How Many Times Does Your Baby Wake in the Night?

S

Shenzhennifer

Registered User
I thought this might be an interesting thread, at least for me, a very exhausted mom of a 6 month old who still wakes to feed like a newborn!

Age: 6 month boy

# of Wakes: 1-3 at random times

Why: To nurse

Breast or bottle or both? Only breast - refuses bottle

Why do you think your baby wakes/sleeps through? I think he wakes so often because I nursed him to bed from the beginning, and even sometimes during the day I do it for naps. I haven`t been very strict on routines, just loose ones and they seem to change too often:( Or just when I thought I had a good routine going, something would change. Andmaybe he doesn`t drink enough during the day. Anyway, I think I created this little night nursing monster myself.


Please, Moms, share your experiences with your current babies or when they were babies.
 
Hi - This worked for me.
I would time how long I nursed for, say it was 5 minutes. The next night, I would only nurse for 4 minutes say for 3 nights and then 3 minutes etc etc. This way, my baby was more hungry during the day.

Have you started solids yet?
 
Age: 9 month girl

# of Wakes: 1-3, usually at midnight and 4.30, sometimes more, sometimes less

Why: Unsure - she is still sleeping in our room (in a crib) so it could be us waking her, or she may just want to nurse as she has gotten quite used to it

Breast or bottle or both? Only breast

Why do you think your baby wakes/sleeps through?
She wakes and nursing her gets her back to sleep straight away. In the middle of the night, I just go with it as I'm too tired to do much else. I think I could use other methods to put her back to sleep (rocking or other comforting) but its just been so easy to get her to sleep by nursing. I have always nursed her to sleep at bedtime.
 
Age: Almost 4 month boy

# of wakes: Sometimes once (at 4 or 5am), but most of the time sleeps through from 10pm until 6/6:30am.

Why: I started feeding him a bottle of formula or EBM at the 9:30pm feed at 7 weeks. In the beginning he took 4 oz, then increased to 5 oz and now increased to 6oz. More food in his tummy = more sleep I believe. I usually feed formula though because don't pump enough EBM out for him.

Breast or bottle: Breast for all meals of day except 9:30pm feed. However, next week I go back to work so will give him bottle twice during the day (including 9:30pm feed) and then breast the rest of the time.

Why do you think baby wakes/sleeps through: Probably because he has a lot to eat at his 9:30pm feed and perhaps he is more tired at night because he sleeps less during the day? But I am not sure about the latter reason....
 
Age: 10 months + girl

# of Wakes: i am so sleepy, i don't remember

Why: To nurse

Breast or bottle or both? Only breast

Why do you think your baby wakes/sleeps through? hungry or needs comfort/ cuddling
 
4.5 year old boy... usually sleeps through the night but recently discovered MONSTERS and being afraid of the dark... now wakes 1-5 times per night

2.5 year old girl.... usually sleeps through the night (only started about 3 months ago to sleep through)...sometimes wakes up 1-2 times for milk.


as far as i'm concerned... ANY waking is too much! LOL! but you get used to the perpetual state of exhaustion!LOL!
 
unless my boys are sick or some other rare event (the odd night terror or whatever) they have both slept through (11-12 hrs) from a very early age. the eldest by around 3.5- 4 mths, the youngest perhaps a little earlier.

why do i think this is so? they both learnt to self settle/sooth. i have never had to do any sort of controlled crying or major sleep training. although I always left them for 5 mins or so to try and settle themselves before i would intervene. and never left them for a minute if they sounded truly distressed.

the youngest is a thumb sucker and has a little lamb comforter that he sleeps with so he very rarely needs me in the night for comfort. this is just the way i like it.

I don't know how you mums do it for so long. i'm just not a very nice mum after dark. i would give my child a drink of water in the night if they woke and needed it but wouldn't dream of giving them milk in the night after 1 yr of age - or to be honest much earlier than that even.
 
i call it milk, but really it is just coloured water... since we stopped making full on formula,she wakes much less often. she sleeps through most nights now
 
Age: 4.5 month boy

# of Wakes:
Slept through at 4 months and thought we were home free, but has now started waking 1-3 random times for the last week

Why: I'm sure it's because he can't get back to sleep on his own / self settle - my fault as I have been feeding him right to sleep (naps and bedtime). It's not hunger as I can tell how hungry he is from the amount he takes at 10.30pm and his early morning feed. Another indicator is that he also wakes at exactly the 45min mark during his 2 hour lunch time nap and can't settle back without assistance.

