The Basics of a Dreamfeed

The basics of a dreamfeed. The things you need to know to help the dreamfeed effectively work for your baby to sleep through the night. 

The dreamfeed is a helpful tool to help your baby sleep through the night when you are also sleeping through the night. Baby need so many feedings in a 24 hour period, and the dreamfeed is a way to make sure another feeding happens during your day so fewer need to happen during your night.

The term "dreamfeed" comes from the book Secrets of the Baby Whisperer (affiliate link) by Tracy Hogg. A dreamfeed is simply a late feeding that starts typically between 10-11 PM. The baby is already in bed, but you go in and feed baby one last time before heading off to bed yourself. The idea here is that baby gets a feeding in just before you go to sleep. When baby starts sleeping 7-8 hours straight without eating, these 7-8 hours then fall between 10-6, giving you a good night stretch to sleep yourself.

The dreamfeed is not necessary. If you would rather feed baby and put her to bed in the 7-8 PM hour and then head to bed yourself, go for it. The downside to not doing a dreamfeed is that it will likely be that the 7-8 hour stretch of sleep between night feedings will come between 7-2 instead of 10-6. If you are okay with this, there is nothing wrong with it. What you have to do is be prepared so when you hear stories of the 8 week old sleeping through the night, from 10-6, and yours is still waking up around 2 am, you can not be discouraged. You can remind yourself that your baby is also sleeping well and there is nothing to worry about. 

Some babies do not respond well to the dreamfeed. Some won't wake up for it and some sleep mores soundly through the night without it. Always do what is best for your baby; however, also be sure the dreamfeed legitimately does not work and the problems is not with your implementation of the dreamfeed. Some babies are very particular about certain aspects of the dreamfeed, so you might be able to tweak  one thing and get a great stretch of sleep in the night. 

In general, a dreamfeed works well for most babies. Some babies take work to get to take the dreamfeed initially. I had babies who needed a lot of time and effort put into establishing the dreamfeed before it was really a benefit. For me, it was something I wanted to establish. I wanted to be able to stay up past baby's bedtime to spend time with my husband. With effort, I established a dreamfeed with those babies.

Here are the basics of a dreamfeed to help you get baby sleeping through the night.

What to Do When Your Baby is Not Sleeping Through the Night

What to Do When Your Babywise Baby is Not Sleeping Through the Night

If you knew exactly when your baby would sleep through the night, you could be patient. If you knew in two weeks you would reach that magical day, you could persevere. The unknown is hard. The unknown can be soul-crushing. The unknown can make you very impatient. You don't know if you are on the right path and you just need a glimmer of hope!

You want baby sleeping through the night and you want it to happen now. 

When your baby is not sleeping through the night, you cannot solve the night wakings without figuring out why baby is waking up. Baby is not waking at night for no reason. Figuring out the why can take time and often takes experimenting, but you cannot get your baby to sleep through the night without fixing the "why" for the waking. Your first step will be figure out why, then you will fix the why. Here is a list of whys and how to address each one.

A word on addressing issues. You need to think scientific method here. You cannot take this entire list and address it all tonight. Change one thing at a time and see if that fixes it. If so, great. If not, try the next thing.

What to Do When Your Baby is Not Sleeping Through the Night

Have Patience

The first thing to do is to have patience. I get a lot of frustrated questions about 7 or 8 week olds who are not sleeping through the night. It is fully in the range of normal to be that age and not sleeping through the night, even when you use On Becoming Babywise (affiliate). It is fully normal even until 12 weeks old. 

So your first step in the process of figuring out why your baby is not sleeping through the night is figure out of if you just need more patience. I know you are tired! I know you are anxious not knowing when that magical night will come. You still have to be patient.

Analyze Feedings

When your baby gets up in the night, how does he eat? Does he eat well for the feeding in the night? 

If he eats well, how does he eat for the very first feeding of the day? If your baby eats well in the night and eats well for the first feeding of the day, your baby legitimately needs to eat in the night. Do not despair! There are things you can try if that is the case. You can add a dreamfeed if you do not have one so your baby can get an extra feeding in before your night time. You can try cluster feeding in the evening to squeeze in an extra feeding. You can also try feeding more often all day long to fit in an extra feed during daytime hours and hope baby then won't need a night feeding. For example, if you are feeding every 3-3.5 hours during the day, you can feed every 2.5 hours and work an extra feeding into the daytime.  

Those things won't always work, however, and you might need to just be patient until baby no longer needs that night feeding.

If your baby does not eat well for the first feeding of the day, then your baby probably does not need to eat at night. In this case, you can work to eliminate the night feeding and see what happens. You can cut the feeding all together, or you can slowly cut back the amount of time spent eating or total amount eaten if you are feeding with a bottle. 

Always keep in mind that growth spurts happen, so a baby who was not hungry in the night last week might be hungry in the night this week. Always be sure you feed extra for growth spurts during the daytime hours to avoid more night feedings from needing to happen.

Consider Sickness 

A sick baby will not sleep well at night. If your baby has a cold or any other sort of sickness, expect sleep to not be as solid as it would be otherwise. Once baby is done with the sickness, you can move on to try to get baby sleeping through the night, but during a sickness is not the time to fight that battle. 

Consider Pain

A baby in pain will not sleep well. Your baby might have gas pain or reflux pain going on, preventing baby from being able to sleep well and sleep solid through the night. If your baby is old, baby might be teething, causing pain. 

If you think your baby might be in pain, try remedying the pain and see how sleep goes. If it is reflux, talk to your baby's doctor about ways to help relieve the pain. Keep in mind that most reflux medication dosages are based on weight, so as your baby gets bigger, it is highly possible she will suddenly stop sleeping as well because her reflux meds are no longer enough and her pain is back.

If you suspect your baby has gas pain, try giving gas drops through the day each day. You also want to be sure you are burping thoroughly. 

If your baby is waking up from teething pain, you can give some pain meds before bedtime to help with the pain and hope it won't wake baby up at night.

Consider Habit

Some babies start out waking up for a legitimate reason, like hunger. Then they just get used to waking up at that time each day and each night and continue to do it. 

If it is habit, baby will literally wake up and just about the exact same minute each night. Baby can wake up at the same time and be hungry, so you can't assume it is habit just because it is consistent. 

If you think it might be habit, you can test it by helping baby fall back asleep without feeding baby. If baby wakes up an hour later (at the next sleep transition), you can safely assume baby really is hungry. If baby sleeps longer than an hour before waking again, there is a good chance it is habit. 

If you figure out that it definitely is habit, there are a few options before you. You can help baby fall back asleep and hope baby learns to sleep through and not wake from habit. You can try doing a wake to sleep from the Baby Whisperer. You can wait ten minutes before going in to see if baby will just resettle and go to sleep. You can also do cry it out. 

Consider Comfort

Is your baby uncomfortable in any way? When your baby transitions between sleep cycles, discomfort can lead your baby to wake up rather than drift into the next stage of sleep. A diaper being too wet or poopy can wake your baby. The room being too hot or too cold can wake your baby (see also this post on optimal temperature for sleep). Your baby not being dressed in the optimal way can make it so baby doesn't sleep well. The swaddle, or lack thereof, can wake your baby.

If your baby is uncomfortable in any way, change things up until you find the right temperature, diaper size, swaddle type, etc. for your baby to sleep well. 

Keep a Consistent Morning Waketime

I can't stress the importance of a consistent morning waketime enough. I know you are tired. I know you want to sleep in and just let baby sleep, especially if baby is waking in the early morning hours (or late hours of the night). 

You can sleep if you really want to, but know you will most likely delay baby sleeping through the night if you do so. Consistency with your first feeding of the day is the single most underrated tool for getting baby to sleep through the night. 

If your baby is waking a little too early in the morning, see this post for help.

Analyze Bedtime

Timing is key for good sleep. Timing for bedtime is important just like it is for naptime. I aim for bedtime to happen about 12 hours before I want baby waking up each morning. Keep bedtime consistent. 

If you think bedtime might be off, experiment with different bedtimes. Keep a log of what time bedtime happens so you can track if a certain time works better than another. 

Analyze Dreamfeed Time

The dreamfeed should happen between 10-11 PM for most babies. Some babies are quite sensitive and need the dreamfeed just so or they won't sleep well. I would say most babies are not hyper sensitive to the dreamfeed timing, but some are. My fourth child was so sensitive that she had a five minute window that worked. If I fed her outside of that window, she would not sleep well that night. Experiment with the timing for your dreamfeed. Go in five minute increments in case your baby is sensitive about it.

Analyze Overall Daytime Sleep

Your baby might not sleep well if daytime sleep is either too much or too little. If it is too little, your baby will be overly tired, and sleep begets sleep, so baby may not be well-rested enough to sleep well. If your baby has too many naps for her age, you might need to drop or shorten a nap to get daytime sleep in the right spot for night sleep to go well. Read my post on the Best Ages for Dropping Baby's Naps to know if it might be time for a nap change. 

Analyze Sleep Props and Self-Soothing Ability

If your baby has a sleep prop, the prop might be leading to baby waking in the night. If baby relies on a prop to fall asleep, then when he transitions at night, if the prop isn't there, he will likely wake instead of falling back asleep. It is not uncommon for babies who sleep with pacifiers to have a period of time when sleep is disrupted. At that point, parents decide between getting rid of the pacifier or pushing through. Sleep props are not always bad. Read more on when sleep props are okay and when you should avoid them. 

