Baby wakes up - shud I feed her??

[fennho]

hi there mommies.. Me again

My gal is now 3mths 2 weeks, weighing at 7.2kg at her last chkup. I put her to bed at around 7-8pm, usually I nurse her to La-La Land. She usually will sleep thru to about 4-5am and will wakeup. If she wakes up and does not cry for food BUT she makes this really LOUD sucking sounds on her hands, shud I pick her up & feed her or shud I jus let her be ie sucks her hand back to sleep if she doesn't cry? I read tat babies at her weight shud be able to sustain 7pm to 7am (she already had abt 5-6feeds in the day) so I'm not sure if I shud still pick her up to feed if she's really hungry or just relying on my breast to fall asleep again. Sometimes its even earlier around 3am. If she whimpers I'd pick her up and feed (on demand) but I'm unsure if she really needs it. Shud I jus pat her back to sleep? She usually will cry despite patting and me mindful of disturbing my mom and my neighbour (HK have really thin walls!) I would pick her and feed her back to sleep cos I can't bear to see her cry. I'm worried of cultivatng a bad habit cos I heard a fren's son STILL waking up for feeds even at 13mth old for no apparent reason, simply out of habit. Comments & advices pls? Thanks:thanks

 

[cwbmum]

Hi
I was going through a similar thing when my little one was around 4 months old. The midwife said it could be a growth spurt or she could just be doing it from habit.
At first I would get up and feed her until she went back to sleep, then I noticed that she wasn't taking that much milk and was doing it for comfort.
I made my husband wake up and go into her room to settle her back down, he did, she cried and a few minutes later he went in again. After the second time she fell back to sleep and didn't wake up until around 6:30am. The next night was similar and then after that she didn't wake up anymore until the teething started.
She is now almost 11 months old and sleeps from 7pm until 6 - 6:30. I am still breastfeeding although she is going off it and only takes morning and evening feeds with very little in the day time now.
If you have someone else who could help you instead of you getting up it may help. If she is hungry for milk then you will be able to tell as she won't stop crying until she gets it. Babies can smell their mothers millk and if someone else is there your daughter will know that she isn't going to get any milk.
Hope this makes sense.
Good luck

 

[adahc]

same situation.

My baby is 4 months old this week and he used to sleep from 7pm to 4am then I fed her back to bed until 7am.
But suddenly this week he woke up at 10pm, then 1am then 4am and woke up at 5-6.30am.
Las night I asked my hubby to carry her or pat her to bed which was sucessful, apart from when he was up at 1am.
We will carry on tonight and see what happen.

Fenho, love you posts by the way. Seems like we share the same wories and our babies somehow share similar problem at similar time. Quite reassuring..

 

[Konradsmom]

me too. My baby is a bit older, and his sleeping pattern has always been erratic. Recently he has been sleeping quite well from 8ish till 12 for a feed and then till next morning 6:45 for his feed. We are trying to break his midnight feed but he wakes up just the same - dunno wat to do. sometimes he wakes up and starts playing and babbling to himself - in the middle of the night ! We end up having to pick him up and pat him back to sleep.

I was at my wits end trying to figure out whyhe does not settle into a regular pattern....

same as adahc, I find it reassuring that I'm not the only one out there with these (similar) problems !!

 

[mosmom]

my baby is 9 months old and she wakes up around twice per night. she doesn't always need feeding, but i offer her my milk anyway, just in case. in our experience, holding back with my breast always made her unsettled and made it harder for her to get back to sleep. now i feed her every time and she'll be back in dreamland immediately! my friend's bub needed a bottle of milk till he was 2 years old. i always remind myself that they're soo little and that i should give her time for adjustment.

