I just started to read my Ferber book AGAIN. I've been tracking Ben's sleep schedule for a few days now. He wakes up about 3 sometimes 4 times a night. I'm trying not to feed him before 4 hours has gone since last feeding. His doctor said he should be going at least 4 hours by now. He is almost 7 months. He is a very restless sleeper. What I mean by that is he cries out a lot, tosses, turns, kicks his legs these noises wake me up so I am up several times during the night. :pullhair: I try to calm him down with out picking him up. If he starts to get very upset I'll pick him up and comfort him. I don't want him to wake Ted and Sam.

He seems to be taking 4 naps a day none more than 45 minutes each. I remember that Ted and Sam took two long naps at around 10AM and 2PM. When will Ben start taking just the two naps?

Any advice on how to get this kid to sleep more?
I'll post his schedule if it will help.
Thank you!!!

Elisete, I'm sorry I'm of no help as we never did Ferber method ..or any specific method, per se... I followed pieces of advice from different people to get to the solution that worked for us...

I hope that maybe somebody else can help you with some advice :) Hang in there! :hug99:

I'm really not a big fan of Ferber (to say the least), so I can't help you with that.

How old is Ben?

I can't speak to Ferber, but some babies aren't as good sleepers as others. I would try to push him into a two-nap schedule if you can since he doesn't seem to be getting there on his own. I know it's hard when you have the two older boys and you have to work around their activities and such. Also, try doing a "dream feed" at night. Give him a bottle before you or DH go to bed while he's asleep - he should sleep right through it. It will help fill him up so he can go longer at night. We did it with both kids and it really helped.

Also, I highly recommend "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer". That had some ideas/strategies that really helped us.

Good luck - I know how hard it is dealing with sleep issues.

Dennis

I am another who has no idea what the Ferber method is but ...

I have successfully had 4 children go to the 2 nap a day/sleep all night. Two of my own and two for other people. The biggest thing is getting them to get two healthy naps in. Both the children I watch take at least 2 2 hour naps. Hannah is just 6 months and for about 2 months now she has started taking a morning nap for 3 hrs and an afternoon nap for 2 hrs and her parents say since then she has been sleeping almost all night for them! We worked it out so that I put her down for a nap around 8am and she sleeps until almost 11 (I get her at 6am so she has been up for 2 hrs before her nap). I usually try to keep her busy from 11 - 1 I start the bottle around 12:30 (She also has a bottle at 7:30) After her bottle I keep her awake for a good 30-45 minutes and then lay her down awake for her afternoon nap and she usually sleeps 2 hrs.

I think you just really have to work to keep them up for longer periods of time. If he is taking little cat naps he never gets truely tired to sleep for a longer period of time :dunno:

I agree with the two nap schedule...try to move to it right away. He may not transition into long naps right away...it could take a week or two...but once he's taking a good nap, he should be sleeping better.

Unfortunately, "sleeping through the night" at that age is defined as a 5 hr stretch :rolleyes: But that really depends on his weight and how he eats during the day, as well.
I've always had success with the dream feed...whether I was breast or bottle feeding (not sure which you are doing).
However, I held the same schedule...nap and feeding and bedtime...with my twins, and Elliott slept through the night at 5 months and it took Norah till 10 months (but even then, it was only 1 waking). So sometimes, there's nothing you can do :(

I am going to agree with those that suggested the 2 nap schedule. Really reading tired signs and not letting them get over tired in the day can effect the amount of time they nap for. Although as Karri said for the first few days to a week of transition it can be tough because he will still be on his short nap time frame but less naps. It normally doesn't take long and if you hold strong it will change your life for the night!! I also resort to dream feeds mainly to get them to sleep longer in the morning. Like you with 2 other boys to worry about Jacob waking them, I would dream feed him around 11pm so that he would sleep past 7 in the morning when Aiden and Riley would normally wake up, if I didn't do that he would be up at 5am, although by around 10ish months I think it was I stopped that and he just got used to sleeping all night and to after 7am.

Good luck. I hope it works for you!

Thank you all for the tips!

Nichole: Why don't you like the Ferber method? I'm re-reading it to understand the sleep cycles that we go through. I don't let Ben cry it out. Is that the part you don't like? Ben does a lot of rolling around, talking and whining before he falls asleep. If he starts to really cry and get upset I go in and comfort him.

Ben is 7 months old and weighs 18 pounds.

Dennis: I read the baby whisperer. It helped me a lot with reading all three of my boys.

Some of his schedule: I give him some first stage baby food around 5-5:30. Bath time is 6-6:30. Around 7-7:30 I give him baby fruit or cereal and then nurse him. He is tired and ready for bed by 8PM. He will wake up around 12ish and want to nurse. Then again at 3AM and 5AM. He wakes up around 7:30-8AM.

He has been napping around 9:30 - 10:30 ish, 1ish, 2:30ish then again around 6 ish.