Another sleep prop is the inability to fall sleep independently. If your baby can't fall asleep alone, in other words, has no self-soothing ability, then baby likely will wake up in the night and need help falling back asleep. You might need to do some sleep training to get your baby to sleep through the night. One of my favorite methods for no-cry sleep training is the Four S's. If your baby is a newborn, this can work very well. 

Conclusion

Hang in there! Your baby will sleep through the night at some point. It might just happen, but you might need to put in some effort with doing some experimenting and figuring it out. Babywise is great and helpful, but even among the Babywise babies, there is a normal range that is quite large in Baby Standard Time. Even if you are baby wise, there are always outliers and extenuating circumstances, as listed above, that can interfere with night sleep happening when you hope. Go through this list. Try and see if any of them are interfering with sleep. If not, it might be time for some sleep training to get baby sleeping through the night. Your night will come. 

See Also:

• Sleep (a comprehensive list of all of the baby sleep posts on this site)
• 5-6 AM "Night" Wakings
• 10-12 Hours of Sleep
• Day/Night Confusion
• Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime
• How to Get Your Child to Sleep In Later in the Morning
• How I Got My Baby To Sleep 9 Hours by 8 Weeks Old
• Nighttime Sleep: 9-15 Weeks Old
• Nightime Sleep Issues--Revised and Updated
• Sleeping Through the Night: A Tale of Four Children
• How To Have a Good Sleeper
• 10 Reasons Your 5-8 Month Old Has Stopped Sleeping Well

Sleeping Through the Night: A Tale of Four Children

Sleeping through the night. It can seem like such a pipe dream at times. This unattainable goal somewhere off in the distance that we pine for. Perhaps it is even so seemingly far off that it is more like the fantastical unicorn. A fun thing to pretend exists, but is in reality a figment of our youthful past.

When we are not sleeping through the night, sleep can desperately seem like it will never again return to us.

But it does come! This post discusses how I attained sleeping through the night (STTN) for all four of my children. Let me start by saying that I largely just followed the outline of On Becoming Babywise (affiliate link) and had faith that when my baby was ready, STTN would happen. I believed that if I did my part in the day, things would work out at night. This is by and large true. There are, however, extenuating factors that can delay that magical day when STTN becomes the norm. Here are my stories and what I learned from each child.

Brayden--now age 12
STTN age: 6 months

With Brayden, we didn't start following Babywise at all until around four weeks and not fully until around 9 weeks. Because of our 9 week late start, I fully prepared myself to be 9 weeks behind the promises of what can happen with Babywise.

Brayden started sleeping through the night right around 6 months old (just before). Here is the crazy thing: he did it while on vacation several states away (and we live in the West, so several states away is a long way). This is counter-intuitive, right? A baby shouldn't be improving sleep while on vacation; he should be having some sleep setbacks while on vacation. Everyone knows that. So I decided I needed to take some hard looks at what was different between our home and my great-aunt's home where we were staying. The secret to the sleeping through the night mystery had to be in those differences.

The number one difference between our homes was that it was much warmer in my great-aunt's home. The second main difference was that Brayden had more privacy--we weren't quite in different rooms, but he wasn't right by us while on vacation. In our home, he was right by us (our "room" in my great-aunts house was literally more square feet than our first apartment). We were remodeling a house at the time while living in it and none of us had a bedroom--we were sleeping in the main family room area. It was an open floor plan and the entire main floor was open, which meant drafty. It also meant we could all hear each other. 

When we got home from that trip,  I decided the best way to duplicate the environment at my aunt's house was to move Brayden into the bathroom. Yep, the bathroom. We could close the door, which would mean it would be warmer. It also meant he wouldn't hear every peep we made and we wouldn't hear every peep he made.

It worked! For the next six months until we moved, he slept in the bathroom. And through the night. Happiness all around.

Something to note, I didn't really notice the concept of a "dreamfeed" or "late evening feed" with Brayden, so this STTN was from bedtime to morning waketime. 

Key things I learned:

• If your baby is older than "should" be for STTN and isn't, really consider factors that might be preventing your baby from STTN. It is good to be patient, some babies do take longer than you would expect, but you don't want to ignore some simple fix that could improve the situation. I have a post with common reasons for a baby not sleeping through the night: Nighttime Sleep Issues.
• If your baby is cold at night, he will not sleep well.
• As I look in retrospect, he was sleeping from bedtime to morning waketime at a younger age than both Kaitlyn and McKenna--he just had no dreamfeed. So realize that if you have no dreamfeed, your baby will likely wake during your night longer than a baby who has a dreamfeed.
• Don't be afraid to think outside the box and have your child sleep in an unconventional space. 

Kaitlyn--now age 10
STTN age: 4 months

When Kaitlyn came along, I was a huge believer in the ways of Babywise, so I intended to start from the beginning. She came with a challenge, however. Kaitlyn was diagnosed with reflux. Oh how reflux changes the game. 

Kaitlyn slept through the night right around the end of 3 months old/beginning of 4 months old. Kaitlyn loved to sleep. She was a great sleeper who was a natural at it. There were many times she woke in pain because of reflux, but her love of sleep really helped her sleep through the night earlier than most babies with reflux do (along with, of course, our adherence to Babywise principles). I stuck to our day routine and she naturally slept through the night on her own right around 3/4 months. 

At the time, Kaitlyn had a dreamfeed, so her STTN was from dreamfeed until morning wakeup time. I kept the dreamfeed until 7 months old.

Key things I learned with Kaitlyn:

• Babies with reflux (and I transfer that to a baby in pain for any reason) will very likely take longer to STTN than they would otherwise. More patience is needed. For more on reflux, see Babywise and Reflux.
• Some babies are more natural sleepers than others. Brayden fought sleep from birth while Kaitlyn embraced it. You will have to work harder with babies who love to sleep than you will have to work with babies who do not love to sleep.

McKenna--now age 8
STTN age: 9 weeks

When McKenna was born, I quickly recognized that I had another baby who loved to sleep on my hands. She was a very natural sleeper who didn't need cry it out ever to learn to sleep. I could put her in her bed awake from the first day and she would go right to sleep (I used the 4 S's wit her).

McKenna started STTN when she was 9 weeks old. I was so excited! Then the next week, she woke a couple of nights in the night again. My determination was that it was due to colder nights and her being cold. She went back and forth a few times, but for the most part was STTN at 9 weeks. At the time, we did cluster feeding and we also did a dreamfeed, so this STTN was with a dreamfeed. We dropped the dreamfeed at 29 weeks (around 7 months--she was ready sooner, but we moved right around when she was ready and I didn't want to change things up at the same time as a move). You can go here to read my newborn summaries to get full details of how the roller coaster went. 

McKenna was pretty textbook. Even so, I learned some things:

• Cluster feeding can really help facilitate STTN. 
• McKenna was a very small baby at birth--a low 6 pounder. Small babies often take longer to STTN. Babies are often around 12 pounds or so when they start STTN (not always, but often). 

Brinley--now age 5
STTN age: 8 weeks

Brinley wasn't here long before I realized that she is very similar to Brayden in the sleep department. She doesn't love sleep like Kaitlyn and McKenna love sleep. Even so, I started Babywise from day one like I had my other girls. And like McKenna, she never had to cry it out to learn to sleep on her own. We stuck with the 4 S's. 

Brinley, like McKenna before her, was also a small baby at birth. She slept through the night at 8 weeks old. This was with a dreamfeed and no cluster feeding. She was the type who started sleeping through the night and never really looked back. She just did it. When Brinley was 18 weeks old (right around 4 months), we dropped the dreamfeed. I like having the dreamfeed longer than that, but it started to disrupt her sleep so that she started waking early in the morning, so I dropped the dreamfeed and that fixed the early waking. 

Key things I learned with Brinley:

• Even if a baby doesn't love to sleep, she can still be an amazing sleeper. I did know that with Brayden, but I had to work hard to get him there. With Brinley, I also worked hard but worked hard from the beginning and never had to fight her at all. "Start as you mean to go on" will make your life easier, and your baby's life easier!
• Making sacrifices to establish good sleep patterns is worth it. It isn't popular among a lot of family members who have high expectations. But let me say this. Unless you have a young baby at the moment, you do not remember how sensitive they are to being overly tired. Unless you are a mother of said baby, you do not know what it is like to have to try to help baby through the disruptions. People forget. They aren't up with the crying baby in the middle of the night because sleep was so disrupted. We had family members who couldn't remember our policies between babies, much less what it was truly like for them to have babies. Your first priority is to your baby's needs. Some babies are more flexible than others. Some can handle disruptions better than others. Do what you feel is best for your baby. Explain it. Explain that the baby won't be a baby forever. Explain that you don't love having to miss things sometimes. Even with those explanations, family members aren't always nice and understanding (even if they acknowledge that they were the same way as you when they had young babies). See my post Dealing with Difficult Family Members for more. You can also see  Balancing Baby's Needs With Family's Needs, Baby Joins a Family {AND} Family Adds a Baby, and Welcoming Baby to the Family.

Good luck as you move toward sleeping through the night. Remember that consistency in your days will immensely help your nights to be smoother. Remember to be patient, but also mindful of things you can change. Your baby will get there! And your fantasies and dreams will all come true!

Poll Results: Sleeping Through the Night

In our sleep deprived states as parents with newborns, we are often anxious to get back to sleeping through the night. Perhaps one of the hardest things about it is not knowing when it will happen for sure. "What age will my baby sleep through the night?" It would be easier if we knew it would be 9 weeks, right? Then we could mentally prepare ourselves. This poll is intended to help people see what is typical, and also that there are situations that are not in the range of typical. I can't tell you when your baby will sleep through the night, but I can help you see what averages are and that there are always babies who fall outside of average. 

