Monday, May 9, 2011

Advice Please

3 Month old Kennedy Kate is not sleeping well at all. I (try to) put her down by 9pm and she wakes up every night an hour and a half later and then we fight to get her back to sleep until almost 2am (Yes, I feed her during that time). Then she wakes up every 3 hours until 9 in the morning. This momma is tired and AND KENNEDY IS E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D.!!!

What do I do?????????

11 comments:

  1. She's only doing that because she knows yall will come get her. Let her self sooth herself and when she realizes that it is not going to work, she'll go to sleep on her own. It will take awhile and it is going to hurt hearing her cry, but she needs to be able to self sooth.

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  2. We do let her cry for about 30 minutes before I go and get her. How long am I supposed to let her cry? and Who is this?

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  3. Is she sleeping too much during the day? Maybe try putting her to bed an hour later and see if she stays asleep. I would let her cry it out in order to get her to sleep in the first place, but honestly the every three hours is still normal at that age.

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  4. Infants cannot self soothe. Nor do they cry in any attempt to manipulate you into anything. Cry it out has been shown over and over again to be detrimental to babies' health and wellbeing. There are plenty of great books out there on the topic that cover all the newest research and debunk the old myths. Try The Happiest Baby On The Block or anything by Dr. Sears, they cover the latest research and give you practical suggestions. What works for others may not work for your baby, so keep trying.

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  5. I dont have a definite solution for you - all I can tell you is what we have done with Lyla... When lyla was around that age, we would make her bedtime around 10 or eleven at night, and feed her her last bottle then, and try to get her really full. We would also try to keep her up and keep the naps to a minimum until she had her last bottle. It seemed to work - she started sleeping from 11pm to 5am, and then she slowly started sleeping more and more, going to bed earlier, and getting up a little later.... good luck momma!

    Jami D.

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  6. I can only talk from experience from what worked with Nate and a little with Lexie (since both Lexie and KK are about the same age). I have a routine every night. The same one. She gets a bath (but I don't always bath her). Then we go into her room where it is dark and have soothing music (Baby Eienstein Classic Lullibys helped with Nate and with Lexie) and I rock her and breastfeed her to sleep. The routine always helped them "know" it is bed time and the feeding helped with a full belly. Since, KK is bottle fed, you might want to try to feed her one last time right before you put her down. In my own two cents, I don't usually try the "self soothing" thing until they are bit older. With Nate, I waited until about 8 months before I was forcing an 8 hour sleep schedule. That way I knew he was old enough and only waking up out of habit and not the necessity of food.

    Breastfed babies are usually up around every 3-4 hours and bottlefed babies usually 4-5. It is normal. And right now, she might be hitting a grow spurt. So she might want to feed more often. Every baby is different. Do what you feel is good for your child. That what it boils down to. Everyone can say and give advice, take the advice and just do what is good for you and your baby. Do what you FEEL is right for YOU and HER. I hope this helped.

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  7. Hey Jenny,
    I had the same problem with my daughter when she was that little. She just wanted to eat every hour and a half. That was at night too!!! So when i was breastfeeding during the day i would try and pump a little extra after she was done. By the end of the day i would usually have enough for one bottle. After i feed her at night i would go to sleep and my husband would stay up and give her a bottle at her next feeding. That helped me to get like maybe four hours of sleep but then i was pretty much up the rest of the night. I don't know if this is the best way to handle this because i had trouble with my milk supply. Maybe because i was skipping a feeding. Just know this is just a phase and it will pass. Good Luck!!!
    Ellen S.

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  8. About this age all three of my kids tried to flip night and day on me because of growth spurts. I found if I deleted the last nap and did a bedtime routine like Crystal it helped. Their nighttime routines get disrupted when they are teething, and during growth spurts. Oh, and you will never have a decent nights sleep again, sorry, it is what we give up for our little blessings. OH, make sure you nap when KK sleeps it will help.

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  9. It's been a while since my kids were babies but is she to young for cereal? I remember the pediatrician telling me to dissolve a tiny bit of cereal in the bottle and that really filled them up and helped them to sleep through the night. I have no idea if they say this is detrimental to a baby's health now. It didn't seem to hurt my kids and gave us both relief.

    I also used the cry-it-out method but I know it is not a popular one. I had a husband who traveled a lot and a baby w/colic and I had to save my sanity so I felt there was no other option at the time.

    Good luck Jenny and know you are NOT alone! All moms w/newborns go through this.

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  10. Jenny, I don't have the answer but I do have an opinion on letting a baby cry. My two little ones cried and no one came (in the orphanage) and I have learned so much about brain science and the brain development in infants. She needs you to come when she is crying, this helps to form bonding and also forming the ability in her brain to be able to feel secure in stressful situations in the future. She doesn't have the ability to self soothe at this point. I wish I had a suggestion to help with the sleep problem, but just wanted to contribute this little bit of information.

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  11. Hey Jenny,

    My pediatrician told me that some babies don't start sleeping through the night until 5 or 6 months old. Unfortunately, this is normal. You just have to keep waking up with her and feeding her. Do try to have a normal bedtime routine with her at night time, but the self-soothing thing shouldn't be done until around 5 mos when they tell you to start weening off of the overnight feedings. Around 5 mos, they tell you to cut out the bottle right before bed time because that makes her think that if she wakes up, she gets food. We did that with Avery and it worked almost instant. She didn't sleep through the night until 8 mos (when we received this advice!). Feed her at her normal feeding time at night, then wait an hour or so and put her to bed then. Don't feed to sleep. Like I said...that isn't until 5 mos, though. Sorry! I'm with ya...Peyton and KK are around the same age (2 wk difference) and we are still on the same routine you are! Good luck!

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