My almost 9-month-old STILL wakes up during the night. She has been strictly bottle fed due to health issues. Any advise would be greatly appreciated as I am a zombie!!
How many times a night does she wake up? "Sleeping through the night" means a 5 hour stretch.
My daughter woke up every night to eat at 1 a.m. and then 5:00 a.m. from birth until she was 13 months old. I thought that was completely normal, and I actually felt lucky that she never woke every 2 hours like some babies do.
Well I don't know about your case, but I can tell you about mine. When my son was born he ate every 3 hours around the clock. By about 4 months he could sleep 5-6 hours at night, and gradually longer, up to 7 hrs. But then he started waking more often--aaaaugh! By 8 months I was feeling, as you say, like a zombie. I started to track how many times I got up to feed him in a night and found out it was often 6-8 times per night! My pediatrician assured me that after 4 months of age he did *not* need to eat that often. I did a lot of reading and realized that I was so super-alert to hearing him at night that I would often run in when he was just making noises in his sleep. (He would burp, sigh, squeal, and make as if the start of a cry, all fully asleep!) But my jumping up would fully wake him. And the more his sleep was interrupted, the more irritable and easily woken he became. I have not ever been a proponent of the 'cry it out' method, but we were having not only terrible nights but irritable days (both of us!). I finally tried a method to break the cycle. When I would hear him at night I would look at the clock and wait 5 minutes. It can seem like forever when your baby sounds upset, but its really not long and won't hurt. I found that probably 80% of the time he went back to sleep and seemed better the next day (interrupted sleep bugs them, too!). It helps a lot to have a baby monitor so you can assure yourself he is not caught somehow or in any danger. If he cried longer than 5-10 min I would go pick him up, make sure not wet, hungry, cold, etc. It was one of the best pieces of advice I have received! We both started sleeping a full 8 hours every night, with one occasional wake up per night to none. I was able to be more positive with him during the day and he seemed more happy also. :) On the flip side, my sister-in-law diligently got up every time her son woke her and says that he literally woke and ate every 2 hours for 3 years. OMG!
Have you spoken to your pediatrician? She might not stay full from bottles only. I know there may be health issues but maybe a higher calorie formula would help. Also, maybe she is teething which couldcause discomfort and keeping her awake.
At 9 mos, she doesn't need to eat during the night anymore (if she still is) and it's just a habit.
Healthy Sleep Habits, Health Child saved me! A lot of people think it just promotes CIO, but it doesn't. It explains how sleep habits affect the child's well being and development, and then offers approaches. The author DOES advocate CIO (and so do I, it's worked miracles for us), but he encourages you to do what you're comfortable with.
For me, at 9 mos, I'd let her cry. She's fine and just needs to learn how to self soothe. 1-2 nights and it'll be done. You'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner! (We jsut did this with my daughter at 22 weeks. Sleeps like a LOG now for 12 hrs straight through.)
Either way, some kind of sleep training is necessary. Find an approach that you're comfy with an go for it. It will probably require some crying to break the habit, but you'll be so much better in the end!