You can find original answers here. There were also answers on the Chronicles Facebook Page. Thank you to everyone who helped contribute!

1. What age did your child start sleeping 7-8 hours uninterrupted consistently?
   4-5 weeks: 3
   6-7 weeks: 5
   7-8 weeks: 11
   9 weeks: 1
   11 weeks: 2
   12 weeks: 1
   15 weeks: 1
   16-18 weeks: 2
   Don't Remember: 2
2. What age did your child start sleeping 9-10 hours uninterrupted consistently?
   5 weeks: 1
   8 weeks: 3
   9 weeks: 8
   10 weeks: 5
   11 weeks: 1
   12 weeks: 2
   13 weeks: 1
   15 weeks: 1
   16 weeks: 1
   20 weeks: 2
   8 months: 1
   Don't remember: 2
3. What age did your child start sleeping 11-12 hours uninterrupted consistently?
   8-9 weeks: 2
   10 weeks: 1
   12 weeks: 8
   13-14 weeks: 3
   15 weeks: 2
   16 weeks: 2
   5 months: 3
   6 months: 1
   7 months: 1
   10 months: 1
   1 year: 2
   N/A: 1
4. Did baby sleep through the night on his/her own, or did you do something to expedite the process?
   Moved baby to own room: 1
   Babywise: 8
   Swaddling: 5
   Pacifier: 1
   Intentional Training: 3
   Consistency: 7
   CIO: 5
   White Noise: 1
   Night Weaning: 3
   Waited a bit before responding to night noises: 1
   On Own: 16
5. If yes to 4, what did you do? Was it successful?
   Yes: 13
   No:
   Unsure:
   N/A: 16
6. If you tried cluster feeding, do you feel like it helped baby sleep through the night?
   Yes: 8
   No: 5
   Unsure: 1
   N/A: 14
7. If you did the dreamfeed, do you feel like it helped baby sleep through the night?
   Yes: 9
   No: 6
   Unsure: 5
   N/A: 8
8. If you did CIO at night, how many nights did it take to get to sleeping through the night?
   1 night: 3
   3 nights or less: 4
   Less than one week: 1
   Couple of weeks: 1
   Unsure: 4
   Didn't work: 1
   N/A: 13
9. What helped baby sleep through the night?
   Eating enough in day: 10
   Good feeding before bedtime: 1
   Sleep in own room: 2
   Have consistent schedule during day: 12
   Babywise!: 5
   Swaddle: 7
   No Waketime For Dreamfeed: 1
   CIO: 5
   White Noise: 2
   Pacifier: 1
   Early bedtime: 1
10. What hindered baby sleeping through the night?
    Sickness: 2
    Teething: 1
    Gas: 1
    Growth Spurt: 1
    Shortened bedtime feeding: 1
    Not Enough Sleep During Day: 4
    Interruption to Daily Routine: 4
    Pacifier: 3
    Not enough food in day: 4
    Cold: 1
    N/A: 5
11. Any words of wisdom or encouragement for parents hoping to have their baby sleep through the night?
    
    Christina said: Good advice for me to give myself as we are expecting #2. Make sure baby eats enough during the day. This is key so that they are less hungry at night! Work on setting up a bedtime routine that is consistent and familiar. Set a routine schedule (doesn't have to be exact times, but a comfortable routine will help). Don't expect all babies to sleep as quickly as mine did (like I said, I got lucky!), but on the other hand, don't underestimate your child, either.
    
    Adriane said: Getting on a schedule is HARD work. But with the effort you will have a well rested, happy, predictable baby!
    
    Belinda said: Although it doesn't seem like it now, these times will pass and your bub will sleep longer stretches smile emoticon
    Julie said: If you are consistent it will come. Don't give up. Usually you get one night and then you lose two or three. Then two in a row and lose one. Be encouraged by what your baby can do, rather than discouraged by the interrupted night. It'll get better.
    
    Jess said: When people say that they will eventually get there, it's true! It can feel like forever when you're in the middle of it but they can learn. Also, don't Google CIO if you're in the middle of it - lots of people think it's a terrible idea and will make you feel like the worst mom ever. Trust a few friends/family who will support you.
    
    Brittany said: Babywise works! It is a sanity saver. Use this blog! I've used it more than the book itself since my son was born. It will get discouraging and you will have emotional meltdowns, but remember the blessing that your baby is. Some parents would give it all to have a baby crying all night.
    
    Karen said:  My best advice is to stay consistent!
    
    Melissa said: Don't underestimate the importance of the day and its impact on the night!
    
    Wendy said: Make sure bub is getting all the calories they need during the day. Set firm times for daily wake time and down for the night, treat down for the night feed as a night feed, so no wake time between feed and bed. We do feed, bath, EBM top up then bed. Make room dimly lit, and wrap for bed before doing that last feed.
    
    Cole said: You'll get through it! I promise it will pass. Also, babies are little humans with different personalities. What worked for one kid may not work for another so don't be afraid to try different things. And personally, I don't think all babies are ready to STTN by 12 weeks like BW says. If you've tried EVERYTHING and it seems like your little one just can't do it, then hold on just a few more weeks until the 16-18 weeks mark. Don't be down on yourself thinking that you're doing something wrong smile emoticon
    
    
    
    Naomi said: Night waking can be due to many things other than hunger. Don't automatically feed them as that can extend night waking.  I feel like nothing we did helped or hindered [our second]. He was going to sleep great if he felt good and be up all night if he didn't no matter what we did (apart from giving meds).
    
    Jessi said: The benefit of teaching your baby to sleep far outweighs the stress of the training period and hearing baby cry. The training period feels like forever when you're in it, but afterwards, you'll look back and think it wasn't that bad and you can't imagine not having done it!
    
    Jessie said: Stick to your nap and feeding routines so you have confidence their needs are taken care of during the day. As long as baby is eating and going right back to sleep, it's most likely a necessary feeding for them and in the long term, it really isn't forever :)
    
    Katrina said:  Any words of wisdom or encouragement for parents hoping to have their baby sleep through the night? Sleep training is an investment in your marriage (one of the best things you can give your child is a healthy marriage) and in your child's health. You are not selfish for trying to help your child sleep through the night. Think of how much better you feel when you get good sleep? I believe these are great habits for your child. They will be more alert and happy during wake times thus more able to learn better during wake times. Hang in there! You're doing a great job! Just try to be consistent with naps during the day and remember generally sleep begets sleep. Don't think u can wear them out to getting a good night sleep! Set a timer if you CIO so you know when you have an end and get to go in and comfort. I also would pray that God would lead me to go in if I really ought to. I can't tell u how many times My son would roll over and fall asleep just as the timer went off. 
    I really think it's harder on mom than anyone else. It is an investment in the family to do the work necessary to help your child develop healthy sleep habits.
    
    Amber said:  It is definitely worth the discipline to keep to a schedule during the day. And I agree that it is so key for peaceful home and a happy marriage. ❤️ 

5-6 AM "Night" Wakings

Do you want your baby to sleep longer through the night? This post outlines ways to get your baby to sleep through the night. How to help your baby sleep through the night and stop waking up in the 5-6 am hour.

A really difficult time to navigate is the time when your baby starts to wake in the night around 5-6 AM. Most babies will land here for some period of time as they extend their night sleep. What was once a clear night waking around 2-3 AM extends to the 5-6 AM hour, leaving many parents wondering what to do. Do you count that as a night feeding? The first morning feeding? What do I do? How long will this last?

How long will this night waking last?

Of course it is impossible to say! Of my four children, all of them did this for some length of time. The time has ranged from mere days to weeks. I don't have a way to predict it for you. No matter how long it is, you will want a strategy of what to do when it happens.

Important Note

Please note, it is very important that you start your day at a consistent time. Babywise heavily stresses starting your day consistently--it states to not underestimate the importance of this for reaching your sleeping through the night goals. 

You can always change what your desired waketime is (if you are able--people who work or have children in school are more confined to a range). So your first goal may have been 7 AM, but you move it back to 8 AM (I have done this). That is okay. 

Whatever time it is, be consistent. What you don't want to do is feed at 6 AM and then let baby sleep until whenever. Let's talk strategies to stop these night wakings.

Brinley Newborn Summary: Week 9

love those smiles!

This summary is for Brinley's 9th week--she was 8 weeks old.

NURSING
Nursing went well this week except for one day--a wonder week 8 thing so see that below to know about that day.

POOPING
She is still on the 1-2 times per week pooping plan.

SLEEPING
Oh sleeping! This was a great week. One morning early in the week I woke at 5:30 AM and realized she hadn't woken in the night at all. A 7.5 hour stretch! It was a day I needed her on her normal schedule because I was helping in Kaitlyn's class, so I woke her, fed her, then put her back down and got her up again at 7:30.

Through the week, she kept sleeping longer and longer. She moved to 9 hours!

There was a morning she woke at 6:15 AM. This is such an awkward time to wake up when our goal time is 7-7:30. I find it difficult to decide what to do. I either start the day at 6:15 and move on from there, or I feed then get up again in two hours. There really is no wrong or right way universally--just what works best for your baby, you, and your family.

As she ate, I thought and thought about what to do. In the end, I decided to put her down and then get her up in two hours. I had two driving reasons for coming to that decision.

The first reason was that if I started the day then, she likely would drop a feeding. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it being the first day of possibly doing that an her being 8 weeks old, I wasn't sure that I wanted to drop a feeding. I wanted to stick to 7 feedings in a 24 hour period for the time.

