A few weeks ago (before Christmas) this happened: Doodle woke up at 3:13. Hubby went in to put him back to sleep. Hubby came back frustrated at 3:35ish. I went in to put him back to sleep. I changed his diaper, swaddled, rocked in his chair, sang, bounced, patted his back, rubbed his back, gently stroked his face, rocked him in bed, did everything I could think of EXPECT feeding…at 4:47 I was back in bed, Doodle was asleep. And I decided we were done with night feeding. He was sleeping through the night before Thanksgiving, he surely can be now too!
It is typical for babies to start having more trouble sleeping at night when they are working on a new skill such as sitting up, crawling and standing. Well, that’s where we’ve been! Doodle started crawling January 1 and is now pulling to stand in his bed when he doesn’t want to sleep so this probably accounts for a lot of the sleeping trouble we were having.
The first week of my no-feeding regimen wasn’t too bad as we adjusted to the new routine:
Night 1: Doodle is up at 12:43. I go in, wrap him up tell him “It’s still sleeping time, night-night Doodle” and turn on his light and sound machine (which I use at nap time). I camp out on the couch until he’s quiet. 12 minutes later I’m back in bed and Doodle is asleep. Doodle sleeps until 6:00, I get up, turn on the lights and feed him.
Night 2: Doodle is up at 1:37. I go in, wrap him up tell him “It’s still sleeping time, night-night Doodle” and turn on his lights and sounds. I camp out on the couch while he screams. 20 minutes later hubby goes in and helps Doodle fall back asleep. Doodle sleeps until 6:00, I get up, turn on the lights and feed him.
Night 3: Doodle sleeps until 6:00, I get up, turn on the lights and feed him.
Night 4: Doodle is up at 3:13. I go in, wrap him up tell him “It’s still sleeping time, night-night Doodle” and turn on his lights and sounds. I camp out on the couch while he screams for a few minutes. The cat gets hungry and the crunching catches Doodles attention and he stops crying. 10 minutes of quiet and I go back to bed. 15 minutes later, Doodle is up again. Hubby goes in and helps Doodle fall back asleep. Doodle sleeps until 6:00, I get up, turn on the lights and feed him.
Night 5: Doodle sleeps until 5:30, I get up, turn on the lights and feed him and let him play. By 6:30 he is a raging lunatic so I lay him back down for a nap.
Night 6: Doodle sleeps until 5:11, I get up, turn on the lights and feed him and let him play. By 6:00 he is a raging lunatic so I lay him back down for a nap.
Night 7: Doodle sleeps until 6:00, I get up, turn on the lights and feed him.
Then something happened: Doodle started waking up at 4:15, 4:45, 3:55! I would go in, half-zombie like, turn on the lights, feed him, try to force him to play, put him back to bed and I would try to go to bed. About a week of this nonsense and I realized something: he was sleeping 8-9 hours at a time but the problem was he was going to bed around 8 so I started trying to keep him up longer. Then he started making it until 5:30 or 6 for about a week and then, just today we made it to 7:15! Of course I was still up at 6:30 with the girls, but, 7:15 ! So here’s to hoping we turned the corner and 7:15 remains the norm rather than 3:55!
Here’s the hard fast rules I put in place when I decided no more night-feeding:
- If I was not ready to be up for the day, baby did not get to eat. I would do everything else to get him back to sleep but not feed unless I was committed to be done sleeping myself.
- When I did decide it was time to be up, I would try to make sure Doodle understood it was wake-up time. I would turn on the lights, talk to him to keep him awake while he fed and then make him play.
- If I put him back down for a “nap” after feeding and playing, I would leave a soft light on if it was still dark out to try to help his body understand it was a nap, not a long sleep.
I can’t say for sure these things helped (or didn’t help seeing as we regressed quite a bit at one point) but the logic seems to work and we’ll continue on this path until we’re in a sleep pattern that suits us!
Do you have any tips for helping baby sleep better at night?
