There is a board that I found where you post messages to "experts" and they reply. Anyway I posted to a Lactation Expert as Cameron is cluster feeding between 3 am and 7 am. Which means he wakes me up every hour to feed.

Last night a 4 am I was so tired I literaly forced a pacifer on him and he slept until 6 am.

Anyway the expert suggested that Cameron should be feeding more during the day and that he has his days and night mixed up. He sleeps a lot throughout the day, but I think it's my fault. I've been putting him in a swing to sleep, so if he wakes up the swing puts him back to sleep.

During the day he sleeps from 9 am until 12 or 1 pm is up for an hour mabye 2 hours then goes back to sleep until 5 pm. Now this is great for me as I can get tons done during the day, but I think it's messing up our nights. So this morning he only slept about 45 mins. I knew he was getting tired so I rocked him to sleep and put in him a bouncy, the eyes popped open instantly! So I put him in the swing until he fell asleep and then turned the swing off.

Ok he's been asleep for 2 hours, do I wake him up!??? I'm thinking I should not let him sleep for more than 2 hours during the day in hopes that he will sleep at night.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

TIA

By Reds9298 on Saturday, November 19, 2005 - 03:39 pm:

I don't have any suggestions but...
I didn't b/f but Natalie didn't have any kind of schedule until probably 6mths or so with regard to daytime naps! I let her sleep whenever she wanted to. Just got up to feed and went right back to sleep. If I remember right, at around 3mths. Natalie slept about 4 hours during the day and at least 12 at night. Maybe I was lucky? As a new mom I just thought that at that age they were supposed to sleep whenever they wanted to during the day. I guess it just happened to work for us.
So he's sleeping about 6 hrs. during the day total? That seems like quite a bit. But I always had trouble keeping Natalie awake...it seemed like if she wanted to sleep there was nothing stopping her!

By Heaventree on Saturday, November 19, 2005 - 04:04 pm:

Deanna, I think the difference between b/f'd and formula babies is that the formula stays with them longer so they can sleep longer, that said yes, he is sleeping a ton throughout the day, he also sleeps from 8 pm until 1 am - go figure that he would take his wake when I most want/need to sleep. Ugh!

Just after I posted I went in to check on him and he was waking up so I didn't have to, so he's only slept about 3 hours today so far and it's 4 pm. We see if things change over the next few days.

By Reds9298 on Saturday, November 19, 2005 - 09:27 pm:

I just re-read my post...sorry! She didn't sleep 12 hours at night all at once!! She woke up at about 5-6 hours at 3mths. to eat, then back to sleep. I meant that she only woke up at night to eat, and that during the day I let her sleep whenever she wanted to. Boy, that really came out wrong!
I know that with b/fding they need to eat more frequently. Our ped once told us that if we had night problems (which we never did) that eating more during the day might be one resolution to that problem.
I hope it gets better for you!