By Joanna Boothby on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - 11:51 am:

Hi
I have an 11 week old baby (6 weeks prem) who is waking every 1.5 -3 hours overnight. When I go to her she seems to be in pain and often expels wind. I try to comfort/burp her but usually end up feeding as any compfort technique usually means she cries out again 15 mins later. I am worried that this feeding pattern (apart from not allowing us to sleep) is setting up a pattern of her not feeding (breast) properly overnight and then waking because she is hungry. She sleeps ok during the day but still wakes approx 2.5hrs between feeds and always sleeps best in the pram. She sometimes has a long sleep between 5pm and 11pm and I have tried waking her during this feed to encourage a longer sleep later but she just wakes 2-3 hourly after the woken feed. Would appreciate some advice re: waking with wind and getting a longer sleep overnight.
Cheers
Joey

By Michelle on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - 01:37 pm:

Hi Joey,

It sounds like you are doing a great job, tuning in to your baby's need for comfort during the night and giving her lots of breastmilk.
In my opinion, it is easier when you have a small baby to 'live in the moment' and do whatever feels necessary at the time, without worrying about what may happen down the track- I found the first 6 months to be the most difficult and I find it much easier to rectify problems in our daily 'rhythms' now that my son is older.

That being said, when my son was little I made the mistake of only offering him one breast (thinking he was full if he wouldn't take the same breast and I could still express milk- it wasn't 100% empty) and he was feeding every 2 hours. After a tut-tutting from the ECHN about it, I offered both sides and sometimes he had both sides twice and that helped him to feel fuller for longer, so if you are making sure she is getting as much as she needs at each feed, I think you shouldn't worry too much about 'overfeeding' or getting in the wrong routine etc.

What is important is getting enough rest to help you cope with the night wakings, so if you can, call in/recruit anyone you can to come and help out with the baby or housework during the day so that you can have a nap, nap when you baby naps (don't worry too much about 'getting things done' its more important that your baby have a rested mother). You haven't mentioned your sleeping arrangements, but if you can, have baby near or in your bed so that you aren't tredding the halls all night long.

I don't know about waking baby during her long sleep- that was another thing I got confused with when my son was small and I ended up waking him every 3 hours regardless (the nurse didn't explain it terribly well) and then he woke every 3 hours on cue for months afterwards (day and night). So, perhaps its best to encourage the long sleep so at least you can have dinner and a bit of wind down time especially since its not in the middle of the day, its in the evening.

Otherwise, rather than actually waking her, perhaps you could just pick her up and hold her to the breast and she might have a 'dream feed'. If you do it just before you go to bed, that might help her to sleep a bit longer too.

Hope that helps and isn't too overwhelming, again its just the things I have found to be helpful with my (now) 2 year old son.

Take Care

Michelle

By Joey on Thursday, October 12, 2006 - 09:04 am:

Thanks Michelle
Appreciate your encouragement and advice. Living in the moment is important and I need to focus on that 'cos she is changing and growing fast.
Thank you
Joey