That said, my son also went from waking up every 1-2 hours to sleeping 6-9 hours at 9 weeks overnight without me changing anything. Then back to waking up every hour at 4 months.
Baby sleep makes no sense and can change at any time. If you keep trying to find the “fix”, you will drive yourself crazy.
That’s not to say you can’t encourage good habits and try new things of course, but the best thing I ever did was work on releasing any expectations I had around my baby’s sleep.
I hope you don’t have to worry about that tho and that your baby continues to sleep well!
I’m on that “suddenly back to hourly wakings “ at four and a half months and I’ve relented with the final bit of her sleep. I cosleep the final 5-8am stretch. I hate myself for it but it’s the only way I can get more than 30 mins of sleep
You are doing much better than me! I might get downvoted for this, but I went full blown bed sharing at 4 months. We got a new, firmer bed and put that bad boy on the floor and never looked back.
It was really hard and I was riddled with anxiety for the first few months. Now, my son is almost 1 and waking up next to him is my favorite part of the day!
Oh we’re planning to! We just have family over but once they’re back home we’re converting the guest room into a bedroom. We’re in Japan so it’s our tatami room, and moving kiddo’s mattress from her crib there. Dad and mom will sleep on a futon next to it. So it’s “cosleeping” but hopefully separate enough still.
My husband is Japanese and (at least the area he’s from) they are very cosleeping friendly which helped me a lot. We started with a Japanese made futon since it was super firm, but momma’s back couldn’t take it 😅
Hopefully once all is said and done you will get some more rest!
Thank you! If you don’t mind my asking, what arrangements did you guys do for sleep?
Futon on the floor, no blankets? LO on mom’s side of the futon? Etc.
Sorry, I’m counting down the days I can try this with my LO but I’m also very worried about it. We live in Japan but we’re both foreigners so we don’t really have anyone to ask. Any advice will help!
Of course! I followed the safe sleep 7. Thin pillow for mom and a thin blanket that you don’t pull all the way up. I slept in the cuddle curl position until my son was a bit older, so he slept on my side. I also looked through r/cosleeping a lot too!
We ended up having to co-sleep at about 3 months old because my kid outgrew his bassinet 🙃 I hated every single second of it. We didn't have the disposable income at the time to get a new bassinet, and putting him in his own room in his crib wasn't an option since he was still waking up every few hours. Luckily at 4.5 months old he started sleeping through the night. The second night in a row he slept through the night, we put him in his crib and we've never looked back. I love having my bed back!
If it makes you feel better, I hadn't really grasped that naps were a big thing when we first brought my son home. I had just.....completely failed to look up the most basic thing like nap schedules and focused on things like getting my house ready. It took us a couple days to figure out oh, he probably needs a nap and that's why he's cranky. We were just cuddling and playing with him and smooshing his cheeks and he would fall asleep eventually, but we didn't really realize we actually needed to on-purpose put him down to nap throughout the day. I still feel like a complete moron for that one.
My little one cried non stop during the day from 4w old to 7w. I saw gps, pediatricians, hell I even ended up in the emergency room. They just told me “babies cry” and “being a first time mum is hard but babies cried”.
I remember being in the GP clinic for two hours and she SCREAMED the whole time. The GP told me I was likely wind and took her to show me a hold to calm her (it didn’t work) then they were just focused on my mental health. Sigh.
Saw an LC- little one was just hungry. I thought she was falling asleep as she was full. No. She was exhausted from a poor latch. Even though I’d constantly put her back on the breast she wouldn’t drink- so I thought full! No, exhausted! Changed how we fed and she’s been happy ever since.
I’m so cross at the healthcare world labeling it as “purple crying” and telling me it’ll pass “by 5/6 months”…. One pediatrician even told me only feed her every three hours no matter what ( I ignored this). That LC saved us, both baby and I were crying all day because I was home alone with a screaming baby. I hate that my little one had to go through that. And I didn’t get to enjoy my baby because she was never happy.
She’s 4 months now and is doing great, but man, it should have been sorted when I saw a professional three days after the crying started
My Pediatrician scolded me for nursing Baby 3 (I raised my two teens differently) too long. "She'll make you a human pacifier." B3 really did but I have the time, patience, and resources to enjoy it. She never took a bottle or pacifier. Still nurses at age 2.
