Please help, need new night strategy

My girls are sleeping more - finally, but I'm not!

I put them down for bed around 6PM

Sammy will sleep from 6PM to 4AM then nurse & back down till 7AM

Charlie is sleeping from 6PM to 10PM then 10PM to 2AM and 2AM to 6-7AM


DH and I thought we could just wake Sammy around 2 when Charlie gets up and then she would skip her 4AM waking. Unfortunately that doesn't work. If we wake her at 2AM with Charlie, she will still wake at 4AM or sometimes she'll go to 5AM.

I wish I could just wake once at 2AM! Is there any way to force it? I'm at the point of being willing to ingore Sammy at 4-5AM and making her go till six when Charlie seems to wake up. I wonder if I just ignored her at that time (after getting her up at 2 with Charlie) if she would get used to it & skip the "habit" of the 4AM wake up?

 

Well, I have never been one to jump the instant the baby starts crying and maybe that has something to do with my success at a very early age of getting them to sleep throught the night. Most people probably won't recommend ignoring a crying baby, but all I can say is my girls were sleeping through the night by at least 3 months if not earlier. And at that age they were getting all EBM, I wasn't supplementing with formula by then.

 

Thanks for the fast reply! Yes, I should add they are EBM, and they also have their own bedrooms & are sleeping in cribs. Also, Sammy has gone 13 hours straight several times w/ no wake up, so I know she can do it...

I'm so tempted to try it. Maybe I'll do it one night w/ a time limit.

One of the things I've read in Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, is that there is a typical wake up at 4am because of the sleep cycle... so maybe that's why she's waking up?

I try not to run in right away, but Sammy has such a loud loud voice it's hard not to jump!

 

You could always wait a few minutes, then go in and soothe her. Leave the room and come back in the room a few minutes later if she's still fussing. Pat her on the back, but try not to pick her up. Don't offer her food unless she is just unconsolable (sp?) otherwise. It takes a few days, but it works.

 

We delivered on 10/18! I digress Anyway, ours are not sleeping as well as yours but noticed some improvement with a technique we used recently. We tend to respond rapidly to ours, as they share a room. Our ds wakes far more frequently at night and instead of nursing him my dh went in and tried to soothe him by rubbing his belly, paci, etc... well, when all that didn't work he rocked him in a dark room. Well, when that didn't work, we gave him an oz of water in a bottle. Well, he finally relaxed after that and slept. He actually slept the best ever that night with only two wakings, which he repeated last night. I don't know if this is a habit yet, at least there is some improvement. You can try using water if all other options are exhausted. I hope things improve!!

 

HI,

I think sleep training is recommended at 6 month of age, earlier than that the kiddo probably needs to eat.. and your kiddo's might just have different metabolisms or be taking more or less bm from you.

the good news is that you're on the way to getting more sleep but you may ahve a little while longer to deal with it. Is there a way to pump and have your husband (or sig other) take over 4a feeding of Sammy so that you only have to get up once? That's a pretty good stretch of sleep for him.

Teri D

 

What we tried was having my husband go in and offer a bottle of water and see if that worked to soothe them (if pacifiers didn't). If it didn't, I'd nurse them, but sometimes it did. Around 4 months they started going to just one feeding around 4 am (and at the same time!) and at 6.5 months they started actually sleeping all the way through the night.

 

I'm not sure if this helps. but our girls are 9 weeks, and they have about the same schedule.
Abigail will sleep from 11-0600 but Reese needs to be up about 02-0300, just in the last week we've tried rocking Reese in a dark room and a paci and she seems to go back to sleep and wait until Abbi gets up in the am..but then she seems almost starving, and gulps what she can. So far, it seems to work.

steph