getting baby to sleep through the night

[Anonymous]

We have an 8-week old,too. AFter trying a few things (like feeding a lot before going to bed, keeping her up late, etc.) and seeing that nothing really made a difference, we've resigned ourselves to our baby's current sleep pattern (which seems very similar to yours), allowed for the possibility that it could change for better or worse sometime soon, and tried to streamline middle-of-the-night sessions in the following ways:

1) When baby first dozes off around 7, we put her to bed (she sleeps in her own room down the hall -- we have a fairly small 2-bedroom townhouse) then go to bed ourselves. This doesn't make for a very exciting evening at home, but it guarantees at least four hours of sleep until she wakes up again.

2) When we put our daughter to bed, we also put a couple of bottles each with two ounces of expressed breastmilk in a a zip-up-cooler with ice packs right in the nursery. ON those occasions when dad sees to the middle-of-the-night feeding, everything is right there and all set up ready to go. Likewise for my breastfeeding paraphenelia (pillow, foot rest, etc) when I'm the one seeing to those middle-of-the-night feedings.

3) My pumping supplies and storage containers are set up and ready to go next to our bed, for those occasions when it makes sense for me to pump in the middle of the night. I also keep my IPOD within reach in case I want it. The expressed milk is poured into a bottle and goes straight into the zip-up-cooler.

4) Dad sets up the coffee pot before going to bed so that all he has to do is flip the switch the next morning when he decides he's up for good -- whatever time that happens to be.

5) In the morning empty bottles are collected for cleaning and undrunk expressed breastmilk is placed in the regirgerator for later use or discarding, as appropriate. The ice blocks are put in the freezer so they'll be cold for the next night.


I hope this isn't too pedantic and is of some use to the OP. Maybe this makes us seem too compulsive or OCD, or maybe this is all obvious stuff that the everyone does anyway. It definitely helps us cope with those annoying middle of the night feedings (we typically have two per night) knowing that all the hardware has been set up in advance. I guess it's easier and ultimately more satisfying to try to control the middle of the night feeding process rather than a baby's sleep habits.

[Anonymous]

You situation sounds like a dream to me! My DS was still waking atleast every 2 hours to feed at that age.

[ecarlsen]

I have a four month old who now goes to sleep at 8:30 and he wakes up twice a night. He used to sleep through the night when he was 8-12 weeks but that was sleeping from 10:30 or 11 until 7. It's killing me because I got used to sleeping again. (Moving his bedtime back only makes him cranky during the day because he's not getting enough rest.) Now that I am going back to work next week, I'm thinking it's better to just accept that I'm going to always be tired and hope it improves . . . a beautiful, healthy and happy baby is the most important thing. I have to remind myself of that during my haze Good luck. I feel you.

[Anonymous]

I think you should count yourself as quite lucky. My baby is four months and still gets up AT LEAST 3 times during the night. For the last few days she's been waking up every hour and a half to two hours. I think that accepting the situation (rather than trying to change it) is half the battle won.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, keep in mind that you have a large baby on your hands which means that, until his stomach gets a bit bigger, you will have to feed him more frequently, not less. I know it's a bit counterintuitive, but as our pediatrician explained to us, while a big baby is "allowed" to sleep through the night, they usually are not able to because they need the calories to sustain their size. Best of luck.

This makes complete sense. My 6 month old is 25 pounds and has never slept through the night. He takes at least a feeding each night if not two. I hate it but he is seriously hungry, not just getting up to get up.

[Anonymous]

Agree that your baby is still young to sleep train and actually seems like your baby is sleeping great. What I would suggest is that you immediately go to sleep the minute your baby is down--this is not a time to do dishes, return calls, watch tv--seriously let go of keeping up the house for a few months..I would take a hot shower and then get into bed. I noticed that when I focused sometime on myself I felt a heck of a lot better. Good luck and this too shall pass

[Anonymous]

8 weeks is too young. Don't fret.

Babies will sleep through the night once they get a little older and weigh more. By 12 or 13 pounds you'll start noticing a difference.

[Anonymous]

OP - Hang in there. You'll probably hear from 2 camps on sleep.

Set # 1 who luckily had easy sleepers (w/babies sleeping through night at 8-10 weeks or feel into manageable schedules of only 1-2 night wakings). These folks can be pretty smug.
Set # 2 who want to share all of the horror stories they had about the bad sleepers they had and who will tell you to just get use to the lack of sleep. These folks can unintentionally make you feel hopeless about the situation.

This drove me crazy. My 2 cents:

Have confidence and hope that this will get better and you will survive

Go to sleep (yourself) as early as possible to get the most hours of sleep in possible

Nap when baby naps (if possible)

Don't worry about housework until you are not not as exhausted

Do all of the calming, winding down things before bed (soft lights, bath, etc)

Develop a bedtime routine (bath, feed, book is typical)

Try an earlier bedtime for the baby. If this makes things worse, try moving the bedtime later.

Move to a schedule of eat, play, sleep in 3 hour cycle during the day (Baby Whisper books have more detail).

Try co-sleeping if you're not. Try moving baby to bassinet or brib if you are co-sleeping.

Try swaddling if you are not.

Try pacifier if you are not using one (note, this can backfire if it falls out while baby is sleeping and he cries for it, but it works for some)

Make these adjustments one at a time allowing about a week for each. If you change everything at once you won't be able to figure out what works, what doesn't and you need to give the baby time to adapt.

And finally, what saved me, is develop a plan for the future if all else fails. Even though 8 weeks is too young to sleep train, buy the various sleep books out there and develop the plan of action you want to take if your baby is still having problems later on (and determine a point in time you feel comfortable to sleep train based on your reading. You might not need to use the plan (you may find the baby starts sleeping longer on their own) but it helped me see that there would be light at the end of the tunnel.

Make sure you talk about your plan with your husband to that you both are in agreement. He might not agree with the plan and you may need to negotiate to come to agreement. If you do end up sleep training, you'll need your husband's support.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

OP,

As you can see, it is not a popular style/opinion on this particular board to try to "sleep train" at any age, let alone at such an early age. A book that really helped me was Babywise - as with all books you have to take some, and leave some but it really helped me get my baby on a good cycle at an early age. You'll want to read this book in your closet and hide it when friends come over as people seem to have particular venom for this book. People will say all sorts of horrible things like you are "starving" your baby, etc. But its simply not true. In my defense, my dd was (and still is) exclusively breastfed and has not had an issues gaining weight. I agree that 10-12 hours consecutive sleep is not likely at this age, but we were getting a good eight hours (11-7) at this age and we dropped the 11pm feeding around 3months or so. My ped is totally supportive and says dd is "thriving".

I agree its not for every parent and its not for every baby, but it worked for us. Flamers, no need to attack here. I know I'm not going to change your mind anymore than you are going to change mine. Just trying to offer an alternative to OP.

[Anonymous]

The American Academy of Pediatrics has, as an organization, spoken out against "Babywise" and some of the practices in it. The primary author is not a physician and has no training in pediatrics. The book is a secularized version of the author's religious materials related to parenting. One of the book's earlier publishers actually dropped it when medical information published in it could not be verified. I have friends who have been very happy with the Babywise approach, but I think it is useful for the OP to know that the AAP has actually recommended against using the book.