The second reason was that the time change is coming up (ugh). So if I start the day at 6, it is like starting at 5 in a month. I don't want to train her body into that starting time. This was my primary reason for feeding and then waking again in two hours. For more on this, see my post:  Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.html

And of course with the good sleep the comments start coming. "You are so lucky!" She is a good baby, but I wouldn't put it to luck. I haven't just happened into her being a great sleeper. I make a lot of sacrifices to protect her sleep and I make sure to keep her routine consistent.

Happily I also get the positive comments. One nice old lady at my church asked me how she was sleeping, and when I told her she said, "Well you know why don't you? It is because you are such a good mom. You know, you really need to write a book about babies. And look how alert she is! For her age she is just so alert!" I really love her :)

MILESTONES
A Babywise milestone she met this week, besides the sleeping, is that she started to wake happy. She wasn't happy for long periods, but she would wake up and lay there and look around contently. 

WONDER WEEK 8
We had one day of wonder week 8 business going on. Wonder Week 8 is "The World of Patterns." Your baby starts to become aware of patterns around her. Baby might stare at lights (this is something Brinley did--obsessed with lights). She can also be obsessed with playing with her hands (but Brinley was not). There can be more sound experiments and babbling noises (yes). She can focus longer (yes). Baby can be more clingly, cry more often, loses appetite, shy around strangers, and sleeps poorly. The gym is a great toy for this age.

She had the one half day of poor sleep and lack of appetite. She was obsessed with lights, and definitely started using her voice more. 

TWO MONTH WELL CHECK
For Brinley's two month well check I tried something I haven't ever tried before. For doctor appointments, I have always gotten the baby up and fed her and then taken her to the appointment. This is great and all, but by the time you get into the doctors office, it is time for baby's nap.

This time, I woke her right when it was time to leave. We hopped in the car and drove to the appointment. It is only a 10-15 minute drive for us. Our doctor is fast about getting you out of the waiting room, so we checked in and were called back a few minutes later. We got her weight and length. Then I sat and started to feed her while I waited for the doctor to come in. She was finishing side one right when he came in. So we paused and did the check-up. Then she got her vaccinations and I fed the second side, we drove home, and she went down for her nap. I actually liked this a lot. One great thing is that she wasn't up as long. She was only up for about 15 minutes longer than usual, which she can handle once in a while. Another great thing was that I was able to nurse her after her vaccinations, so I was able to give her some comfort--not that you couldn't do the same even if it wasn't time to nurse.

Speaking of the vaccinations, she did great that day, sleeping the rest of the day. She did need acetaminophen throughout the remainder of the day. About six hours after her vaccinations, she was in some pain. It was almost time for medicine again, but not quite, so you know it is not working as well. She was nursing and just started crying from the pain from being on her side. My friend Kristi later suggested I do the football hold, which I didn't think of at the time--great idea! So you can do that if you are in a similar situation. Her next feeding was during her medicine being active. By the next morning, she was just fine.

CUDDLE BUG

Brinley loves to cuddle. She will often be sleepy at the end of a feeding and just cuddle up to me and doze. I love to sit and just hold her. I give her a couple of minutes before waking her up and just soak in the moment. She won't do it much longer and I want to just relish in it while she does!

SCHEDULE

This is our daily schedule.

7:30--feed

8:20--nap

11:00--feed

11:50--nap

2:00--feed

2:50--nap

4:30-5:00--feed

5:20--nap

7-7:30 (time varies here)--feed, then bedtime

10:00--dreamfeed

then night feed. Typically, this happened between 6-6:15. Toward the end of the week she slept until 7 AM.

HELPFUL BOOKS

• Baby Body Signs: The Head-to-Toe Guide to Your Child's Health, from Birth Through the Toddler Years
• Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby
• On Becoming Baby Wise
• Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
• What to Expect the First Year
• The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems: Sleeping, Feeding, and Behavior--Beyond the Basics from Infancy ThroughToddlerhood
• The Wonder Weeks 

RELATED POSTS/BLOG LABELS:

• newborn summary (blog label)
• Newborn Summary: Week Nine (McKenna)

Sleeping Through the Night Success!

image source

After being home with my sweet daughter, Farrah, for a few weeks and adjusting to life with very little sleep, I decided it was time to do some reading to help me figure out how to help her get in a good routine and get the sleep she needed.  I was completely clueless when it came to babies. I have never really been around many babies. I am also a planner/scheduler who is a little OCD. So, I needed a plan! I was given the book On Becoming Baby Wise as a Christmas gift, so I decided to start with that.  Everyone kept telling me that Farrah had her days and nights mixed up.  I really feel that the book, On Becoming Baby Wise, helped me help Farrah figure this out.  On Becoming Baby Wise gave me a plan to follow to help my baby learn the difference between day and night.  The main goal of the book is to have a healthy, growing baby who sleeps through the night by 8 to 12 weeks.  I do feel that the book helped me accomplish this goal.  I did not follow the BW plan completely.  After reading the book, I was definitely a little confused and trying to figure out how I was going to do everything on the plan.  After searching the Internet for some help, I came across the blog Chronicles of a Babywise Mom.  Wow! What a lifesaver!  The blog helped me understand parts of the BW plan that I did not understand as well as showed me that I did not have to follow it exactly.  I simply used the parts that I felt would work for us.  Farrah started sleeping through the night at 9 1/2 weeks.  What a welcomed milestone!  At this point, Farrah was eating on a combination 2 1/2 - 3 hour schedule.  She had a bottle at 8:00 PM and then went to bed.  I would wake her at 10:00 PM for one last feeding.  This was supposed to be her "dream feed", but I never was very successful at keeping her from waking all the way during this feeding.  During the second month, she had stopped waking to eat in the middle of the night.  The next big step was to cut out the 10:00 PM bottle.  I had not even thought about trying to cut out this feeding in fear that she would start waking to eat in the middle of the night again.  One night while we were in out of town, I fed Farrah at 8:00 PM and put her to bed.  I typically would stay up until her 10:00 PM feeding.  Well this particular night I accidentally fell asleep.  I woke in a panic scrambling for my phone to see what time it was.  It was 4:00 AM, and Farrah was still asleep!  So I decided to just go back to sleep and see if she would sleep until her first bottle which was usually between 6:00 AM and 6:30 AM.  Of course I figured as soon as I got back to sleep she would wake up, but she didn't.  She slept through the night!  So, that was the end of her 10:00 PM bottle, by accident.  Farrah is now almost 6 months old.  I really feel that the combination of the book, On Becoming Babywise, and the blog, Chronicles of a Babywise Mom, really helped me "figure out" how to help my daughter get a goo, restful nights sleep.  I plan on getting the second BW book, On Becoming Babywise II, soon!  Check out my blog, Being Farrah's Mom, for more of my adventures of figuring out this whole "Mom" thing!

Amberchenson

www.beingfarrahsmom.blogspot.com

Breakfast and Morning Wake Time

image source

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and this is true for more reasons than just giving you the energy you need for the day. The time you eat breakfast every day impacts the time you wake up in the morning. This is true no matter what your age is. 

If you eat breakfast every day at 7:30, most days you will wake up by 7:30--ready for food. 

This is an important point to remember when you are establishing morning wake time.

Does your baby wake earlier than you want her to? Try slowly moving breakfast to the time you want to eat. If she wakes at 7:00 and you would prefer 7:15, get her up when she wakes if she needs you to, but distract her for at least 5 minutes. A few days later, try for 10 minutes. Then eventually get to where you feed her at 7:15.

Consistent breakfast time is also very important if you have night wakings that you want to stop. I have posts with more on this, so see:

• Consistent Schedule: Start Your Day Right: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/11/consistent-schedule-start-your-day.html
• What Time Should I Start My Day:http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-time-should-i-start-my-day.html
• Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime:http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.html

This concept is also true for older children. If you feed your toddler, preschooler, or child at the same time each morning, your child will tend to wake up closer to that time.

Now, there are of course more factors than the time of breakfast in morning wake time. We have the sun (Early Morning Waking and the Sun). We also have being too hot or too cold. We have what time the child went to bed the night before. The time you eat breakfast, however, is a very important part of the equation. Babywise book one cautions to not underestimate the power of starting the day at the same time each day in getting your baby to sleep through the night.

Keep breakfast time consistent, and you will have a consistent morning wake-up child.

