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Any tips for helping sleeping through the night?

I was just wondering as some people have been able to get their LO's to sleep through the night what your routines are to have succeded in this!?

Emilie is waking like clockwork 4 hourly and I'm not sure how to get her out of it and to sleep longer!

Liz and Emilie 5 weeks 5 days

Replies

  • im bottle feeding now and lizzie has slept through for last 4 nights. i am feeding lizzie 5oz bottles every 3 hours in the day time and she normally takes just over 4 but sometimes the whole 5oz! i give her a bath before her teatime bottle about 5:30pm and then giver her a bottle straight away.
    so our day goes something like this:
    6:30-bottle 5oz where she takles 3.5/4oz
    then she goes bacvk to sleep for an hour or so
    9:30-bottle 5oz where she normally takes full 5oz
    between these bottles somethings she sleeps but mostly shes awake having cuddles/tummy time/time in her swing/lying in her mat or we go do shopping
    12:30-bottle 5oz normally taking just over 4oz
    again, ifshe sleeps or is awake depends on what she has done in the morning
    3:30-bottle 5oz taking just over 4oz but this is getting nearer to the 5oz
    she stays awake now normally but if she wants to sleep i let her
    4:30-daddy is home so kids play with daddy whilst i prepare dinner/do bottles ect
    we eat dinner
    6:00-bath time,massage in oil as dry skin
    6:30-bottle 5oz taking about 4ish
    7-bed time for my big girl,lol
    then lizzie has more cuddles/tummy time ect but is always awake this time of day
    9:30-last bottle of 5oz whilst in her sleeping bag so once she has been fed and winded she is put down in crib, turn light off and she sleeps til 5ish where she then wants her dummy and i give it to her and she sleeps til 6:15 where we get bottle and start again image
    i dont mind when she sleeps in the day i leave it up to her.
    hope this helps a bit. it took us 3 days of following this before she started sleeping through but then it just happened x
  • wannababy, this routine sounds great, I was just wondering do you offer her a feed or wake her at those times?

    Im trying to follow a routine with William and he feeds so sporadically sometimes its frustrating. Yesterday the morning was going so well following Gina Ford but then he didn't want to wake from his nap at 2pm and feed so in the end the 2pm feed ended up being at 4pm then he fed at 8.30pm and then at 1am but only took 2.5oz of his 5oz bottle and then at 5am he woke and again only took 2.5oz of his 5oz bottle. Normally he takes a bottle around 10-11pm and sleeps till 3am and takes a good feed but last night he really messed it up so he then slept till 9am and took a bottle then of around 4oz. I feel a bit stuck with what to do, as I'd love to be able to feed him regular times but if he doesn't want it there is no way i'd get an oz in. Any ideas???

    Sorry Liz I've gatecrashed your thread there.

    xx
  • hi i am a bad mummy and i wake her,lol. well i was waking her in firstr couple of days or had to keep her occupied until the 3 hours were up because otherwise she would feed 2-3 every 2 hours, not giving me time to even get to tescos! but now she has an internal alarm that rings at 3 hours!!
    i found if she waits the 3 hours she takes 4-5oz feeds and therefore more in the daytime allowing her to sleep at night. i also change her nappy before every feed then she is comfy. and i wind her after 2oz of her bottle too.
    she has today takem 2 full 5oz bottles and a 3oz at 6:30 this morning so 13oz before 1pm hopefully meaning she will have a total of 28oz today which is better than the 23oz i was having trouble getting into her last week!
    lizzie weighs 11lb 9.5oz now so this probably is helping her go through the night to but the box of fomula says she should be taking 36oz in 24hours and she has never got near 30oz!
  • There seems to be a lot of posts about night feeding and going through the night.

    These babies are still very young. My daughter started going through the night at about 3 months old. We didn't do anything to encourage it she jsut started getting later and later with her night feed until it wasn't there at all. I remember hearing her wake in the night but by the time I got the bottle ready she had gone back to sleep so I just stopped getting up unless she really cried.

    If your baby is sleeping through at 7 weeks then you are a very lucky mummy and I would make the most of it but it is not the norm and if you can get through the night at this stage with only having to get up once then you are doing well.

    Just getting them into a regular feeding routine is hard enough don't put extra pressure on yourselves, they'll go through soon enough when they are ready.
  • I completely agree with what you are saying. I may have to go back to work soon and I will need to have had a full nights sleep in order to be able to do my job saftely.
    Like you said, when your lo woke by time you got the bottle she was back asleep-this is what happened with Lizzie, she dropped her 1am feed on her own and was only waking at 4:30 for a bottle then for 2 nights running by time I got back upstairs with bottle she was asleep so it was then I decided to dream feed her as I didnt like her going from 6:30-7am with no feed and thought she would be better having something,even if only 2oz at 10pm and this has stopped her waking at 4:30.
    I have been lucky with both of my girls as my DD1 slept through form the day she was born, I was also told to dream feed her as they dont like them going too many hours without any milk at such a young age.
    I Didnt mean to put any pressure on anyone by sharing my routine with you all and Im sorry if i did. x
  • Oh gosh, I have just read my post back and it sounds so patronising. It wasn't meant to come out that way but I just wanted to reassure any first time mums that sleeping through does happen sooner rather than later although I appreciate it doesn't seem like that at the time and normally by their own means so not to worry about it.

    I'm like Wannababy though, I do rather enforce a feedng routine on Sebastian during the day but only as I need him to feed when I'm not about to take my dd to nursery or something.
  • its ok i didnt take your post the wrong way but i thought i best say that i didnt mean to pressurise anyone into getting into a routine. i am one for routines, always have been image
    sleeping through will happen without routine but from my experience (and its only my experience) it happens quicker with routine xx

    mummypiglet-only thing with text boards is its hard to get across expression in text form. xx
  • Think the main thing is making sure they can self settle so they don't need you to get them back to sleep. I learnt this the hard way as I used to rock lo to sleep and she has only just learnt to sleep by herself- she is five and a half months and we are nowhere near sleeping through yet! Still up at least twice and thats a really good night!!
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