baby awakes a few times during the night

samy-hk, it sounds like your baby is waking up just out of habit and not b/c she's hungry.

like megan2008 said, babies can sleep through the night starting around 6+ months. try not feeding her or letting her cry it out.
 
hello,
i'm having the exact same problem, except my 6mo old has recently (the past week) been waking up every 1-2 hours! i'm not sure what's going on... he is usually in bed by 7 and used to only wake up 1-2 per night for feedings. any ideas as to why he's waking up so often?

also- do babies have memory? we did CIO with him a few weeks ago unsuccessfully...he cried for 4 hours before falling asleep, to waking up 2 hours later b/c he was thirsty/hungry and continued to cry for another 2 hours before i caved and rocked him to bed...

i've tried to think of everything- nothing new in his room, temperature, feeding him more solids, feeding him less solids, pushing forward/backward his bedtime...

has anyone gone through this? is it just a "phase"? will it pass?

thanks!
 
Carolc, 4 hours?? Did you keep a watch with you when you tried? Do you have a bedtime routine? How did you do the CIO? You know there are different ways..... We also let our baby cry but I went in every 5 minutes (I was outside his door with a watch) to make sure he was ok, stroked his back (he sleeps on his tummy so he was doing mini pushups while crying), kissed him, wiped away his tears, made sure his nose wasn't blocked due to crying or had not vomited etc but did not pick him up. We also have a key phrase that we repeat while stroking him. He cried for 47 min. first night.

I don't think they remember, because I still get lovely smiles to die for and great excitement when we greet each other in the morning!

Background for doing this is that I was feeding him in the middle of the night 1-2 times. He just turned 5 months. I exclusively breast feed. There is a lot of conflicting information about when they do not need night feeds (including dream feed). He just did not wake up for his feed the first night of sleep training but the 3rd night, he woke up at 4am and cried for 8 min and went back to sleep and woke up at 7:15am ready for a full morning feed. I do wake him up for the dream feed though.
 
That's what I initially thought as well... but when he wakes up, but he isn't hungry... just wants to be rocked back to sleep. I thought maybe he 'remembers' we did CIO with him and is scared, thus waking up more often to have company? I'm not sure what to do as I'm extremely exhausted.
 
Yup 4 hours :( (Am I a horrible mother?)

We initially checked on him doing the 5-10-15 minute, but he just got more agitated when we went in, so instead checked on him every 20-30 minutes, crawling on the floor to make sure he didn't see me.

Suv- your baby is sleeping on her tummy? Do you find she sleeps better? I've wanted to try this as well, in hopes he'll sleep better, but I've been too scared.

We do have a bedtime routine, bath, book, nurse and bed and he's had that for as long as I can remember.
 
carlc, is your baby teething? My baby did the exact same thing and I thought I was going to go crazy. About a week later some teeth started sprouting out. You can rub your finger across the lower gums and feel the teeth before you see them.
 
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Carolc, we are all learning too, so no one is a bad parent. Sometimes through trial and error, we solve a problem or we don't. We try again differently next time! I am stunned that he had that much stamina to cry for 4 hours.

megan2008 has a good point. We also took our son to the pediatrician and when she ok-ed then we started sleep training. My baby too would cry louder as soon as I would come in, quieten down a bit and again become loud as I left. If you crawl on the floor, he would not know you are there for him. Perhaps he wants only your touch not your vocal reassurance- perhpas its the other way around, he would feel more reassured if you soothed him through your voice but not touch, or he doesn't want any but would feel better if he knew you are there. May be you have tried all of the above..... I have heard that with nursing babies, it might be better to send in the dads if you do the leaving the room method. Or its better to just take a little break?? after an hour and a half of crying (that was my limit) open the lights, do a walk around the house for change of scenery and make them forget that why they were crying, cuddle, nurse if you'd like, cuddle, do a story again and start over? I had read (Dana Obleman, Sleep Sense Program) to absolutely not revert back to baby's favorite way of sleeping otherwise you would have made them cry for no reason! That bit really made a difference in how I was able to stick to my plan. I used to rock my baby on my lap to sleep but I could never transfer him to the crib. He always woke up and I would sit there with him on my lap for hours.

