What happened?

For quite awhile there the boys would go to sleep around 8-830, sleep until about 2-3, wake for one feeding, then be down until 615-7. This past week they've thrown that right out the window, going to bed at 8 still, but waking up at 9, 10, 11, all hours of the night ... in fact, the night we started cereal was the first night in over a month that they woke for 2 feedings - 1 at 1 and the other at 4!!! The only thing new is that we started cereal but that isn't even a factor since they barely get any in - they are still just getting the hang of the whole spoon thing.

This is terrible! I sleep worse than when they were newborns!!! Is this a phase or something? Sometimes it seems its just bad gas, or they wake up cuz of a bad dream or something, I give them their nuk and they go right back down ... I know it's too early but I'm already contemplating CIO!!! I need sleeeeeeep! Oh, and naps, they are starting to get more consistent with naps too, a schedule is kind of forming during the day - an hour in the morning, up for 2 hours, then an hour to to hour nap, then up for 2-3 more hours, then another hour or so nap, and a catnap (15 minutes or so) before bed. Should I be keeping them up during their catnap??? AUGHHH!!!

 

It may be a phase, it seems like L&M went through that at around 4 months and I am sorry to say, around 6 months too, but they weren't hungry. When I first started solids, I notice that the girls woke more w/ tummy aches b/c they were still getiing used to something new. Maybe some of the other ladies have better advice. Maybe you can nap when they do :hug99:

 

My girls did the same thing!!! the wakings, the cat naps etc at that age. It seems like they were maybe going through a growth spurt. I've got 3 sisters with kids and they all claim that their babies did that when they were going through some transistion, a new tooth, a new skill, anything. Just some thoughts, I do remember just when Ithought I couldn't take it anymore, they stopped waking up so much. This too will pass!!!! :lol:

 

Ah!!! Around 4 months it got bad for us too! At 5 or 5 1/2 months we CIO. I dont have any advice. Cereal did not help my boys sleep longer at all!

 

I think that is natural. It got better for us around 2 months and it stayed like that until about 4 and 1/2 months then they started waking a lot again. It gets better again around 6 1/2 months. We did not cry it out. I spoken to more than enough people to know that it happens to almost every baby.

 

I don't have any suggestions, as my girls are almost the same age and this past week have started a super fussy pants routine also!

 

no advice here either - cereal actually helped my DD start sleeping right through the night...

I always give her a shot of Mylicon before bed - she wakes up with the WORST gas sometimes at night and cries pitifully until I go pick her up, which makes her fart and then she falls back to sleep!

 

I have to say my boys went through the same thing except around the 6-7 month range. It went on for a month or so where I was up 6-10 times a night and then having to go teach 6th graders the next day. It did pass.....I did look back and see that during that time frame from **** they had shots, colds, cutting teeth and the time change to deal with; on top of learning to crawl. I finally after a month of exhaustion and nastiness to everyone but the babies; I caved in and began CIO. I do not know if yours are to young for that yet but, I found once I got over them crying a little the first few nights that we all began to sleep and I became human again.

I won't say that we do not have a rough night here and there but, it is SOOO much better than what I was going through in January and February.

I do not know if any of this helps but, at least you can rest assure that others are going or have gone through the same thing.

Good Luck.

 

Mine started rice cereal at 6 1/2 months ( 5 1/2 adjusted) and both slept better ever since. Could it be that yours are just not ready for ceral and are not digesting it in a way that is soothing ? or maybe upsetting their little stomach?
So much of this is try, try again. I do feel for your sleep deprivation.. it definately makes the days more challeging.
Good luck

 

Thanks for all your responses ... tonight we didn't do any cereal, so we'll see what happens to the kiddos tonight. I hope they sleep because I'm exhausted!

 

Were they prems? Mine slept all the time until they were about 3 months old then they started crying. I took them to the dr he examined them and told me they were healthy it was just that they were prems (33 weekers) and were now waking up because they would now be considered term babies.

And in regards to solids we didn't start them until they were 8 & 9mths old (6 & 7 mths adj). There is debate over where you should start solids at 4-6mths. Some experts believe the digestive system is not developed enough until 6mths.

 

QUOTE(Alyson @ Apr 26 2007, 06:32 AM) [snapback]234257[/snapback]
Were they prems? Mine slept all the time until they were about 3 months old then they started crying. I took them to the dr he examined them and told me they were healthy it was just that they were prems (33 weekers) and were now waking up because they would now be considered term babies.

And in regards to solids we didn't start them until they were 8 & 9mths old (6 & 7 mths adj). There is debate over where you should start solids at 4-6mths. Some experts believe the digestive system is not developed enough until 6mths.


They were born at 37+2 ... that's really interesting though. And I didn't try cereal yesterday, and they were bottle-fed at night with 5 oz EBM and 2 OZ formula (I was at work and he had to stretch the EBM with formula) and they slept from 830 until 340 with Chase waking up around 1230-1 so yay!!! I think I'll hold off on the cereal for a bit yet, the doc said they are ready for it and my Mom says that Chase is getting so big that my milk isn't enough for him anymore but I really don't think they are ready for it.

 

I haven't read all the replies, but I think I would drop the cat nap and put them down earlier. Since they are starting to develop a day time sleep pattern, you may have to adjust their nights and put them down a little earlier and skip the whole last cat nap. My twins are in bed at 6 pm, and have been so for the last 2 1/2 months. They'll now sleep until 5.30 - 6.30 am, and will go back down for a little bit until 7 am if possible (don't want to start the day at 5.30 am). Then they take a nap at 9 am until 10.30-10.45 am, then they go back down at 1.00 / 1.15 pm for another 1-2 hours and then they're up (sometimes a little too long) until 6 pm (but I have a toddler who naps 1-3 as well, so I would like to keep them on a similar schedule so that we can do something in the afternoon. My oldest then goes down at 7 pm, after I am done with the twins.

So my 2 cents are that they're probably tired, need to go to bed earlier. Overtired babies tend to have more trouble falling, staying and soothing themselves back to sleep. I truly believe that. My oldest also had been going down at 6 pm at 4 months (until 2 years of age) and I never ever went through something like this. She was so consistent, it's pretty scary to think that I didn't get out of bed more than 10 times since she started sleeping through the night at 3 months. She sometimes cries out or talks for a few minutes but always goes back to sleep. Look at your babies' cues ... and adjust their bed times accordingly. It has worked wonders for us.