you. They have more knowledge about raising babies than some of these text books. Remember back in the day, women had at least 3-6 kids and worked so you know that they didn't have time to stay awake. Hope the info helped some.
