Excessive night waking

Posted: Mon, Oct 22 2007, 4:42 am Post subject: excessive night waking

I need your help/advice please. my dd is 4 months old k�h and is waking up 2 or 3 times at night for a feed. she wont settle with a cuddle or anything only a feed. she is eating plenty during the day I am just starting to feel really ill from waking up so many times in the night. Bh she settles down straight away but only for 2 hours or so when shes up for more food. her day starts at 7 am and I give her a bottle at 11 pm - before I go to bed but she still wakes up.
should I just grin and bear it?
or should I attempt to leave her to settle herself (unless of course she really needs a feed 4 hours after her last one)?
thanx

Silver Member Joined: Apr 03 2005 Posts: 588 Location: EU

I had the same problem than you till about a week ago. the only diff was that my dd was 6 months. first I started weaning her with 4 1/2-5 months. I thought she might be hungry and it will help her to sleep through the night. it did not. so I took her out of my room. the first 3 nights she cried. so it is up to you if you let her cry to sleep or you do what I did. when she cried I left her for a few min. and then I went in not looking at her face and just stroked her and said mummy is here but I am not taking you out. when she calmed down I left before she fell asleep. if she started crying again I waited double time till I went in and did the same thing again. and so on. now for the last 4 days she sleeps through till 6 am. once or twice she cried for 2 min but I left her. and that was it. Very Happy

Diamond Member Joined: Apr 03 2006 Posts: 4473

I think its hard to say if the baby is waking up at night to eat or not. Just because the baby eats well during the day, the food goes through them so fast (especially nursing babies) that they really might be hungry again.
With my 5 month old I am so scared to let her cry at night because she usually is hungry. So although she wakes up 2-3 times a night I have to grin and bear it because I can't leave my helpless baby to starve at night.

I have learned to tell the difference in the night wakings though. If she is totally up and waiting for me I know that she is hungry. Sometimes she is kvetching in her sleep and her eyes are closed so I will just shush her and rub her back until she falls back asleep. But it took me a long time to see the differences.

Does your baby know how to fall asleep by itself? Or do you usually nurse or bottle feed to sleep?