In search of sleep . . . .
Last week I jinxed myself, I wrote this post bragging about how pleased I was because Beanie Boy had been sleeping through the night for two whole weeks. What was I thinking? I should have known that the little monkey would want to prove me wrong, because that very night began a new routine for Beanie Boy. He has decided that he likes 4am!! Personally I think it should be made law that the only hours of the day that appear twice are 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 – sometimes 12!
I’m totally at a loss as to how to progress and find our way to the ultimate destination, 12 hours uninterrupted sleep for my little man – for more than 2 weeks!!!! During the day he has a 30-45 minute nap around 9am, then 1-2hrs around 1pm. Sometimes if we’re out and about he might have 10 minutes in the car but that’s generally it until bedtime at 7-7.30pm. He is breastfed throughout the day and then his feeds at 7.30pm and 11pm are formula, the 11pm being a Good Night Formula which has clearly been mis-labled because it doesn’t provide me with a good night! At 4am on the dot (my little boy is a one-baby alarm clock he ‘asks’ for feeds at exactly the same time every single day, to the minute!) he wakes up and shouts his little head off until I go in and feed him. This can be anything from 15 mins to an hour and then he eventually goes back to sleep before waking again for his first feed at 6.48am to be precise.
Can you see where I’m going wrong? Please please please can you make any suggestions to help my little fella? He’s not overly wet in the morning and has never done a pooh when he gets up so I don’t think its anything to do with the contents of his nappy. He is nearly 7 months so I know that I’m still getting it easy compared to some mother’s whose babies haven’t slept through until pre-school age but I know that he is capable of it? All help would be most gratefully received – right, I’m off back to bed! Oh no, I can’t I have 2 small children who need me.
6 Comments
Rebecca Michi
April 13 at 9:12 pm
Hello,
If he is waking at exactly the same time each night you can try a technique called ‘wake to sleep’. It sounds totally crazy, but it may just work!
You need to set your alarm for 3:15am, yes you did read that right! Go into your son’s room and wake him up, again you did read that right!
What you want to do is reset his sleep cycle, so wake him and then get him back to sleep, you don’t want to fully wake him up, but it can be a case of trial and error to find out exactly how much you need to wake him up.
As his sleep cycle has been reset, he won’t need to wake up when he usually does.
Do this for three nights and then see if he can do it himself.
Rebecca Michi – Parenting Consultant & Children’s Sleep Specialist
http://www.rebeccamichi.com
mummymatters
April 14 at 9:04 am
Sorry its taken me so long to reply you had fallen into my Spam box, no offence intended! That makes sense to me, anything is worth a try so I will give it a go. Thanks 😉
Suzy
April 14 at 9:08 am
I go along with the water suggestion, it worked with my oldest. At the moment I am struggling with my 5 ninth old just waking every few hours, which varies night to night, and won’t even take a bottle.
mummymatters
April 14 at 7:57 pm
Beanie Boy was like that for a few months, I only managed to get him to take a bottle a few weeks ago, but until then I was still feeding him every 3 hours, was so tiring!
I did the water with my daughter but I totally forgot about it until I read it here, thanks for your comment x
seasiderinthecity
April 15 at 10:59 am
I’m afraid I don’t have the answer, but Jacob finally started to sleep at around 7 months – It all coincided with sitting up, first 2 teeth, and starting nursery.
We didn’t do anything different, but had been going through hell prior to this, so fingers crossed sleep is round the corner for you too!
mummymatters
April 15 at 8:03 pm
Oooh well he’s started sitting up and I think that perhaps he has his 2 bottom teeth coming through which is probably not helping the night wakings. My fingers are well and truly crossed!! 😉