So far in parenting I have tried to follow the philosophy of letting D tell me what he needs, and giving him the time to develop at his own timeline. Thus I have fed him on demand, only recently trying to intervene a bit so I could get him eating every 3 hours during the day instead of every 2. I have also been letting him lead with nighttime sleep and feedings. If he wakes and it's been over 3 hours, I feed him, and usually he seems eager to eat. I wonder sometimes if I may have "trained" him to continue with night feedings, but then he also has these random nights of sleeping through all or most of his night feeds. I don't want to deny him food if he's hungry, but I also would love to be able to get more than 3-4 hours of sleep at a time... and I think it would benefit him, too, to get more continuous sleep.
His first three months or so he was pretty consistent with his nighttime patterns. He'd go 1-2 weeks or more waking up at about the same times, and then he'd change but keep that new pattern for another few weeks. We had a few cycles of him sleeping through the night for a week or 2, then waking more often again for a while. Since then (between 3-5 months in age), he's been ALL over the place with his sleep... He might wake 5 times one night and only once the next, averaging about 2-3 wake-ups most nights. I'm not sure what to make of this unpredictability, since every book tells me that by about 4 months he should have fairly set eating and day/night sleeping routines (which he, um, does not), and that a baby of D's age should easily be sleeping at least 6-7 hours in a row, consistently, at night (again, not happening).
So I'm starting to wonder, is it time for me to step in here? Should I continue waiting for him to regulate his own body functions on his own, or do I need to be making some sort of a schedule for him? At what point am I supposed to try to limit his nighttime eating? Should I try to put him on a nap schedule, or keep waiting till he seems tired before putting him down for naps (even if sometimes that's after only 1 hour, other times 2-3)?
I know it's up to us, and all babies are different, and what works for one doesn't always work for another. But I always like hearing advice from other moms about this stuff.
Comments (3)
That is definitely something you should ask your pediatrician. Obviously, all babies are different, so even though most books can give a fairly accurate timeline of events for children, remember that is just an average, meaning some children start way before and others afterward. Sleeping through the night is a developmental achievement and it has nothing to do with being on a regular schedule. I know how frustrating it is to not be able to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time, but it's only been four months, it really won't last forever.
hi there. i agree with lesannejenk. i'd speak with your pediatrician for some options. here's what i did: my youngest was up every 2 hours to eat when she was born. little by little i increased her formula which allowed her to sleep a little longer each time. i put her to bed every night at 8pm, regardless. i kept her naptimes to early times (she napped about twice a day) to avoid having her nap so close to bedtime. i did all i could to keep her awake after her last nap so she'd go right to sleep at bedtime. of course if she was tired, i didn't force her to stay awake. at one month, she was sleeping through the night from 8pm to about 5-6 am, without being fussy come 8pm. i did the same with my oldest. it seemed to work for us.
i hope you are able to get some advice from your son's doctor. keep us updated.
@lesannejenk@xanga - Yeah, I know that in the grand scheme of things this isn't that long, but at 5 months old... well, it'd be nice to see a light at the end of the tunnel, at least. He went a few months waking only 1-2 times a night, but the past several weeks (even before our trip) he started waking 3-4 times again. I don't mind having to get up once or even twice a night, really I don't, but it sure would be nice to have even one 6 hour stretch every night...