Baby goes back to sleep after morning feed
How To Do Them & Wean Baby Off Them – WavHello
Written by: Rachel Norman
Sometimes the things that make the most difference with babies are the hardest to do. They feel the most inconvenient.
I remember many nights where I wanted to dive into bed and skip the dream feed. I would climb in bed, crash, then be woken up 20 minutes later to a hungry and crying baby. After a while, it simply wasn’t worth it.
Same with the early morning feeds. They are hard to do! It’s hard to wake up at 5:00 a.m. and feed baby but if it means baby goes back to sleep until 7 a.m. it’s worth it!
If you want baby to begin sleeping through the night on his or her own then dream feeds and early morning feeds are things to work on.
Often we’re tempted to go to bed when baby does and keep sleeping until baby wakes up. However, if you want baby to sleep later in the morning you need to feed more often in the beginning of the evening.
Big snack/feed before bed
One thing that’s very important is to fill baby’s belly (not overfill) before bed. If your baby is overtired you may notice that he falls asleep while taking his last feed before bed. The more you can feed your baby right before bed the better he will sleep in those deeply restorative hours prior to midnight.
If baby isn’t full when he goes to bed, baby can wake up around the 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. time, and this is the time that night waking can be very tricky! Baby got just enough sleep he will think he can stay up, he is hungry so he wakes, and he isn’t used to getting himself back to sleep. You now have a baby who is fighting sleep, and that’s a baby that will be cranky and overtired.
If you can feed a full feed of milk this will help immensely. It’ll help baby go to sleep for a longer stretch initially. which will mean it’s restorative sleep. Then if baby wakes up due to habit or hunger, he won’t be nearly as fussy because the sleep he’s had will have made a difference.
Remember: it’s much easier for babies to transition through active and passive sleep if they aren’t overtired.
Dream Feed
Another invaluable tool is the dream feed. This is the feed that happens somewhere between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm that you do before you go to sleep. Gently get your baby and feed him as much as he will take at this time.
Then it’s a good idea for you to go immediately to bed. This helps the baby sleep a longer stretch at the same time you are, and it helps baby reach the morning with fewer feeds.
In my experience with 5 kids, the dream feed is the last one to be dropped. If baby routinely makes it from that last feed, somewhere around 10 p.m. or 11 p.m., until the morning then I work to drop that feed. Always attempt to wean from a middle of the night feed before the dream feed.
Early Morning Feeds
It’s a good idea to feed baby around the 4:30 a.m. or 5 a.m. mark without fully waking baby. Feed baby in the dark and quiet, then put baby back down to bed until a later hour if desired.
IF baby seems to wake up at 5 a.m. and won’t go back to sleep, try waking baby at 4 a.m. with a feed then putting him back down to sleep a bit later.
The more baby has eaten throughout the early evening, the longer baby will sleep in the morning.
White noise is key when baby is feeding. If baby uses the SoundBub white noise machine for all naps, he’ll be more likely to remain drowsy and go back to sleep on his own when he is transitioning through active and passive sleep cycles.
SoundBub is also compatible with WavHello’s VoiceShare app which allows you to record messages, family members’ voices, and even to play favorite songs and playlists via Bluetooth.
The SoundBub white noise machine is perfect for the nursery or when you’re on the go because it’s hide away hook can clip easily onto strollers, car seats, and even baby carriers.
Back to blogThis post is part of an 8-post series:
Part 1: What To Focus On During The First Week With A Newborn
Part 2: The Importance Of Swaddling: How And Why
Part 3: How To Create A Wind-Down Routine For Baby
Part 4: The Sleep Window: How To Recognize Baby’s Sleep Cues
Part 5: Classic Signs Of Overtiredness And How To Prevent It
Part 6: A Surefire Way To Help Baby Sleep More Soundly
Part 7: Early Morning and Dream Feeds: How To Do Them And Wean Baby Off Them (you are here)
Part 8: The Art Of Teaching Baby To Sleep On Their Own
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Should I Wake My Baby to Preserve a Schedule?
Your child is sleeping so soundly! Maybe too soundly?? Anxiety starts to kick in, should you wake your baby if she’s sleeping too long? Should I wake my baby to preserve a schedule?
It’s that feeling of uncertainty that feels terrible!
Let me share with you how I coach a client on these types of scenarios.
Here are three questions to ponder when you are jittery with angst and unsure what to do about this long nap or morning “sleep in”.
1. How old is your baby? Are you in those first few weeks of life and concerned about weight gain? Or is this a toddler who took forever to fall asleep and now is having a late nap? The answer is different for both.
