sleeping through the night,?

Question

Hi there. My 8 week old baby is still waking 3 times for food between 12am and 8am. Sometimes she doesn't want to go back to sleep and is alert at 2am, meaning I sometimes don't get back to bed before 4.30 only to get up again an hour later for more feeding. is this normal? When should you start trying to get them into a routine and how on earth did u do it? Ive tried giving slightly more food at the 12am feed but she still wakes up. Am I just being impatient and is she still too young for sleeping throught the night? any help much appreciated

Answer 1

This is perfectly normal. My baby still doesn't sleep through the night. however, i started a routine at about 5 or 6 weeks. Which was bath, bottle, bed. She obviously didn't like it for a while as they are on their own clocks, but it has paid of. because now she knows what time is bed time, has a bath and bottle and then goes STRAIGHT to sleep with no fuss.

She still wakes up once in the night for a bottle, but I think she is a hungry baby. She is nearly 7 months old. At 8 weeks though, she was waking every 3 hours. But this did get better. And I cant stress enough how good or how important it is to have a routine. Makes life easier in the long run! And its never too early to start either!

Good Luck! X

Answer 2

I tried the "cluster feeding method". That entails feeding the baby their last two bottles 2 hours apart, almost like "tanking them up" for bedtime. For example, if my son ate at 4:00pm, I would feed him again at 6:00pm and once more at 8pm. Then i put him down in his bassinet and he's usually out cold within 10 minutes and doesn't wake up again until 3:30am. It doesnt work with every baby but it's worth a shot. Sometimes when their little bellies are full, they'll sleep longer.

Answer 3

sounds more like her clock is off... try holding off a feeding a little longer even if she wakes up. Instead soothe her, give her binky if she takes one and lay her back down even if she is awake. Another thing to try is to give her only an ounce and not a full bottle (or only nurse for a couple minutes) soon she will get the idea. And by all means... she isn't going to get up and get into trouble if she is laying in her bed awake. Go ahead and sleep even if she doesn't go right back to sleep. You know she is safe and also she needs to learn to self soothe... this is a good time to start that.

Answer 4

Wait about 5 weeks and if she is still in this habit try the Ferber Method. My son woke AT LEAST 15 times a night until he was 8 months old. I was really against the Ferber but eventually it startedd to drive me nuts. I was hallucinating, depressed, paranoid, just from lack of sleep. Finally I tried it and after 2 nights he was sleeping through, it was the smartest thing I ever did. If you actually look it up and read about it you realize that it's not as bad as it sounds.

Answer 5

the best thing to do would be to talk to your health visitor, about this, for me the best thing was to feed at midnight then set my alarm for 3 hours later and feed baby then, while they were still half asleep, i then found that they slept for about 5 hours, giving me the chance to get some shut eye, also if you can sleep during the day when the baby does.... good luck it does get easier, and the first time your little one does go though the nite you will wake up any way and worry these something wrong i know i did hehehehe

Answer 6

my daughter slept through the night from 6 weeks and her routine started the day she came out of hospital.....
i always bathed fed and put my baby to bed(cot) in my room with no lights on....she as clean fed and wether or not she slept she was left alone she soon falls asleep and learnsto fall asleep on her own,,,a baby should have around 24ounces of milk in 24 hours pick a time to start at in the morning say 7am give her a bottle of as much milk as she takes then every 4 hours feed her again
so 7am 11am 3pm 7pm then a bath then at 7.30pm give her a nice warm bottle of as much as she wants to eat put her in her cot in her room in the dark cover her up cuddle her in and leave her even if she stay awake thats fine....make sure you keep note of how much milk she has had through the day 24 or more ounces is great a little less than this is ok and you will see her eating more in the weeks to come......if she wakes up between 8pm and 12 give her some warm milk dont take her out the room though a change in rooms/light etc will make her more alert keep it quite and dark as possible and dont talk to her when she has eatin what she wants check her nappy then straight back to bed and leave only change the nappy if it needs it as this also wakens them up more ..... during the night if she wakes try a little ounce or 2 of cool boiled water then straight back to bed again no lights or talking she will soon get the essage thats shes only getting up for water and thats no good you will after starting this routine she will eat more during the day this is her filling up for a long night ahead..... i aimed to get my daughter to sleep about 10 hours through the night ... you will work it out just be clam and stick to the same thing every night if you change things she will get confused and not know whats happening
goodluck
as for the nurse who advised baby rice or rusk please do not do this your baby is far to young for this and her wee stomach cannot handle this kind of food yet this could lead to bowel problems ...your doing fine just look at the pattern your daughter has and change it to suit you

Answer 7

My 3 month old wakes once a night. Maybe she needs a little more, try to put one extra ounce in the bottle to drink. So, if she is doing 3 oz, put 4oz. Make sure she doesn't sleep all day though. Make sure you play with her in the day that way she is tired more in the night. P.S. She might just like the sucking action, so try a pacifier.

DON'T PUT CEREAL IN HER BOTTLE! Not yet.

Answer 8

i would give her more milk throughthe day.My daughter was breast-fed for 6 weeks, but too hungry for just breastmilk. by 8 weeks she was on 8 ozs of milk whenever she wanted it. But she stored it up and slept all night. also thicken her last bottle with a tiny bit of baby rice or well mixed up rusk. she will sleep like a baby!

Answer 9

routine is the key bath feed bed . also try a dummy. it worked with all my children . i know we have been lucky and all babies are different. good luck