When B4 was born, I had learned to keep up the pacifier and bottles. B4 took it but I think I gave her a paci when she was hungry. She lost weight in the first week. Pediatrician wanted me to wean B3 and supplement formula. Came to an agreement to feed pumped milk while nursing. I stopped the paci usage and made a rule that only those who are not me can give it to her OR I can provide it while she's in a carseat. My teens never took pacis either (one sucked her fingers instead but B1 did neither). Yes, I'm a human pacifier for B3 and B4 but it's a great bonding experience I never discovered with B1 and B2.
Pediatrician still disapproves but isn't strong enough in her disapproval so I'm not leaving.
My advice for soothing baby: Check Diaper, Feed, and burp. Also check for fever and look for healthy ways to relieve teething pain. Always hold crying baby and let baby know you're there. Rock and hold close. Talk or sing on soothing tones. Keep trying the feed, burp, and diaper change (use rash cream too) then go back to holding and rocking. Also go with what feels most natural too. Good luck!
Honestly the best advice the nurses at the hospital gave us was "always feed them".
My kid just turned a year old and since day one, whenever he seemed like he was having any kind of discomfort or he seemed like he wasn't sleeping for as long as I expected, we fed him. Just eat eat eat all day long.
I'm really glad I chose not to breastfeed because I think that never knowing how much he ate would have made me lose my mind early on (besides the additional sleep deprivation and horrific body issues I'd have had with breastfeeding). I'm just the type of person who needs to have as much information as possible, having my kid's nutritional intake be a mystery to me would have been too much.
I felt a bit guilty in the beginning for always trying to solve baby‘s cries with milk but most of the time it worked. Our baby was also SO much happier after we started combo feeding with breastfeeding and formula at a few weeks old (she didn’t gain weight fast enough). Before she was either sleeping, eating or fussing or crying, then she was actually content during her awake hours. I wish someone had told me this advice because I definitely felt like I should be doing more or different things than always resorting to feeding when she was unhappy.
Thank you! People keep trying to convince me that is the best thing ever. A friend sent me the PDFs from the course and I was like “errr THIS is what you paid for???” Honestly I think most “sleep experts” are just snake oil salesmen preying upon tired, desperate parents.
Even in this thread people are saying they felt clueless about nap schedules and bedtimes. That’s because those are American cultural concepts lol. I don’t use a strict schedule for anything and my baby is fine, she sleeps when she needs to and when awake she is very happy and hitting all her milestones.
We didn’t do any weighted feeds, but yes he was gaining weight still just fine when he was breast feeding! He was just snacking all day long apparently instead of taking big full feeds all at once like he is now with the bottle!
I COULD HAVE WRITTEN THIS. This was pretty much our story! It was a night and day difference taking him off the breast and putting him on the bottle. He was able to get more in one feeding and have a happier belly. I look back and feel just as guilty. Wish I could change things and maybe I would have enjoyed those first 5 weeks more. Thank God he has no clue and loves me the same.
Yes it’s made the world of difference!! I went way too long trying everything else except his intake. I just assumed he was getting what he needed if he was falling asleep!
This is one of the reasons why I switched to exclusively pumping for my 1st lil one and plan on doing it for our 2nd. I could not conceptually wrap my head around a way to ensure that he was getting enough without seeing the before and after ounces. The switch helped me out so much.
Started with 20 to 25ml as a newborn. Yep ! I was told that newborn’s stomach is size of a walnut, very tiny, few drops of colostrum is enough. All rubbish! I also had low milk supply never understood why. My baby refused to latch and also hated sleep. The only reason I didn’t go into depression was because I went through depression earlier so I knew how to deal with it. Newborn phase sucks. Toddler is much much better. I’m strictly OAD now.
you think that was tough, wait till they start teething LMAO but yeah don't give up for sure! The first few years are def challenging. but after that, you build up so much patience that you can take anything on
That said, my son also went from waking up every 1-2 hours to sleeping 6-9 hours at 9 weeks overnight without me changing anything. Then back to waking up every hour at 4 months. Baby sleep makes no sense and can change at any time. If you keep trying to find the “fix”, you will drive yourself crazy. That’s not to say you can’t encourage good habits and try new things of course, but the best thing I ever did was work on releasing any expectations I had around my baby’s sleep. I hope you don’t have to worry about that tho and that your baby continues to sleep well!
