Need Advice - Sleepless Baby

We have a 6 month old baby girl who has been the perfect baby from the
beginning. She began sleeping through the night almost immediately. She
didn't take to breast feeding, but my wife did pump for 2 months then
we switched to formula. She took the changes in stride, and now is on
her fourth week of stage 1 solids and loves it.


With that said, she is beginning to wake up every night around 1:00 am,
and continues to wake every 1-2 hours thereafter. We can't figure it
out. It has been going on for a few weeks now. When she wakes, it's
as if she's still sleeping and all we do is put her pacifier in and she
goes right back to sleep. Sometimes we'll bring her into our bed, and
she seems to sleep better (but not all the time). Also worth noting,
she's not eating as well as before. After about 4 oz. of formula and 2
TBSP of solids, she begins to grunt, push it away and get
upset...almost as if she has a belly ache.


I understand there are a ton of possibilites, including teething, but I
wanted to check and see if anyone had any good advice. As first time
parents, we're still pretty clueless.


THANKS

wrote:
We have a 6 month old baby girl who has been the perfect baby from the
beginning. She began sleeping through the night almost immediately. She
didn't take to breast feeding, but my wife did pump for 2 months then
we switched to formula. She took the changes in stride, and now is on
her fourth week of stage 1 solids and loves it.


With that said, she is beginning to wake up every night around 1:00 am,
and continues to wake every 1-2 hours thereafter. We can't figure it
out. It has been going on for a few weeks now. When she wakes, it's
as if she's still sleeping and all we do is put her pacifier in and she
goes right back to sleep. Sometimes we'll bring her into our bed, and
she seems to sleep better (but not all the time). Also worth noting,
she's not eating as well as before. After about 4 oz. of formula and 2
TBSP of solids, she begins to grunt, push it away and get
upset...almost as if she has a belly ache.


I understand there are a ton of possibilites, including teething, but I
wanted to check and see if anyone had any good advice. As first time
parents, we're still pretty clueless.


How frustrating!

It's possible she has developed a food allergy, or she may
be teething (does she have any teeth yet?). I would vary
the foods I give her to see if anything causes less of a
reaction. Is it possible she has gas while you're feeding
her? DS took absolutely forever to burp.

I'd also check with the pediatrician.

scott DD 11 and DS 9

wrote in message
ups.com...

When she wakes, it's as if she's still sleeping and all we do is put her
pacifier in and she
goes right back to sleep.

Your daughter could have developed a strong sleep association with her
pacifier. Some children form stronger sleep associations than others. When
nightwakings are frequent and the child is well, it almost always has to do
with sleep associations. There are no easy solutions to breaking a sleep
association. Another way of saying it is your daughter has formed a strong
habit around soothing herself back to sleep with a pacifier. I'd recommend
the books by Richard Ferber. He's right square in the middle on solving
sleep problems with children; whereas authors like Sears represent one
extreme of the spectrum, Weisbluth on the other.

When the nightwakings are extremely frequent, kids rarely outgrow their
dependencies (whether on nursing back to sleep, using a pacifier to go back
to sleep, having Dad or Mom rock them back to sleep, etc.). The process of
breaking a bad habit will involve some crying but you have to beware of
going cold turkey or coddling too much so you draw out the process forever.

Good luck. I always will have a special place in my heart for parents with
frequent nightwakers. It can be a living hell, I know. I had one of those
children.

Noreen

In article ,
Noreen wrote:

I'd recommend
the books by Richard Ferber. He's right square in the middle on solving
sleep problems with children; whereas authors like Sears represent one
extreme of the spectrum, Weisbluth on the other.

For someone in between Sears and Ferber, I'd recommend the newer book
"The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through
the Night" By Elizabeth Pantley. (This books is aimed mostly at parents
of infants, though I read it when my son was a little older. I note that
she has a newer version aimed at parents of toddlers/preschoolers, which
I have not read myself.)

I used Ferber with my first two kids, and Pantley presents a gentler
version. Much of what she suggests are modifications of Ferber that
I had figured out on my own, but it does present a "kinder, gentler"
approach to breaking sleep associations than Ferber does, yet it still
works, albeit considerably more slowly. If you aren't already at
the end of your rope, her book is well worth the time spent reading
it. (We didn't get a totally "no cry" solution, because in some cases
a toddler will cry only because he is not getting his own way, and we
allow our children to cry in those cases, bedtime or not. We did get
to sleeping without falling asleep at the breast more gently with our
third than our other 2 using suggestions from Pantley.)

I will add that all 3 of my kids are incredible sleepers now -- they
generally go to sleep without problems, and sleep through the night,
waking refreshed in the morning.

--Robyn

I read the book On Becoming Babywise by Gary Ezzo, which has some harsh
critics, mainly because he advocates a feeding schedule for babies
(even though he does state that "Understand that some babies may need
to feed more often, others less" and ""The point is this: It's okay to
deviate from the two-and-a-half- to three-hour feeding norm. But do not
deviate so often that you establish a new norm."). His critics say his
program has led to cases of failure to thrive in babies who were put on
a 3-4 hour feeding schedule, as recommended in his books.

With all that said, the book gave me the helpful tools I needed to take
control instead of letting my baby control the situation. YES, her
needs should be met, and we did that...but keeping things consistent
goes a long way in making a baby feel secure, and that goes a long way
in helping the sleep/wake cycles normalize.

My daughter was a preemie who weighed 4 lbs. 7 oz. at birth. We began
using the Babywise techniques when she was approximately 2-3 months
old, and about the 25th percentile for weight (up from about the 5th
percentile at birth). By 6 months old she was at the 50th percentile,
exactly average, and by 9 months old she was in the 90th percentile for
both height and weight, where she's stayed steady and is now 3 years
and 8 months old, sleeping through the night except for the occasional
nightmare.

My point to this long, rambling post is that there is good information
and advice in many parenting books, along with bad information and
advice. We should take what fits our family and put it to good use, and
leave the rest.

Almost every vocal proponent of "sleep training" or any variation of
sleep training is slammed at some point, by someone, because in today's
society we seem to be much more child-oriented instead of
parent-oriented. This is GREAT--but it can also lead to the child's
every want and need being catered to.

Again, I'm rambling, I just wanted to recommend the Babywise book, and
inform you of the pros/cons of the idealogy.

Oh, and one last thing--my dd was fairly dependent on her pacifier, and
would wake up rooting for it. It occurred most often from about 6-12
months old, until she figured out how to find the binky and get it back
to her mouth, LOL.