Nighttime sleep has completely regressed to months earlier when they only slept for a few hours at a time and woke up at night for at least two feedings. Not sure if it's the move, the new bedroom and environment, if it's teeth, or if they just aren't getting enough food during the day. Lena seems to be chomping on her hands all day long and fussing more than usual, and her gums look puffy. Carmy seems fairly normal during the day but she's waking more often at night. Before we moved they were SO good, they'd sleep solid from just after 6p.m to at least 1:30am, sometimes until 4am for their single night nursing. Now, they are waking between 10p.m and midnight, and again before morning (and sometimes again). Teeth? The move? Am I feeding them enough calories during the day? I'm still exclusively breastfeeding and I feed them about 1/4 of a banana in the morning and an ounce of vegetables each in the evening.
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| Reading with my babes in our new home |
5 comments:
My advice is to give it about a week. If it's still happening, or getting worse, they could be developing a comfort nursing habit. They shouldn't be hungry at night b/c as they get older, they start to consume enough calories during the day, but that means you have to keep increasing their daytime food too. If things haven't improved in a week or two (once they've definitely settled from the move), you might want to start thinking more about sleep training. Just remember, CIO isn't easy for anyone. It killed me. I hated every second of it. But, it worked, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I strongly believe that I saved many, many hours of tears and stress (for all of us) in the long run. Also, CIO isn't as harsh as it sounds. There are lots of variations and different approaches. It takes some time to figure out which method your baby responds best to.
Love the pix of your new place! It looks lovely (as do you and your girls!). I agree w/Nicole to give it time...and I think it sounds like teething. I bet they will return to good sleepers soon. Just get rest now when you can.
It's always hard to tell why they start waking again in the night. It could be another growth spurt (they DO slow down), it could be teeth, it could be a handful of different things. That's what makes it tough...we just guess, and we do our best!
Have you tried giving them Tylenol before bed? If that works, chances are good it's a teething issue. I'm not big into medications, so I bought a teething necklace and found that it really worked well for Kingston. I would recommend the Inspired by Finn necklaces.
I would also try to give them a good 10 minutes of crying/being awake before going in there. It's not easy to let them cry at night, but it really does work. Kingston still wakes up occasionally in the night. Not sure why some nights, but he doesn't get fed unless he's freaking out. We know their different cries.
They may also be ready for solid foods. We started Kingston early with solid foods because he was a big boy and I just knew he was ready. Perhaps the girls do need more food now?
Good luck....I look forward to your update!
Has this settled down now? Im going to guess that your intuition was correct - colds, moving and teething in combination can just mess up everything. And they are probably ready for more solids during the day.
Im sure that once the girls get used to the new place things will pick up again.
Teething will be frustrating for many months to come, but at least it comes in waves usually...
Hope you are doing better!
Update: Lena's first tooth has popped through and the second one is one it's way shortly. I've added another meal to their day (which makes 3 now) and increased the quantity of each meal and they eat it all up!
I think it was definitely partially the move, as Carmy had no reason to be waking and now she's back to her usual night waking. Lena on the other hand wakes up twice a night (which I really don't mind, I'll nurse her both times). She's learning to crawl and has her teeth coming in and I really think that's what has her waking more. When her first tooth came in she would wake up crying and crying, and we gave her advil for babies and that helped so the tooth is totally what it was.
Thanks for all your advice, opinions and support ladies!
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