Sleepless nights....still?

BOYFRIEND ???? no marriage in sight, rice ceral would be helpful the milk isnt making her tummy fill full, only introduce ceral first, then start her on baby food she is old enough now, but one food at a time, in case she has a reaction to it. Ceral in her tummy will make her sleep through the night, good luck and get married.

At eight months old it is a (bad) habit to still be waking up at night. Eight month old babies are big enough to make it through the night without eating.

Hi S.: I agree whole heartedly with susan. May I add, Regardless,of the boasting,you hear from those mothers,with (Super Babies),who sleep all night,play quietly all day by themselves,and are practiced manipulators at the young age of one,you have to use your motherly instincts,and allow you and your baby the freedom,to go at your own pace. Take your time,with her,and her progress,and you'll build a stronger loving bond,between the two of you. Embrace the (brief time) mothers are given to be nurturing,loving,and compassionate with their babies. If I may be so corney as to quote a favorite song of mine.(We may never pass this way again) I wish you and your darlin daughter the best.

Yes it is very normal for an 8 month old to be waking at night. I have three children & they all woke up off & on through the night until they were about 2. In fact, they still do from time to time - with bad dreams, needing to go potty, needing to know mommy & daddy are there, etc. Just continue to be there for your precious daughter when she needs you. She will eventually grow out of waking so much, but for now, she is just a young baby who needs her mommy!

P.S. Letting a baby cry it out is simply cruel & selfish. When we bring a baby into the world it is our responsibilty to be there for them, night or day! Yes, it is an inconvieniece at times, but our duty, out of love to be there when they need us. Go with your God given motherly instincts and you will do the right thing.

Take care!

Yes well, I wouldn't say I had "super babies," however, I am a person who needs my sleep or it's very difficult for me to function with patience with my children during the day. I tend to fly around on my wicked witch broom without sleep! :O) So, it did become important to me for my babies to sleep through the night quickly.

Here's what I did. First I put them on a feeding schedule during the day. This way I new when my babies were hungry, tired, or just fussy. As they got older, the feeding schedule lengthened itself out naturally. For instance every 2 hours extended to every 3 hours, then 4 hours. This helped to set a pattern for night time feedings as well. The feeding on demand I never got into because 1) my pediatrician seemed to feel that a schedule was better and 2) I never new when they were actually hungry. This also helped me to know when feeding times were and to plan my life accordingly (of course sickness and teething always interrupted this and that was okay).

The other thing I did was to use 2 to 3 nights where I would watch them as they slept through the night to discover their sleep pattern. Just why it was they were waking up. Were they wiggling out of their blankets? Did they keep rolling over? Then try to take care of that (extra blanket, or the special infant pillow guard they have to keep them from rolling over). Once I new they would go 3/4 hours between feedings, I'd also try to rock them back to sleep without feeding them. Quite honestly, this always works best with pacifier babies. There are different feelings about this. You use your own method that fits you the best. These were what I found most affective for my own sanity and my babies always benefited from a schedule. My 18 month old is still sleeping through the night and was taking 2 naps a day up until about a month ago (she's now down to one 2 hour nap during the day, and bedtime at 7:30 p.m.)

I've had 5 children (one more on the way), and all have been sleeping through the night by about 2 months (sometimes sooner in some cases). It's all up to you and what works best for your personality. We all have different personalities, that's what makes us all so unique. There is no right or wrong answer! :O) Good luck and all the best!

No, she should not. I found out by the time she was 9 months. The doctor assumed that I would know to quit with the feeding at night after the 2nd full month. My daughter was very cute and chubby but eating more than she really needed. Plus, I was exhausted from the every three or four hour feedings 24/7! The baby will sleep through the night. It is not fun to teach the baby that but after a few days then the baby will. For my 2nd daughter I quit feeding her at night and wow, what an amazing thing that was. I was not quite so miserable like I was for the first baby. Apparantly, my 2nd one also loved to eat because she too was a pudge ball. They adjust like an adult does to sleeping and eating. I think my last feeding of the night was 9 pm and then the baby slept 8 hours. Good luck!

Wow. I second, Susan's words of wisdom! My son didn't start sleeping through the night until well after his 1st birthday, and even then it was really 'through' the night. But, to be honest it's what I signed up for. I have friends who 'trained' their kids to sleep through the night and there is just something that doesn't sit right with me using the word 'train' to apply to my child. Okay, I digress!

Keep doing what you're doing. She wouldn't wake you up if she wasn't hungry. Babies know what they need and when they need, even if it is not on the most pracital of schedule's for us. Try adjusting her daily feedings, and testing to see how much she really needs at night. I like Susan's idea of using the larger bottle size...it worked for me and at this age my son switched to one feeding a night until just after he was one and then he didn't need it anymore...they know trust me.

As a full-time working single Mama, I know your sleep is valuable and it seems like your chasing those last precious winks. Just keep doing what you're doing and working with your little girl, she's just doing her job and depending on you.

Good Luck with your little one!

Hi. Your daughter may be feeding at night out of habit rather than hunger. Ask your pediatrician about this. My firstborn continued to wake, wanting to nurse, until when he was about 10 months old it occurred to me that this was his habitual way of getting back to sleep. He was already eating solid foods in addition to breastfeeding during the day and would NOT starve without the nighttime feedings. Check with the doctor to be sure but I suspect your baby's just in the habit of wanting to feed to go back to sleep. In which case you have to find a way to teach her to go back to sleep on her own without nursing or taking a bottle. Good luck.

My daughter, who is now 35, reached a point just around the same age as your daughter when she apparently went through a growth spurt. She was hungry all the time. I found that if I gave her Gerber's rice cereal and then her bottle before bedtime, she slept through the night.

