How many times a night is your breastfed baby waking?

Many of you know I EP for Kennedy due to her cleft palate. So she's a bottlefed breastmilk baby.
She's 7 months and has settled into a nice bedtime of 730pm (+/- 30 min). She almost ALWAYS wakes 3-4 hours after she goes to sleep, and then most times a couple hours after that.

Since I bottlefeed I know exactly what she's eating during the day. 25oz of breastmilk, 1.5-2 jars of food plus other small finger foods. I keep waiting for the night she sleeps through and it hasnt happened!
When she wakes she doesn't play, she downs her 4 or 5oz and back to sleep she goes.

Now I know all babies are different. My twins, one slept through consistently at 6 months and the other didn't stop night waking until we night weaned at 13 months. But HOW can she possibly be hungry?
She's almost 19 pounds at 7 months....The other thing is she wont settle down for her dad. the only one she goes to sleep for and can be comforted by at night is ME so Im doing all the night feeds.

Any suggestions or ideas?? Just like you, I'm so tired. The twins are staying up way too late and getting up at the crack of dawn since its summer.

oh forgot to add, we moved her to her own room at 6 months, she has a lovey...

 

Well, I'm NO help, but thought some commiseration might be helpful. My Amelia, who is 16 months now!, still wakes twice a night to BF. I figure she might still really be hungry as she absolutely refuses to take milk from a sippy (she drinks water) and only nurses once or twice during the days I'm home and not at all while I'm at work. But I keep thinking waking to BF at night at 16 months is just ridiculous and I need to do something about it. I'm curious to see other answers. Hopefully someone can help!

If Kennedy is still downing her bottle and then going right back to sleep, though, I would think she IS still hungry. Does she get a bottle right at bedtime?

 

I truly think that sleep deprivation is the hardest part of parenting for the first decade of their lives! I'm no help either. My oldest nursed every 45 minutes at night for the first 2.5 years. (yup, years! Hey, everyone said parenting was exhausting and I figured this is what they meant. It wasn't until his sister came along that I realized it wasn't normal!)

I imagine she is hungry because she is used to eating at that time. Plus, she has to get a lot of calories for those 19 pounds! Hang in there. By the time she is sttn you'll have lost only a fraction of your sanity. :laughing:

 

I feel you on this one! Sorry in advance for the long response, I just totally know where you're coming from. I finally got Sullivan on a schedule and our nights have been much better around here. A month ago I started bathing her every night after the twins went to bed and then took her right to her room, dressed her, fed her, gave her a paci and had her in bed between 7:30 and 7:45. At 4 months she weighed 17 pounds so I knew it was okay to start sleep training her and helping her extend the amount of times between night feedings. After doing some research I decided I would not feed her until after 2am (I tried two nights of a dreamfeed, but she wouldn't wake up for it at 10p and I couldn't stay up until 11p). I've read in multiple places that healthy, full-term babies at 6 months are capable of "fasting" for 12 hours. We've only had a few rough nights after she adjusted to this schedule, but when she wakes (which has only happened once within the last two weeks) before 2am I go give her her lovey and paci and pat her chest and "shhh" her and then walk out. Sometimes it works and other times it doesn't so then I go back in and rock her as a last resort. If she wakes again after 2am I go in and feed her, change her and she's out. This week she's waking between 3:15 and 5:00 which I can handle. I think once her body realized she had to go a certain amount of time before eating again she just decided to sleep.

At 7 months and a very healthy 19 pounds it sounds like Kennedy might be a trained night feeder. Could you try adding an extra ounce at each feeding during the day to see if that helps? It'd be nice if she could get that extra 4-5 oz during the day instead of at night. Also, if you add the extra bm during the day and she's still waking, how about offering water at night? She may eventually decide it's not worth waking up for water and sleep through. It sounds like she associates you with nighttime feeds. I know you said she won't settle down for her Dad (same here!)and it may not be pleasant for a couple of nights, but could your hubby take the feeds? If it is you and the cuddle time she's craving more so than the food, she also might decide she'd rather sleep if she knows you're not coming to feed her. Those are just my thoughts...gl!

