Sara: I have a 10 week old, who was born 4 weeks early and I am a single parent and will soon go back to work. I have read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child over and over again. I am having trouble with him waking up fussy and crying after he goes down for his naps, after i get him he tends to sleep in my arm. He will sleep for 30-45 minutes then will cry and is very angry and fussy. He eats before he naps, so he can’t be hungry. Should I let him cry?
Also, he goes down at night around 7pm and wakes up crying every 3-3.5 hours, so I feed him. Is it too early to skip any of the night feedings? If not how do I go about it? HELP!
Sally Tannen: I’m the director of the Parenting Center and I am responding to Sara’s post.
Sara, you are asking many good questions. Your baby is still young enough so that if he is waking up to feed, then he is hungry and you should feed him. Talk to your pediatrician about when you can drop one of the night feedings. It will depend on how much he weighs now, but young babies have small stomachs and can only take in so much at once so it may be to soon.
Babies can be very fussy in the first few months. The only way he can communicate with you right now is to cry. I’m wondering how long he cries when he wakes up after a short time. If you left him alone for a few minutes, does he calm down, or does he get more upset? Some babies go from 0-60 in seconds, and others just make some crying sounds, but then can get back to sleep. If he gets more wound up, then you should definitely pick him up and help him at this point because he’s too young to be able to soothe himself back to sleep on his own.
Do you know about our New Parent Get Togethers on Wednesday mornings? If you are in NYC, you should come. They are every Wednesday at 10:30, and every week is a different topic. Next week is Your Baby’s Temperament, and the week after is SLEEP!
I hope to see you at the Y! Good luck.
Sara: Thank you Sally. I did like you suggested and left him alone once he started to cry for several minutes, sometimes longer than others, but never more than 5 minutes. (it seemed like hours!) You were right, he just went right back to sleep. He will cry a couple of small bouts now during his 2hour!! nap and i just wait and see. Yes he now will usually nap 2 hours!!!!! I just was not letting him before!! Thanks.