Breast or bottle or both?
Breast for all except one bottle of formula or EBM at 10.30pm (we wake him).

Why do you think your baby wakes/sleeps through?

He was doing brilliantly and on a great routine (my own amended version of Gina Ford) and even began to sleep through UNTIL I started to consistently feed him right to sleep (previously I would feed him until he was drowsy then put him in bed with the dummy.

I fell into the habit of feeding him right to sleep more and more often and didn't realise it would have such a negative effect on his sleeping patterns.

As a result, I started CIO today (a gentle form)....

My 2 year old is a champion sleeper and slept through from 5.5 months BUT only after a session of CIO also. She was a multiple night waker before that and it was ALL about not knowing how to self settle and associating milk with getting to sleep (she was fed all EBM from a bottle).

Some babies are just quick to make sleep associations. Despite swearing to do it right with no. 2, the exhaustion meant all my good intentions went out the window! I was also so pleased the BF worked (no. 1 didn't latch) so prob. didn't see the danger of feeding to sleep...

One factor could also be that from 6 weeks onward I fed him a bottle of EBM in the night when he woke. This was to ensure he took a good amount of milk to get through to morning and also to make it about 'food' and not comfort. Once he started sleeping through to 6am, I ditched the bottle and fed directly. So the 'comfort' of this, combined with the feeding to sleep, may have caused the night wakings to increase.
 
Age: 8.5 month boy

# of Wakes: Every odd once in a while. Has been sleeping through since 6 months.

Why: May be 1 or 2 times max if he is jetlagged or his sleep cycle gets broken for some reason.

Breast or bottle or both? n/a, breast when he used to wake up around 4.5 months/ before 13 lb mark.

Why do you think your baby wakes/sleeps through? We taught him to self soothe. Also we don't show up in his room as soon as he wakes up- we give him around 10 min (depending how loud or what kind of his noises they are) to go back to sleep. Also got rid of the monitor since our rooms are so close- he would go back to sleep but I would end up wide awake. We have key words, a lion he reads his goodnight book with and both get kisses before going to sleep together. I stopped nursing at night once he reached 13lbs (I had read after this weight, babies don't need food, its mostly habit)- I made sure he was full during the day.
 
Hey SZJ,

I think you already know this about my son but:

Number of Night Wakings: Currently, None.
-0-5.5 months, slept 45 minutes at a shot, around the clock
-5.5 months on started sleeping 12 hours straight with one to two night feedings up until about 12 months old
-14-15 months no night feedings

Why: We have no idea why he didn't sleep well in the beginning but reason that it's partly his personality and partly because we didn't know how to set a schedule for him until he was about 6 months old.

Since setting a schedule his night wakings were because:
-He was hungry because he didn't eat a big enough dinner/he was going through a growth spurt
-He was unsettled because of a very active day--this still happens when he goes to see his Chinese relatives at big holiday dinners--he has night-mares and wakes up
-He is over-tired and beyond exhaustion and just has a hard time staying asleep
-He was going through "separation anxiety" where he would wake calling out to see if we were still there (right around 8-12 months-old)
-He had jet-lag and/or was in a new/strange place
-We messed with his schedule and he got to bed too late too many nights in a row
-We (the parents) were particularly stressed-out over something (had been arguing or there was tension) and he sensed it and was unsettled and didn't want to go to sleep
-He is ill

Breast/Bottle/Both?: Breast at night until 5.5 months (bottle during the day), Bottle afterward, No bottle since 14 months

Why do you think your baby sleeps through: He has a good routine throughout the day and a pretty relaxed and soothing evening, gets plenty of activity that tires him out during the day and he eats a lot that keeps him full at night. And...he just adjusted to it...we tried to get him to sleep better at an earlier age but it just had to be the "right time" for him to get into the hang of it. We did "our part" by setting a routine and waited it out until he got the hang of it.
 
i should say that both of my kids were fantastic sleepers UNTIL 6 months old. my daughter slept through the night or at a minimum 6 hour stretches from about 10 days old!!!

when both of my kids learned to roll over or pull themselves to standing, it was all over. they could stand up, but didn't know how to sit back down again. and they would wail and wail. so from 6 months on, they woke at night.
 
