R.M.
Sounds like she is relying on you to place the pacifier back into her mouth-train her to fall asleep on her own without a pacifier-maybe she'll start sucking her thumb??
My daughter is 5 months old- She has been sleeping thru the night since she was about 8-10 weeks old- about a month ago, this all stopped- and I dont mean she is getting up once or twice.. she is getting up sometimes 5-6 times a night. If we just pop her pacifier back in her mouth- she goes back to sleep.. I have tried feeding her, but she takes 1/2 ounce (if that) and falls back to sleep. My husband and I both work fulll time, this routine and the broken up sleep is starting to take its toll on us- I called the Dr and she said to up her food intake during the day, so we added a 3rd meal of solids, but hasnt changed the sleeping pattern. She also said it may be teething, when will this stop? Any insight or advise would be helpful as i sit here at work fighting to keep my eyes open!
She slept thru the night! YAY! She also had a Dr. appt this morning and the Dr. confirmed that she did not have an ear infection or anything else going on.. She is sure it is her teeth and this sould stop soon :)
Thank you everyone for the helpful hints and advise!
Sounds like she is relying on you to place the pacifier back into her mouth-train her to fall asleep on her own without a pacifier-maybe she'll start sucking her thumb??
It may not have anything to do with how full/hungry she is, which is probably why she only takes 1/2 oz when you try to feed her. At her age, she should be able to sleep through the night without middle of the night feedings. My daughter did something similar, which she's still going through (she's 11 months) when she was around 6 months. She slept through the night since before she was 1 month, but at 6 months she started waking up at night. It could be one of the usual culprits like teething, but I read that when kids go through a new developmental stage/milestone, they do this. My daughter was especially bad around the time she was learning to crawl.
It could be so many things... growth spurt, developmental stage, teething, etc. Sorry to say that it's normal. But it will end and she will go back to sleeping through the night again. In the meantime, up her breast milk or formula instead of solid food. Solid food has way less nutrition for babies, and less calories too, so you're shooting yourself in the foot by giving her extra meals instead of bottles. If she's going through a growth spurt, more milk or formula will fill her up a lot faster than baby food.
I feel for you. Just as one routine has become comfortable, it changes.
Keep your chin up and remember, babies are ever evolving and changing.
My 2 year old stopped napping about 8 months ago and it was a huge change for me and took a while to adjust.
They have a major develomental change at 19 weeks. Weeks 16-20 are a wonder period. This means they sleep less, cling more, etc. with this will come changes in their sleep.
In fact, my daughter was sleeping a solid 12 hours from 10-17 weeks. Since week 18, she is waking an hour earlier. She is hungry......
Is she waking at the same time? If yes, then you've cultivate a habit. I'm not sure exactly what to suggest. Id stop putting the pacifier back in the mouth, unless you plan on doing this for the next year. If baby can't just go back to sleep,,then it's time to do PO/PD. when baby cries, you pick baby up. When baby stop crying, you put baby back down. You may need to do this 100 times, or maybe only 20. It may take a week, but baby will learn how to self-sooth. The issue is probaly baby has become reliant on the pacifier, and she has developed a waking habit. So you have to break the habit. Lots of people suggest getting rid of the pacifier by this point, and I think this is why.
Also. I don't buy that babies need to eat at night. I'm on baby three, and from what I can tell, if you get them to eat well during the day, they can sleep at night. If you let them develop a night eating habit, they eat at night. I know my baby has no interest in food at night, but she does nurse every two hours during the day.
In any case, id stop putting the pacifier back in her mouth. Pick her up, sooth her, but if you want to cultivate good sleep, break that habit. take a long weekend and just suffer through it. I recommend the baby whisperer.
This happened to my first around that time. Have you started solids yet? What helped my son was giving him oatmeal cereal before bed - as much as he would eat - and making sure his tummy was really full before he went to bed.
If she was eating more at night, I'd say it was a growth spurt.
Since she doesn't eat much at night, then it might be teething and teething can bring on some jaw and ear pain, but then she'd be pretty fussy and wouldn't fall back to sleep so easily.