 

I like the pp's suggestions but want to offer 1 more thought. When you pump are you giving her the milk that is am milk in the am? I wonder if she needs that nighttime sleepy milk before bed and if she wakes up. If she's getting the morning or daytime milk at night, that might 'wire' her...

 

Good lord, she sounds just like my boys. That's what I went through for 8 months with two of them. Then, I did CIO and got them down to one waking a night, but it was still like what you are describing only once rather than 2-3 times a night.

I hope you get some relief or should I say sleep.

I did wonder about what cheesewhiz says because I was feeding morning milk at times other than the morning.

 

I think you're right! When DS was 13 months and I couldn't take night feeds 2-3x a night anymore DH went and it only took 3 nights and DS stopped waking. Amen. We probably need to pick a time and see if my husband can handle a few nights of feeds and see what she decides to do.

Nope. I give her the milk as I pump it. So I pretty much pump before most feeds. Even if I have to pull milk out of the fridge in the evening I pull the milk that has the fattiest layer on it.

I think part of the other problem might be is she cant hold a pacifier in her mouth (no suction with the cleft) so often times the bottle is what she "'gums" to sleep. & I would love to give her water. We are experimenting with finding a sippy she can use with her cleft...no luck yet. Im not sure I want to put water in a bottle....hrmm -- this is all so different than the twins. They went to bed with a sippy of water

I do appreciate the feedback ladies. I think I will probably give it till 9 months and then I'm gonna have to have DH take over a few nights. *sigh* Glad Im not alone though!!!

 

morning milk? night milk?
I pump one bottle every morning and give that at night before bed... I guess morning milk has less fat than night milk so thats why you imply they dont sleep as long??? I never even thought of that!
I nurse and then give that morning pumped bottle at night before bed and they sleep 6 hours usually. I pump one bottle a day for them just to keep them use to a bottle.

 

I know in the Baby Whisperer book she talks about if the baby is waking at a specific time each night that its more of a habit. one way to alter that is to go in and gently wake the baby before their normal wake up time... I don't have the book handy to see if its 30 min. before or 1 hr. or if it matters. I think the idea is to jar the sleep cycle to see if that will allow her to sleep through the normal wake up time.

it also referenced if the baby is waking at different times one night and then other times another night that it might be hunger then...

also is she teething?? seems to me everytime our sleep is off a bit its teething or the start of a cold. though I think you sounded like she's been in this habit for a while.

good luck!!! now at 26 mo. my two have been waking at different times... my dd around 2a and my ds around 4a! UGH! I did finally figure out that I recently started working, and the nanny feeds them earlier than I did... so tonight I tanked them up on a big snack... I hope its their tummies that have been waking them, and maybe they'll sleep tonight!!

can you try to give her extra ounces before bedtime? or do a dreamfeed when you go to bed??

 

@ Maybell-

Yes she is teething and everything else!!! She is such an early baby. She cut 2 teeth the day she turned 5 months and she is cutting 4 more right now. She is also ALREADY cruising furniture. I think her brain just doesnt sleep at night. Im sure all her activity isnt helping her appetite either. Apparently she needs those calories LOL

 

ugh. last night she ate 5oz at 7pm, 9pm, 11pm, 3am and 7am. = you'd think I have a newborn on my hands or maybe a late growth spurt?

 

Sorry you're not getting any sleep! I had issues with DD around that age. It wasn't for the same reasons you did, but she was my bottlefed baby and I did eventually put water in her bottle. It worked really well. It actually made her quit wanting the bottle. Hope something works for you soon.

 

WOW!!! 7p 9p 11p 3a 7a... UGH! do you try to "tank" her up before the 7p feeding?? like giving an extra feeding at 5p or 6p if you normally do every 4 hrs or something?? And what about giving her more than 5 oz at 7p? would she take it??

its not like she's starving, at 19 pounds!!! but somehow she seems still hungry...

I'm just grasping at things for you...

I also wanted to clarify... the 'waking' before they normally do isn't a wake and do something... its just a slight jiggle to get them to open their eyes and interupt their sleep pattern, then letting them fall back asleep.

GOOD LUCK!!!