WWYD with a 4 month old who still wakes up every 2 hrs at night?

[arivecchi]

Should I CIO at this point? I was hoping he would improve over time, but he still wakes up every two hours to eat like clockwork (i.e. 10:30 pm, 12:30 pm, 2:30 pm, etc). :dizzy: I did CIO with DS1 and it worked so the temptation to do it again is strong. DS2 is 4 months and 3 weeks and weighs about 17 pounds.

[xcm83x]

what is cio? you can try rice cereal in her bottle to fill her tummy. feed her breakfast lunch and dinner..feed her rice cereal for breakfast, fruites for lunch vegetables for dinner...stage 1 of course. you could try whole milk watred down...give her something to eat so she'll feel satisfied, and a full belly is good to sleep with...let her stay awake during the afternoons for afew hours...3-4 hours..before bedtime. Like if she goes to bed at 9, let her stay awake from 4-9pm or something.

[KrisM]

I think she's too young for all the food teh PP recommends. And, I wouldn't do cereal in a bottle, as it's a choking hazzard.

Can you have DH get up one of the times and do a pacifier instead of you feeding him?

Personally, I'd wait on CIO for a couple months. But, if you do it, maybe just for alternate feedings? Would that be possible?

DS1 was much older, but I dropped feedings by cutting them down a minute a night until he stopped waking.

[jgenie]

I think she's too young for all the food teh PP recommends. And, I wouldn't do cereal in a bottle, as it's a choking hazzard.


:yeahthat: and I wouldn't give a baby that young whole milk.

[LMPC]

I had this issue with DD at almost the exact same age. FWIW, I tried the paci every other time she would wake up at night. Sometimes she would take it, and I was off the hook for a couple of hours....sometimes she looked at me as if to say, "Yeah, whatever...feed me!!" (Really, she did). Over a couple of nights, a pattern developed where she dropped the 12am feeding....then at 6 mos the 2am feeding. I also think she's too little for CIO (but that's just me). I really think that xcm83x is off the mark with the food recommendations...but that's just what the AAP and my ped say.

Good luck!!

[AbbysMom]

Is she still in your room at night? I was nursing and still had my DD in my room with me at that time. When she was still waking this much at a little over 5 months, I moved her to her own room and she started sleeping longer stretches.

[hellokitty]

I think it's still pretty, "normal" for that age. One thing you might want to try is to have your DH go in to soothe the baby (if the baby is in another room). This worked with my oldest son, but made my younger son super angry. If it works, at least your DH can help soothe the baby so that the baby doesn't HAVE to nurse to soothe itself back to sleep each time.

[frgsnlzrds]

I would nurse her back to sleep. Of course, that's been my response to DD and she's going to be 2 this month and still doesn't sleep through the night. I know how badly you must need a good night's sleep, but I think pps are write about waiting to cio. I like the suggestion of waking your husband... :-)

[veronica]

I can't tell from your post of you are nursing or bottle feeding...but when I was nursing DD at that age, we did introduce a bottle so DH could give one bottle per day and bond with DD. We did the bottle at around 7 pm and put her to bed right after it. I found that being able to actually know how much she took in the bottle was a huge help, for me and DD, as she soon gave up that first wake-up and slept much longer. It was her "trigger" to know it was bedtime and worked amazingly.

I definitely think it is way too young to CIO, feed or put anything in the bottle. I also think waking this much is still pretty normal, albeit agonizing for you! Good luck.....

[ray7694]

I would get The Baby Whisperer Solves all Your Sleep Problems. That book was the Bible for me with both dc. The Baby Whisper also has a huge following and I posted to there message board for help.

One of many ideas from the book is to cluster feed. That seemed to work well for my dc.

[bubbaray]

what is cio? you can try rice cereal in her bottle to fill her tummy. feed her breakfast lunch and dinner..feed her rice cereal for breakfast, fruites for lunch vegetables for dinner...stage 1 of course. you could try whole milk watred down...give her something to eat so she'll feel satisfied, and a full belly is good to sleep with...let her stay awake during the afternoons for afew hours...3-4 hours..before bedtime. Like if she goes to bed at 9, let her stay awake from 4-9pm or something.


Whole milk, whether watered down or not, is extremely dangerous at that age. Please, talk to your dr about what to feed.

AFAIK, studies have shown that adding cereal to bottles does not improve sleep.

In any event, both of my girls woke every 2-3 hours until they were 9-10m old. I EBFd and they never took bottles at all.