Related Posts/Blog Labels:

• morning wake time
• sttn
• sleep problems
• Early Morning Waking and the Sun
• Consistent Schedule: Start Your Day Right: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/11/consistent-schedule-start-your-day.html
• What Time Should I Start My Day:http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-time-should-i-start-my-day.html
• Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime:http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.html

Reader Sleep Questions

CIO in General:

• Meredith said... Thank you so much for this blog - It is so useful to me. I started my child with CIO at 6 weeks. It has only taken him a few days to deal with it. However, now he seems to be sleeping a LOT! I'm concerned he's not eating enough although his diapers are the same as before he started sleeping more. I decreased his wake time and he is taking a 2-2.5 hour morning nap and two 1.5 hour afternoon naps, and is very sleepy during feedings and after feedings except in the morning. Is this normal for a 6 week old?
  January 2, 2008 3:06 PM 
  Plowmanators said... In my experience, yes. I was still fighting Kaitlyn to stay awake while she ate during her feedings at 6 weeks. Babies sleep a lot, and I think a common trend these days is to not have your baby sleep as much as they need. That trend seems to continue into toddlerhood and right on into adulthood. How many adults actually get the sleep they need in our society? Great job! I hope it continues to go so well!
  January 2, 2008 5:46 PM
• Kristy said...
  I have a three week old formula feed baby who will go through two three hour feedings in the afternoons without napping. During these six hours I have feed, changed, and held/played with her but when I put her down she will cry the entire time before the next feeding. I will check on her every 15-20 min to try to calm her down again but she will start crying again when I put her down. While I hold her she will calm down but not fall asleep. Some times this not falling asleep will carry into the 9:30-10:00 feeding when she will not fall asleep until after the next 12:30 feeding. What can I do to get her the nap during these times? She is napping in the mornings for 2 to 2 1/2 hours but I have a very difficult time keeping her awake for more than 15-30 minutes after the feedings.Thank youKristy
  June 19, 2008 8:36 AM 
  Plowmanators said...
  Kristy, Sounds like you have a baby like Brayden was; doesn't really like to sleep. You likely have your work cut out for you, but believe me that it will be well worth the effort in a relatively short time. Then in the toddler years, you will be even more happy you did it. I will first recommend you see these posts. If you have questions beyond that, don't hesitate to ask:CIO Bootcamp: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/11/cio-bootcamp.html Waking Early From Naps/Won't Fall Asleep For Naps: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/waking-early-from-napswont-fall-asleep.html
  Easy Nap Fix: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/easy-nap-fix.html
  June 19, 2008 1:58 PM

CIO at Night:

• Katy said...
  Hi there! I'm new to your blog and am really enjoying it. Thanks so much! I have a question that I haven't seen addressed anywhere:I have a 4 1/2 month old baby girl. Even though she'd go to a 4-hour schedule during the day without complaint, I keep her on a tight 3-hour schedule because she isn't sleeping through the night. She's a great napper and self-soothes with minimal or no crying.I know that Babywise says that some babies need to cry it out in the middle of the night, but what does that mean exactly? For 8 hours don't feed the baby? Let the baby cry until 3 or 4 hours have passed an the baby might truly be hungry?Last night I fed my baby at 6:30 (then bed), 9:30, 12:30, 3:30, and 5:30. (Yes, I'm exhausted!) I let her cry each time to make sure she was really awake and at 5:30 I tried to see if I could soothe her back to sleep without feeding since it had only been 2 hours (no luck). Each time the baby sucked vigorously and took a full feeding. She's just about average size-wise (not at all rollypolly) so I'm hesitant to drop feedings since she really does seem hungry. Because she would easily go 3.5 or 4 hours between feedings during the day if I let her I don't think I have a milk supply issue. I'm at a loss on what to do-- any thoughts?
  May 8, 2008 7:34 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  I think you are right to not move to a 4 hour schedule yet. Babies have an increase in need for food around 4 months, so she might be going through that. I also think you are right to make sure it isn't a hunger issue. It sounds like she has some reason for waking, and since she seems to be able to go longer in the day, I would tend to doubt it is hunger. I would guess either she is waking because she isn't able to self-soothe beyond a few hours, she is hot or cold, etc. I would really try to find out the problem.Once you have ruled out other options, you could CIO. See this post for other options. CIO in the night would mean whatever it means for you. The reason I suggest you rule out all other possibilities before doing it is so you can do it with confidence. Consistency is so key to CIO that you would have to be consistent to get good results. Good luck!
  May 8, 2008 11:13 PM
• Amy said...
  Hey, there- I posted a while back about my little one waking early. (I'm the one with 8 kids) We made some progress and had finally gotten to a place of sleeping from 9pm to 6am. Unfortunately, she got Roseola after that and then a cold right after that-such a bummer! I have been up at night quite a bit through all this but now that she is all better I really need to help her sleep through the night. She is 10 months old and having a full bottle at 10pm and then crying at 4:30am! I let her cry for about 30 min and then give in and feed her-desperate to get back to sleep myself! I feel so discouraged at times because my other children I did babywise with slept through by 9 weeks and then even longer nights, 11 hours or so not long after that...She is sleeping now and I am tempted to just not feed her the df tonight to see what happens. I think I need to do CIO and I may wait until my dh is out of town next week. I think I have ruled out every other reason for her night waking...other than double checking with her doctor again to be sure her ears are fine, etc.I guess I am looking for ideas...or just some hope.ThanksAmy
  September 8, 2008 11:06 PM
  Plowmanators said...
  Amy, one thing is if you aren't going to stick out the CIO, I wouldn't even start it. Your baby is definitely smart enough and persistent enough to realize a mear 30 minutes of crying will get you in there. So I would either go all the way or not at all.The dreamfeed can interfere with good night sleep, so you can definitely try dropping it and seeing what happens. I haven't ever done CIO in the night, but I ams sure with consistency and time, you can get there. Good luck!
  September 12, 2008 1:09 PM
• jac said...
  Hi! I am so thankful for your blog and all of your advice here. I am, obviously, a first time mom, and need some help with my son. He will be 9 weeks on Saturday, and, although we do a dreamfeed at 11pm, seems to wake at 4:30 each morning. Sometimes, it doesn't seem to matter when we do this feed however, he just wakes at 4:30am. Also, he eats at this feed, but not adamantly...he seems content to eat from one side, then nibble on the other, and fall asleep after de-latching himself and doing some 'playing' at the breast, it seems. He's a big boy(9.3 at birth), likely around 13-14 pounds. My question is: how do I know, in fact, that he isn't at least a little hungry, and therefore NEED that feed at 4:30am? Meaning, can I let him CIO yet? How will I know if it's hunger, in which case I wait for him to extend his night on his own, I guess? Or whether it's just habit, in which case I can let him CIO? I know I'm pushing the 9 week timeline here...is there anything else I can do to help extend the night? (I do the cluster feed 9:30 and 11pm already)Thank-you SO much!
  December 3, 2008 6:26 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  Jac, first, keep in mind that many babies take until 12 weeks to STTN, so don't stress about this. I know you are looking forward to it, but don't take this as a make or break of how well you are doing as a parent. There are really a lot that don't STTN until they are older than 12 weeks, so bear that in mind. Do you have a consistent waketime in the morning? If not, make sure you start that. If so, how does he eat at that time? If he is still taking a full feeding, chances are he needs that 4:30 feeding still. If he doesn't take a full feeding, he might be ready to drop it. See this post for ideas on that:
  Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.html
  December 5, 2008 11:53 AM

Crib to Bed Transitions:

• Tanya Hebert said...
  What are your thoughts on the crib-to-bed transition? My daughter is 21 months and we are starting to think about it. Are there any indicators as to when it's a good time? Any words of wisdom about making it a good transition all around? Do you recommend a toddler bed or going straight to a twin-size bed? Any thoughts/guidance you have is much appreciated. Thank you.
  May 20, 2008 2:48 PM
  Plowmanators said...
  Tanya, I did a post on crib to bed transitions today in response to your question :)
  May 21, 2008 11:06 AM

Naps

• Stephanie said...
  I have a couple questions...1) My 8 month old is taking two naps a day now, usually about 1 1/2 hours. Sometimes, it's 2 hours and sometimes it's only 1. Lately, her second nap has only been 1 hour long, which means she wakes about 3:00pm. Her last feeding is 8pm which makes bed time around 8:30. Since there is such a long time between 3 and 8, she's quite fussy in the evenings and I find myself doing things just "to kill time". I can't just play with her because she's not happy; I usually have to walk around and hold her, go for a walk, etc. I've tried putting her down for a little cat nap, but it hasn't worked..she just keeps crying and then it gets to be too late for her to sleep because then she won't be ready for bed at 8:30. She is still waking anytime between 4-5 in the morning which I am doing everything I can to get that to stop. Do you think putting her to bed earlier, like 7:30 would make her wake even earlier in the morning, or maybe because she's so tired at night, it's affecting her night sleep? I know that sleep begets sleep, but it's so hard to believe that if I put her to bed earlier, she's not going to wake earlier. Or maybe, I should just keep doing what I'm doing until she starts sleeping longer into the morning?My other question, regarding sleeping longer and putting her to bed earlier. I've never done a dream feed. I didn't even know what it was until a couple months ago, and she was already 6 months old, so I thought it's not something I should be starting at that age when most people are trying to stop it at that age. BUT, is it possible that that may help her sleep longer in the morning, or will that just create yet another habit I will have trouble breaking later? 8 months of only getting about 5 hours of sleep at a time, I'd almost rather df and have an uninterrupted night sleep, but I also don't want her to start relying on that and start waking for it. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! I'm so exhausted; if I could afford it, I'd probably be taking my baby to see a sleep specialist! Sorry, I didn't realize this was so long. Thank you!! And congratulations on baby #3!!!
  September 25, 2008 8:00 AM 
  Plowmanators said...
  Stephanie, Jenny, and Erin, I apologize--I missed all of your comments until now! If you are still having trouble, please let me know.
  November 10, 2008 3:28 PM 
  Amy said...
  Valerie,I am having the same problem Stephanie is/was having but my dd is 12 mos now! I am curious if Stephanie has posted anywhere-did things get better?Amy
  November 12, 2008 7:11 AM 
  Plowmanators said...
  Amy, so far as I know, I haven't heard from Stephanie, but it is really hard to keep everyone straight :) See this post for ideas:Dropping the Morning Nap (from 2 to 1 naps): Transition Time : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/10/dropping-morning-nap-from-2-to-1-naps.html
  November 22, 2008 4:14 PM

• Elizabeth said... I have some of the same problems as Anna. My daughter who is 8 weeks will only nap for one hour - especially in the morning - so it seems impossible to get her on a 3 hour schedule. She can only stay awake for 1 hour as well. At night she is really sporadic with how long she sleeps and when she wakes up. I would say she averages 4 hour stretches at night, but sometimes it's only 2 1/2 and others it's 5-6.
  November 13, 2008 2:01 PM 
  Plowmanators said... Elizabeth, this is a common problem parents run in to. At that age 1 hour is acceptable for a nap, but no baby that age can stay awake for 2 hours. It just doesn't mathematically add up. See the naps posts for ideas on extending naps; she is old enough to realistically start sleeping longer.
  November 19, 2008 3:04 PM