 

[carang]

if he's happily babbling away, why are you going to pat him to sleep? leave him alone, he may go back to sleep himself.

personally, i have always fed my child if they wake up in the middle of the night. it's a pain in the neck and it lasted until my son was 2 (and now happening with my daughter) but really it isn't that much of a problem (except i get tired, but i have an awesome husband who helps A LOT!). I expect that my daughter will be the same, but i'm not stressed about it. my son has slept through almost every single night since he was 2 (now 3yr3m). well, that's not technically right, he wakes up has a sip of juice and goes back to sleep on his own.

my figuring is... i sleep with a bottle of water by my bed and i get thirsty and drink from it throughout the night. my husband has the same thing and now my son wakes up to drink some juice, so isn't it possible that baby wakes for a feed, not because she is hungry, but because she is thirsty?

if this is the case, then she doesn't need the same full on feed as when she was smaller and it was out of hunger. when my girl is a little older, i will try giving her a no spill cup to see if she'll drink from that instead of a bottle.

 

[Sage]

Wow. You have a big and chubby baby, fennho. Well done.
Like the rest of the mommies here, I think it's good to give the lil' one some 'alone' time to herself. I only go to my bub when she's crying out. If she's talking to herself, playing by herself in her cot, I let her be. She'll cry if she's hungry!

 

[Konradsmom]

Carang,

he is usually good with babling and playing alone, but he starts crying when he is sleepy - that is when he needs some help to sleep. On good nights, he can settle with a pacifier and some patting. But that good habit (sleeping by himself with shush-patting) is gone since he became quite sick twice in a row 2 months ago. There was a period when he would not last half an hour in bed without waking up continuously. So we had to hold him so that he feels more secure , and he has been more regular with his sleep for the past few weeks.

We are trying to break the holding to sleep habit (itself another long story), but I jsut can't figure out why he doesn't seem to settle into a pattern although we now have a good schedule going. Some babies are like clockwork, I guess mine just isn't made that way.

 

[fennho]

I posted this at 5-ish this morning...i was wondering becos she was making this REALLY LOUD sucking sounds by sucking on her hands! Someone from this site told me if they're sucking their hands = hungry. Soon after aft i posted, she started crying liao. Haha. In the end, i picked her up and fed her, 10-15mins, she knocked out.

Sage
Thanks for the compliment...i am wondering how i am going to continue nursing her to sleep as she gets older AND heavier!

Any experience mommies around who used to nurse their babies to sleep...when and how r they gonna learn sleeping on their own? Is it gradual?

Adahc
I think your bb is going thru a growth spurt..sounds like it. I am wondering how i am gonna cope when mine does. I am just going thru this taking one day at a time. Yes, it's comforting to know we're not alone in this, particularly when you felt lost and baby is crying, or u are wondering if it's normal, yes? PM me, maybe we can meet up to compare notes Where ru from originally? I'm from Singapore.

Konradsmom
At least your boy STILL takes the pacifier...my gal rejects everything plastic. It's heartwarming to know i'm "not replaceable" yet, at 3-4am, it's tiring!

 

[adahc]

I think so although he seems to settle back to hisnormal self (I might said it too soon). I set the time for him to sleep during the day as it is important to have a goodnap during the day to get a good night sleep. If he is overtiring, he tends to be jumpy and wakes up a lot during the night. At your baby's age mine too) they should sleep 14 hours a day.
I used to feed her to bed , now I'm rocking (equally bad). I use a lot of white noise from air con noise, pumping machine (just switch it on) while rocking him (if I'm lucky I can even put him down and pat him while the pumping machine is pumping). It's a gradual thing but requires work from your part to make it happen though. They won't just do it themselves.
My baby hates pacifier too. Oh by the way for the last feed I use 'MAM' bottle of 5oz milk, that send him to sleep pretty quite.
The word on the street is if the baby is full they tend to go to sleep easier and he sleeps longer since I did that. I use my breast milk though, never use formula. The reason I use MAM is because it is the closest to human's nipples. Give it a go. My son hates pacifiers too by the way, still does.
Yes we should all meet up actually.

I live in Discovery Bay.Have you been to any group at all? I find that it gives me confident and time pass quickly too. Somehow my son seems more relax after going to the class and see other babies.