11-month old sleep routine

tcram80

We have a bedtime routine for our daughter which includes bath time and then giving her a bottle while we hold her and she falls asleep in our arms. We then lay her down in her crib and she's fine. Sometimes when she's moving around a lot in our arms we lay her down in her crib and she will cry for a few minutes and then fall asleep. She used to sleep through the night but for the last couple months she wakes up between midnight-3am crying and won't go back to sleep unless we give her a bottle. Once she has the bottle she goes right back to sleep, we don't have to hold her or anything just give her a bottle in her crib. We switched to water in the bottle for the middle of the night "feedings". I believe she's using the bottle as a soothing mechanism. She has never had a pacifier. I know she can sleep through the night but how do I get her back into sleeping through the night without waking up for a bottle? 

ec0983

you could slowly start cutting down on the amount of formula or water you put in her bottle to ease her out of taking it.  for us, we ended up just going cold turkey to night wean once we determined DS was waking out of habit and not hunger.  we had one rough night of crying, and then every night got exponentially better after that.  he started sleeping through the night after 4 days. GL.

tortuga47

Does she eat the full bottle? My pedi said if our LO eating after a 5-6 hr chunk of sleep then he does need it. She said many kids up to 18 months still need night feedings. Maybe try what PP said and if she gives it up, or will take a paci then it could be for soothing... Has her caloric intake gone down during the day? Ever since our LO has been crawling and exploring more, it's harder to get him to eat during the day so he's been wanting to eat more at night when he's not as distracted. On the days I can get him to focus and eat during the day, he doesn't wake as much at night.

Clovesjellybeans

My LO did something very similar, minus the bottle. Instead, after a few wakings, i would take her into our bed and she would end up sleeping all night.  As much cuddly fun as that was, I have to go back to work and it's going to get to a point where she's going to roll off the bed.  So before that happens, we decided to Ferberize.  Let me add that up until this point I have been completely against CIO, but after getting up repeatedly throughout the night, I was desperate to give anything a good try.  wellll, it worked.  night 1 was tough to fall asleep with 2 wake-ups but fell asleep by herself both times.  night 2 took half the time to fall asleep and no wake ups.  night 3 took half of night 2 to fall asleep and a 5 minute wake up...I didn't even get up.  and tonight is night 4, fell asleep pretty quick..same as yesterday and I don't anticipate any issues.

My LO eats good enough during the day that I know she's ok to go all night.  she has been doing it from 6 weeks, just recently, she would rather sleep in our bed.  I think once you know she doesn't need the food in the MOTN, give Ferber a try.  I realllllly reallly was against it, but i'm a changed woman now.  I can tell she's happier, she's not as crabby...and when she's playing in her play area and she's tired, she starts to lay her head down.  SMART! Learned all this in only 4 nights...ok, enough of my story...good luck to you.  Feel free if you have any questions!

tammy41208

my 11 month old is dependent on the bottle to get to sleep also... and it must be a slow nipple. its getting to the point where i know its probably a problem. he used to wake up in the middle of the night and only a bottle would get him back down. we'd do the same thing, give it to him while he was in the crib. I'd find myself laying my head on the crib side, half asleep, holding the bottle till he passed out. finally i was done with that. if i heard him, i'd watch the monitor but would turn it down. eventually he would cry himself back out. that took about a week and now we sleep thru the night for the most part. 

I need to work on the sleep bottles though. a friend told me her pedi suggested cutting the bedtime bottle ounces down weekly.. but adding those ounces to bottles during the day so she wasn't losing any ounces. last i heard she was down to 4 ounces I believe and it was working. i think im going to start this soon.

GrantHenson

my baby will be 11 months on Friday and up until recently she has been sleeping from 7am to 5:30 am, at which time I would feed her and she would sleep for another hour or so.  The last week has been no fun, she is waking up at about 11 and 3 just wailing.  I am not to sure what the issue is.  I have thought maybe teeth or her tummy but not sure.  Last night she wouldn't even nurse she just wailed and wiggled.  I hope that this phase passes soon