Naps and Night

• Mark said... Hi, i really enjoy your website--very helpful. have a coupel questions for you. my sara is 8.5 weeks old and is NOT napping well. she sleeps for thirty min (after cryign 5-10 when put down) then cries on and off during her whole naps. she is exclusively been breast fed and eating ~ 2.5 h or 3. i think she could go 3 all the time but i give in when she cries so much and try to feed her--she still falls asleep when eating 80% of the time. any advice welcome...... thanks, stacy
  March 30, 2008 3:57 PM
  Mark said... sara's mom again--forgot to mention earlier i have been trying to do babywise since around 2 weeks of age. she averages around 45-50 min for eating and wake time until she starts yawning and getting fussy. i am trying to drop middle of night feedings. she feeds @ 8-9pm and at 1130pm (we wake her for these)and i am trygin to get her to sleep till 630. she starts crying around 410 and goes on and off with cryign till 6 when i usually cave in and feed her. need some help from experienced BW mom.
  March 30, 2008 4:02 PM
  Plowmanators said... When she falls asleep eating, make sure you don't let her stay asleep, even for a couple of minutes. I noticed that when this happened with my daughter, she would cry a lot before a nap. She wasn't a big crier usually (our first nap for "CIO" she didn't cry even for a second). I finally figured out that when I let her sleep for a couple of minutes during a feeding, she would cry and cry at naptime. Here are a few posts I recommend if you haven't read them already:
  CIO Bootcamp: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/11/cio-bootcamp.html
  Waking Early From Naps/Won't Fall Asleep For Naps: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/waking-early-from-napswont-fall-asleep.html
  
  For the middle of the night, I personally wouldn't work on that until she gets better at CIO in the day. You both need the sleep in the night to make it through the day. Keep in mind that 15% of babies don't start sleeping 7-8 hours until they are 10-12 weeks old. So I would wait until CIO in the day is going better--until she has figured out how to self-soothe. I would then evaluate the situation and go from there. There is a chance she will start STTN on her own once she knows how to self-soothe. If not, your nights of CIO will be significantly fewer if she knows how to self-soothe already. Good luck! It does get easier.
  March 31, 2008 9:44 AM
  Mark said... sorry to bother u again--thank you sooo much for ur advice. this is my delima--i go back to work in a week and i am trying to get her on the 7,10,1,4,7,10 schedule (i think that would work best for us)--she did great yesterday on it and naps were better--took ur advice about feeding. she is 11 pounds and 9 weeks on thurs--do u think she can go from 10pm till 7am? would you add a feeding around 4am. yesterday ate at 7,10,1,350,715,and 1030pm and woke at 245-300am just whiny and back to sleep with no intervention then at 5am woke crying and i fed her at 515 she ate for about 4-5 min on one side then slept and cried at 630 and i fed her at 645am. i am getting ANXIOUS about having to go back to work and how to best fit her schedule (i have to leave for work at 6am and my husband will take her to our cargiver @730 then i get off @ 3pm and can be with her @ 330p). i need HELP and advice on what schedule you would recommend...... i was hestiant to mess up her first am nap b/c those first 2 of the day are her best ones. (that is why i thought 7am would be good then my husband would leave house at 730 and she could be put down around 745am.
  April 1, 2008 7:45 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  Stacy,WEEKS 9-15Baby can gradually move to 9-10 hours of continuous sleep if breastfed, 11 hours if bottlefedOver the next few weeks, she should be able to sleep that amount of time. Until then, it might be a bit tiring for you with going back to work. It sounds like she needs to eat in the night still. I would wait before you respond like you did, but when she full-on cries, get her and offer a full feeding. It sounds like your projected schedule should work. Keep working toward it. Don't worry about the night feeding until you can tell she doesn't need it. Hang in there!
  April 1, 2008 2:43 PM
  Mark said... THANK YOU for your responses. i really enjoy your blog and find it so helpful!!!! one last question--would u just wake her up @ 3am or 4am and feed her or let her wake up crying then feed her even if it is 5 or 530am would you offer a full feeding since we are doing a 7am waketime.thank you :)stacy
  April 1, 2008 4:49 PM
  Plowmanators said... Stacy,Have you seen this post:Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.html I would just let her sleep until she wakes and feed her in the 5 hour. See that post for more ideas. Good luck!
  April 1, 2008 10:36 PM
• ProudMum said... Hello,I have discussed before with u many of mine baby issues. I really got benefits from ur nap articles. she is self soother from around 2 months when she got her thumb. night sleeping is always fine. I never give her sleep training. my nap problem was identification of her wake time. which is 1 hr 10 min if she sleeps well before. she is now five months old today. but problem is that she always wakes up crying after 1 hour. i let her cry for sometimes but it didnt solve the problem so I always feed her and then she goes to sleep. so I never be on 3 hr schedule. She is not taking solids.Same is the case with her she always wakes up at 6:25 am and need feed which is around 5 mins and then she takes time and goes back to sleep.I am worried because when she finally wakes up around 8:30 or 9 she is not genuinely hungry. So how should I handle both of these situations.
  July 22, 2008 9:56 AM 
  Plowmanators said... Proudmum,For your 6:30 feeding, see this post:Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.html Have you tried a shorter waketime for naps? It sounds like she doesn't know how to soothe herself through a transition and so she is using you. See this post: Waking Early From Naps/Won't Fall Asleep For Naps: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/waking-early-from-napswont-fall-asleep.html
  July 23, 2008 3:30 PM 
  ProudMum said... baby is five months now. i have started solids. she eats all of it with great interest, but she wanna take nap right after it. even if its not time of nap is it normal?
  July 24, 2008 3:01 AM 
  Plowmanators said... ProudMum, So did you start solids then? A couple of days ago you said your baby didn't take solids. It is not normal to nap right after a meal.
  July 25, 2008 1:58 PM
• Anna said... Hi, I have a nine-week old little girl who is a really good baby. She's breastfed, but she's not really sleeping through the night yet, and her night time sleep doesn't make sense to me. For example, one night I fed her at 8, put her down at 9 and she slept until 4:30. I know, that's great, BUT the next night, I did the same except I added a dream feed at about 11. She slept until 4:30. And, it's not always 4:30, so I don't think she's "stuck". Last night, she took 5.5 ounces (I pump for her last feeding so I know she gets enough) at 11 p.m. and woke up at 3:30. I feed every three hours. She's napping for about an hour in each three hour cycle, but she ends up having that nap in the middle of the cycle. I can't seem to get her to stay awake long enough to make the hour the last hour of the cycle, if that makes sense. Any advice you have would be great!
  November 13, 2008 1:06 PM 
  Plowmanators said... Anna, see the blog label "naps" for ideas on fixing the naps.As far as STTN, understand that many babies don't STTN until 12 weeks old (many even older) so I wouldn't worry about that.Also, some don't sleep as well with a dreamfeed as they do without. If your baby isn't sleeping better with the dreamfeed, then just forget about it. Then you can go to bed earlier :)
  November 19, 2008 3:03 PM

Nighttime Sleep Problems

• monkeymom said...
  My daughter is 14 weeks old. She goes to bed between 630p and 700p. She usually wakes around 10-11pm and eats a 6oz bottle and then again at 3am (although this has been 5am for the past two days). I have to wake her up at 7am and she is usually still sound asleep. When she wakes she is happy, but not hungry. Do you have suggestions on whether I should try to drop the 3am feeding and if so should I try decreasing the amount of formula as mentioned in some of the blogs before? Also she naps (on a good day) from 9am-11am and then from 1pm-3pm. Should she have a third nap in there somewhere?thanks!
  August 26, 2008 11:18 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  Yes, you should have a third nap, but only about 45-60 minutes long. You can certainly try dropping that night feeding. It shoulds like she is moving toward that. See this post for more:
  Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.html
  August 30, 2008 9:22 PM
• jencwu said... Sorry, I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question or not, but I couldn't find what I was looking for. Typically we don't have any problems with our little one sleeping at night... I let him fall asleep nursing after he's gotten a full meal and he will stay asleep for 4-5 hours usually. Last night was quite different though. He woke up around his usual time, about 3:30 to feed. After he finished and fell asleep, I put him in his crib as usual about 4:30. As soon as I got to my bedroom, however, he awoke and cried on and off for an hour until I got up to nurse him more. He was not very interested in eating but did fall asleep again. So once again, I laid him in his crib only to hear him crying when I got into my room again. At this point I decided to let him CIO and my husband took over so I could get a little sleep. He finally fell asleep about 45 mins later at 6:15 but only slept for 45 mins because then it was time for him to wake up and eat. What would you recommend for these types of situations? This is really the first time this has happened. (You probably know this from my other posts but he is almost 6 weeks old)
  August 31, 2008 4:43 PM
  Lorri said...
  I do know that 6wks is when my little guy hit a growth spurt-and he didn't necessarily want to eat more, but definitely was a little more finicky through the night.This is about where we started creating bad habits because he didn't eat-I though something had to be wrong and felt sorry for him and started rocking him back to sleep.
  September 1, 2008 2:17 PM
  Plowmanators said...
  Thanks Lorri for your thoughts. 6 weeks is a growth spurt age, so you definitely need to watch for that, and it is always good to caution against starting bad habits.
  September 5, 2008 10:11 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  jencwu, thanks for posting the age--there are so many people who comment here that I have no chance of remembering each child's age :)For a one night occurence, I think I would have done pretty much like you. I would have listened to the cry at 4:30 for about 10 minutes while I figured out the reason for the crying. If it sounded like he was in need of help, I would have gone in and checked the diaper. But I don't think I would have fed him again. One hour is definitely not needed if he took a full feeding the first time. I would have made sure all was well, then put him in bed and let him cry.One thing I would wonder about if this continues to happen is if your holding him until he is asleep is causing it. I would feed him and when he is done eating, put him in bed.
  September 5, 2008 10:10 AM
• kathrynyanus said...
  Hi. My son is 20 weeks old. For the last month or so he's been sleeping from 10 or 10:30pm until 7am. All has been going well there. He also has been doing very well napping during the day. About 2 weeks ago we went from (3) 2-hour naps to (2) 2-2.5hr. naps with 2 short cat naps as needed. All was good there too. Now all of the sudden, he's not sleeping well. For the past 3 nights he has either gotten up in the middle of the night (sometimes 1am, other times 4am) or woke early (5 or 6am instead of 7am). I go into his room and settle him and he goes back down. And for the naps, he's really giving me trouble. He only sleeps about an hour and then he's up and mad (screaming). I give him 10-15 minutes to settle himself but now he won't do that anymore. I even let him CIO for 30 minutes but that didn't work. When I finally get him from his nap, he's not super hungry. I've even increased the amount of rice cereal I give him just in case he's going through a growth spurt. The only thing I can think of is that this all started when I started giving him rice cereal. But I was always told that giving him the cereal would help him sleep BETTER, not worse. I am not sure what to do, but I don't want to keep going into his room during naps and the middle of the night to settle him down for fear of this becoming habit. Any suggestions or thoughts?
  January 6, 2009 12:44 PM
  Plowmanators said...
  He might have an intolerance for rice. Some do. And some get gassy and in pain with rice. I would first take him off of rice and see if that helps. Give him a few days for it to get out of his system.See also this post: 5-8 Month Sleep Disruptions : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/05/6-month-sleep-disruptions.html
  January 10, 2009 2:01 PM