2. Do you have proof that letting them sleep will be detrimental to your schedule? For example, will letting the last nap run late interfere with bedtiming?
3. Do you have actually have a fixed schedule?
Newborns: Your baby is a newborn a couple of months old
- You want to get lots of calories in during the daytime to help with longer stretches of sleep at night time
- During the day, don’t let her go more than 4-4.5 hours between feeds,
- Wake your child up if she’s sleeping longer than 4 hours between feeds during the day
- You want to stack the calories during the day so she can sleep longer at night
- At night time, if she’s gaining weight well, I would not wake her up and let your child naturally wake up for a feed
Babies on 2-4 naps, ages 4 months to 14 months
Your child is between the ages of 4 months and ~14 months, when she starts to transition to 1 nap.
- At this age it is rare that your child is on a “fixed schedule” where 9 am is nap time
- During this period there are many changes in sleep
- 5 months dropping from 4-3 naps
- 7-10 months dropping from 3-2 naps
- 9-11 months plenty of teething and motor development
- Your child will sleep as she needs it
- I would not wake my child up from a nap unless I have proof that letting her sleep is interfering with more consolidated night time sleep
- An example would be that my 6 month old had a third nap at 4:30 pm, that ran long and she didn’t wake until 6 pm.
That means bedtime isn’t going to be until about 8:30 pm. That’s a late bedtime. This late nap will end up cutting into night time sleep so I would likely wake her up after 45 minutes of sleeping. - These scenarios are usually very rare
- Babies on 2 naps
- When your child is consistently on 2 naps, usually the 2nd nap is the longer nap and the first nap is 45 minutes to 1.5 hours.
- If the first nap is on the long end, say 1.5 hours and then struggles for the second nap – either falling asleep or only sleeping for 30 minutes, then you’ll want to wake your child from the 1st nap after 1 hour so that he/she is ready for the 2nd nap and it will last longer.
- The afternoon nap should naturally be longer and has her better rested with a substantial nap before bedtime.
Toddlers on 1 nap:
- So important to protect that 1 nap
- At this age, car naps can be painful
- If she falls asleep for just 30 minutes she won’t transfer from the car to the crib and it’s impossible to get her to nap again for the day
- You’re left with a tired cranky toddler who won’t nap
- Protect your 1 nap
- In general, I wouldn’t let your toddler nap past 4 or 5 pm
- If your toddler had a rough day and didn’t fall asleep until 3 pm instead of the usual 1 pm, I would wake her up at 4:30pm
- There is some variation between 4:30 and 5:00 pm based on when her bedtime normally is
- For example, if you have a toddler who goes to bed at 8 pm, gets up at 7 pm, her nap will be later in the day compared to a toddler who sleeps 7 pm to 6 am.
- Thus that 4 pm or 5 pm cut off varies according to the child.
Tips on waking your toddler up
- Be gentle
- Open the curtains, gently rouse her and then leave the room
- Provide the opportunity for her to “come to” without someone hovering over her
- Repeat gently rousing and leaving the room
Let’s take a little walk through the months and look at all the change happening with bedtimes.
From 0-4 months, your baby is sleeping on and off throughout the day and night and isn’t even awake for more than about 1-1.75 hours at a time. You have no set schedule. What you have is a flexible routine of eating, sleeping, and pooping. I would only ever wake a baby during the day if he has been napping more than 3-4 hours and is sleeping through a feed. I want to make sure that he is getting regular feeds during the day, to set him up for success at night time. This is a rare phenomenon.
At 5 months, your baby will be in the 4-3 nap transition where some days she’ll have 4 naps, and other days 3 naps.
The number of naps all depends on the length of her naps and how long she can comfortably stay awake between naps before becoming fussy. At 5 months, your child needs 3-4 hours of total daily nap hours.
Whenever you are in a nap transition, your bedtime fluctuates to accommodate the last nap. I would never wake a baby up during this period because there is no set bedtime. Bedtime fluctuates based on when the last nap is. Its is very common to have a 30-40 minute cat nap around 4:30 or 5:00 pm at this age.
At 6 months, your baby will consistently be on 3 naps and require 2-3 hours of total daily nap hours. There is a window here, that could last 1-2 months, where your bedtime is relatively consistent.
Once you are into 7-10 months, you’ll be going through the 3-2 nap transition where your baby drops down to 2 naps. Again, when you are dropping a nap, your bedtime will be bumped up a bit earlier because you are losing some daytime sleep and don’t want her to be overtired by bedtime.
