Baby Won't Sleep Through the Night

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Baby Won't Sleep Through the Night

My daughter is 5 months old. She is exclusively breastfed.

My bed time routine is feed my daughter, then take her upstairs and turn on a relaxing CD in her room along with the bathroom fan (white noise), swaddle her (now with one arm out) and rock her gently until she shows signs she is sleepy. Then I put her in the bassinet beside my bed while she is sleepy awake, or just started to fall asleep. Sometimes I have to do this more than once to get her to sleep. I generally try an put her to bed between 7 - 8:30 (depending on when she had her last nap).

Once she is asleep, she generally will sleep for 3.5 - 5 hours. Although sometimes she wakes up after only 45 min - 1 hour crying and I have to start over. Sometimes, the second time can take awhile. On those nights she doesn't wake up after an hour, she will wake up, feed hungrily, and go back to sleep quite easily the first time. The problem is that after she wakes up once she gets up every 1 - 1 1/2 hours for the rest of the night. Often between 3 - 4 am she does not want to go back to sleep. If rocking for a short time doesn't work, I typically try feeding her. This usually gets her to sleep but she doesn't stay asleep for long.

When feeding and rocking doesn't work, as a last resort, we end up in the living room with the TV on with no sound to calm her down until she shows signs she is sleepy.

I don't have a partner who can help me with my daughter at night. Can you offer any advice on how to get my daughter to stay asleep longer at night.

Thanks.

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Baby Won't Sleep Through the Night

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Jun 11, 2010

This too will pass
by: Anonymous

Both my babies were exclusively breastfed. In canada, we get 1 year maternity leave as well, which makes things much easier.

I know it's so hard when you are sleep deprived and I applaud your hard work.

we co-sleep and in our family bed I can nurse and sleep at the same time. I simply stayed in bed every time my babies woke up, we never watched tv or turned on a light and soon they were quite at night all night. but they didn't sleep through the night, entirely until after 2 years old. It was amazing when it happened!! finally. But, I am VERY lucky to have a supportive partner too.

So, no solution for sleeping through the night, but my suggestion is to co-sleep and just sleep-nurse.

Good luck!!

Jun 11, 2010

Advice
by: DaveM

When my wife and I had our child we struggled with our baby waking up during the night from being cold. We did some research and discovered the Lullabag from Cloud B. Basically, it is a sleep bag that helps keep our baby at a constant temperature. What is nice about this product is it also has a two-way zipper which allowed us to get easy access to changing our baby's diapers without waking him up. Definitely recommend this product for all parents.

Jun 12, 2010

Try a cozy cradle
by: Anonymous

here in India, we usually put our babies in a cozy cradle which is usually a 4-5 feet long cotton cloth which we tie like a swing in a hook in the ceiling and put our babies and rock them to sleep.. this makes the baby warm and cozy and gives the mother's cuddle effect too making it sleep for long time.. also since this is a cotton cloth, we dont use diapers while putting the baby in it.. once the baby pisses we turn the cradle to a different position and change the cradle cloth once in 2 or 3 wettings.. the baby thus will sleep very comfortably.. why dont you try this??

Jul 05, 2010

Co-sleep if you are capable
by: Anonymous

It is definitely hard when you are going at it alone. Listen, i recommend that you co-sleep and this gives you a chance to sleep nurse. This will give you more sleep and the baby. My baby is also 5 months old and from his first week he would sleep for about 20mins then I would have to spend 30min-1 hour trying to get him back to sleep. It was horrible, until I decided to just keep him in the bed- since he spent most of the time being rocked in my arms anyway. After that he slept so well- now he will do about 3-4 hour stretch at a time. Just me lying beside him puts him to ease and he sleeps so peacefully....Actually he really doesn't wake up during the night, he just fidgets and I wake up feed him while he is sleeping.
Because, all the devices out their to improve the babies sleep are imitating what you would do naturally and that is to create a cozy environment for your young. So might as well do it yourself- no need to spend $$$.
Also, it is important to remember, that all babies have different personalities. Some are able to sleep by themselves just fine and not give any disturbances and others need that constant comfort. It is just who they are and we have to come to terms with that. Sometimes, we make more work for ourselves to try to train them to fit into a specific mold and just like you and I we can get cranky trying to fit into a mold that is not for ourselves.

So Co-sleep- if you don't drink alcohol, smoke or take meds that can make you drowsy.
Make sure you have a not too soft, not too many pillows on the bed and watch the overly fluffy comforters. What I do is put a long body pillow on one side and he sleeps in the middle ( hubby is away). Works out great.

Comment by EasyBabyLife: Co-sleeping can work really for some moms. Here are more tips on safe co-sleeping.

Sep 09, 2010

Do what actually works
by: Anonymous

I honestly don't think you should co sleep. I have not met anyone whose child had co slept and ended up being a good independent sleeper, but I've met many parents who can't get their toddler out of their bed and who get woken at 5am.
I recommend following a flexible routine of some type, based on basic principles: if the baby sleeps all day he won't sleep at night, and if he doesn't feed in the day, he will need to at night.
In the end, you need to do what actually works. Not something based on theory.
You do not have to live like this. Obviously a routine is not for everyone, it is hard work in some ways, but it's important you are aware that you do not have to be waking constantly.
I can recommend gina ford The Contented Little Baby book, be sure to read the whole book though, some people seem to think she's strict/let's babies cry which I've never read in her book and certainly didn't do with my son.

However do the routine strictly for at least one week and you will see changes.

Unless you implement a routine and get your bub sleeping you will end up at sleep school doing controlled crying on an older baby, which is horrible.

Dec 02, 2011

Tips When A Baby Wakes Up Too Early NEW
by: Paula (Easy Baby Life)

Reading through all the great tips here, I realised I hadn't posted a link to our tips when a baby wakes up too early in the morning.

This is common situation, but pure torture for the parents. We had one child who woke up at 5 am if we were lucky - most ofter earlier - during a whole year. So I had lots of time to try to find solutions. Not easy, there's not one fix for all babies. I have written down the tips to make a baby sleep longer in the morning here.

I hope this helps,

Paula

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