Communities

May 2009 Babies

All Communities > May 2009 Babies > Night Sleeping

Night Sleeping

Leah - posted on 01/16/2010 ( 2 moms have responded )

How do you have your little one sleep all night or atleast more than a couple hours here and there? I hear that most babies this age go to sleep all nite atleast 5 or 6 hours?? my kid will not! He sleeps about 2 hours and then wakes up for a bottle! and the bottle cant be anything else than formula! Any suggestions so I dont wake up all the time and he can get a full nights sleep?

People thought this was ...
Helpful
Nice
Funny
Encouraging
Hugs

Join Circle of Moms

2 Comments

View replies by

Melissa - posted on 01/19/2010

153

I am on day 1 after starting Operation: get daughter to sleep through the night. I enlisted my mother who so graciously volunteered to take the 1st shift. Baby is underweight and Dr. was concerned that I would do harm to try to eliminate night feedings. So, my mom stayed in the baby room and whenever baby awoke, she'd pick her up immediately so as to not let her cry, then within a minute, she'd lay her back down. She did that 4 more times until it had been 5 hrs since the last feeding. Then she brought the baby to me to be breastfed. Then I took over in time for the next 5 hr feeding. The baby would get up more frequently the closer to the next feeding time she was accustomed to.

Today, we're increasing her calorie intake. I'm breastfeeding as often as every 2 hrs. Tonight, we're planning on moving the goal to feeding 5.5 hrs in between. At this rate, I'm hoping to be closer to a full nights' rest by the weekend.

I had to come up with a plan, cause after 8 months of inturrupted little sleep, I don't have enough energy to play with her the way I'd like to. The last night before I started with this plan, she was up every 2 hrs! I'd had enough...

People thought this was ...
Helpful
Nice
Funny
Encouraging
Hugs

Amy - posted on 01/16/2010

119

Kids this age definately should be sleeping through the night! My son started sleeping 8 hrs/ night by the time he was 8 weeks old. I highly recommend the book "Becoming Babywise." It will help you develop healthy sleep/wake habits with your child. I've also heard that "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" is a good book too, although I haven't read it yet. Your son is physically able to sleep through the night, sounds like he's just in the habit of waking up. Try to calm him down without giving him a bottle...or better yet have Dad do it! My son doesn't calm down as easily at night for me as he does for his Daddy, because he knows I'm the one who feeds him. But really, they don't need to eat...they need to sleep! Try a consistent bedtime routine, too. (Ex. bath, story, bed). This helps calm kids and teaches them that it's time to sleep. It may take a little time, but be consistent and start trying to calm him back to sleep instead of feeding him. Good luck!