Sleeping Woes!

if i remember correctly this is when i added a teaspoon or two of rice cereal to the bottle and that solved it and also if i remember right the pediatrician said that when sleep paterns are interupted it is because of needing more substance it is worth a try-- always start with rice because of allergies then oats mixed then veggies fruits then meats so as to not prefer the sweetness of the fruits and become a non-veggie kid years ago but remember those long nights well all the best T.

You might have heard this already but she needs the milk.. regardless what others say She is telling you she is hungery. My son did the same thing until 8 months he just stopped taking the 1-2 feeding. But there are nites here and there that he wake so that bottle once a week maybe- I believe it's bc he is growing then and he knows what he needs
Hope this helps
Lynelle

If she's waking up sooner when you give her less milk, she might really be hungry. Is she growing or getting ready for a big development change by any chance?

My son didn't sleep through the night until he was 2.5! I felt that he actually needed to eat in the middle of the night until at least 18 months though. Some infant need to eat at night, no matter what the baby books say. Also, my son is just a light sleeper, he always has been. He will often still wake up in the middle of the night and he's almost 5. I would wait a little longer before stressing about you daughter not sleeping for more than 5 hours. :)

If your daughter actually wakes up sooner for more when you reduce the amount you feed her, it sounds like hunger is the issue for her. I've read responses by moms who recommend adding rice cereal to the before-bed bottle to give that meal more carrying power. If you haven't tried that, you might search through earlier posts that discuss this option.

I would not be able to let a hungry baby cry. My daughter needed night feedings until she was perhaps 12 months, but we co-slept, so it was not too great a struggle for me. If I had had to work, or had an older toddler, maybe I would have been more desperate. Is there any way you could catch a few occasional winks when your little ones are napping?

Good luck. It is demanding to give up sleep to the needs of a baby. And when you look back later, you'll be surprised, and maybe a little regretful, that it passed so quickly.

K.,

We struggled similarly and finally had to find a compromise between the "cry it out" and drinking enough to ensure our daughter got through the night! At 9 months, her sleep patterns had deteriorated so badly that we were up 2-4 times every night.

In the end, after getting past the two nights of letting her cry it out...what worked best was to let our daughter drink as much as she wanted right before bed...anywhere from 6-10 oz and then when she woke up in the middle of the night, give her 10-20 minutes to cry before we intervened. I'm not suggesting that this is the best solution...popular books on this topic suggest not letting an infant fall asleep drinking a bottle of milk...listening to your child cry still interrupts one's sleep...they can be sick...it is just what seemed to work for two inexperienced first time parents :-)

Just for background, I think the source of my daughter's sleep issues were having constant colds...at 5 months she started to sleep through the night 50% of the time and get up once for eating. However, since she's in daycare, at 6 months she started having continuous colds that lasted until she was 14 months old with 2-3 stomach viruses and 3-4 intestinal viruses sprinkled in over that time frame. If your child is at home the cause of the sleep disruption may be different.

The sleep issues have improved significantly but have not ended for us. My daughter is now 19 months and in order to maximize my sleep, my husband's sleep, and my daughter's sleep, my daughter and I sleep in our guest bed and my husband get's the master to himself :-) We know this is temporary and will change as everything has changed and evolved to date...so we just do our best to find a reasonable solution knowing it will change again...

Good Luck!

I am a 46 year old full time working, married Mom with a marvelous husband and a 19 month old daughter! Coming to parenthood late in life has been thrilling, exciting, and rewarding.

yes she needs the milk! and she needs you when she wakes up! she is still a baby! i think you could consider yourself fortunate that she sleeps so well and so long, wakes up only twice a night, and goes back to sleep so easily with the bottle. she will continue to grow and will eventually sleep all night. and good for you that you don't want to let her cry! she is perfectly normal in needing to feed at night at this age. if you're not getting enough sleep, i would suggest going to bed when your children do.

My daughter is just one year, and had been following the schedule you describe pretty closely. Between 10 and 11 months (probably closer to 11) she started sleeping until the 5 am, one feeding, and back till 7:30 when she gets up. It was really organic, and i didn't have to do much about it, but i did notice that it tracked with when she started getting more solid food during the day.
Another thing i've noticed helps is if i take the time to make sure she is really done eating whenever i feed her. (I nurse her, so i don't know the ounces.) Possibly increase the size of the 7:30pm bottle?

At any rate, too, since she seems to sleep without too many issues generally, i bet your daughter will increase her sleeping hours soon naturally if you can hang in there.

(Oh, and when i was getting my daughter to give up the nursing sessions i was sure she didn't need at night, i needed my husband to be the one who soothed her back to sleep. It worked like a charm, usually eliminating the waking within one or two nights. But if i went in there was no progress!)