From ~ 10- 14 months, your baby will be on 2 day time naps. Sometime between 14-18 months, your baby will drop down to 1 daily nap. Again, bedtime fluctuates.
“Should I wake my baby to preserve a schedule?”Here’s my cardinal rule: I don’t wake up a baby to preserve a schedule unless I have proof that letting them sleep too long during the day has disrupted nighttime sleep.
Usually, this is a rare phenomenon.
I have only advised a handful of clients to wake a sleeping baby, after we have monitored and logged, the child’s daily nap hours and found they were surpassing their daily suggested nap hours AND it was causing either a late bedtime or an early morning wake up, both of which are cutting into the total suggested 11-12 hours of nighttime sleep.
In these cases, these children are stealing sleep from the night time and using it during the daytime.
Another theory is that you should wake your child up every day at the same time.
I have found that most kids generally wake up with the sun somewhere between 6 and 7 am.
This waking your child up and keeping them on a fixed schedule is a “BabyWise” phenomenon.
There are positive things to take from everything we read, but in general, I find BabyWise can set a gal up for failure.
These fixed schedules don’t account for long naps on days following rough nights, or short naps due to teething, or illness.
Fixed schedules can leave a Mom feeling like a failure or very anxious when the schedule goes sideways…as life does.
In the rare case that these late morning wakings are happening past 6 months of age. It is usually because the child is feeding frequently through the night, and usually has a sleep crutch of nursing back to sleep.
I don’t like to wake a sleeping baby because if they are sleeping, they need it!
Who knows what biological process their little bodies are working on in that restorative sleep session.
Maybe they are fighting a cold, working on language development or processing the activities of the day.
I would only want to interrupt that if I have evidence that it will have a negative effect on other sleep patterns in their life.
Let the sleeping baby lie but a late napping toddler should be woken up.My thoughts,
Sarah
Ever wonder how much sleep your baby needs and when? Worried you're not getting nap hours in? Download my free sleep timing and quantity chart and see how much sleep they should be getting for their age.
Also, Check out Sustainable Products for Babies: Recommended by Baby Sleep Expert Dr. Sarah Mitchell.
Read Next:
- 10 and 11 Month Old Sleep: Sample Schedule
- When Can My Baby Sleep Through The Night?
- The One Thing Your Baby Needs to Sleep Through the Night
How to sleep with a baby
establish a general routine
What do most women do when their baby falls asleep? Someone rushes to cook, someone begins to hastily clean the apartment, iron, wash - there are always plenty of things to do in the family.
But in vain. You can do household chores even when the baby is awake, but he definitely won’t let you sleep. Therefore, if a son or daughter falls asleep, drop everything and go to bed with the child. There is no perfect order or dinner is not prepared? You can do all this later, when you rest, and, by the way, you will most likely spend much less time and effort. Therefore, the first rule of mom's regimen: sleep when the baby sleeps. To feel normal, a woman (especially a nursing mother) must sleep both at night and during the day. So adjust the general regimen of the day: you can adapt to the child’s sleep, or, on the contrary, you can adjust the child’s sleep to your routine (although this will be more difficult to do).
accept help
Use volunteers as often as possible to babysit, walk, or simply feed. And here the help of the husband, grandparents will be invaluable. Do not trust the baby mother-in-law? Do you think that dad will not be able to entertain the baby for a couple of hours? Worried that grandpa will get lost with the baby while strolling around the house? In vain.
Your loved ones are adults, they wish both you and the baby only the best and are unlikely to harm him in any way. At most, a diaper is buttoned crookedly, an extra blouse is put on the baby, or they give him the wrong nipple.
If possible, make arrangements with your family so that they can babysit at least two or three times a week, giving you a couple of hours to sleep and rest. By the way, for this you can invite a nanny. And again - no household chores at this time, only - sleep!
sleeping with the baby
Co-sleeping has many advantages: the mother doesn't have to get up, wake up, go to the crib, get the baby out of it. She can feed the baby and at the same time almost never wake up: after all, the baby will find the breast on its own. Yes, and many children sleep only with their parents - in order to fall asleep, some babies need to feel the familiar smell and warmth of a loved one. This method has both its supporters and opponents, but in any case, if you choose to sleep together, you need to ensure the safety of the child.
You can not put the child on the edge of the bed - he can turn around and fall to the floor; you can not put it next to the parent pillow - the baby may turn unsuccessfully and his breathing will be disturbed.
