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Welcome To The Members Area! › Forums › Baby Sleep Help › New Frequent Wakings › Reply To: New Frequent Wakings

  • Emma H

    Administrator
    April 18, 2024 at 9:44 pm

    Hi Maddie,

    It’s great to hear that your little one has settled into your new home so well. I hope you’re all enjoying the new space!

    Regarding her waking up at 3 am and staying awake for a couple of hours, I have a few questions that can help us figure out what might be causing this:

    • Is the 3 am wake-up the only time she wakes up during the night? Or does she wake up at other times, but just has a feed and falls back to sleep quickly?

    • Where do you usually feed her during these night wake-ups? What’s the setting like—do you keep the lights on or off, and do you change her diaper?

    • Could you also share what her daytime nap schedule looks like—both the times and the duration of the naps?

    The primary concern with feeding to sleep is that the bub may develop a strong association between feeding and sleeping. This means they might struggle to fall asleep without being fed, making it difficult for them to self-soothe or fall asleep under other circumstances. This can sometimes result in the bub waking frequently overnight, especially in the latter half of the night, as they need to feed to fall back to sleep.

    If you’re looking to phase out feeding her to sleep, you still want to offer her a final feed in her bedtime routine, but you just start the bedtime routine with the feed. For example, you could start her bedtime routine with a feed in a well-lit room to help keep her alert. Following the feed, you could change her diaper, get her into her pyjamas, put her in her sleeping bag, close the blinds, turn on some white noise, read her a book, sing a lullaby, and then lay her down in the crib. From there, you can use the settling pyramid to help her fall asleep.

    To help her stay awake during the last feed you want to create a stimulating environment that encourages her to stay awake. You can do that by:

    • Keeping the lights on in the room.
    • Choosing a slightly noisier room for feeding.
    • Avoid putting her in her sleeping bag until after the feed.
    • Talk to others in the room (if there are people there) while you are feeding her.

    I hope this helps!

    Emma