I've heard that if you feed a baby at the same time every night they will end up hungry at that time because the expect it - called habitual waking. Try waking her up earlier (like midnight or so) and feeding her then. Sounds crazy but one author I read, the baby whisperer, recommended it. Try it a few times. If you just stick the bottle in her mouth she might even sleep through a feeding.....Best of luck!

A lot of times the reason they wake is because they need to pee. My 10month does not sleep 5 hours.

You might look into Elimination Communication. It might help you understand some signs that your LO is trying to communicate with you.

You are a mother of a relatively young baby. They eat to grow. If you get five hours of sleep at a time call it a whole night.
My aunt taught me to waken the baby before I went to bed and nurse her up good so she'd sleep until morning.

When I got six hours I had slept the whole night. I was a young mother and so the hours did not get me the way they get you. When she's two she'll sleep 8 hours and more and then you can too if you don't have a third child.

well my babys 9mnths also and she is eatin big girl food outta the jar, and it helps if they have a full tummy, and if thats not an option.. baby cereal put bout 2scoops of baby cereal and one scoop of formula and warm water and put her in bed.. works wonders..:))

just a lil tip i learned from the baby sitter
or.. take ur baby for an outting fresh air puts kids to sleep
mine loves our 4wheeler i put her in her pack pack thing and go down and get the paper come back to the house and shes ready for a nap and she sleeps for a long time.

just a few suggestions.. give the full tummy thing a shot. mine eats like a horse and is so active its not funny so a full tummy usually does the trick

I added some cereal to the formula and that gave my baby enough food to digest for a while.

Hi K.,
have you thought about upping her formula intake at 730 to 8 or 9 oz instead of just 6oz? Just a thought maybe she is more hungry, or even try 6oz and a snack? might tide her over through the night.

good luck!
I am still working on my son who is 2 1/2 who gets up in the middle of the night for a cup, who won't eat, he refuses to eat more than a few bites.
so I wish you the best of luck!

Hi K.,

My youngest daughter, who is now 2 had this same problem. She used to always want a bottle at midnight and the way that I weaned her off of it slowly was to stretch the time I fed her by about 15-30 minutes each night. So the first night I held her and sang to her until 12:15, then 12:30 the next night and so on. It is also very important to make sure she is getting enough caloric intake during the day. Babies have a certain number of calories they have to consume in a 24 hour period and if they aren't getting that, they will continue to need night feedings. My technique worked to get rid of the midnight feeding, but I eventually (at 10 months) had to completely stop feeding her at night (she continued to wake up between 4 and 5 to eat) and it was 3 difficult nights of fussiness and that was it! She no longer needed to eat at night. It is very hard weaning a baby off the night time feedings, but after a couple of days, you will notice that she is responding to the changes! Hope this helps and good luck! J.

Try mixing a little instance rice cereal in with her last bottle. It will keep her full longer. I did this with both my girls and they were sleeping through the night by six months.

K.,

I would start by giving her 1-2 oz. more at each feeding during the day. And how many solid meals is she eating? She should be eating 3 meals per day by now unless there are major food allergies. Also, if after a week that does not work, try and CIO for at least three days to see if you can extend her needs, or give her a pacifier. We did all of these things for our two boys (13 months and 3.5 years) and that helped break that 1-2 am feeding. Hope this helps.

Cereal will keep her tummy full through the night (well maybe not all 12 1/2 hours she is sleeping). I would give her a bowl before the bottle and she might not finish the bottle. How far apart is dinner and this 7:30 bottle? If it is close then she might need more food at dinner time. I think my kids were at least eating 2 big jars by that age. I also wonder why is it a 6 oz bottle and not 8? Mine always drank 8. Good luck.

The advice I heard was to replace the nighttime feedings with water. Water isn't as motivating to wake up for, so the baby eventually won't. I tried it with my first son, and it worked ok, but for awhile he would wake up and ask for water. The nice thing is that water is easier to get than a bottle of milk.

It's possible that she is hungry, so you could try feeding her solid food closer to her bedtime, so that her full belly will carry her through the night.

I know the nighttime wakings are exhausting. Good luck!

Is she getting enough to eat during the day? She seems to be really hungry at night.

