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hi there.

Argh.  I thought my son Gavin was doing so well until he hit the 4 month mark.  He was sleeping at least 6 hours before one night feeding at 3-4am ish and I was okay with that.  He was also napping at consistent hours during the day (2 hours in the AM, 2 hours early afternoon and one catnap around 5pm ish).  He's 100% breastfeed.  And we were swaddling him, giving a few pats on the back and using a pacifier.

We saw the ped and I mentioned that he was waking for the one night feeding and the ped said he should be sleeping through the night as he was old enough.  She suggested we limit the use of the pacifier.  So for one week, we did (ie. pulling out the pacifier when he was drowsy) but then something happened and then, he wokes almost every 2 hours!  So now we reverted back to the pacifier and he is still waking every 2 hours. Gavin is easy to put to sleep but difficult to stay asleep.

My question is how do other parents sooth their babies during night wakings..my little guy just screams and thrashes around.  No amount of soothing voice, talking, or patting works without me or my husband using a pacifier or feeding to get him back to a calm state.

anybody got any suggestions ?

gina

Hi Kim,

Thanks for replying back.  I was really ok with feeding gavin once a night as I agree that 10-12 hours is a long time for a little one, especially (then) when gavin just turned 4 months.  I kinda feel that breastmilk is digested a whole lot faster as well.  I was just alarmed that the ped said he should be through the night without a pacifier.  Even more alarmed when I followed her lead to limit the use of the pacifer, gavin got worse!

Well, it's been a crazy month (gavin is turning 5 months by the end of the week) and he started to wake every 2-3 hours a night for a whole week + feed almost 2 hours that week + no bowel movements for that week.  I really think he went through a growth spurt that crazy week.  My mother in law insists that he's teething (well, she's been saying that since he was 3 months old) but I don't feel anything at his gums……but still, my question then is how to tackle sleep training with growth spurts and teething that occur almost randomly?

Right now, gavin gets to sleep great at naps and bedtime (wake up at 8am, nap at 9:30am for 1-2 hours, nap again at 2pm for 1-2 hours, catnap at 5pm-6pm for <1hour, bed at 8pm) but may wake at midnight, 4am and 6am.  He feeds hungrily during those times but I don't automatically feed him at first.  I try using the pacifier/patting his back/shhhing  to see if that soothes him back to sleep a couple of times.  If he cries sharply, then I feed him.  I also do try my best to let him fall asleep on his own during naps and bedtime – sometimes, he's wide awake and babbles to himself for about 20 mins before falling asleep without the pacifier (that gives me encouragement that maybe I am on the right path?)  It's just the night waking that leaves me confused onto what to do as if I ignore his cries, they escalate into him being fully awake.  I get the feeling that maybe he's hungry at 4 hour intervals as that's what his daytime feeding schedule is like but there's so many conflicting information out there.  I have tried the dream feeding and tanking up on feeds before bedtime and they make little difference.  

any other tips?

thanks.

Gina