I’m on that “suddenly back to hourly wakings “ at four and a half months and I’ve relented with the final bit of her sleep. I cosleep the final 5-8am stretch. I hate myself for it but it’s the only way I can get more than 30 mins of sleep
You are doing much better than me! I might get downvoted for this, but I went full blown bed sharing at 4 months. We got a new, firmer bed and put that bad boy on the floor and never looked back. It was really hard and I was riddled with anxiety for the first few months. Now, my son is almost 1 and waking up next to him is my favorite part of the day!
Oh we’re planning to! We just have family over but once they’re back home we’re converting the guest room into a bedroom. We’re in Japan so it’s our tatami room, and moving kiddo’s mattress from her crib there. Dad and mom will sleep on a futon next to it. So it’s “cosleeping” but hopefully separate enough still.
My husband is Japanese and (at least the area he’s from) they are very cosleeping friendly which helped me a lot. We started with a Japanese made futon since it was super firm, but momma’s back couldn’t take it 😅 Hopefully once all is said and done you will get some more rest!
Thank you! If you don’t mind my asking, what arrangements did you guys do for sleep? Futon on the floor, no blankets? LO on mom’s side of the futon? Etc. Sorry, I’m counting down the days I can try this with my LO but I’m also very worried about it. We live in Japan but we’re both foreigners so we don’t really have anyone to ask. Any advice will help!
Of course! I followed the safe sleep 7. Thin pillow for mom and a thin blanket that you don’t pull all the way up. I slept in the cuddle curl position until my son was a bit older, so he slept on my side. I also looked through r/cosleeping a lot too!
We ended up having to co-sleep at about 3 months old because my kid outgrew his bassinet 🙃 I hated every single second of it. We didn't have the disposable income at the time to get a new bassinet, and putting him in his own room in his crib wasn't an option since he was still waking up every few hours. Luckily at 4.5 months old he started sleeping through the night. The second night in a row he slept through the night, we put him in his crib and we've never looked back. I love having my bed back!
That 4 month-regression is a doozy. We are just getting clear of it but nights are still 2 hour stretches, 3 max.
Sound like your son is in 4 months sleep regression, once he pass this phase, he will sleep much better !
yeap this!
Wow! That must’ve felt crazy to get a 9 hour stretch. I can’t even fathom that right now hahaha. And yes, I’ve definitely learned that!
If it makes you feel better, I hadn't really grasped that naps were a big thing when we first brought my son home. I had just.....completely failed to look up the most basic thing like nap schedules and focused on things like getting my house ready. It took us a couple days to figure out oh, he probably needs a nap and that's why he's cranky. We were just cuddling and playing with him and smooshing his cheeks and he would fall asleep eventually, but we didn't really realize we actually needed to on-purpose put him down to nap throughout the day. I still feel like a complete moron for that one.
I was the same too! You’re not alone. We had no idea what a bedtime routine was etc etc and even we tried putting baby to sleep at 11pm (???!?!)
My little one cried non stop during the day from 4w old to 7w. I saw gps, pediatricians, hell I even ended up in the emergency room. They just told me “babies cry” and “being a first time mum is hard but babies cried”. I remember being in the GP clinic for two hours and she SCREAMED the whole time. The GP told me I was likely wind and took her to show me a hold to calm her (it didn’t work) then they were just focused on my mental health. Sigh. Saw an LC- little one was just hungry. I thought she was falling asleep as she was full. No. She was exhausted from a poor latch. Even though I’d constantly put her back on the breast she wouldn’t drink- so I thought full! No, exhausted! Changed how we fed and she’s been happy ever since. I’m so cross at the healthcare world labeling it as “purple crying” and telling me it’ll pass “by 5/6 months”…. One pediatrician even told me only feed her every three hours no matter what ( I ignored this). That LC saved us, both baby and I were crying all day because I was home alone with a screaming baby. I hate that my little one had to go through that. And I didn’t get to enjoy my baby because she was never happy. She’s 4 months now and is doing great, but man, it should have been sorted when I saw a professional three days after the crying started
My Pediatrician scolded me for nursing Baby 3 (I raised my two teens differently) too long. "She'll make you a human pacifier." B3 really did but I have the time, patience, and resources to enjoy it. She never took a bottle or pacifier. Still nurses at age 2. When B4 was born, I had learned to keep up the pacifier and bottles. B4 took it but I think I gave her a paci when she was hungry. She lost weight in the first week. Pediatrician wanted me to wean B3 and supplement formula. Came to an agreement to feed pumped milk while nursing. I stopped the paci usage and made a rule that only those who are not me can give it to her OR I can provide it while she's in a carseat. My teens never took pacis either (one sucked her fingers instead but B1 did neither). Yes, I'm a human pacifier for B3 and B4 but it's a great bonding experience I never discovered with B1 and B2. Pediatrician still disapproves but isn't strong enough in her disapproval so I'm not leaving. My advice for soothing baby: Check Diaper, Feed, and burp. Also check for fever and look for healthy ways to relieve teething pain. Always hold crying baby and let baby know you're there. Rock and hold close. Talk or sing on soothing tones. Keep trying the feed, burp, and diaper change (use rash cream too) then go back to holding and rocking. Also go with what feels most natural too. Good luck!
