waking at night - (warning long)

[mom_hanna]

DD slept through the night (7pm-5:30am) from 2 1/2 months - 8 months. However, now at 11 months, she wakes 1-2 times per night and the only thing that gets her back to sleep is a bottle (formula). We've have tried CIO, but she'll go on for 45 minutes so we feel compelled to rescue her. We have tried going in and comforting her, walking around with her, all to no avail. Give her a bottle and she drinks it and goes down no problem. How do we break this pattern? She eats three table food meals a day (chicken, pasta/rice, veggies, yogurt, fruit), 3 4oz bottles throughout the day and 1 8oz bottle before bed, as well as snacks inbetween (crackers, fruit), so it's not like she isn't getting enough to eat.

DH suggests shutting her door and ours and wearing earplugs - but he's usually the first to go to her when she cries. LOL.

[Wife_and_mommy]

My DD did this from about 6 months. I was nursing and tried the CIO(unsuccessfully). In retrospect, I know now she was truly hungry and I did feed her but I was baffled because she slept great from 5 weeks to 6 months.

It sounds like your dd is hungry if she's going right back to sleep after a bottle so I'd try getting more formula calories into her during the day to see if she won't need to wake up at night anymore. Once I started giving DD yogurt or milk after her birthday, the problem literally disappeared. We are back to our heavenly bliss of all-night sleeping, barring occassional wakings.

Hth!

Elizabeth

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Our second morsel due early February 2006!

[tbriese]

>DH suggests shutting her door and ours and wearing earplugs -
>but he's usually the first to go to her when she cries. LOL.

sounds like my DH :-) .

i don't have much to offer in the way of help as our DD only needs her binky and she can find it on her own now. i just wanted to send some sleeping vibes :-)

[ribbit1019]

I've been there and can only say that eventually once you can sleep train her she will start sleeping through the night. We used CIO (this does not work for everyone), the first night she cried forever it seemed. And then I felt compelled to check on her which only woke her and caused more crying.

Eventually she got the hint and after we read a couple books, I sing to her, we cuddle for about 5 minutes, I put her into her crib (awake) and she falls asleep on her own. Some days she cries a little, some days she doesn't.

It was very hard to get to his point though and there was a nightly battle from 11 months to 13 months. She has been settling herself and sleeping through the night for about a month now. It is heavenly and I am sure it will stop in March when we have the next baby. ;)

GL and I can sympathize!!

Christy
Maddy born 06/09/04
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Little Peanut due 03/02/06
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[ykc]

Sometimes babies start waking up at night when they are working on other areas of development, or when their routine is disrupted for other reasons. Or she might have needed a little calorie boost during a growth spurt or something. But now it sounds like your daughter is used to her night-time bottle.

Try diluting her bottle with progressively more water until she's just getting water. That way, you break her of the middle of the night mini-meal habit and she's not getting an infusion of sugar that sits around in her mouth making cavities (less saliva at night to flush away the sugars). If you give her an 8oz bottle, start w/ 7oz formula, 1oz water. Every few days, replace another ounce of formula with water. You might want to decrease the volume that she gets too--either before diluting or while you do it. Keep the lights dim, no talking, no playing; put her back in bed as soon as the bottle is done. Make it boring! Once she's on just water, you can give her the bottle to take to bed if you need to. Most kids don't suck down an entire bottle of just water in the middle of the night and will gradually stop asking for it. Just try not to get her too used to having you around in the middle of the night to play, or you'll have to break that habit too.

Good luck!

[kaylinsmommy2]

PP gave great ideas about diluting the formula.

It happened to us, too, but around 13 months. Well, starting 11 months, DD started waking up at 4am. I'd bring her into bed iwth me to nurse and when she finished, she woke up for her day! So around 13 months I decided trying to feed her in her room and put her right back into her crib and it worked. So then we got into the nursing habit in the middle of the night. Well, one day, I was able to pick her up, pat her a little bit, and put her down without nursing her. It really just comes and goes! So, if nothing else works, hopefully it will jsut go away one day! :)
Caroline
Kaylin 6/5/04