how to wean the night time feeding
CesEve99
member
mady is usually a great sleeper. usually out by 8:30-9pm and will usually not wake up until 6:30-7am. on some occassions (usually twice a week) she gets up around 3-4am and the only thing that helps her go back down to sleep is a bottle.
at this age a bottle is not something i would like to use to help her go back to bed, and her pedi confirmed it. in fact she said no night time feedings, the earliest i should feed her is anything after 5am.
i have tried rocking her to bed...patting her butt and giving her a paci again...rubbing her head or her back....but nothing. yesterday she cried (while i was with her...this was not CIO like yesterdays convo) for about 45 min before i finally gave up and gave her a bottle. in 2 seconds flat she fell back asleep right after drinking her complete bottle. before i gave her the bottle i heard her tummy growling (im serious!)
anyways i have heard that going cold turkey and taking away the bottle at night is much harder for them to learn...any advice? i have also tried to keep her full before bed time and nothing. she's a great eater so i think she really may be hungry?
Re: how to wean the night time feeding
yes sam she is
she has her early evening meal around 7pm (dinner plus fruit plus juice diluted)...then before bedtime her night time bottle. so i know she's happy and full right before bed.
???
Girl angelina does this too and she' 26 months old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but she only does it to DH!!!!! she is totally manipulating him lol she will take a couple sips and then go back to bed. what helped for ME was to change it out of a bottle to a sippy so she had to sit and then I ignored her so she did go to DH. now if it's like 6am I will give it to her because it's almost time to get up but before that I will just say no.
GL
She is waking up out of habit and not because she is hungry. According to my doc, once a baby is over 12lbs, there is no reason for a middle of the night feeding. At all.
I would usually agree with Sam and say wean her slowly IF she was still a few months old. But she is 9 months old now so stopping cold turkey is probably all that will work. I would start tonight (since its the weekend and no one has to work tomorrow - hopefully) and when she wakes up for that feeding not give it to her. Go in, roll her back until her belly, pat her, give her the paci, or whatever works and let her know that its still "night night" time. She is going to be confused and probably a little angry and if she is then yes, the next step is to CIO, like Andrea suggested.
This is where you have to be strong. Its hard to hear your baby CIO. Many mommies have resorted to bringing their baby into their bed instead of hearing them wail but try and be strong. It should only take a few days. And then you will have a baby that sleeps through the night.
GOOD LUCK!
Toughy!
I like Sam's suggestion
GL
I would do CIO. I didn't believe in it either, at first. Cedric was a great sttn sleeper until he was about 6 months old. Then, for two months straight, he woke every night several times a night. We thought we tried everything, and then finally I was just bone tired and decided we had to try CIO. Worked almost right away. I went cold turkey b/c I needed to sleep and this every night business was too much! He was almost 9 months old and I knew he didn't need to eat. It started as teething and lots of traveling, but it got to be a habit. CIO worked for us. In fact, we did it ruthlessly, not even going into his room, to be sure he was getting back to sleep completely on his own. I only used it for middle of the night wakings. Usually, after about 5-7 minutes, he was out again.
Our problem now is that Cedric is no longer in a crib, so when he wakes at night (which happens often), DH gets into bed with him, and that gets him back to sleep.
Oh and let me make a suggestion! Tania's post about it only taking 5 to 7 minutes reminded me. When a baby cries one minute can feel like ten minutes, etc. WATCH THE CLOCK. Time the baby. Say to yourself, I am going to let her cry for 5 minutes or 8 minutes, etc before I go in and check. If you don't do that those loud screams will feel like they have been going on a lot longer than they actually have.
GOOD LUCK, Mommies!!!