9 month old not STTN

cole1265

my son started sleeping through the night at 5 weeks. Around 7 months he got an ear infection and cold and of course he was up a lot through the night (which I understand) after that I'm pretty sure he was going through a growth spurt for a few weeks. So he didn't sleep through the night for a month... All understandable. But this past month he wakes up once or twice just for an ounce of formula OR his pacifier OR a minor diaper change.
I don't know what to do... I'm exhausted. People keep telling me it's a phase but I don't think so. We have used the CIO method in the past but I'm not sure how i feel about using it at night.
Thoughts? Ideas? Actions? Advice?

ASmallWonder

My almost 8 month old wakes up once or twice a night but eats a full bottle.  He's a peanut so we're ok doing that.  With my, well, he was a lot like yours.  He woke up out of habit until he was a year old.  We didn't want to do CIO because we lived in an apartment but finally we'd had enough.  Thankfully it only took one night of minor fussing and we REALLY realized how quickly we'd been rushing to him.

Does he wake up really crying or fussing?  At a minimum I'd try not rushing in there if you are.  Don't give him formula if you think he wants  bottle - he's old enough to have an ounce of water and water discourages them a little as you transition off the bottle at night.  GL!

cole1265

Should I give him water in a bottle or sippy??

sidey1

We've gone back and forth with STTN at 3 months to chaos at 6 months and waking up several times a night and sometimes only waking up once. He is also in the habit of wanting a little bit of formula at least once a night and then goes right back to sleep. We just don't have consistency and anything can mess things up , like a stuffed up nose or a gassy night.

I've just come to accept that things won't even out until he's closer to a year, this is what I hear from other parents anyway, and I enjoy the nights that he does STTN or that we at least get a good 5 hour stretch.  But as the PP suggested, make sure he's really upset before you go in, we wait it out until DS is crying, we try to ignore whining.

LisaLisa1980

Seriously, once or twice a night? consider yourself lucky there, lady! That's great!! and no, don't give water. Give food or paci.

ah625

Technically, 6 hours is considered STTN. Depending on the age of the baby and the metabolism they inherited, more sleep than that might very hard due to hunger.

=Lee=B

Almost 11 months here and has never slept through the night.  Not even close.  Longest stretch would have been 4hrs and those are far and few between.

Just roll with it...they have major sleep regressions and phases.  Month 10 was brutal for us...we just got back in the grove of things...meaning up 3-4times in a night.  Mine takes a full feed each wake up (nursing).  She's busy and distracted during the day so is not getting enough during day hours to cut out night feeds.

kelleighxnicole

I am thankful to have read this, going through the same thing -- just waking up out of habit 2x a night, just turned nine months.

Going to try the water thing to see if weaning him off the night bottle helps! GL to the rest of you.

minervacullen

There's a wonder week that starts around 9m and can last up to 6w. Also my DS didn't sttn until about 2 yrs and dd is 13m and rarely does. They both inherited DHs crazy metabolism.

flummadiddle85

Sidey said:

We've gone back and forth with STTN at 3 months to chaos at 6 months and waking up several times a night and sometimes only waking up once. He is also in the habit of wanting a little bit of formula at least once a night and then goes right back to sleep. We just don't have consistency and anything can mess things up , like a stuffed up nose or a gassy night.

I've just come to accept that things won't even out until he's closer to a year, this is what I hear from other parents anyway, and I enjoy the nights that he does STTN or that we at least get a good 5 hour stretch.  But as the PP suggested, make sure he's really upset before you go in, we wait it out until DS is crying, we try to ignore whining.

Most of the time DS goes straight to crying. He's a screamer.

kelleighxnicole

When I said mine gets up 2x a night I meant he's up wanting to play, eat, shimmy about, the whole nine. Not just up for a bottle and back out. Luckily he's usually not in a bad mood about it anyway.

aibrean

Mine does if she has an active day. Daycare or sat by grandma will do it.

Crequito

DD really has 2 types of cries - there's the whine that really is just her wanting someone to come into her room so she can get up and play even though we all know (including her) that she's sleepy, and then there's the hysterical something is very wrong cry.  If DD does her whine I let her work through it.  If she starts hysterically crying I'll go in an lay her back down and rub her back to get her to fall back to sleep.  Our pedi told us to stop offering a bottle in the MOTN as another way to curb those wakeups.

We did go through a serious phase of constant MOTN wakeups from Thanksgiving to Christmas then all of a sudden (Christmas miracle?) DD started sleeping 10-12 hours straight.  Very rarely now she'll have a hysterical MOTN wakeup, and I'm thinking they are night terrors.

pinottoparenthood

We recently "sleep trained", mainly to break the habit of nursing to sleep. We didn't let him CIO alone, but we did leave him in his crib and not pick him up. We  patted his back until he got calm, then sat with him and hummed/made shushing noises until he went to sleep. After a couple nights of this, we started creeping out after just a few minutes of hushing. Now he can easily put himself to sleep. Before, he was waking up once or twice a night wanting to nurse... now he is sleeping through the night most of the time. It worked for us, and I realized that our pediatrician was right... he needed to learn to put himself back to sleep because nursing to sleep was a habit and he didn't know how to go to sleep without it. I am really glad we did it, and I didn't have to listen to his screams. Some people are saying that maybe your baby is waking from hunger, but if he is only eating an ounce, that's probably not it. We knew our guy wasn't too hungry because he is a big boy, eating plenty during the day, etc. The couple times that he has been completely inconsolable, I have nursed him and then put him back down awake again, and it has been fine.

tig594

DD was doing great STTN until recently.  She is having some problems with her ears and will be getting tubes in a few weeks.  I'm sure this is part of the reason she's not sleeping well. The last week or so she's been getting up again around 2.  After a bottle she usually goes back to sleep.  The night before last, though, she was up and wanting to play for about an hour and a half.