Sleeping Through the Night Questions:

• ProudMum said...
  baby 13 weeks old. she some nights sleep from 8:30 to 5:30 am without feeding and some nights she wake up at 3 for it. in this one week she does that. This is not a growth spurt for sure. i am breastfeeding her. what cud be reason?i check everything at night nothing is changed.
  May 23, 2008 6:07 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  ProudMum, It could be a lot of things. See this post for ideas:Nighttime Sleep Issues: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/nightime-sleep-issues.html
  May 23, 2008 4:56 PM
  ProudMum said...
  thanx for ur reply.she sleeps at 8:30pm and she takes four naps. last nap is 45 min and first nap is hardly 30 min and remaining two are around 1.5 hrs. what shud i change to stop 5:30 am waking . becuz she doesnt sleep after feed she sleeps at 6:30 and wakes up at 7:30. please advice me. she is 13 weeks old.
  May 24, 2008 11:35 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  ProudMum, Be sure your waketime isn't too long. At that age, it should be about an hour long. See this post for those early morning wakings:Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.html
  May 26, 2008 10:06 AM
  ProudMum said...
  wake time when ? before night time sleep or when she wakes up?
  May 27, 2008 5:22 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  By waketime I mean playtime. The period between when she wakes up and goes down for her next nap or for bed for the night.
  May 27, 2008 10:55 PM
• sarah said...
  my second child is 9 months old and has always been a challenge for me. my first child was a great "babywise" baby. my 9 month old is starting to wake up at 6 and sometimes 630, when she used to wake up at 7 or 730. i let her cry it out usually but only for about 30 minutes because i dont want her waking up her older brother. im still nursing her and she eats table food. she takes two naps ranging about 1 1/2 to 2 hours in length. any suggestions on getting her to sleep a little longer. she goes to bed for the night at 8. thanks so much.
  August 13, 2008 7:21 AM 
  Plowmanators said...
  Sarah, If I were you, I wouldn't even do CIO if you aren't going to stick with it. I understand why you aren't, and I am sure a 9 month old is sure that you aren't. One thing to remember that according to BW, 10 hours of sleep is acceptable. She might just be a baby who does not need a lot of sleep. A good thing about that is that people tend to keep the same sleep dispositions, so you might have a nicer time in the teenage years :) 10-12 Hours of Sleep: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/07/10-12-hours-of-sleep.html
  August 13, 2008 8:32 PM
• The Parkers said...
  A couple questions about STTN: My son is 10 weeks old tomorrow. He dropped his middle-of-the-night feeding at about 3 weeks (what a blessing!!). We still do a dream feed at 10:30pm, and then he sleeps through the night. The issue for us is that he is not at all consistent with his wake time in the morning. It is usually between 4:45 - 5:45am, although I am desperate for it to be a consistent 6am. My questions are: (1) For a 10-week-old, if he goes back to bed after his dreamfeed at 11pm, he should be able to sleep until 6am, right? (Or does the dream feed not count because he doesn't really wake up, in which case his sleep time really begins when he goes to bed at 7pm?) (2) We have somewhat tried CIO to extend his sleep time to 6am, but not very religiously. If he wakes at 4:40, should I just let him belt it out until 5:30 (within the half hour window), or until 6:00 (when I'd prefer that he wake up)?(3) Do I wait until he has a consistent morning waketime before I start trying to remove the dreamfeed? (For context, he currently eats about 7oz of breastmilk, 6 feedings per day -- he's a hungry kiddo!)Thanks!

