Hello friends,
We've had a heck of a few days over here in Brixton's World. He's decided to stop sleeping for a good 6-7 hour stretch during the day, but goes to bed around 6:30pm and then wakes up 2-3 times during the night. So here's my question: Do you wake your sleeping baby?
I've shot myself in the foot a few times on this one. It sounds like a good idea when you are thinking "Yeah, if I wake him now, he'll be more tired later." Usually that doesn't happen AT ALL.
The night before last I tried to "dreamfeed" him (have you heard of this??) and that backfired. That whole day and night (Monday) was h-e-double hockey sticks. Dreamfeeding, BTW, is the idea that if you can squeeze in a late night feeding without really waking the baby, then they will sleep longer. So I tried it. Around 10:30pm I snuck into Brix's room armed with a warmed bottle. I gently lifted his sleepy head to an angle, popped the bottle in and let him drink. He took about an ounce and a half. I set him back down on his side (supposedly that helps them burp on their own if they need to). Then I over-analyzed, got greedy and tried to give him more. He did take more, but he also woke up more. He made little Brixton noises for the next hour, finally fully waking around midnight. Fail.
Monday I also tried putting him on a Baby Wise schedule. That was the worst. I'm not doing that again.
Last night I got him up at 10:30 again, this time getting him properly up and feeding him. That worked a lot better, as he didn't wake again until 2 and then again at 5:30.
Here's my question: If he's napping, should I just let him wake on his own no matter what?(Except, of course, if he's gone hours and hours past his last feed, although I'm totally of the mindset that when he's hungry he'll let me know).
The poll is on the right hand side, please vote and/or comment!
i don't see the poll. :-/
ReplyDeletei never woke either of my boys if they were sleeping. well, ok, sometimes when they slept too long i would end up waking them because i was poking them to see if they were breathing. but waking them up to feed them? no, i personally didn't. i know everyone says that you should wake them, but they always made up their feedings while they were awake. so i never worried about it.
nevermind. i see it now.
ReplyDeleteHow old is Brixton? I have my baby on a schedule but she's almost 7 months old. I started Sleep Training at 4 months and I blogged about it: http://forloveofcupcakes.blogspot.com/p/sleep-training.html
ReplyDeleteGood Luck!!
My experience is three fold.
ReplyDelete1: kids/babies are ALWAYS going to be more grumpy, sleep less, and screw with you if you mess up whatever their current sleep schedule is. That includes skipping naps when they still need them, adding naps when they don't need them, or waking them up/putting them down earlier or later than they are used to.
2: Their sleep schedules will change faster then you are ever ready for. One thing someone said to me when my kids were little was as soon as you get used to their schedule, they'll change it. And it is soooo true.
3: Trust their little bodies, just as you trusted your own when he was growing in it. Their bodies know instinctually what they need. As long as you don't have to go to work, or you don't have any appointments, and can be at home, just go off his schedule. It will pass before you know it. Otherwise, you are only adding undo stress to your babyhood. Before you know it your baby will be on one nap a day and sleeping through the night, walking and grabbing, and you will wonder where the infanthood went. And you'll wonder why you even worried!
I let my babies do what they needed to do when it came to sleep. Sometimes it was h-e- doublehockey sticks and sometimes it worked great. They eventually figure it out.... and remember, sometimes you sleep great and sometimes you don't, he is a little human just like you.
ReplyDeleteI almost NEVER wake Lilla, I think I've woken her from a nap once because she was going on 3.5 hours and we had to leave to be somewhere, but other than that if she sleeps I get things done, relax, maybe nap, etc. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen Ryan was younger, we would only wake him up during the day if he hadn't eaten in about 4 hours. He was pretty much on a schedule of eating every 3-4 hours and he had trouble gaining weight as a newborn, so we had to be sort of strict about it.
ReplyDeleteWe never wake him at night, though. If he wants to sleep at night, we figured we weren't going to argue with that, ha!
Good luck. Every baby is different, and I'm sure you'll find something that works for you.
I'm not sure ... but what we did with Eleanor is let her make the decisions. If she wanted to nap one day for 4 hours we let her, if she only napped the next for 10 minutes every few hours we let her. Eventually she has balanced it all out ... we still put her to bed at 7 pm each night.. sometimes she goes asleep right away, sometimes she wakes up a few times and we go in to console her (pat, roll of bassinet, put pacifier in) and she will go back to sleep. Eventually it all evened out and she has been getting up twice a night (1 am and 4 am) for about two to three weeks.
ReplyDeleteWhen my little one was a newborn, they always said to wake him up after 4 hours or so, but that was never necessary - he always woke up if he was hungry. I would love to think you can just let them sleep! They will let you know if they are hungry.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of dreamfeeding, but I am sure I am not smooth enough to pull this off. haha
I tried dream feeding a few times and it back fired every single time!! Big fail on that one! I never really had to wake Brees up to feed her, she pretty much always woke herself when it was time to nurse. If she didn't wake herself up, I usually let her sleep as long as she wants to. And that's usually not very long. Yeah, my kid never got the 6-7 hour stretch memo. Good luck and just trust your instincts, stick to a reasonable routine but be flexible. Baby boy will be a okay!
ReplyDeleteOur pediatrician told us never to wake a baby at night (as long as the baby weighs more than 9 pounds), but try to not let the baby nap for longer than three hours during the day (sleeping too long during the day can affect the sleep pattern at night). I found that Alexa NEVER slept longer than three hours. Her longest nap was 2 hours and 55 minutes. :-)
ReplyDeletei think it's a blessed time when babies are sleeping. i never woke Lily up.
ReplyDeleteSleep begets sleep! This is so true.
ReplyDeleteStay away from "sleep training". Although right now it feels like sleep will never be normal for you ever again- it will. All babies learn to sleep- eventually.
Try the Baby Whisperer EASY schedule instead of Babywise---its less rigid but follows a similar idea. I do the dreamfeed too and it did fail once like you, but most of the time it works. Don't give up on it so quickly. Don't let him sleep longer than a 3-hour block. He may not like it, but letting him sleep longer than that will increase his wakings at night. P.S---some babies just take longer to sleep through the night. I had Kanan on the babywise schedule and he still didn't sleep through the night until he was 5 months old. I have a friend whose three month old sleeps in only 30 minute catnaps throughout the day, breaking the babywise belief that it must be in 1.5 hour increments or thus interferes with night sleep and yet her baby sleeps from 8 pm until 7 AM without waking....so just try things out. I would try them consistently for a few days before giving up on any one of them. And just don't expect much with sleeping through the night. I definitely learned that with Kanan. I wanted him sleeping through the night by 8 weeks. But he refused. The books are nice, but every baby is different.
ReplyDeleteHi - I can't really give you any advice on baby sleeping/feeding as I don't have any of my own (I borrow them when I get the urge & hand them back at night).
ReplyDeleteI'm following you from one of the blog hops - congratulations on the new baby. I'm following you on GFC. =D
Tina "The Book Lady"
http://familyliteracyandyou.blogspot.com
http://givingnsharing.blogspot.com
my midwife gave me the best advice. "Let happy be." Its a simple rule that makes so much sense. If your baby is happy (and safe) do not disrupt! I wouldn't wake him :)
ReplyDelete