And it's best not to put the baby in the same bed with adults, but simply move the crib to the parent's bed, after removing the side rail from it (today there are even special cribs for sleeping together). So the child will feel the closeness of mom and dad, and parents will sleep peacefully, without worrying about his safety.
“Stock up” with sleep
Scientists have found that lack of sleep or insomnia is fully compensated by a full rash preceding it (or following it). And if so, then you can “stock up” on sleep. A couple of times a week (well, or one for sure) you need to arrange a day for yourself when the dream lasts 8-9hours per day. Here again, relatives or a nanny will come to the rescue. You can select once a week when you sleep all night, and dad gets up at night for the baby.
True, this is convenient when the child is bottle-fed or at least agrees to drink expressed mother's milk from a bottle at night. If this is not possible, then you need to agree with your husband that, for example, on the weekend he takes the child and works with him for a couple of morning hours, and you fill up the missing time. Or let your grandmother (nanny) come in the morning, who will also let you make up for a night's sleep.
go to bed together at night
Usually, after putting her baby to bed, a mother either rushes to finish the day's chores, or tries to find time for herself (surf the Internet, read a book, watch TV, get a manicure). But it is the first three to four hours of sleep at night that children sleep best. Take note of this and go to bed at night at the same time as your baby. Otherwise, you have not yet had time to fall asleep (or just fell asleep), as the baby woke up for night feeding or just like that. As a result, you will get not only a shortened night's sleep, but for sure at night the baby will wake up a couple more times and interrupt it.
put the child to bed early
As a rule, an adult who goes to bed early wakes up earlier. But in children there is no such pattern. Therefore, do not be afraid that today, having fallen asleep before 9 pm, tomorrow the baby will wake you up at dawn. On the contrary, the later the child falls asleep, the worse and more restless he sleeps. And just early laying gives a more complete and prolonged night's sleep. And this is exactly what a tired mom needs! But in order to establish such a daily routine, all family members will have to try. But then it becomes much easier for them.
Try to improve your routine and sleep more, and the whole family will feel much better. Even with a small child, it is possible not to feel sleep deprivation. Try it and see for yourself.
If this arrangement suits all members of your family, practice co-sleeping. This is a real salvation for mothers whose children often wake up at night.
Sleep deficiency disrupts the formation of serotonin in the body - a biologically active substance, which is also called the hormone of happiness, calmness and good mood. As a result, a person deprived of normal rest constantly experiences irritability and a feeling of depression
Try to instill a regular sleep-wake schedule in your child. This will make your day more organized and make you less tired.
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Why does the child sleep poorly at night?
29.09.2015
39982
25
Why isn't
Author
Tatyana Chkhikvishvili
Tatyana Chkhikvishvili
Head of the Online program, psychologist, sleep consultant
mothers of two children
After a sleepless night, your husband is hardly going to work, and you stay at home with the baby and sadly think why your child sleeps so badly at night.
Will his sleep ever improve?
Yes - as far as possible at his age. Why do only a few babies fall asleep easily and sleep peacefully through the night? How can you help your child sleep better? To answer these questions, you need to know how sleep changes as the child grows.
Baby crisis calendar
Newborn sleep problems
You are very tired and find it hard to believe that normal newborns sleep 18 hours a day. Many parents complain that the child does not sleep well at night, but this is not entirely true. Newborns usually sleep continuously for only 2-4 hours before waking up. Their stomachs are still very small and need frequent feedings, even at night. Intervals of sleep and wakefulness alternate during the day, approximately the same during the day and at night. In the first months of life, the baby simply cannot sleep all night without waking up.
Another problem for parents is that the child cannot yet live according to the regime.
He does not yet distinguish between day and night, his circadian rhythm ("internal clock") is just beginning to form. The rhythm of the day (alternation of sleep and wakefulness) in a newborn is often unpredictable - his dreams can be of different duration. A baby's sleep cycle is shorter than that of an adult, and there is a very large proportion of REM sleep in the sleep structure. REM sleep is very important for the development and growth of a child's brain. But it is very "light", and in this phase of sleep the child often wakes up for any reason.
Unpredictable sleep duration and frequent nocturnal awakenings are physiological norms for a newborn. This phase only lasts a few weeks, but it can feel like an eternity to sleep-deprived parents.
Your main task now is to meet the needs of the child. While you have to wake up several times a night: feed, change a diaper, calm down, help you fall asleep again.
What can I do to sleep better?
The most common problem at this age is that the child "mixed day and night.
" This means that he has a long uninterrupted sleep during the daytime, and then he does not sleep at night.