My son does sleep on his tummy (since 2.5 months). And now he just flips over. After he started, he slept SO much better. His neck control was pretty good by then so I was not very worried. They only need to be able to turn their head on any one side.
 
My baby is now 7 months old, and i pretty much followed the GINA FORD way.

According to her book, if the baby is not sick, and was well fed before he sleeps (substantial enough to help him sleep for a longer stretch in the night), then there could be other problems...which she gave some examples for the following in her book:

1.)wrong sleep association. With the help of this book, my baby is able to go to sleep 'unassisted' most of the time, of course there'll be times when he tried very hard to make himself go to sleep, but if he cannot do so, then I'll carry him for a bit until he close his eyes, i'll put him down right away. But he's pretty much used to sleep on the bed alone. so I guess that's also why when he does wakes a little in the middle of the night, he'd be able to go back to sleep by himself. Moreover, wrong sleep association could also mean depending on the comforter, like pacifiers. If they depend on it, that means once it's lost, they'll wake up screaming for it.

2.) Separation Anxiety or Stranger anxiety - baby between 6 - 12 months have this symptom where they begin to realize they're separate from their mothers, somehow that might cause them to wake in the middle of the night, but for more info, i suggest you to buy this book and have a look, a baby is very complicated, can't just use a few words to describe, because it maybe related to a couple of things altogether, but the book tries to answer all your questions.

3.) Naps at wrong time of the day!!

4.) Excessive milk feeding

4.)Imbalance of solids causing him to poo in the night

I don't think the above will help answer your questions, but I do suggest you to take a look at this book, as it helped answered a loooooooot of my questions, and I've been carrying this book with me ever since my baby was born.

Hope this helps!!!
 
Am bringing the little guy to the peds today so will check to see if he's ok to start the sleep training again. I think maybe he just wasn't ready. I'll also check to see if he's ok to try to sleep on his tummy and get dad to do the 'checks' but i think if he goes longer than 2 hours, i don't know if i can do it that long again....

that's a good point that he could be teething, so let's hope he is so i can get back to getting some sleep. im just worried his night-waking will eventually be a habit. :(

luciamay- thanks for the suggestions. i have not read the gina ford books, but until i bring him to the peds, i worry there may be too many reason as to why he's not sleeping at night (wrong sleep association, teething, separation anxiety, gassiness etc..) and really want to eliminate one by one to see what's going on.

*sigh* i really hope this is just a phase and it'll pass...thanks everyone
 
Hang in there, I have had and still have issues like this and it truely is just a phase and will pass. Eventually your baby will get the hang of it and it will get easier. I remember when my baby was 2 months old I had her in the crib for three hours and she only slept for 20 minutes and cried the rest. About a month later I just put her in the crib and did other things in the room and noticed that she just fell asleep......no crying! (I co slept with her until she was about 4 months old) It was still a struggle getting her to sleep in the crib but not nearly as bad as the month before. I think some babies just take a little longer to sleep by themselves. My baby is great in the crib now but I do notice that she snuggles up to the sides of the crib (I think that reminds her of sleeping with us). It will get better :)
 
sorry, have limited access to internet while on holiday, so haven't read all the posts....

i could never leave such a little one for 4 hours crying.
crying is a baby's voice. they are only able to voice their discontent by crying. to me, not answering the cry is like telling them that their voice is not important. now, i'm not saying that you should respond to every little whimper, but 4 hours is way too long to leave a baby to cry it out.

remember, your baby will only be this small for a very short time. it's ok for them to wake up, it's ok for you to cuddle and hold them and rock them. there will come a time when they won't want this (believe me... my 4 year old doesn't want any of that "baby" stuff!)... a cuddle to a baby is just as important as milk and a clean nappy.

so, personally, i'd say....don't think that because you hear that a baby "should" sleep through the night that it means that ALL babies do it. and that therefore yours should too.

PS> i know how exhausting it can be, but it does end..... eventually.....
 
i *hope* the tides are turning... he slept for a solid period of 4 hours last night! but still was up every 1-2 hours every other time...

i don't really expect him to sleep through the night and am actually quite happy to be up 1-2 times per night.. its was a nice time we spent together, in the dark, with him quietly feeding. it's been over a week that he's been waking up so often, so let's hope from here on out, it gets better and this phase has passed! :)
 
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