Posted by
ears
18 yrs ago
My 2 month old is now 12lbs and has been sleeping a 7-8 hour stretch at night in the past week. But its at the wrong time of night!
This is his evening routine:
18:00 Bath
18:30 Really good feed (both breasts at 25min each)
19:30 Sleep
01-00-02:00 wakes for feed (both breasts 20 min each)
04:00-05:00 wakes for feed (1 breast 20-25min)
07:30-08:00 wakes for feed (1 breast 20-25min)
So even though he can go 7-8 hours after the evening feed, I still have to wake up twice between midnight and 07:00 to feed him.
What can I do to shift 7-8 hour stretch so that its between midnight-07:00?
I'm afraid that if I wake him up at 23:30 he may not feed and may not sleep for 7 hours afterwards because I think its the bath that helps him to sleep for so long. But I can't postpone his bath to 23:00 - it'll be too late for such a little baby!
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yes, getting up twice in the night is too much - you are answering your own question correctly by the way - you have to get him switched to 10.30 - 11 pm feed and then another one around 3 am or so and then next one around 7 am or so. This way you get up once at 3 am. Try it, he might surprise you and have enough milk at 11 om to go on to 3 am... it is called dreamfeed, so he wont be awake much, but do try.. and be patient, it will take a week or two for him to switch..
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Try talking to the La Leche League Leaders in Beijing for support and encouragement.
http://www.llli.org/Beijing.html
And try going to sleep when your baby sleeps.
Another thing to try is gradually do the bath later...try 10 minutes later a day and see how your baby adjusts.
Hang in there!
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ears
18 yrs ago
Thanks for the suggestions. ldsllvn, I'm considering shifting the 2am feed to 11pm. I know he'll more than likely wake at around 3am, which means I've lost the 8hr stretch. I'm afraid if he loses the 8hr stretch, I have to train him to get used to it again.
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hi, it is worth it, it will be hard, but he will switch. I dont think that changing bath time etc is a good idea - mine are on the same schedule as yours and I swear by it. If you mean to continue with the 6 pm bath and 7 - 7.30 bed - then stick with it and wake the babe up at 10.30-11 pm for dream feed. You will eventually get your 8 h stretch back and in the right time! your baby will start going longer and longer from his 11 pm feed - eventually going from 11 to 6-7 am. do you have a line in helper? you can ask her to take over 11 pm (if you express or formula feed) every now and then to let you go to bed earlier - or alternatively ask her to get the baby first thing in the mornig for his 7 am feed - so you can sleep in... You just can not function properly without sleep..
As I mentioned - in my experience any change takes something like 2 wks - so just stick with it. Good luck
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i would say that you wake your baby up (very gently, dim lighting, no stimulation, no unnecessary nappy change etc) at 10.30/11pm for a feed and see how much longer he can stretch from there.
it might take a couple of weeks (or even longer, your baby is only 2 months old) for that to work out but if all goes well, your child should eventually be able to do a sleep right through to 7am after the 11pm dream feed.
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My method is pretty similar to Wheelymates, my baby is 3 months now but from about 2 months I had a routine where he has a feed finishing around 6pm and then I put him to bed. I go to bed around 9:30-10pm so I get him up and give him another feed just before I go to sleep which usually gets him through until 5am, at which time he will have another feed and then he sleeps again usually until 8am. I adopted this routine simply because it fitted with my bedtime and I get the maximum amount of sleep possible. I also try not to let him oversleep during the day - if I think he has slept for too long I get him up - essentially I try to make sure he is tired out during the day. I'm no expert, it's just what works for me.
I also get my husband (or in your case perhaps helper as suggested) to takeover after the morning feed if I've had a rough night and I go back to bed and sleep for as long as possible, even one hour makes all the difference.
I have come to realise that even if you get a routine in place there will always be variations with no apparent rhyme or reason. My bub will occasinally reintroduce a night feed he had previously dropped and then drop it again after a few nights. I don't stress about it too much - from what I understand this is pretty normal and can go on until at least 6 months.
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ears
18 yrs ago
Thanks for all the suggestions. They are very encouraging. I think the 10:30/11:00pm feed sounds workable. I'm guessing he may wake up at 3am initially and then slowly push to 4-5am. I will give it a try and let you guys know what happens!
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yes, giving the dream feed won't resolve the problem asap as he might be used to waking up at 3am...just persevere and hope you can push back the 3am slowly.
hang in there!
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ears
18 yrs ago
I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who adviced me to go for the dream feed. After plucking up the courage to try out the dream feed, my LO has now been sleeping till 05:30 for the past week. It has taken us about a month to move the 7 hour stretch to the right place after introducing a dream feed at 23:00. As predicted, LO started off waking at 03:00, but slowly and surely he managed to shift the feed to 05:30. He's ravenous at 05:30 and feeds for nearly an hour then falls back asleep till 07:30. I feed him in my bed while lying down so I still get to rest till 07:30.
The shift took a little longer than the predicted 2 weeks partly because he came down with a fever and lost his appetite after taking the DPT jabs. He didn't put on much weight for a week so I fed in the night whenever he was fussy.
Anyway, its worked out great. And now at 14 weeks, I can say my little boy is practically sleeping through the night! Thx again!
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