our peds secret to getting babies to sleep through the night by about a month

someone else's post prompted me to tell everyone about this. i can't say that it's worked for us perfectly, we're getting up twice in the night with the boys right now, but they're only 3 weeks! also, our dd slept through the night at 9 weeks, so it didn't work perfectly for her either. but a 9 weeker sleeping through the night - i'm not going to complain!

anyway, this is what they told us to do:

make sure the baby is getting enough to eat throughout the day. so, in our case, this means that we feed the boys every two hours. then, they go to bed, having eaten enough to sustain them. this is the most important step, because they need to have enough to eat!

next, if they cry in the night this is what you do - wait about 3 minutes to respond, because it could just be their sleep pattern and they might settle right back down. if they don't, go in and:
1. change diaper
2. offer pacifier
3. offer motion (pick up and rock)
4.THEN, if still crying, offer food.
5. if still crying, put back in crib and allow them to cry for 10 minutes.

fwiw, we've never made it to step 5.

our ped is very well respected, has been around forever. i do think he's onto something here. but, i can tell you, it's really tough to go back to bed after #2 or #3, only to hear crying and have to get back up when you're totally exhausted. but, one morning at 4:00, all i had to do was change alex's diaper, and he went back to sleep for 2 more hours. so i was just up for about 3 minutes, instead of 25!

i'd love to hear if anyone else has heard of this approach. i've never read about it anywhere else. our ped went to harvard, but i'm pretty sure he didn't learn this there.

 

QUOTE
make sure the baby is getting enough to eat throughout the day. so, in our case, this means that we feed the boys every two hours.


Ditto on this one!! That is what we do.

 

i haven't read it, but there's a book calle Contented Little Baby by a british woman; from my understanding of a quick read of the website that's basically what she proposes; making sure they get enough to eat from 7 am to 7 pm.

 

QUOTE(Jordari @ Oct 29 2007, 10:59 AM) [snapback]471697[/snapback]
i haven't read it, but there's a book calle Contented Little Baby by a british woman; from my understanding of a quick read of the website that's basically what she proposes; making sure they get enough to eat from 7 am to 7 pm.


i have a friend who did contented little baby. i'll have to ask her. i know it worked, but don't know how quickly.

 

Is that every two hours...breastfeeding? Can you do every 3 hours with formula or do every 2 with formula also?

How long do you offer motion for?

 

I've never gotten up more than twice a night, my kids always slept at least 2 x 3-4 hours, so between 10 and 6 I never had to get up more, luckily.

I've never heard about this. It sounds that you have pretty good sleepers in general, like I do and for those of use who have good sleepers, things like this may work pretty easily. I am pretty sure, even if you did this, not all children would "accept" this.

My famous pediatrician, Weissbluth himself, always tells me that sleeping comes from the brain and not from the stomach. He has done a huge amount of scientific research on sleep and is currently researching twins / triplets. He also established the sleep disorder center here in Chicago.

Some kids are developmentally ready to sleep through the night earlier and their brain matures faster than others in that respect. Assuming they all get a nice amount of food (but my oldest would only eat a couple of oz, my twins way more, but my oldest is still the better sleeper). All my kids are good eaters too, born well (above) average, so I am sure that helps, but I never fed them every 2 hours. My oldest slept 12 hours straight at 3 months, 13 hours at 4 months and she's still a perfect sleeper. The twins slept 10-11 hours straight pretty early too, my girl a little earlier than my boy, I consider them good sleepers too, although I'd like them to wake up a little later.

I guess if it works for you, that's great. I am sure it won't work for everybody, like any other sleep technique. Some kids just take longer and some parents also need to do things their way or in a different pace causing it to take longer for them to sleep through the night.

Just my 2 cents! Be happy (and well rested) and enjoy!!!

 

First of all, I bet everyone will read this post with that title!!

I'm so glad it's working for you! I know I can work on the every 2 hours in the day feeding. My girls occasionally nap longer than 2 hours and I just can't bring myself to wake them - especially after reading HSHHC.

My issue with this plan would be step 2. My girls will NOT take a paci no matter what I try - I've purchased every one I can find and they don't like any of them.

How long do you let them cry between the steps before feeding?

 

This sounds like a good approach. The LC we worked with said the same thing about the feedings, so I am trying to feed as often as possible in the evenings in hopes that they"ll sleep a bit longer at night. I like the step-wise approach to night wakings --it helps to have a "list" to run through when you're completely exhausted and not thinking straight after the millionth time out of bed to check on crying babies! I'll give it a try -- our babies are the same age, so we'll see how it goes!

 

QUOTE(iluvpugs @ Oct 29 2007, 11:07 AM) [snapback]471714[/snapback]
Is that every two hours...breastfeeding? Can you do every 3 hours with formula or do every 2 with formula also?

How long do you offer motion for?


I'm formula feeding. I do it every 2 hours for my boys because they can't eat much at each feeding. But with my dd, her stomach could hold more, so I could feed her more formula less often at this stage. I'm really hoping my boys will start to eat more at each feeding so I can feed slightly less often.

The motion is just for a couple of minutes.

QUOTE(Sofiesmom @ Oct 29 2007, 11:24 AM) [snapback]471732[/snapback]
I am sure it won't work for everybody, like any other sleep technique. Some kids just take longer and some parents also need to do things their way or in a different pace causing it to take longer for them to sleep through the night.


i totally agree. but i just wanted to share this approach as an alternative.

 

QUOTE(girls! @ Oct 29 2007, 11:37 AM) [snapback]471759[/snapback]
My issue with this plan would be step 2. My girls will NOT take a paci no matter what I try - I've purchased every one I can find and they don't like any of them.

How long do you let them cry between the steps before feeding?


i think you can skip step 2 then, b/c you know that's not what they want! you don't let them cry more than a couple minutes before feeding. so if you do the diaper change, and they're still crying, you know it wasn't that. then, if you pick them up and sway or rock with them, if they're still crying after about 2 minutes, you would offer the feeding.

 

I can't say that I purposely followed this approach, but I always tried to make sure that the bulk of my babies' nutrition came during daylight hours. Our last night feedings were when they were 3 months and 3.5 months old. Now when they wake at night I never even consider feeding them - I know it's not out of hunger that they're waking.

 

I can't comment on whether this works or not. But I would caution that if you are breastfeeding, this would be disastrous to your supply. Breastfeeding is a demand-driven process, and at that early age you need your babies to be nursing around the clock to establish enough milk supply. If they don't nurse overnight, you need to pump, which pretty much defeats the purpose.

 

QUOTE
I can't comment on whether this works or not. But I would caution that if you are breastfeeding, this would be disastrous to your supply. Breastfeeding is a demand-driven process, and at that early age you need your babies to be nursing around the clock to establish enough milk supply. If they don't nurse overnight, you need to pump, which pretty much defeats the purpose.


My thoughts exactly!

Who knows, the method might work for some bottle-fed babies, but BFing moms need to keep the milk bar open at night.