Waking up at Night Every Hour-hour and a Half

I agree with everyone, he is doing it because you have been responding, and he is used to the attention and the quick midnight snacks. He definately doesn't need it, he just likes it. It will be hard the first night to not go to him, but TRUST ME, it will be better the 2nd, so much better the 3rd, and so on.. And before you know it, he will be self soothing all night. I am speaking from experience BTW, my girlie did the same thing. My friend has a 2 month-old and came to me with a similar issue, and i told her the same thing. He is now learning to do it too. It is hard, cause you want to be there for them all the time. But it is such an important thing that we're teaching them. Good Luck M.!

I agree with the others that say that he is not waking up out of hunger and that he is waking up to get a response out of you, unless he is teething or having stomach pains or something. I don't know how your son goes to sleep, but I am not a big fan of the cry it out method. I believe that for most children, there are other ways of teaching them to self-soothe that are not so painful for them or you. I sleep-trained my son at 4 months and am in the process of doing it with my 2 month old daughter now, and I have never let them cry it out. I hold them, soothe them, or nurse them, whatever they need to settle down, but do not allow them to fall asleep. Once they are drowsy and close to sleep, I put them in bed and either rub them or talk to them or sing to them to settle them. If they are really upset, I pick them up and start again, but eventually when they fall asleep, they do it in their bed. After a few nights, I can just settle them quickly, put them in bed, and they will go to sleep without me there. I will let them cry for 5 minutes or so, but not just leave them to cry endlessly. I would recommend doing this at bedtime, and then doing it when he wakes up at night, and not feeding him. At his age, he does not need to eat in the middle of the night. My son always went to sleep with music and my daughter responds really well to white noise. Good luck and hopefully this helps and you find a way that works for you!

I feel your pain... My 6 month old is doing the same thing, and also used to sleep a bit better. In her case, it seems she is teething. Some nights are tougher than others - it's definitely not hunger, it's comfort. If I knew it wasn't the teeth bothering her, maybe I would be more apt to let her cry, but knowing that she is so uncomfortable & restless, I let her nurse

I had this problam with my daughter. We were told to give her few onces of formula. At night because it is heavy and would hold her longer. SHe did not take it. They told me she is going threw a growth spert. Good luck.

My son is the same age and has gone through a similar phase. It is normal and tiring and will get better in time.

A similar discussion is happening a few questions down. It is the question about rooting in baby's sleep. It is very similar to your issue and there are some great suggestions.

Babies do go through growth spurts, where they nurse more often and wake more often...that could be what's going on. If you're cosleeping, just roll over and nurse, and don't talk or play - just pretend you're still asleep. I used to nurse my daughter when we were BOTH asleep...my husband told me about it, lol! It was great - we both got a lot of sleep, and she could nurse as much as she wanted.

Good Luck!

I know many people don't like to do this but i would let your son cry it out. Both my kids, througout their short lives have gone through this periodically and every time it starts i wake up with them every time. Finally, when it becomes obvious that they just want attention i let them cry it out for a night or two and the behavior stops. (sometimes it can take 45 min of screaming!)

Good luck! It's not easy!

Is he teething? Try tylenol one night instead of nursing and see what happens. It sounds like he's not really hungry, just looking for comfort. See if you can comfort him without feeding him and I bet he'll settle back in for longer.

At this age he's beginning to remember who you are. He's not waking up because he's hungry he's waking up because he misses you. So you need to leave him in his crib. Go in and check to make sure it's nothing dire tuck him back in and then go. It's more about the reassurance than anything else. He shouldn't need to eat that often at night.

M.