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night time sleeping routine

Kim - posted on 03/10/2009 ( 5 moms have responded )

278

my DD was born dec. 30, 2008. for the last 5 weeks, we've had her on a pretty strict evening/night routine. she goes down about 730/45 and will sleep until about midnight. however, after that, like clock work, she wakes every 3 hours. what can i do to extend the second half of the night? i am breastfeeding, and she seems to cluster feed from about 430 to bed time.

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Jennifer - posted on 03/11/2009

Your little one is still too young to consider any kind of sleep training and since you are breastfeeding she will wake every few hours thru the night. Breastmilk is the best nutrition possible for her- so keep it up!!
Don't worry, at about 5 months or so, babies will start to develop consolidated sleep and she will naturally wake less often.
You may want to try to put her back down slightly awake at night to encourage her to fall asleep by herself- it may help later on :)

Hang in there!

Safia - posted on 03/11/2009

Did you try giving a pacifier when he wakes up after the first 3 hours, cause it could be routine... We all get hungry if we wake up in the middle of the night and stay up... So maybe as soon as he wakes up give him a pacifier... if not then just stick to feeding him, mind used to wake up every hour so i would say 3 hours is pretty good until theyre about 4-5 months, then you get more stricter with that

Heidi - posted on 03/10/2009

Our son is 5 months old, he was sleeping through the night by about 10 weeks. We used to get him out of bed about 11pm-12am and give him a bottle of formula (as he had breastmilk during the day) and he would have his long sleep till about 5-6 and slowly it stretched to 7-7:30am. Alot of the time he would drink the bottle while still half asleep. Now he has his bottle at 7-8pm and sleeps through till 7-8am. The formula fills them up if u r willing to give them 1 bottle of formula a day (depends how strict u r with breastfeeding). It's really just pushing that night feed further and further back till the early morning instead of at 3-4am. If ur not willing to use formula u could try expressing so she has a bottle at night ( I had to express with him aswell). That way they can get more milk with minimal effort so she might fill up a bit more.

Allison - posted on 03/10/2009

906

I agree with Carrie - sleeping 3 hours is a good amount at a time for such a little one. Keep in mind that babies go through growth spurts at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months, so often they will start to wake more frequently to feed during those times. Also keep in min that teething, illnesses, and new developmental milestones (rolling over, starting to sit up by self, crawling, cruising, etc.) all can effect sleep and sleep routines - during those times she may nurse every 1 or 2 all night. That is also completely normal! :-) If you are co-sleeping and/or bed sharing it makes the frequent nursings a bit easier. Check out http://www.askdrsears.com for great nighttime parenting information.