Getting Baby Back to Sleep After Middle of Night Feed

Hi G.- I went through that not so long ago. Good advice that worked for me is try schedule feeding at 10 and then 2- and if you have to wake her for a sleep feeding. She'll be able to take her bottle but not be fully awake- change her too if you can. What this does is prevents her from waking fully because she is so hungry. With a sleep feeding she'll then just go back to sleep. Around 3.5 months my guy starting sleeping through the night. I knew he ate before bed so if he fussed a little I left him (gave a pacifier) and then he fell back to sleep after awhile. Good luck!

There is no definate way at 3 1/2 months, my 3rd is almost 6 months and she was sleeping through the night at 2 months and when she hit 4 months she staerted to wake up in the middle like yours, I take her downstairs a=and sit on the couch and let her play with some toys in her lap for a few minutes and then feed her and she then is ready to go back to sleep. My frined told me about something you should look up, it is called Touchpoints... if you google it you will find all the nifo. It opened my eyes to what is going on, and it is okay, it means she getting ready for anohter step in her life. Enjoy it all... it goes really fast!! Someday you will be able to sleep...just not now.

It sounds like you are a perfect and loving parent. Your daughter has finished her night's sleep by 3 or 4 a.m. (you haven't, but she has done very well for a little one). I used to wait for the time to change in the spring... I was getting up at 5 a.m. and it felt like a luxury. That said, you could try an age appropriate crib toy or bringing her to bed with you (depending upon how you feel about this). Gradually the night will stretch out for her. Of course, this doesn't help your exhaustion right now so try and cut back on the things you can and realize that there are short term and long term fixes for every problem. Parenting is all about finding what works! Good-luck!

We had a similar experience with our son when he was an infant. I would try to nurse, that wouldn't work. My husband would rock him, that wouldn't work. Finally around 4 months old, we realized that we had to go with our last resort - letting him cry. He was old enough at that point where he didn't actually NEED a feeding in the middle of the night, so we felt OK about that piece, but felt awful about letting him cry.

We gave ourselves a time limit for how long we'd let him cry. I think it was 30 minutes. The first night, he cried that long and we brought him to bed with us. The second night, he cried only 17 minutes. It took only 3 or 4o nights before he stopped waking up entirely.

Mind you, it was awful - it's 2 1/2 years later and I still rememberthe exact number of minutes he cried that 2nd night! It honestly was our very last resort. We never thought we'd let our child cry, but during the 2nd night, we heard him soothe himself by sucking his thumb for the very first time. Now he still sucks his thumb, which we love because he has a built in soothing mechanism.

Most important part of this process was for my husband and I to agree to a time limit before we went to bed. That way, we weren't half asleep arguing about when to go in.

I hope that helps - good luck!

Hi G.,
Congratulations on your daughter and the fact that she IS such a good sleeper overall. Thats a huge battle to win right there.

The only real suggestion I can think of is if you try to put her down a bit later than the 7:30. Maybe she is getting all the sleep she requires in that one long stretch and she truly isn't tired when she wakes at 3:30/4:00. Maybe if you can bump her to 8:30, she may sleep a little later in the morning for you.
Good luck and enjoy!

Good job you are doing!

Now this might find very strange, but from what you wrote she wakes when you leave her! Try this, my mom told me about this almost 30 years ago with my daughter.

When I got up in the night to nurse her or her brothers that came later I would take an extra receiving blanket with me and sit on it or lie on it while I nursed. It gets warm and smells like MOM, two very nice things to the baby. When putting a nursed baby back to a cold crib/basinet put the baby down on the warm blanket or leave a warm blanket nuzzled up against her once she is asleep.

Does she fall asleep nursing? Don't bother burping her, wait an extra 10 minutes letting her really get into her sleep then as you move her onto the warm blanket she'll burp and she'll settle on the blanket that smells like mom hasn't even moved me! Try it!

A book that really helped me understand my baby's sleep needs was "Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child". There is a lot about sleep research and its link to cognitive development (which you can read or not, depending on whether or not it interests you). Then chapters on the various age groups of babies to school-age children.

My suggestions are these:
1. Try putting her to bed a little later, like 15 minutes later a day for a few days. See if this puts off her morning waking. I know those few hours of time off at night are really nice but so is sleeping!
2. She's still really young to be sleeping through the night. Maybe if you woke her halfway through the night for a feeding, she would still be tired and go back to sleep and wake at a more reasonable hour.

Good luck! I remember being totally frustrated and confused about sleeping at that age, but I think its completely normal. Babies don't regulate to something that makes sense to us until at least 4 months or so. It'll get better.

Hello, G.. First of all, your "a little about be" cracks me up. My husband and I are first-time parents too, and we know just how you feel when it comes to not knowing what we're doing. No matter how much preparing you do, you just can't learn this stuff until you do it! :) It sounds like you're doing everything right...not stimulating your daughter by talking, keeping the room dark, etc. Do you have a mobile or soother in her crib? Those worked wonders for my daughter. Even if she didn't fall back asleep right away, I could just put her in her crib, and she'd be entertained by one or the other until she got sleepy. Maybe one of those would work for you too. Good luck!

I learned that as soon as you figure something out it changes! THey grow and change patterns so quickly. I wonder if she is not needing as much sleep. Perhaps it is possible to put her to sleep a little bit later each night or if she has a late afternoon nap she might not need that anymore. Just a thought, they are all so different. Your sleep is important too.

The best advice for sleeping I ever received was in the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby by Dr. Weissbluth. You will NOT regret getting this book! I have two girls (3 yrs and 1) and they both go to bed around 5:30 and sleep through the night with great naps during the day.

Have you tried (or do you have) anything in her crib to play with? Like something with lights and sounds that attaches to the side so she'll have something to keep her distracted and then she might just fall back asleep on her own. I never had one personally, but I hear they do the trick. When my daughter was around that age if she woke up early (but after my husband left for work at 4) I would just bring her in bed with me and we would both fall asleep while she was nursing. She wasn't rolling over at the time and I knew I wouldn't roll over on her. It didn't effect her wanting to sleep in her own bed either. In fact, now she's 14 months and pretty much refuses to sleep anywhere but her crib.