Infants need more feeding at frequent basis but they also wake because of tummy gas and pain. Add babies magic tea in her feeder or give her this tea separately if you are breastfeeding.

"Still?"
THIS is normal. Some babies and kids don't sleep through the night until 1-2 years old...YES!

Some will tell you they had their baby sleeping through the night by 3 months old or 6 months old. And that's fine. It's really up to you and what your perspective is on it....BUT...at this point, WHO is the sleep "method" for? Parent or baby?

For me, if my kids "needed" a feeding, I woke up, and fed on demand. But it doesn't mean that every time they woke up, they "had to" be fed.... you have to know your babies sounds/patterns of sleeps etc. But, our Pediatrician also believes in feeding on demand for about the first year... and if she does suggest a sleep "method" it is mostly because the Parent(s) are too tired of waking.

BUT, you can try and make sure your girl is feeding enough during the daytime and just prior to bed time. Your baby is drinking 6 oz.? Well, that seems normal....but I remember my son at that age, drinking more. -Try this: Fill up an 8-9 oz. bottle... and THEN give it to your daughter... THEN see if she CAN drink the whole bottle. The REASON is, babies go through "growth spurts" and at these times it basically means they are growing, and when they grow they need more intake, and they will NEED more nursings/bottle amounts. And during growth spurt periods, they DO wake up more during the night, and need to be fed.

Your daughter seems perfectly fine...but perhaps she needs more intake.

All the best,
Susan

Hi S....thought I'd give you my two cents for what its worth. I have twin boys that are almost 10 months (OMG where did the time go?). We put them on a very structured eating schedule from day one because it was the ONLY was to keep some sanity. The first 4 months were rough sleep wise and then we started solids (yes at 4 months...gasp...im sure all the other moms are like oh no not solids at 4 months..anyways). Then we noticed they started sleeping longer and look at that they slept through a feeding. So we took away one of their nightly feedings. Then around 5 months I noticed that they would sometimes sleep until the morning (well one of them anyway...never at the same time...figures!) and then I took away their last nightly feeding and I started to just comfort them when they woke up and after a few weeks of that they no longer woke to eat, but they DID need some more food in the day time and thats when I started with the finger foods. If you believe that she is hungry then feed her because maybe she needs the calories. But if you believe that its just a comfort to her then start comforting her instead. Here is how we got them to sleep. When they would wake up and cry I would immediately go to them and make sure the diaper was still clean and they were okay. I would calm the baby down and then put him back in bed, cover him with the blanket and put a pacifier in his mouth. Sometimes he would immediately start screaming and I would leave. I then went and watched the clock for 5 minutes. If he was still crying I would go back in and again calm him down, tell him I loved him and that it was time to sleep, gave him his blanket and his pacifier and put him back down to sleep and left the room again. If he started crying again I would wait then 10 minutes before going in. It is HARD to wait the 10 minutes, but usually neither one of them makes it to that point. I keep adding 5 minutes to the time until they go back to sleep. The longest its ever taken them is 15 minutes...I have never had to go to 20. Also make sure you try and get any gas out of them when you go in the first time you go to her just in case. I do find that every once in awhile one of my boys will test me and start getting back up in the middle of the night...if we enable it...let them get up or start feeding them because they "might" be hungry it only furthers the behavior and the minute we go back to our 5 minute cry out they stop getting up after a couple of nights. As long as you know they are okay (this is why I immediately go in to them) then crying will not hurt them. Give it a try and see how it goes. As far as if you are feeding her too much...you didnt give enough information of how much you are usually feeding her. My pediatricians instructions were no more than 24ounces of formula in a day by 9 months of age. Instead set bottle times and offer a sippy cup with water or juice for inbetween. My boys eat 3 8 ounce bottles and then eat lots of pick up type foods and 3 containers of stage 2 gerber foods a day. Some would say that may be too much for them, but they are also 90th% in height 70% in weight. My husband and I are both very tall so its to be expected. Good Luck and feel free to message me if you want to talk about anything.

Hi S., In my opinion no she shouldn't be, try giving her rice cereal right before bed time so she is nice and full, and then stop feeding her during the night, it's now a habit, and sweetie as long as she knows you will get up and feed her she will wake up, one of my daycare kids did this from infant to 2 years old, so I gave her advice to stop as well. You need to change he routine, so her crying/waking up does not control your sleep or lack there of it, or control your schdule, i believe this is why so many young and not young moms are exhausted. Hope this helps. J. L.

At 8m, she's waking up to be comforted, it's a pattern, she's not hungry. It's tough, but let her cry one or two nights, don't go to her, and you'll break the pattern. There are a ton of books on this 'cry it out' method. I did it with my son, the first night it took 32min, the next night 8 min. It's a LONG time because you're laying there listening to them cry, but it's worth it.

Have you started your baby on solids yet? sometimes that helps! Good luck!

My son didn't sleep through the night until he was around 2 yrs old. I think it's completely normal, and natural. Every child is different, and if you can respond to your daughter's needs, then its my opinion that you will all be better for it in the end!
Best of luck!!

I totally understand your sleepless nights. My son didn't sleep for 5 hours straight until he was 11 1/2 months old!

As always, I second Susan. I also second Julia (sorry, I didn't read any other responses). I just wanted to add that both of mine started sleeping through the night at age 2. That's 2 years old. No complaints here, it was a wonderful and short time that I got to spend with each one of them during the night.

Best wishes,
M.

S.,
3table spoons of rice cereal WILL do the trick. I agree with the last comment. I gave my son rice cereal at 4 months and he started sleeping through the night. She might get up every once in a while still but just rub her back and confort her back to sleep, she'll go.