My DD is EBF and she has a very hard time going to sleep at night, I'm curious if my caffeine intake can affect her and keep her awake? She gets so tired but just can't fall asleep. I drink maybe a cup of pretty strong coffee in the morning and the occasional coke in the afternoon/evening maybe a few times a week. I wouldn't think it would affect her, but just ruling out the causes!
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I've heard that it doesn't get passed through breastmilk, but I'm not sure how conclusive that is.
Could your LO be overtired by the time you try to put her down? I know if LO is overtired, she is miserable to put down and will wake up frequently during the night. But if we put her down before she's overtired, she sleeps all night.
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I read on NPR that caffeine does not pass through breastmilk, plus that really isn't a lot anyway. (http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/03/30/149714583/caffeine-might-keep-moms-awake-but-not-their-babies)
Of course, I have also heard other people say otherwise, so who knows. The carbonation could be an issue with gass-- I had a friend who was a diet coke addict throughout her pregnancy but had to give it up while BFing because of gas issues in the baby.
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I have a friend who says soda affects her breastmilk/LO falling asleep...but I don't know if it's true or just common belief. Maybe you could try keeping caffeine early in the day and see if it helps?
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I agree with @BabyBoecksMom 's suggestion - LO might be overtired. Try putting her down earlier and see what happens.
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@BabyBoecksMom: ya know I was thinking this too...she was going to bed at 6:15/6:45 but I was like wow this is too early, so I was letting her cat nap but keeping her up later...maybe this is backfiring on me? Being a FTM it's hard to know what to do!
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@Bluebonnet: She doesn't really give me signs of being tired until the very last second, should I lay her down even when she isn't whining/crying? I don't want to feel like I'm making her go to sleep if she's not tired...but I can never tell!
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How old is she? How long is her awake time? I agree with others that it could be an overtired problem, not a caffeine problem!
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Also, my son never really gave sleepy cues - he would just suddenly start yawning and fussing - so for awhile I had to go by the clock, not his sleepy cues.
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@winniebee: She is only 3 months old. But like last night she took 45 minutes to fall asleep and was freaking out the whole time, but during the day when I lay her down for naps it takes her maybe 5 minutes to fall asleep. Here is a tentative schedule:
8:00am:wake up
9:30am-10:15am:nap
12:30-1:30:nap
3:30-4:30/5:00pm:nap
Bet time has varied from 6:15-9:00pm....
In between these times she plays, eats, etc -
@Bao: If she's taking 45 minutes to fall asleep and she's that fussy, she's probably overtired.
Every LO is different, but I've learned the second LO starts yawning, we need to put her to bed. If so, she'll put herself to sleep in minutes. If she gets overtired, she fights sleep for an hour and then we're all exhausted.
If you haven't already established a sleep routine and bedtime, you might want to start thinking about that. It will give you and LO a more predictable schedule and LO will know when its time to sleep.
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@Bluebonnet: That's good to know! I somewhat started a night time routine but I'm not always adamant about it. I guess I always thought 6:15/6:45 was way too early to go to bed for the night. Possibly not?
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@Bao: Though every baby is different, at that age, my son's max awake time was 1:30/1:45 before getting into the overtired zone. He could probably have done 2:00 before bed, but that 2 hours included the 30 mins it used to take him to eat his bedtime bottle. I would say try to limit her awake period before bed -- also, it was right around 3 months where LO needed an earlier bedtime -- we started putting him down more like around 8 and then evenutally by 4 months he was going to bed at 7.
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@Bao: Actually, many of the sleep experts advocate a bedtime between 6-7 p.m. starting around 3 months of age. The Healthy Sleep Happy Child book is pretty scientific and basically says babies have a biological need to go to bed at 7 starting around that age. But again every baby is different!
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@winniebee: ok she just woke up from her nap at 4:30pm, so tops for a bedtime would be 6:30? or would you think that would be another nap? ahh so confused. Thanks for all your help!!
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@winniebee: wow I did not know that, thank you for sharing that!
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I'd think that if she work up at 4:30, I'd say 6:30 is bedtime. Will she sleep for a very long stretch (whatever is long for her?) at 6:30? We put DS down between 6:30-7:30pm and he sleeps (with wake ups for feeding) until about 7am. Maybe she'll just wake up a little earlier in the am?
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@mewtill: I put her down at 6:30 and she went to sleep great, theennnn 7:00 rolled around and she was up, fussing, fidgeting, then crying. Ugh
she's still awake currently.
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@Bao: How did the rest of the night go. At that time, it was a lot of trial and error and it was also the time where my LO would wake up after 15 minutes of sleep crying. He didn't know how to put himself back to sleep at that point, but eventually we let him CIO a little to fall asleep at night.
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@winniebee: she didn't fall asleep until after 9, but didn't wake up until 245am and 5am ish? Your right it's a lot of trial and error, thank you for asking
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@Bao: My son started on the earlier bedtime right around 3.5 months. Previously I let him have a 6 pm catnap and then he would go to bed at like 8:30 or 9. Right around 3.5 months we started him on a more strict bedtime routine and aimed for 8 p.m., then 7:30 and then eventually 7.
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@winniebee: maybe ill slowly start getting her to switch up her schedule a bit? She was wide awake after her cat nap last night...
she's still awake currently.
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