About the only thing you can do is to trade off nights with Hubby so each of you will get a good nights sleep every other night.
Once she's roughly 6 months old (because you can't spoil a baby under 6 months old), you can try waiting 10 min before responding to her at night.
She'll need to learn to self sooth (or find her pacifier or thumb) so she can fall back to sleep on her own without help from Mom or Dad.
I've stopped sleeping through the night. It is 3:18 a.m. right now. I guess it happens to the best of us!
This is totally normal!!! You are not doing anything wrong. Many, many babies go through a phase like this. It could be a growth spurt. It could also be that she is growing and changing and it's going to mean that her sleep patterns are changing as well.
Uping her food intake during the day is a great idea, but it really should be her formula or breastmilk and not solid foods. Many babies do not even start solid foods until they are 6 months old.
If this continues, I would just bring her into bed with you. Don't worry about starting a habit. Most babies change so much during that first year, that there's really no reason to worry about that. Case in point, she used to sleep through the night!
Many babies, when they're going through changes, will respond well to sleeping with Mommy and Daddy. Often times they just need that extra comfort.
You are still very much in the phase of, "The best place for baby to sleep is wherever baby WILL sleep."
My 13 month old wakes up a lot during the night when he is teething. It will go on for a few nights (enough to wear us out!) and as quickly as it starts, it stops.
I'm going to be honest so take it how you will.
I bet she stopped sleeping good when you added food. Her tummy's not ready so she's waking up during the night with rotting food in there. She might even have started being extra gassy too.
Take her off all food except formula or baby food and I bet she'll start sleeping again.
Although it's really really really NOT common for babies to sleep all night until they are much older.
I'd also consider changing doc's. Doesn't yours know that ALL baby food is only flavored goo? It has NO NUTRITION compared to how much nutrition is in formula.
That is straight from either Gerber or DelMonte when I called about stage 3 baby food.
They told me it is supposed to only be a tool to teach a baby to chew and swallow, that they even recommend that parents feed formula or breast mild FIRST. Their products are NOT meant to "feed" the baby, that's what formula and breast milk are for. Baby food is a tool that tastes good to teach the baby to chew and swallow. Doc's should know this.
Another thought, if you're feeding your baby this much food it's likely she's waking up because she's hungry for nutrition since she has missed so much during the day.
If you just have to make your baby eat food then cook stuff yourself and feed it to her in a puree form, that way YOU KNOW what's in it.
Count your lucky stars you did get full nights out of her, that is not the norm. Most infants wake often through the night till at least a year, unless of course you use CIO, but even then their sleep habits are constantly changing.
Many things at this stage could be leading to the waking up. Teething being the most obvious, try a little pain killer right before bed. New milestones, not uncommon for this to cause many children to start waking simply because the little one loves all of the new things they can do.
Food isn't the answer, when giving a baby solids you are actually taking away important calories that they need and can really only be gotten from their formula/breast milk. This could honestly create the opposite problem.
The pacifier may be the problem and until she can grasp and put it back herself there may not be an easy solution. Honestly of all you have to really do is get up and pop it back in, I'm not seeing the huge issue. If she's getting up to party 5-6 times that would be an issue.
Personally since I hate CIO I would just deal with it, actually that's exactly what I do for the first year.
There is a growth spurt that usually happens around 4 months. That is probably what started it and now it's become a habit.
With my own pacifier baby, I used to leave a dozen (I'm not kidding) pacifiers around my her crib. If I was lucky, she'd reach out and find one herself.
We used Ferber, it worked for us. I would recommend, if you can manage it to get some quality sleep for a couple of days/ nights before you even attempt it.
Its rough on the parents, but the long term effects are priceless.
Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.
She's going through a cycle in her growth where she's not growing as quickly. It's not a big deal. Change nothing. Don't feed her unless she's hungry. When she starts growing faster, she'll go back to sleeping more.
One thing I learned with my first baby is that nothing lasts forever. She would sleep through the night for a while, then she wouldn't for a while, then she would, etc. I liked someone else's suggestion about switching off nights with your husband. It's not a perfect solution, but it will help a little. Good luck!