Does the 12 hour night sleep really exist? | ExpatWoman.com
 

Does the 12 hour night sleep really exist?

332
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EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 14 November 2011 - 09:02

Hi Ladies

DD dropped her night time feed at week 9 and is now 20 weeks old. Her night sleep is good, I shouldn't complain BUT ... of course in my pregnancy reading about the joys of motherhood I latched on to the suggestion that LOs are capable of sleeping 10 to 12 hours through the night. At the moment, DD falls asleep around 8pm. She wakes two times on average during the night, usually looking for her dummy, but then, as though she has an internal alarm, wakes at 4.45am on the dot every morning. Her room is dark, her nappy is clean, it's quiet so I am sure there are no environmental factors that cause her to wake.

Hubby and I have taken to going to bed early ourselves just to ensure we get some sleep throughout the night. We both work so sleep is important to us!

DD has just started taking solids and although she is sleeping more soundly at night, is the magical 12 hours of sleep at night around the corner for us????!!! We have tried moving her bed time earlier but she gets hyper after she drinks/eats rather than falling asleep and her meal times are spaced out every four hours throughout the day making her night meal at 6pm/7pm.

I am hesitant to re-introduce a night time feed since she has been off it for more than 10 weeks and because she goes hyper after her meal.

Would appreciate your thoughts/suggestions/reality checks on this one!