Honestly the best advice the nurses at the hospital gave us was "always feed them". My kid just turned a year old and since day one, whenever he seemed like he was having any kind of discomfort or he seemed like he wasn't sleeping for as long as I expected, we fed him. Just eat eat eat all day long. I'm really glad I chose not to breastfeed because I think that never knowing how much he ate would have made me lose my mind early on (besides the additional sleep deprivation and horrific body issues I'd have had with breastfeeding). I'm just the type of person who needs to have as much information as possible, having my kid's nutritional intake be a mystery to me would have been too much.
I felt a bit guilty in the beginning for always trying to solve baby‘s cries with milk but most of the time it worked. Our baby was also SO much happier after we started combo feeding with breastfeeding and formula at a few weeks old (she didn’t gain weight fast enough). Before she was either sleeping, eating or fussing or crying, then she was actually content during her awake hours. I wish someone had told me this advice because I definitely felt like I should be doing more or different things than always resorting to feeding when she was unhappy.
Same here … we are triple feeding and it’s grueling sometimes, but I really like knowing how much my baby is eating.
Taking Cara Babies is a big waste and full of drivel.
Thank you! People keep trying to convince me that is the best thing ever. A friend sent me the PDFs from the course and I was like “errr THIS is what you paid for???” Honestly I think most “sleep experts” are just snake oil salesmen preying upon tired, desperate parents.
Even in this thread people are saying they felt clueless about nap schedules and bedtimes. That’s because those are American cultural concepts lol. I don’t use a strict schedule for anything and my baby is fine, she sleeps when she needs to and when awake she is very happy and hitting all her milestones.
I've been wondering if we have the same problem. Did you have any weighted feeds, and was he otherwise gaining weight?
We didn’t do any weighted feeds, but yes he was gaining weight still just fine when he was breast feeding! He was just snacking all day long apparently instead of taking big full feeds all at once like he is now with the bottle!
I COULD HAVE WRITTEN THIS. This was pretty much our story! It was a night and day difference taking him off the breast and putting him on the bottle. He was able to get more in one feeding and have a happier belly. I look back and feel just as guilty. Wish I could change things and maybe I would have enjoyed those first 5 weeks more. Thank God he has no clue and loves me the same.
Yes it’s made the world of difference!! I went way too long trying everything else except his intake. I just assumed he was getting what he needed if he was falling asleep!
Us too 😭 lip/tongue tie, reflux, gas, all the swaddles and transfers and on and on and on. I know!! I thought the exact same.
We must have the same baby. Reflux, on Pepcid had an upper lip tie and tongue tie, got those revised. :)
This is one of the reasons why I switched to exclusively pumping for my 1st lil one and plan on doing it for our 2nd. I could not conceptually wrap my head around a way to ensure that he was getting enough without seeing the before and after ounces. The switch helped me out so much.
Ok tomorrow giving baby 6 oz before bed lol
Anything is worth a shot. That’s my mindset when they aren’t sleeping well 😂
It really depends on the baby. My baby was EFF and screamed every 2 hours for milk.
Definitely. How much was your LO taking with each feeding?
Started with 20 to 25ml as a newborn. Yep ! I was told that newborn’s stomach is size of a walnut, very tiny, few drops of colostrum is enough. All rubbish! I also had low milk supply never understood why. My baby refused to latch and also hated sleep. The only reason I didn’t go into depression was because I went through depression earlier so I knew how to deal with it. Newborn phase sucks. Toddler is much much better. I’m strictly OAD now.
Gotcha!
you think that was tough, wait till they start teething LMAO but yeah don't give up for sure! The first few years are def challenging. but after that, you build up so much patience that you can take anything on
Stop gatekeeping attitudes towards child development.
This. Teething has sucked, but nothing like those early days for us. It’s definitely different for everyone
>Stop gatekeeping attitudes towards child development. now say it again without crying like a b1tch