Don't let this picture fool you!
So, my once perfect baby has turned into an unpredictable, always hungry, screaming her guts out girl! I feel like I can't keep this girl happy any more. I am sure I am making it worse than it sounds. She used to eat (very predictably with little variation) every four hours at the same time every day. She would take three naps, go to bed at 7:30 and sleep until 7a.m. She was the baby wise dream baby! NOT ANY MORE. Our schedule has gone haywire these last few days. She is wanting to eat as soon as every two hours sometimes and she is waking up after 45 min. to an hour at every nap! AND, this is the worst part, she is sometimes waking up TWICE in the middle of the night to eat! It is infuriating! I just wish I knew what was wrong. Yesterday I started giving her my milk in bottles to see how much she was eating. I would feed her, then pump to see what the difference was. She was eating anywhere from 7-9 oz. per feeding but she was back to eating every four hours. However, I was only pumping about 5 1/2 oz. I would like to start her on some cereal, but her peds. dr. wants me to wait until six months for a couple of reasons. She has a allergy concern with our girl b/c of some blood in her stool once. I don't think she has an allergy, but I'm no doctor! I also think that maybe my nutrition has played a part in this. I have slacked off in my caloric intake (it's hard to eat that much!) and I haven't been drinking as much water as I should be. So, anyway, yesterday she ended up eating somewhere around 30 oz. or so and she STILL woke up once in the night. Okay moms (I may regret this later), what's your advice?
10 comments:
I have no advice - my kids went through this at this age too - right around 4 1/2 months. And I just fed them more. I think I fed ever 2 hours during the day for several months. I know, not cool, right? Evan's turning 10 months this week and has been out of that phase for about a month.
And studies show that cereal doesn't help them sleep longer. So nope, no advice here.
not really advice...just maybe a growth spurt. Don't get discouraged though. Sometimes its more obvious than we think....like a few months ago Liela was being crazy sad one Saturday night and she even woke up during the night crying which she never does. I was at church and Kate and I were talking about it b/c she was clinging to me like crazy. Jason said, 'maybe its her teeth.' It totally was. Why in the heck Jason knew better than a mom of almost 4 years I'll never know. blame it on my boy.
BUT, it may not be that easy...just a thought, it might me a growth spurt that she will get over and be back to sleeping like a gem for you.
One thing that I did sometimes if I thought they were having a growth spurt was give them a good bottle of formula for the last feeding and then make sure I pump that much before I went to bed. So if I had to pump twice...whatever. I just hear that formula takes them a little longer to digest so that will make them sleep through better.
OK, this is a bad time for me to give advice, because I could have the same post in four months. I can say that Josiah did this type of thing at this age, though. He could drink up to 11 oz. of pumped milk at a time! I thought he couldn't be hungry.
I'm going to agree with the others. I'm guessing it's a growth spurt or she's just hungrier in general now. When Josiah hit five months, I gave up, started him on cereal, and he slept through the night from then on. He never had before. It turned out, though, that it was the extra feeding times that mattered, and not the cereal. A few times I just gave him 4 oz. milk instead of cereal, and he still slept through the night. So like Jenny said, he ate about every 2 hours: as soon as he woke up and right before he took his nap.
Whether it's hunger, teeth, or whatever, I hope you get your pleasant, happy baby back soon!
I feel your pain! Except, Simon was never an angel baby where sleep is concerned. I could NEVER figure him out. It probably is a growth spurt and will pass. And if she's still up to these antics after a while and you think it's just a habit, it probably wouldn't take long for her to adjust if you let her cry it out at night. I know she's still young though! I do remember Baby Wise talking about the "45 Minute Intruder;' I think it's common for babies to wake up early at naptime and just need to go back to sleep.
So, I guess no real advice here, except I will pray that you know what to do (having a plan always lends some sanity!) and that you won't get too tired and frustrated in the meantime. :)
i hate to add to your list of "non-advice", but....
yeah, no advice. just know that i'll add you to my list of moms i try to pray for when meg wakes me up in the midst of the night. she went through that too. just always seemed hungry and when i would feed her it was like the first time she had eaten in days. such a drama queen. :)
try whatever ideas God puts in your mind and trust your God-given momminess.
Oh- sorry to hear this. For sure no advice from the non-mommy! But I hope everything works out soon! And don't forget to drink that water wether it's for Charlie or for you.
my situation is a little different b/c I do bottle feed my kids, eah of them would go shorter when they were hitting a growth spurt and when they consistantly went short we would up there ounces. If you weren't feeding her in the night I wouldn't start now but just to go in and help her go back to sleep (rocking or pacifier, rubbing the back). It may be teeth too she is at the right age for that. lastly I started adding cereal to the nightly bottle around 5 months using barley which is the least allergic cereal for babies. Hope this helps.
I have just had a day like this today!! he woke up SCREAMING from his nap & wouldn't calm down until I fed him - which had only been 2 1/2 hours before!! he always wakes up happy, so this was very unusual. I was thinking we were just catching up from a crazy weekend - but I sure hope this is not what I'm in for! graham has been on almost the exact babywise schedule as Charlotte. I've heard other moms say when this starts is when they've started with cereal. I think I'd prefer to do that rather than feed every 2 hours or have life turned so crazy! of course I'm not a dr. so I can't tell you to go against him! but I might consider it... :) lots of luck!
Could it be that you're eating something that is upsetting her belly? When Owen went through a really fussy stage I started giving him gas drops out of desperation. They were miracle drops in our home! (And eventually I figured out that he got extra fussy whenever I drank milk).
oh my word - I feel bad saying this - but this post made me feel so good today. Maddy (as you know) was such a good eater/sleeper too! But the past couple of weeks she has been a handful. She has been doing the same thing! She will be cranky more often during the day- want to eat more often (but then not as much each time ) and then she has been getting up in the night! It's driving me crazy lately. I personally am hoping it's a growth spurt (I guess they say around 4 months (charlie) and then 6 months (Maddy) they go through that - ugh - so frustrating - I know! Hang in there!
Post a Comment