I am going to do the 2 naps. One around 10AM the other around 2PM. Think those are good times?

I will also do the dream feed right before I go to bed around 10PM.

At that age, he might need more complex food - maybe it's time to move to Stage 2 or 3! A larger meal, with some more texture, might stick around in his tummy longer and help him sleep.

I have given him the stage two but he does not eat it all. I do add baby rice cereal and oat meal into his food. I can start proteins ar 8 mo. He still nurses quite a bit.

I think 10 and 2 are perfect times for naps. I think that is around the recommended times that I've read for children. I think the dream feed will help as well.

Good luck!

Have you tried skipping the 3am feed? at his age he can go 5 hours at night with out eating and it could just be a habit feed for him :dunno: Maybe just going in and comforting him, letting him know you are there but doing the usual sleep routine and not actually feeding him may get him out of waking so frequently. I always transfer my kids to a 10 & 2 nap time when I turn it into a twice a day thing :nod: also with the 10am and 2am naps and maybe skipping the 3am feed might help extend his sleeping too.

Jacob never took solids very well, he ate the early stuff but never ate the chunkier style, but I did mush it and puree it as it had more variety to it which beefed it up, maybe you can try that?

Good luck!

10 & 2 are good times. :nod:

If you don't mind getting up at 12, I'd keep that feeding for now and maybe not do a dream feed so that you don't mess with that time. What I'd focus on is getting him not to eat at 3am. Like Deb said, he should be able to go from 12-5 w/o needing nourishment. Especially given what you said he's eating in the late day/evening.
Does he take a bottle at all? When we were trying to cut out a nighttime feeding, I would have my husband offer the kids a bottle of water. After a few days of realizing that they weren't getting food, they got the hint and would sleep through it. It was more habit than anything.
I have given him the stage two but he does not eat it all. I do add baby rice cereal and oat meal into his food. I can start proteins ar 8 mo. He still nurses quite a bit.
I think that's fine. Although I made their babyfood, none of my kids got into the texturized stuff. They did purees for a long time, with me just adding the quantity to them, and then wham! Went straight to table food at 10 months :dunno: I think every kid is different.

Hi, I just wanted to up date on how last week went. I did the dream feed at night but it didn't help much. One night he went 'til 1AM but the others he got up at 12 like before. He seems to be getting better with the 3 and 5 AM waking up. I hope he is ready to give up at least one of those times! He did 4:30 ish twice 3am once and has done a few 4-5 hour stretches.

Nap times are going much better. I did my best to stick to 10 & 2. Most of the days he napped for 1-2 hours! He still wants a cat nap around 5PM though.

That sounds like you're making really good progress. All three of my kids took dinnertime cat naps for a long time (generally around 30-60 minutes). Brendan did that until he was 10 months old. It also let him stay awake as long as the big kids did (8ish). Once he cut that out, he was going to bed between 7 and 7:30.

Last night went well! Ben went to sleep at 8PM. He woke up at 10:30 and I nursed him. He woke up again at 11:30 but I did not nurse him. I comforted him but he kept on crying and crying and searching for the boob. I'd put him in his crib and rub his back, pick him up for a bit if he got too upset. I could tell that he was exhausted. He would fall asleep for a few seconds then start crying, sleep, cry, roll all around in his crib. This went on for 30 minutes! I was soooo tempted to just nurse him so that we could both just go back to sleep!!! I didn't though and he fell back to sleep on his own in the crib after 30 minutes! He slept until 5 AM!! I nursed him, he went back to sleep and woke up at 7 AM!! I think his teeth are coming in.

For his nap today I nursed him in the living room then I brought him up to his crib. I put him in and left the room. He played for a little bit and then fell asleep on his own! He has been there for an hour so far!

This week I am going to work on not nursing him before he goes down for sleep/nap and having him go at least 4 hours between feedings during the night. Wish me luck!

That sounds like a ton of progress!!!! That's great news!

Sounds like things are falling into place! Good news! :aok:

I am so happy that he slept a whole night! that's awesome. I think showing him that he can go to sleep with out the boob was a major step in your progress.

Is there a reason you don't want to nurse before nap time? Is it because he is falling asleep durin gthe feed? I ask because I like giving the feed before nap and bedtime, I find that my babies slept better if their bellies were full. I still give Jacob a bottle of milk before naptime and bedtime and he is 21 months old.

Is there a reason you don't want to nurse before nap time? Is it because he is falling asleep durin gthe feed?

Yes, he falls asleep while nursing and then I put him into his crib. I don't want him to keep doing that. I want to feed him first let him play for a little bit and then put him in the crib when he starts to show signs that he is getting tired. This way when he wakes during the night it might be easier for me to get him back to sleep with out having to nurse him to sleep.

Yeah, I got you. I thought that was the reason, but just wanted to check. Riley was like that too.