[firsttimemama]

I breastfed and coslept - just now nightweaning DS at 18 mo. I think 4 mo is too young to CIO (aside from the fact that I don't believe in CIO)

If I'd had to go to work in the AM/were a single parent, I imagine things may have been different

I waited to introduce solids til 6 mo (and he wasn't interested til 10)

I'm sorry things are so hard right now. Cosleeping and nursing laying down helped me to get more sleep

[arivecchi]

Is she still in your room at night? I was nursing and still had my DD in my room with me at that time. When she was still waking this much at a little over 5 months, I moved her to her own room and she started sleeping longer stretches. Hi. It's actually a boy. Not sure why everyone thinks my babe is a girl!:ROTFLMAO:Yes. He is still in our room. He is still with us because his room is a floor up and I did not want to be going up and down the stairs all night. Plus DS1's room is upstairs also and I did not want him waking up when DS2 cried. However, DS1 is now sleeping in our room a lot (long story), so maybe it is time to move the little one up to his room.

[arivecchi]

I had this issue with DD at almost the exact same age. FWIW, I tried the paci every other time she would wake up at night. Sometimes she would take it, and I was off the hook for a couple of hours....sometimes she looked at me as if to say, "Yeah, whatever...feed me!!" (Really, she did). Over a couple of nights, a pattern developed where she dropped the 12am feeding....then at 6 mos the 2am feeding. I also think she's too little for CIO (but that's just me). I really think that xcm83x is off the mark with the food recommendations...but that's just what the AAP and my ped say.

Good luck!! Yep. We try the paci all the time. It never works. He wants to be fed every two hours on the dot! :hopmad:

[arivecchi]

I can't tell from your post of you are nursing or bottle feeding...but when I was nursing DD at that age, we did introduce a bottle so DH could give one bottle per day and bond with DD. We did the bottle at around 7 pm and put her to bed right after it. I found that being able to actually know how much she took in the bottle was a huge help, for me and DD, as she soon gave up that first wake-up and slept much longer. It was her "trigger" to know it was bedtime and worked amazingly.

I definitely think it is way too young to CIO, feed or put anything in the bottle. I also think waking this much is still pretty normal, albeit agonizing for you! Good luck..... He is bottle-fed. He sleeps a longer stretch at first, from 6:30-10:30 then it's every 2 hrs.

[arivecchi]

In any event, both of my girls woke every 2-3 hours until they were 9-10m old. I EBFd and they never took bottles at all. :bowdown: Wow. You are way stronger than I am. I don't think I can handle the severe sleep deprivatin much longer!

[AbbysMom]

Hi. It's actually a boy. Not sure why everyone thinks my babe is a girl!:ROTFLMAO:Yes. He is still in our room. He is still with us because his room is a floor up and I did not want to be going up and down the stairs all night.

Sorry! My mind was focused on my little one! I was resistent to moving her b/c I liked just pulling her into bed, nursing and falling back asleep but finally I couldn't stand sleeping like a pretzel. I would try moving him and see if it helps. If not, you can always bring him back and try something else!

[arivecchi]

I breastfed and coslept - just now nightweaning DS at 18 mo. I think 4 mo is too young to CIO (aside from the fact that I don't believe in CIO)

If I'd had to go to work in the AM/were a single parent, I imagine things may have been different

I waited to introduce solids til 6 mo (and he wasn't interested til 10)

I'm sorry things are so hard right now. Cosleeping and nursing laying down helped me to get more sleep That's the problem. Both DH and I work FT, so it is really tough to go to work when you have been up 5-7 times every night. I actually did CIO with DS1 at 3.5 months and it worked, but was hoping not to have to do it with DS2. I honestly don't know if I will be able to keep this up much longer... Thanks everyone for all of your thoughts and suggestions, I'll have to check out the book that was mentioned.

[arivecchi]

Sorry! My mind was focused on my little one! I was resistent to moving her b/c I liked just pulling her into bed, nursing and falling back asleep but finally I couldn't stand sleeping like a pretzel. I would try moving him and see if it helps. If not, you can always bring him back and try something else! Very true. I think I will have to try this ASAP. :thanks:

[KrisM]

Hi. It's actually a boy. Not sure why everyone thinks my babe is a girl!:ROTFLMAO:Yes. He is still in our room. He is still with us because his room is a floor up and I did not want to be going up and down the stairs all night. Plus DS1's room is upstairs also and I did not want him waking up when DS2 cried. However, DS1 is now sleeping in our room a lot (long story), so maybe it is time to move the little one up to his room.

The first person who responded said "her" and I was looking at that when I typed my response. Sorry for not paying more attention!

[arivecchi]

The first person who responded said "her" and I was looking at that when I typed my response. Sorry for not paying more attention! Ha, ha, ha! No biggie. My DH on the other hand would have gone nutso! He is so proud of his two mini-mes!:hysterical: