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Waking in the night
Hi All
I need some assistance/advice here, It'll take a while but please bear with me.
Milly is nearly 6 months old now and has never slept all night long. The best that I can hope for is at least one wake up during the night then an early morning move to our bed.
Her bed time has been 8pm and has been since we came home from hospital. She used to wake when we came to bed (11pm - 12am) then at 3am then at 5am then at 7.30am. Each time she would not go back to sleep without some milk. We moved her into her own room at 2 months and this sorted the first wake up but then it was 2am, 5am then 7.30 ish. From her second lot of injections (think that was at 3 months) she has been on Hungrier Baby milk, but was having upto 7 6oz bottles in 24 hours, 3 in the night. I thought that I should start weening at 3 and half months, just to see if it was because she was still hungry. She was having 2 meals aday and the waking up went from 3 times to just 2, 1.30 ish and 5am ish, 2 bottles a night.
Now she's on 3 meals a day, the last meal around 4pm-5pm. she has ber last bottle around 6.30pm, she still needs a bottle to go to sleep on, but will only have 2oz or 3oz of a 8oz bottle and drop off. She now has the rest of that bottle and one more during the night. Last week she only woke once at 3am then at 5.30am. Each time she wakes at 5.30, she will go back to sleep till sometimes 10am. She's teething now too so I'm getting mixed signals but she wakes now, at 11.30pm 1.30am 3.30am, 5.30am.
Health visitor advised that initially she may have been having too much food too late, then another sugested to move the last feed closer to bed time to help sleep through, a nursery nurse advised to offer just water, but that just kept her up for longer.
Dont get me wrong, if she wakes and doesnt cry, just babbles, i ignore her. when she crys i give her her dummy first. i also check each time to see if she has leaked her nappy and only change if she is completely soaked. She goes to sleep really easily at 8am so actually getting her to sleep is not the issue. Its just the night time habbits I am struggling with. I dont give cuddles or play music, she doesnt have a light on as these things distract and wake her further. I have a thermometer on the monitor so i always know how hot it is and have started putting her to bed in just her baby grow, as she likes to pull the covers over her face. She wakes up more if i pick her out of the cot to feed so she is flat on her back, which is a choking hazard, but easier than waiting for her to go back to sleep once laid back in her cot. As you may have seen form my other posts, i am carrying twins at present, 19 weeks this week and am roughly the same size as i was when carrying milly to 7 months. So bending it getting harder, leaning over the cot to feed is getting harder and also, i need more sleep!!!! my parner has just started a new job so his getting up during the night has been cut down.
Can anyone help?
Thanks for your patience.
Sally
I need some assistance/advice here, It'll take a while but please bear with me.
Milly is nearly 6 months old now and has never slept all night long. The best that I can hope for is at least one wake up during the night then an early morning move to our bed.
Her bed time has been 8pm and has been since we came home from hospital. She used to wake when we came to bed (11pm - 12am) then at 3am then at 5am then at 7.30am. Each time she would not go back to sleep without some milk. We moved her into her own room at 2 months and this sorted the first wake up but then it was 2am, 5am then 7.30 ish. From her second lot of injections (think that was at 3 months) she has been on Hungrier Baby milk, but was having upto 7 6oz bottles in 24 hours, 3 in the night. I thought that I should start weening at 3 and half months, just to see if it was because she was still hungry. She was having 2 meals aday and the waking up went from 3 times to just 2, 1.30 ish and 5am ish, 2 bottles a night.
Now she's on 3 meals a day, the last meal around 4pm-5pm. she has ber last bottle around 6.30pm, she still needs a bottle to go to sleep on, but will only have 2oz or 3oz of a 8oz bottle and drop off. She now has the rest of that bottle and one more during the night. Last week she only woke once at 3am then at 5.30am. Each time she wakes at 5.30, she will go back to sleep till sometimes 10am. She's teething now too so I'm getting mixed signals but she wakes now, at 11.30pm 1.30am 3.30am, 5.30am.
Health visitor advised that initially she may have been having too much food too late, then another sugested to move the last feed closer to bed time to help sleep through, a nursery nurse advised to offer just water, but that just kept her up for longer.
Dont get me wrong, if she wakes and doesnt cry, just babbles, i ignore her. when she crys i give her her dummy first. i also check each time to see if she has leaked her nappy and only change if she is completely soaked. She goes to sleep really easily at 8am so actually getting her to sleep is not the issue. Its just the night time habbits I am struggling with. I dont give cuddles or play music, she doesnt have a light on as these things distract and wake her further. I have a thermometer on the monitor so i always know how hot it is and have started putting her to bed in just her baby grow, as she likes to pull the covers over her face. She wakes up more if i pick her out of the cot to feed so she is flat on her back, which is a choking hazard, but easier than waiting for her to go back to sleep once laid back in her cot. As you may have seen form my other posts, i am carrying twins at present, 19 weeks this week and am roughly the same size as i was when carrying milly to 7 months. So bending it getting harder, leaning over the cot to feed is getting harder and also, i need more sleep!!!! my parner has just started a new job so his getting up during the night has been cut down.
Can anyone help?
Thanks for your patience.
Sally
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Replies
You poor thing,i no how it feels to be so sleep deprived but not carring twins.Riley was a model baby when i had him,he slept all te time and only woke up once or twice a night.At about the same age(6 months)he woke more often and has almost been the same,even now at 2 he gets up once a night.
My healt visitor suggested giving him cow n gate milk as SMA was not filling enough and from about 2-3 months when i went from My health visitor advised giving him 4 small meals a day.He would have porridge for breakfast,id give him jar food for lunch,a home made dinner of what we were eating(much easier)and poridge again in the evening made with the milk he should be drinking and once hid eaten the food id give him the rest of the bottle and then bed.He did sleep much better and i did get a few good hours sleep,but like you say then teething kicks in and throws everything out the window.
I no its going to be hard but your already doing the best you can with some sort of routean,but its now up to ur daughter to accept the routean to.Hang on in there and she will settle with it eventually.I no its not much but keep at it and good luck.Take care.
Emma.xx
I think i've cracked it!
I spoke to a health visitor on thrusday last week and she adviced that I should wait until August before starting any controled crying. Milly would be 9 months old then, and only a month before the possible early arrival of my twins. So I went against her advice and started the proces that evening. As people have said, she should not need her bottles during the night if she is having 3 meals a day. Providing that she has her four bottles during the day she should not need to be fed at night.
I know that there are other posts in this forum that are more proactive for the child to do what they want to do. But I just dont have that option. If Milly was still an only child and I didnt plan on having more, let alone get pregnant so soon, I would probably relent and end up with her in bed with us more frequently. But given that i dont sleep well with her in bed with us, worrying about her getting too hot, smothered, squished etc. It is now imperitive for me to get proper rest at night. I'm trying to get as much rest as possible to avoid going into early labour. I am already getting tingling pains to one side of my c-sec scar.
The best advice that I have heard to date is: dont expect it to happen again. But I think that it is more likely to be the start of better things, as she has woken less and less every night this week. Also she is sleeping more during the day which is also fab, cos I can sleep during the day too.
Thanks agian for all your words of encouragement.
Cheers
Sally
Milly seems to have settled down abit. I think that is can be put down to her settling with teething pains, and the amount that she eats through the day combined with what she does during the day.
The things that keep her awake at the moment are basically how much sleep she has through the day now. We're in the process of moving to Cardiff so we are backwards and forwards quite a bit. She tends to sleep most of these long journeys, but when she does, her nights are usually waking up 3/4 times. She has mastered the ability to turn over in her sleep too, but then doesnt like to be face down after too long so crys to be turned back to her back. We resolved this by wedging her in with two pillows either side in her cot, she was less able to turn over, but now she moves up the cot till she is freeof the pillows, but is happier to sleep on her front.
A good night is her sleeping from bout 8 or 9pm through till 5 or 6am, at which stage she comes into bed with us and sleeps till 8.30am. She loves her dummy and i can tell if she is tired so give her her dummy and she's off to bed for at least half an hour. Thing is its getting harder for me now. Because im spending much time and effort on her thinking about me has gone out of the window and my health is now faling. I'm anemic and suffering from bouts of dizzyness, sickness and hot spells. I have been craving ice and olbas oil to smell. but that has just broke my brace so im off to the dentist to hopefully have that repaired. I think that i was too focused on myself early on, then too much on her and that has been detreimental. I just hope that this time will be better especially with two together.
Thanks
Sally
Hope things are getting better for you, it realy difficult no sleep etc. but you need to relax and try some you time(i know this is difficult too.) like you i work and maisys dad works nights so sleep for us was important too.
you could have all the advise in the world but the hard part is to find something to suit you and your little one.
maisy was a baby that wouldn't go to bed and then she would wake in the nite. i mastered getting her to bed with the help of HV then everything else fell into place.it will get better good luck.
Rachel xx