332
Posts
EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 16 November 2011 - 09:05
Ok, so last night she had her walk and bath earlier and was ready for dinner at 5.30pm. She drank half a bottle of milk (120ml) and got grumpy because she was starting to get tired. We then fed her solids, slightly more than usual, and by some miracle, she actually finished all her milk whereas before she was refusing to drink because she was so tired. She was swaddled by 6.30pm, knocked out by 7pm. She woke at 3.30am and needed to be picked up to help some gas out but was asleep within 30 minutes and continued sleeping until 5.20am and greeted us with a toothless smile and massive smelly poop. I was worried the earlier dinner might cause her to be hungry at night but it looks like the solids helped? I've noticed that when she does wake up at the 5am mark, she tends to be grumpy and doesn't want to drink her normal dose of milk, again I think it's to do with tiredness. She was back asleep by 7am. Thanks again for your suggestions.
332
Posts
EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 15 November 2011 - 08:55
Thanks Kiwi. Her afternoon meal is at around 2pm. She is usually not ready to eat any earlier than 6pm. I have considered feeding her before her bath and perhaps I can try it on the weekend when I am at home. Last night was a shocker. The nanny tells me she had an afternoon nap of an hour from 3pm to 4pm. She had been for a quick walk in the pram, had her bath and was ready to eat by 5.45pm. I get home around 5.30pm so was there to see all of this. She took 30ml of milk and would not stop crying until we gave her her cereal and puree. She took a little bit more milk but refused the remaining 100ml (out of 240ml). She was asleep by 7pm but up again at 3.30am for an hour (not complaining just had her eyes open) and slept from 4.30am until 5.15am. I fed her at 5.30am and put her back to sleep at around 6.30am. She was still sleeping when I left at 8am. I asked the nanny to bring everything forward today and to make sure that if DD is looking tired in the afternoon just to put her down for a second afternoon nap and then I can wake her in the evening for a meal. Hopefully this works and if it doesn't, I take solace in Frannie's comments below knowing that we are not the only ones with a super early riser!
2782
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 14 November 2011 - 14:06
any reason why you don't give her her meal before her bath or give her bath earlier so she is not so tired? Sounds a bit like she is tired and then gets a second wind, hard to settle after that.
332
Posts
EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 14 November 2011 - 13:35
Thanks Ladies, I've enjoyed reading your comments. DD has her last meal straight after her bath as at that point she is usually very grumpy due to tiredness. She sleeps for 2 - 3 hours in the middle of the day and then has another nap in the afternoon for anywhere between 30 - 90 minutes. Once the food is down, her drowsiness goes away and she has a huge burst of energy. I think we should try moving her meals around slightly but the trouble is she never takes her milk in full, always with a 20 - 30 minute break in between. So it's difficult to bring the meals back but we can certainly try it. We should also probably try feeding her in her room rather than in the lounge room. SG, you are probably right and I am sure she gets distracted by everything going on around her. Kiwi - our girl is HYPER all the time! Seriously, from the moment she wakes he legs are flying in the air at a hundred miles an hour. This morning she greeted us with slightly louder vocal chords than yesterday and spent the whole morning practising her baby talk very loudly. She is a handful but we love her energy and hope that we can keep up with her as she grows!!! She is also a bit wriggly after the feed but this usually passes as her food settles and she passes gas.
178
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 14 November 2011 - 11:56
My DS has always been a 5am baby. He dropped his night feeds quite early - about 16 weeks, but from there til now (13mo) he has woke sometime between 5-5.45am pretty much every day. We had a brief period where he woke at around 6.30am - it felt luxurious - but it didn't last! We have tried EVERYTHING to "fix" it and have now come to the conclusion that we just have to suck it up - it's just him (he is very, very active - crawled at 4mo, walked at 9mo - I feel his high energy levels have a lot to answer for!). In fact, the efforts to change his sleep patterns often just made it worse (of course, yours may be different - I hope so!) and we became even more tired. Now we take it in turns to do the early morning shift so neither of us get too exhausted. I don't mean to be negative, but just wanted to say that sometimes the best answer is acceptance and very early nights! Repeat after me: this too shall pass, this too shall pass...ad infinitum!!
2782
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 14 November 2011 - 10:05
keep in mind too that some LOs are capable of sleeping 10 to 12 hours through the night, just like some LO's are capable of crawling at 4 months old, or talking in sentences at 12 months, walking at 10 months old etc but every baby is different and while you can do things to nurture their development, you can't force them before they are ready. I also found that an earlier bedtime helped fix the early morning wake-up, but to be honest I found that by 4am my guy was hungry, and if I didn't feed him then he would be too awake at around the 5am mark to go back to sleep even with a feed. It was more like 10 months before he was ready to go 10 hours without feeding and 12 months before he went 12 hours. Hyper behavior in my wee guy normally means over-tiredness not sure if its the same with yours?? As SG suggest I would look at shifting mealtimes to work with sleep times, I think sleep times are more crucial. Is she hyper or uncomfortable/wriggly after a feed?
488
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EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 14 November 2011 - 09:18
also in terms of feeding times, perhaps you can make these shorter as the day goes by to get her to bed earlier? Our schedule for example is 7am milk/solids, 11am milk/solids, 2.30pm milk, 4.30pm offer water, 5pm solids, 6.15 milk - then 11pm dreamfeed...
488
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EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 14 November 2011 - 09:15
Hi M, Glad things are generally going well for you :) I think every baby is different, but DS has started sleeping 11-12 hours at night finally. He does wake sometimes and go back to sleep (or he may need help occasionally) but generally goes down about 6.30pm and is up anywhere between 6-7am. With your LO's last feed, do you do this in her room in semi darkness? DS also goes a bit hyper after his bath although I often think its because he's getting quite tired by then, but after his massage I turn the lights down super low to feed him. He's also on solids already but I do split this and give him his solids around 5 and milk at 6.15 - if he had his solids at 6.15 too he'd be too hyper (and messy!!) to go straight to sleep. DS also had an internal clock waking him at 5.45 for a while there, but now that he's working out how to sleep on his tummy this is starting to resolve....not sure if tummy sleeping is something your LO is already doing. As for the night feed, whether it would help or not I'm not sure but could be worth trying. DS is still having a dreamfeed and he is 6 months old now and eating solids 3 times a day (am starting to slowly reduce the amount though) Hope you can work things out - I did find personally that moving his bedtime earlier made a huge amount of difference - is there anyway you can tweak your schedule to get her fed earlier and to be earlier? Also having more structured naps during the day (he has morning nap, lunchtime longer nap, and often then is fine until bedtime although occasionally has a 20 min catnap in the afternoon) helped us. :)
 
 

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