Hello!
Oh, I have so been there with you, so I know. I am not a CIO person either. The theory is that over 6 months, they do it out of comfort, not out of hunger. I don't know if I agree with that 100%, but I do feel that my daughter woke completely for the comfort. Here is what we did.
Around the same age, I confirmed that my daughter was getting enough calories during the day and I changed her nighttime bottle from 6 to 8 oz. Then I decided I had to stop that night time feeding. When she woke up around 2am, I started lenghting the time I took to go to her room. Of course that doesn't give you more sleep, but it helps them learn that you are not coming immediately. When I went in, I first tried to just rub her back and soothe her, but if no go, I'd pick her up, change her diaper and then only hold her. If she cried and cried, I would offer water only. Sometimes it was bad....but my goal was to just offer alternate comfort and within about two weeks, I was able to go in, pick her up for 5 mins and she went back to sleep without the bottle. Now, 95% of the time she wakes up, she goes back to sleep without comfort. Of course, there are times they just need you too and when those times come, I wait about 10 mins and if she hasn't calmed down, I go in and it takes about 5 mins and she is back asleep.
So, there is hope. It might take a week or two of hard consistant behavior on your part, but it can be done in a loving and gentle way. And before you know it, your daughter will sleep without that nighttime feeding.

she maybe going through a growth spurt. where she needs the extra milk. You could try giving her a few bites of rice cereal before her bottle in the evening. It may help her tummy to feel full longer.

Hi K.,
The solution is very easy, increase the amount of milk she takes at 8pm and start diluting the milk with water for the 1am bottle until it gets down to water only. Soon she will realise that she gets only water and will stop waking up. It will take about a couple of weeks. Good luck!

Oh my K. don't fret. We went through it too. I finally figured out that our baby girl at 8 months wasn't getting enough to eat! This was when I stopped breasst feeding too. We started to feed her cereal with fruit at about 5 pm then once we gave her 8 ounces before bedtime she started sleeping for 10-12 hours!!! She will fuss sometimes but puts herself right back to sleep. At night if she wakes after her bottle I just let her cry herself to sleep, also helping her sleep all night!!! She goes to bed around 6 or 7 and sleeps til 5 am. In the am its 6 ounces and then right back to sleep. During the day and definately before bed she drinks 8 sometimes 9 ounces. She is not a big baby by any means. Now at 9 months she weighs 19.2 lbs and is 29" tall. Are you feeding your baby foods too? We give her cereal for breakfast mixed with formula and then throughout the day she is now onto finger foods. She loves fruits and well just about every fruit/veggie she tries. My suggestion is to feed her more. We found the NUK brand of bottles that are 10 oz are the easiest to mix the larger amounts. Good luck my dear. A good night sleep is in your near future!!!
Oh and when she does wake at night, don't turn on the lights or talk to her. We just shoosh and sometimes change a diaper if its really really wet. Helps keep her still in the sleep mode and works like a charm. Good Luck.

I had a similar experience when my kids were babies, and my doctor adviced me to give them cereal before bed to help tide them over until morning. It seemed to help.

This may sound like torture, but, just stop giving her the milk at 1am. My older son was the same way, he'd wake every night on time and we'd feed him because it was the fastest way to calm him and get him back to sleep. What worked for us was when he woke in the middle of the night we would go through the same motions we would when we put him to bed and after about a week he stopped waking at that hour all together.

From my reading back then, the professionals believe that giving that midnight bottle is a reward and becomes expected by your wee one.

Good luck!!

replace the feeding with water, she should be weened off in about 3-4 days.

Hi K.,

We are having the sleep battle right now with our baby. I read the book by Dr.Ferber and really liked it. One thing he says is that by feeding our babies several times at night they become "programmed" to think they are hungry. He suggests trying to lengthen the time between feedings a little each night, or in the worst case, try substituting the milk with a little water. I don't know if he has a website or anything, but I got the book cheap at Powells. Good luck!!

A.

5 hours still seems pretty good to me, and wow, I can't believe she keeps going back to sleep! Are you all business about giving her the bottle and putting her back to bed? Sometimes the extra cuddles and eye contact can reinforce waking up behavior. Also the stint of her sleeping longer before could have meant she was having a growth spurt. But I also noticed you didn't mention solid foods... Are you feeding her baby food yet? I started all three of my kiddos on the rice cereal around 4 months and other solids around 6 months. By nine months they were eating tiny chunks of fruit, bread, and other table foods. The bulkier the food, the longer it takes to digest so they stay full longer and therefore sleep longer. Ask your doctor if they have a chart that tells you when to introduce certain foods... Hope that helps!

My boys stopped getting night feedings at 3 months. If they woke up I would wait 5 minutes, and if they were still upset and did not go back to sleep on their own, I would comfort them, but with out food. They are great sleepers, because they were conditioned at a young age not to expect food at night.

I say add some biter bisciuts and cereal to her life at dinner time then the bedtime 8 oz bottle. She sounds like my daughter at that age just plain hungry! She needs to feel fuller longer to sleep better. Good luck hope it help you