Sleep Index

10 thoughts on “Sleep Index”

  1. I have a question about the duration of sleep for a 4 month old and dropping the dream feed. I know in the book it says they should be sleeping 10-12 hours. Is this from the dream feed or from their bed time? My baby gets a feeding at 630 p.m. and goes to bed at 8 p.m. Then I do his dream feed at 930 p.m. and he goes to bed at 10 p.m. I have to usually wake him up at 6:30 a.m. because I am a working mom. That is 8.5 hours from the dream feed but he goes to bed at 8 p.m. Is that long enough sleep for him at this point? He is on a 3 hour schedule but the past two nights he will not eat his expressed milk bottle so I just put him to bed and he slept all night until 630 a.m. So should I drop the dream feed as well and try to move him to a 3.5 or 4 hour schedule. I supplement so he is eating about 4 oz of BM followed by formula, so about 5-6 oz. So my questions are: Is he sleeping long enough and is it time to drop the dream feed? By the way, I am a first time working mom and I love your blog. It is such a blessing to me!

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  2. Sleeping 10-12 hours would be uninterrupted. I would either drop the dreamfeed OR move to a longer schedule, but not both at the same time. Choose one first. His sleep is totally fine if he still needs the dreamfeed. No problem.

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  3. I'm just going to give you stats and then ask the question! Stats: My daughter is 8 weeks old, (two months today!), and she normally eats every three hours.At night, since Saturday, she sleeps 8-9.5 hours (10-6 or 7 or 7:30)During the day, she is eating every two hours. This started as soon as she started sleeping this long at night. Is my daughter just making up for missed food during the night by eating so often during the day? Or could this be a low supply issue? My thoughts are starting to be "Maybe I should let her cry it out when she wakes up again…because yes, she eats when I get her up (it's the only way to calm her down) but she doesn't eat "a full meal, just ten sloppy and slow snacking (or so it seems) for 15 minutes or so." Feeding her so often wouldn't bother me so much, except that she gets really, really tired and crabby during the day when her naps are so short. (1.5 when regularly 2 hours) I also want her to be back on a three hour schedule! This is driving me nuts–I don't even get any playtime with my sweet. Could it be a growth spurt too? She does seem to have gained a lot of weight the past couple days. But then again, she's also spitting up quite a bit. Any thoughts? Suggestions? Knowledge?

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  4. Growing in Love,It is such a hard call even when it is your own baby and in person.My policy is if the baby seems hungry, I try feeding and I will do that for a week. That is in the relm of normal for a length of a growth spurt. If things don't naturally get longer naps at that point, I start to try something else.So by now, if she is still waking early, I would wait ten minutes and see if she will go back to sleep on her own. If not, I would go in and try to get her back to sleep with help or use a swing. Good luck!

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  5. Dear baby wise mom,I have a question. My daughter is currently 11+ months old and will be 1 in less than 2 weeks. She has ALWAYS been a great sleeper, sleeping from 8:30, 9pmish to 8:30,9am ish. But these last 1.5 weeks she has been getting up at 5 am, sometimes earlier awake, loud, ready to play. My husband and I figured maybe she's hungry so we give her a bottle (I'm no longer breast feeding) and she usually takes it. She eventually goes back to sleep, but sometimes not for an hr or two and will sleep till 9 am. We d

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  6. Sorry it cut off…We do not take her out of her crib trying to make her understand it's still sleep time and not awake and play time. Could this be a growth spurt period and will go away or are we doing something wrong? Help! Thank you!

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  7. Mandie,I would doubt it is growth spurt. I wouldn't feed her at that time or her body will get used to a meal at that hour and learn to wake herself up for it.It might be that she is learning a new skill (is she trying to walk? Talking more? etc). It might be a noise going on somewhere that is waking her. She might be cold. See my "nigthtime sleep issues revised and updated" post for more.

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  8. My son is 4.5 months old and not sleeping through the night. I dropped his dreamfeed because even with the DF he was still waking in the middle of the night to eat. So now he eats around 7 and is in bed by 8, wakes anywhere from 3-5am and is back to sleep til 7/730. Is there anything I can do to help him sleep through the night? Also I'm breastfeeding if that makes a difference

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  9. Hello!Your blog has been a wonderful help & resource for me over the years with my little ones. Thank you!I now have a 3rd baby who is 10weeks old. We follow a predictable routine with 3 hourly feeds during the day. He is a good sleeper & re-settles himself between sleep cycles (unless there's a problem such as wind). But…he does not sleep through the night. Hasn't even show signs of sleeping through yet. He goes to bed around 7pm most nights. I dream feed him around 10pm. This is usually a hard feed as he is sound asleep & it takes me awhile to stir him enough to feed. He has one side & then I change his nappy & try to give him the other side. Most often he only takes the one breast. If he does wake enough & has the 2nd side, it doesn't seem to make any difference to when he wakes in the night. He wakes every 3hours in the night. So 1am & 4ish. Then I try to start the day at 7am. For both those wake times in the night, he feeds from one side & rarely takes the other as he's gone back to sleep. He's no trouble at night, going straight back to sleep after he's fed. But I'm exhausted by the broken sleep & there seems to be no end in sight! I would be grateful for any advice please!! Am I doing something wrong? Gratefully, AlisonPs. I can count on one hand the nights he slept a 5 hour stretch!

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  10. Hey Alison,He could be one who just will sleep longer at a later age. That happens. The trick is to figure out if he is waking from hunger or from something else. If it is hunger, the thing to do is try to get him to eat more at one of the feedings since he is not eating what he usually eats in the day.But since he isn't eating what he usually eats, it might be waking from something else and eating a bit just helps settle him down quickly. So I would look at the "nighttime sleep issues" post and see if you can pinpoint WHY he is waking in the night. Good luck!

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