To prevent this from happening, try to show the child the difference between day and night from the first days of life Baby's nighttime sleep from 2 to 6 months
Changes already visible :
- At 6-8 weeks of age, daytime naps become shorter, wake time slightly longer, and nighttime sleep begins to gradually lengthen. The proportion of REM sleep becomes smaller, the duration of restful sleep increases. The baby still wakes up at night - he still needs nightly feedings.
- By about 3 months, the baby already begins to distinguish between day and night, now the alternation of sleep and wakefulness is subject to the daily rhythm.
At the age of 3-4 months, the child usually has a sharp deterioration in sleep. He falls asleep badly at night, cries before a night's sleep. This is called the 4 month sleep regression. At this time, the structure of the child's sleep changes.
If you manage to create conditions for good sleep, by 6 months the child will already have a fairly long night's sleep. A baby at the age of six months can usually sleep for about 6 hours without waking up. This long period of sleep most often occurs in the first half of the night. But a few urges per night are still the norm for a 6-month-old baby.
Baby's Nighttime Sleep 6 to 12 Months
If your baby sleeps well at night, that's great! Relax with him! But be prepared: after 6 months there may be temporary deterioration in sleep. There will definitely be reasons for this :
- A leap in development or a peak of fear of separation;
- Learning a new skill;
- Teething or disease;
- Physical discomfort.
Analyze everything to find out the cause of the child's anxiety at night.
Research shows that children behave differently when they wake up at night: some wake up crying and others not.
Sleep characteristics of a 12–36 month old baby
The second year of a baby's life brings a long-awaited feeling of stability to many parents: changes in sleep patterns become less frequent and rapid. Basically, in a little over a year, children switch to one daytime sleep.
At this age, children no longer feel the physiological need for night feedings and are ready to sleep all night. Nightly "demands" for breasts or bottles are more of a habit than a feeling of hunger - of course, provided that during the day the baby eats well enough.
Many children under the age of two or a little longer still need pre-morning feeding to get a longer night's sleep. To maintain lactation, feeding in the pre-morning time or between 6:00-8:00 am is recommended.
If a baby over one year old wakes up several times every night to nurse or bottle, it is most likely due to a strong association with falling asleep, not hunger.
It is not necessary to wait until the child "outgrows" this or that association for sleep: from motion sickness on a fitball or in a stroller to frequent nighttime attachments to the breast or bottle. Already now you can start working in a team with a sleep consultant, carefully and gently adjust the sleep of the whole family.
Why does the baby cry at night?
In the first months of life, about 95% of babies cry when they wake up. The main physiological reasons why a child often wakes up at night crying :
- the baby is hungry;
- cold or, conversely, he is hot;
- he feels uncomfortable from an overfilled diaper or has a stomach ache.
But very often the cause of crying upon awakening is behavioral.
The child is crying because after waking up, he cannot go back to sleep without help.
Western studies show that by the age of 8 months, about 50% of children can already fall asleep on their own after nocturnal awakenings. Some parents do not even notice that their children wake up at night.
Many people believe that until the mother stops breastfeeding, the baby's sleep will not improve. But practice shows that in order to improve night sleep at this age, it is enough to separate food and sleep, teach the baby to calm down and fall asleep on his own. That is, the child is applied to the chest before laying down, and then calmly falls asleep without the help of the mother. Breastfeeding can be maintained for as long as the mother wants.
At about 1 year of age, babies who can fall asleep on their own sleep longer at night and wake up less often. By 12 months, the child is already able to sleep at night from 8:00 to 12:00 with 1-2 awakenings.
If you are worried that the baby wakes up at night and cries, remember :
- the newborn is not yet able to “sleep through the night”;
- a long period of uninterrupted nighttime sleep develops at 3–6 months of age;
- even after 6 months it is normal to wake up several times a night.
Elena Muradova
Head of the BabySleep Center, the first sleep consultant in Russia, the author of the BabySleep methodology
Night awakenings are part of an ancient mechanism that ensured humanity's survival at the dawn of time. We all wake up at night. Only adults, convinced of their own safety, instantly fall asleep, and children who cannot fall asleep on their own cannot immediately fall asleep again. Even if everything is in order (not hot, not cold, not hungry, nothing hurts), they are waiting for help in the usual way - they feed, shake, vilify in their arms.
And this is just one of the many causes of poor nighttime sleep in children.
Although at every age there are reasons why children wake up at night, parents can learn to influence them. The gradual formation of new sleep habits, understanding the signals and accepting the needs of the child helps to organize healthy sleep for the whole family at any given time.
