Ellie was doing great in the sleep department until about 3 weeks ago... We had heard about the 4 month growth spurt. She is waking up every morning between 3 - 4 a.m. We were feeding her every time, but now we are just changing her diaper and putting her back down. Any suggestions on other tactics to get back to a full night's sleep?
We started rice cereal 2 weeks ago, but it doesn't seem to be doing the trick! She does okay with it, but doesn't love it just yet.
We went through the same thing between his 4-5 month bdays. It lasted about 1.5 weeks and then he was back to sleeping all night. He was still in our room at the time so I was a sucker for just putting him in bed with us at 4am, much quieter for all of us! what kind of feeding schedule are you guys on now? Just hang on, it will fix itself!
ReplyDeleteGive it a week or so to make sure its not just spurting and then quit feeding her. It could be turning into something behavioral, versus physical necessity. As a friend of mine once told me, if I came into your room at 3am with a plate of macaroni and cheese or pizza or whatever your favorite food was, would you refuse me?? If you think its behavioral, just see if you can a) ignore her and she'll go back to sleep or b) maybe just rub her back or something in the crib or rock her in the dark, etc without feeding and see if that works. Its all about her waking up and learning to get back to sleep on her own....
ReplyDeleteOne other thing to consider, if you haven't, is she might have a cold or a runny nose or something that's waking her up. To that, I say, Hello Benedryll!!
Oh, Kate! I know you are desperate for a full night's rest. Have you tried just letting her cry for a little bit? Good luck. You're such a good mama!!
ReplyDeleteKate,
ReplyDeleteWe had the same thing happen with Sophia and the only thing that worked for us was "cry it out." I only had to use it 2 nights and she was back to sleeping 11 hours. I used it as a last resort, but it worked! Hopefully this won't last too long!!
Now you see why I have so many kids sleeping in my bed most nights! I'm so stinkin' tired that I just throw them in with us so they (and I) can get back to sleep quickly. Good luck! And if you figure it out, let me know, so I can try it out on Hank! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments... We were successful with the "cry it out" during her 1 a.m. wake-up, but not during her 4:30 a.m. wake-up... she cried for a FULL HOUR! I eventually gave in and fed her. She then went back down until 9 a.m. We'll try again tonight!
ReplyDeletePorter did the same thing starting at 3 months, and didn't start sleeping all night again until he was 6 months old. And even now he's not a good sleeper. We tried everything, including CIO, but the only thing he wanted was food! He was just hungry. Being that he was only 5 1/2 lbs at birth, I felt guilty about not feeding a hungry baby, so I fed him. Unfortunately, when you get past this, it will be something else! When they can crawl and pull up they like to practice in the middle of the night. Our latest was ear infections, and he started sleeping again when he got tubes. I feel for you! Tell jay I said hello.
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