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Moms: need your thoughts and opinions
So for the past week, for the most part, Connor has been waking up in the middle of the night to feed. Great, I feed him as normal he zonks out then I go to put him in the crib and as soon as his head hit the mattress his eye pop open! And he seems WIDE AWAKE! I tried picking him back up and nursing (or even just pacifying) him but he still wakes up, I rock him he still wakes up, I tried leaving him and he still wakes up. If I leave him be he will have a full blown conversation with himself and he starts off quite but then he gets louder.
So 3 times this week when I was just so tire beyond belief and had to go to work the next day I took him into bed with us (bad I know) just so we could both get some sleep.
So riddle me this......is this the 4 month "wakeful" period? If so and your DC did this, when did it end? Any hints on getting them back down?
Re: Moms: need your thoughts and opinions
SERIOUSLY??? OMFG I was going to post pretty much the SAME question Beth! Either you, Lisa or Amye are always on the same page as me, love having babies so close together!!!!
I have no answer, but Jack's been the same way...this week he's started waking up around 3-4am and just struggling out of his swaddle and talking and even yelling haha. This am he was up for 30 mins doing this and I was trying to let him go back to sleep on his own, but finally DH got up and gave him his paci and turned on his mobile and he quieted down and slept for maybe 5 mins and he was at it again. He wasn't crying or fussy just wide awake...so what the heck do you do? Leave him be? Try to feed him? I don't want to spoil him and I am trying to wean the swaddle(ok not trying very hard) but when he gets out we are trying to let him fall back alseep without it. Then DH finally got up with him around 5 and fed him b/c he was starting to fuss and wouldn't you think he would be exhausted, nope he stayed up. I am interested in this 4 mo wakeful period too...it's not in my books, though I guess I could search online, but for some reason I liek to read about things in books...does anyone know where I can read about this?
Well, i have no answers for you, as the last time I did this was 5 years ago and I honestly dont remember. But i love reading the responses as I know i'll probably have the same questions in about 4 months, ha-ha!
I hope he gets thru this soon, Beth!
Beth, try reading this ... probably not the most reliable source, it's really only one person's opinion but it's worth reading, I think. I am also trying to find info on the AAP website.
http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006/02/qa_what_are_sle.html
He was only eating once a night at about 4am for the past 1.5 months or so. He goes to bed 6:45 - 7:15 depending on what time the last nap of the day was. He naps fairly well, mainly 45 mins to an hour 3-4 times a day. With that normally wakes up for the day @ around 6am sometimes 7.
Seems like a few of us are going through this too funny!
Definitely will read this. Thanks for looking into it!! Its much appreciated.
And Lucky I am so happy to hear that it might only last a couple of weeks. I can deal with that. Well......see me at the end of the couple of weeks and i'll tell you how well I am! lol
Well, I just went through waking hell with Austin...and personally I do not believe in the "4 month wakeful period" - never heard of it before the internet.
Anyways, I attributed Austin's waking to perhaps not getting enough to eat (because he was waking up hungry), so we will be discussing that with the pedi today....I also thought it may be insufficient naps because "sleep begets sleep" and "sleeplessness begets sleeplessness"...in other words "the more sleep your baby gets the more he/she will expect"....then of course I knew it was because he was still in our room and we were probably waking him up.
I focused on his naps first - and sure enough the better I timed his naps, the better he slept at night...then Tom went out and bought a dual fan for his nursery window, since there is only one window in there, the air just does not circulate - and he's been in his room since and only waking twice during the night to eat now.
Supposedly it is totally normal for babies to wake once or twice during the night to eat up to age 9 months....so it just may be that he is hungry...
As for Connor waking up wide awake when you put him down - Austin has always done that to me...he talks to himself all the time when I put him down for a nap - sometimes it escalates to crying, because he has kept himself up too long, but I let him cry a bit (no more than 20 minutes and not really hard crying) and then he dozes off. My SIL told me she read it is actually good for language development for babies to "talk" to themselves alone like that.
The way I know for sure that Austin is ready for bed or a nap is when I'm rocking him (during his nap/bedtime routine) and I see him yawn...then know for sure he is drowsy (but awake) and put him down so he can soothe himself to sleep...if I didn't time the nap right and he is overtired, then he cries a little...but Austin has always woken up when I put him down, even if I nursed him to sleep...