We used to rock our 16 month old daughter to sleep till about 2 months ago when we sleep trained her to sleep on her own. It took us 2- 3 days but it worked like magic. Since she started sleeping on her own she stopped waking up in the night automatically. She used to wake up 2- 3 times in the night before this for breastfeeding. So now she sleeps for 11 hours 7pm- 6am straight without waking up.
 
My son also would wake up crying when he managed to stand up in his sleep and did not know how to go back down. I knew his standing up cry from others so would respond immediately and help him down even if it took 4-5 tries over an hour or so while saying key words. We would practice sliding/ moving hands down crib bars and bending knees during the day. I think that helped tremendously at night- within a week the issue was resolved.
 
Hi

When our baby was 6 months we had just started him on baby rice and were still giving the dream feed at 10pm ish. We would give him some solids at 5.30pm, then milk at 7pm (BF), bed from 7pm to 10pm, get him up without waking and give a bottle of formula then back to bed. He would then sleep through to 7am.

Good luck
SB2
 
I see a pattern here. The ones of us that BF to sleep, those seem to be the night wakers...
I used to do the dream feed, but then he started waking in anticipation. And then I read that you should phase it out by 7-8 months so I haven`t bothered again.
Sazzy, I will try your method. At least I hope I can when I`m half asleep in the night:)
Well, at least I have some company somewhere in HK in the middle of the night~
 
Age: 5 months old
# of wakes:0-1
Why: She started being like this at 6 weeks old. I think she's more satisfied being bottlefed.
Breast bottle or both? Breast fed in the first five weeks, bottle fed afterwards
Why does your baby sleeps through?
We did use the "happiest baby on the block" method....using white noise, swaddling tight enough, milk shake to soothe her. We also make sure that she's well fed before going to bed. She simply just sleeps through from 7-7.

I love reading all your methods. I think I just lucked out but with my next future baby I'd love to learn more techniques to soothe babies.


Michelle
Baby, Children, Maternity, Family Photographer
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Hi

I do think that the formula seemed to keep my baby full for longer. I breastfeed almost all feeds until baby was 11 months but from quite early on I replaced the last feed of the night with formula. While he was still waking at 3am ish to feed then I would breastfeed him because it was easier than mucking around with bottles at that time. I think that the solids helped too. We were able to phase out the dream feed by about 7 months as he was more established on solids by then and was having a baby rice at 5.30pm ish then breastfeed at 7pm and dream feed formula at 10pm - 10.30pm. Because we were trying not to wake him for the dream feed, keep him sleepy, I found it easier to get a bottle into his mouth than breast feeding.

Good luck, the night wake ups are not easy but it should pass soon.

SB2
 
I didnt face any of these problem actually Lily used to wake at about 1am and then again at 4am. Now she goes from 9pm - 7am. Sometimes she wakes at 5am eats 4oz and then sleeps until 8am.

HV said she may start to wake again soon!
 
My baby USED to be the world's best sleeper, I think. She was sleeping from midnight til about 7am at only a few weeks old or so. Then she was sleeping from 10-8, wake up for a snack, then sleep until 10am between 3-6 months old. Ever since she hit 7 months though, SOMETHING changed, I don't know WHAT. She's 9 months old now and her sleep patterns are driving me insane!! She goes to bed between 9 and 10, then wakes up at about 1am for a feed and goes back to sleep, then wakes up at about 4am for another feed, and then at 7-8am and is ready for the day. I have a few "theories" about why she is waking so much... maybe it's because of our change in schedule - my husband is studying part time at the moment and gets home between 9-10, right as my baby's going to bed. She's eating solids, maybe needs more? But doesn't WANT more. She's always the one who tells me when she's finished eating. I offer until she's not interested any more. Maybe she's just too interested in the world at the moment? Maybe it's because she doesn't get enough milk during the day? She's easily distracted when feeding now - and feeds for only a few minutes at a time. Her night feeds are her best feeds... (she's still breast fed)

I don't know why her pattern changed when we were doing so awesome!! But I know it's not forever. I've tried a million things to help her sleep better at night - but it doesn't seem to be harming her... it only makes ME more tired... I'm pretty exhausted most days at the moment!! Any suggestions that I haven't thought of would be greatly appreciated ;)
 
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