• December 11, 2008 7:46 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  Parkers,1-Yes, in theory a 10 week old could make it 7-8 hours after the last feeding, but a certain percentage don't do that until 12 weeks or older.2-That is up to you. If you think he is not hungry, you can try CIO. If you do decide to try CIO, be consistent with it. If you aren't consistent, it won't work.3-You want to wait a couple of weeks after STTN at least before dropping the dreamfeed. See the lable "Dreamfeed" for more on that.
  December 18, 2008 2:58 PM
• susanne said...
  Hi Again. First, thank you thank you thank you for answering all of my questions. I find your blog extremely helpful and glad I stumbled across it! My son started to sleep 7-8 hours a night at 8 weeks old. He did this for 2 weeks. Then just this week (11 weeks old) he has regressed to only sleeping 6 hours of sleep. One night it was only a 5 hour stretch. Will he get back to 7-8 hours of sleep without my help? Or should I do something to encourage him to sleep 7-8 hours again? I know that baby wise says that by 12 weeks babies should be able to sleep at least 10 hours so I am not sure what is going on. Here is my current schedule. 8:00 Wake & Feed10:301:304:007:009:4010:00 Bed** He was typically waking just once between 4:30-6:00 for one additional feeding (but now that he is only sleeping 6 hours he seems to need 2 feedings in the night.)Do you think I need to add an additional feeding in? My experience with a dreamfeed in the past is that it messes up his night time sleep and does not sleep for a long stretch at night. So do you have any other suggestions on how to get an additional feeding in without a dreamfeed? Thanks for you help!
  December 12, 2008 8:58 AM
  susanne said...
  Okay, I wanted to update you since I wrote my last comment. My son started to sleep for 7-8 hours again. Perhaps he was going through a growth spurt when he started to wake at night after only sleeping for 5-6 hours. Either way we are back to sleeping longer stretches. He even slept for 8.5 hours last night . Thanks for your blog! I've enjoyed reading it.
  December 15, 2008 8:50 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  Susanne, I am glad the sleep went back to where you want it. Just FYI, BW says by 15 weeks, not 12 weeks, baby can sleep 9-10 (not 10) hours at night. The ages are between 9-15 weeks. For most, it is a gradual move toward 10 by week 15.
  December 18, 2008 3:01 PM
  susanne said...
  Thanks for responding to my previous question from this posting. Also, thanks for clarifying how much sleep he should be able to achieve right now. You have been a huge blessing in my life and I am glad that you have taken the time to respond to all our questions. I have another questions related to my previous question. My son is now 14 weeks old. He is currently sleeping about 7-8 hours of sleep a night. He wakes up about 2 hours before his wake time and I give him just a few minutes of nursing (2-4 min) an put him right back to bed. Based on his age, he should be able to sleep for at least 9 hours, right? I have read your post about early morning waking and I have slowly started to decrease the amount I feed him. I know with your daughter you just decreased the amount, but was there ever a point once you decreased the amount you feed her that you had to let her cry a little? I hope you had a Merry Christmas and Have a wonderful New Year!
  December 31, 2008 9:13 PM
  Plowmanators said...
  Susanne, You were the last comment of 2009! Thanks for your thanks, I appreciate it :)I never had to have Kaitlyn cry at all in the night, but that doesn't mean no one ever does. I think once you get down to the next step being no food, you can try CIO and see what happens. Good luck!
  January 6, 2009 6:57 PM
  Plowmanators said...
  Umm...Susanne...you probably figured this, but I meant last of 2008, not 2009 :)
  January 8, 2009 2:05 PM
  susanne said...
  I knew that you meant 2008 :) Thanks again for your imput/ help. I hope that you pregnancy has been going well so far. I will continue to keep you in my prayers.
  January 8, 2009 2:29 PM
  Plowmanators said...
  Thanks Susanne. I really do appreciate the prayers.
  January 14, 2009 5:17 PM
• wearyparents said...
  Hi I have been reading you blog for a few weeks now and want to say thankx it has helped me a great deal. However, we are really struggling at the moment. My almost 19 week old has never sttn. We are still up at least once during the night. He is on a 31/2 hr routine and does quiet well during the day. He starts he day at 6.30am and has his last feed at 5pm in bed by 6 then I dream feed him at 9.30pm. Then he wakes between 2 - 4am. At first he was having a feed at this time now its like he wakes out of habit and wakes up so much he wants to play. I will often offer a short feed however he comes on and off smiling at me. If we leave him to cry he can go on for an hour and wakes up my 2 1/2 yr old. He just wont settle back to sleep and cries and cries. We usually will go in and out on iregular intervals and try to settle him with patting and soothing. Im out of ideas. My husband and I are so tired. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
  December 18, 2008 4:11 PM
  Plowmanators said...
  If you are sure he is waking out of habit and not need, I suggest the following post for ideas on how to break this feeding without CIO: Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.html
  December 29, 2008 3:24 PM
• bcb said...
  Hi there, I just discovered your blog and have been visiting daily as I've been using Babywise and various other books from the start. I have a question concerning my 14 week old daughter. From the beginning she has always been a really great sleeper - only getting up once a night for a feeding and sleeping 4-5 hours at a time from the day she was born. About a month and a half ago we stopped her middle of the night feeding as she didn't seem to need it. She would only get up around 3ish and cry for her pacifier and would go right back to sleep as soon as it was in her mouth. She would then get up around 6 for a feeding and I would put her back to bed for a few more hours until 9am or so. Well, for the last week and a half, she has been getting up more and more throughout the night. Last week she started to get up around 4am and 5 am for her pacifier, then a few days later it was 3am, 4am, and 5am consistently and last night it was 1am, 3am, 4am, and 5am...I do not think she is hungry as she goes right back to sleep with the pacifier but seems to have an issue with falling back asleep on her own if the pacifier falls out. We had her on a feeding schedule of every 3.5 hours for the past 2 weeks, eating about 6oz each time. However, after she began waking up more in the middle of the night, we decided to go back to feeding her every 3 hours. When this didn't improve things, we thought maybe she was sleeping too much since we were putting her to bed at around 7pm every night, swaddled in her crib, then waking her around 9:30/10 for a quick feeding then back to bed again. We were also putting her back to bed, swaddled in her crib, after her 6am feeding. She would be out cold during these naps. We've now been trying to keep her up until 9pm, removing that 2 hour nap in the evening, and the past few days have also stopped her 2 hour nap after her 6am feeding...instead trying to get her to take a few good naps during the day. Nothing has worked. Do you think she was sleeping too much? Should we go back to putting her down at 7pm and 7am? I'm completely at a loss...thanks in advance!!
  January 14, 2009 10:41 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  bcb, There are several possibilities. One is growth spurt. Did she have her 3 month growth spurt yet? That is the first thing to check and rule out.Second is possibly needing only 3 naps in the day. So is your waketime for the day 6 AM or 9:30/10? If it is 9:30/10, I would either move her bedtime back or waketime up so that from bed to the time you expect her to be up for the day is not more than 12 hours (10-12 hours). Third is the possibilty of it being a common 4 month problem (4 month Sleep Problems : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/05/4-month-sleep-problems.html ).Finally is the pacifier. My thought is that if it isn't a growth spurt, it is the pacifier. I get A LOT of questions from moms with babies about the age of your baby who are suddenly experiencing sleep trouble because of the pacifier. I don't have experience with pacifiers, but link a good article about it in this post: Pacifiers : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/04/pacifiers.html
  January 20, 2009 1:41 PM
• Doug and Jennifer Gross said...
  I am so glad I found your blog. My son is 19 weeks and still does not sleep through the night. I think total he has 3 nights since he was born. I have followed Babywise almost to the tee and don't know what to do. He will only sleep 3 to 4 hours at night and then wake up. I stopped his nighttime feeding at least a month ago and he is eating solids now. He naps well during the day, three 2 hour naps. He is on a 4 hour routine and it doesn't seem to bother him. He wakes up happy from naps and waits the full 4 hours to eat. Please help! He is eating 5 times a day, I don't put him to bed until around 10 because if I put him down at 7 he would be up by 11. I have tried to let him CIO but he just keeps crying. What should I do?
  January 15, 2009 7:26 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  Jennifer, see these posts:Nighttime Sleep Issues: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/nightime-sleep-issues.html
  Baby Whisperer: Sleeping Through the Night : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/09/baby-whisperer-sleeping-through-night.html
  January 20, 2009 3:25 PM
• boysrus said...
  Hi there,Please help....My third son is 9 weeks old and isn't being consistant at night. He sleeps from8:30 till about 3:30/4:30 am most times but then throws in a 1:30am...What am I doing wrong. He dropped the 11:30pm feed on his own a few weeks ago. I've tried doing a DF around 10/10:30pm but most nights he wont have it and when he does have a DF he seems to do worse at night....WHY??? He's on a three hour schedule during the day and does great with it. My two older boys would go from 1am till 7am and then I would move the feed back to 12am and then to 10pm within no time....both were sleeping from 10pm till 7am at 8 weeks of age...why isn't it working with this one...he sleeps 6-8 hrs a night but early instead of later. How do I get him to switch to 10pm -7am?? HELP I'm so tired during the day with a two year old who keeps me extrememly busy whether I slept good or not....uuuuggghhhh!!thanks,Tina
  February 5, 2009 7:51 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  A small percentage of parents find that their child does much worse at night with a dreamfeed. Kaitlyn was that way. She eventually had one, but it was just the 8 PM feed that moved back over time.Not all babies sleep through the night by 8 weeks. It wouldn't be that there is something wrong with him or you; it just happens. Boys especially rarely sleep through the night by 8 weeks, so the fact that you had two do it is something to he happy about :)I understand your tiredness. I would suggest you go to bed earlier so you can get a long chunk of sleep in when you can. I had to do that with Kaitlyn for a while. You just can't rest as much in the day with a two year old, and you need your sleep for patience with older kids. See the blog label "sttn" for ideas on troubleshooting, but from what you told me, it isn't that there is something wrong but just that he isn't there yet. Good luck and hang in there!
  February 10, 2009 6:57 AM
  boysrus said...
  Thank you. I'm going to let him go from his late evening feed (7:30/8pm) and hope and pray he starts sleeping till 7:30 am soon enough. And to think I thouht #3 was going to be a piece of cake at night....LOL. I'm glad to hear it's not something I'm doing wrong!!Thanks,Tina
  February 10, 2009 2:56 PM
  Plowmanators said...
  Sometimes it is good to hear :)I remember hearing from a mother of 8 several months ago. Her first 7 had been no problem, but #8 threw her for a loop! So it happens to everyone :)
  February 12, 2009 5:00 PM
• TBird said...
  Hey Val.My question is about the middle of the night feeding. My DD usually wakes between 2a and 4a for a feeding. But the last couple of nights, she's been waking at 1:30am. My question is, should the middle of the feeding get gradually closer to the dreamfeed(10p), or the waketime feeding(7a)?I just assume it's supposed to get closer to the waketime feeding and eventually she'll drop it, but it makes sense to get closer to the DF feeding too.
  February 12, 2009 11:44 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  Both ways do make sense. With both of mine, the feeding got closer to morning waketime. Some just flat out drop it. I am sure moving it back closer to the DF is possible, but it might also be a growth spurt thing.
  February 17, 2009 8:57 PM
• Kerri said...
  Hi there,I stumbled upon your blog the other day. I have three children. I used BW with the older two and am using it as well with my 3 month old. We are having problems with night time with our 3mo old. Here current schedule is 7:30 wake up and nurse.(very consistent because I will wake her even if she doesn't wake on her own)8:45 goes down for a nap. She is swaddled for her nap and cries for about 5 minutes and then goes to sleep. She sleeps till 10:30am.10:30am nurse12:00 (sometimes a little bit early) naps till 1:30 or 2pm.2pm nurse3:30 or 4 down for nap. This is a tough nap for her. She seems to consistently wake at 4:30. Sometimes I am succesful at getting her back to sleep before her 5pm feeding. I go in and check on her tell her everything is ok pat her back for a moment and leave the room.5pm nurse7pm nurse7:30 bed10:00 dream feedthen the fun begins :( For the past 4 nights she has woken up between 2 and 2:30 am. Before that she would wake up anywhere between 2 and 4. I would nurse her and she would go right back to sleep and then we would start our day at 7:30. However because she started waking at the same time each night I was pretty sure she was stuck on a time and not hungry. So we have been trying to briefly comfort her and then leave the room and let her CIO. She likes to be swaddled but can get compeltely unswaddled in the night. I've tried everything I can think of to make sure she can't get out. I think that she might be waking up because she has become unswaddled. However I don't think going in and reswaddling her each time will help her sttn in the long run? Dh and I decided to try CIO. We just finished our second night and we are both very tired and very discouraged. She will wake it two we will comfort her and make sure she is ok and then the crying continues for about 10 min. She fell asleep for 45 min and then was back up cried for 30 or 45 min. Slept for an hour and then woke up at 4am at which point I fed her because we agreed I would nurse her at 4am if she woke. We felt like we had to put some end time on the whole ordeal. I'm sorr this is so long. Any suggestions? I thought an outside perspective might be helpful.Thank you so much for your time. Kerri
  February 19, 2009 9:23 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  Kerri, typically if the baby falls back asleep then wakes soon after, she isn't really ready to STTN. I would say she is either hungry or waking for some other reason (like the swaddle). Three months is a growth spurt time. If she is hungry, feed her. If she is waking because of the swaddle, consider dropping it. good luck!
  February 24, 2009 1:49 PM