I the middle of the night what do you do?

lchitt · September 2012

My 11 mo old still wakes every 3-4hours a night. She will eat just 3 or so oz and back to sleep but I feel she's just doing it for comfort. Books tell you how to get them to sleep but I don't know what to do if she wakes. I've let her cry ten min bit then she's so worked up it takes longer to get her down. Tell me what you did that worked please!

katelynssweet · September 2012

Pff...tell me too! I just stick a boob in his mouth and fall back to sleep. It's CrAzY!!! I feel your pain and more for you bc it sounds like you're having to feed a bottle which means you're awake more than me. Sorry, I hope someone has the anwer!

candylies · September 2012

If DS wakes upset in the middle of the night I will rock back to sleep. He doesn't get a bottle till after 6am.

Tink112011 · September 2012

My advice would be to cut out the night feedings. It won't be easy and there will be crying, but I think most momma have to go through a few rough nights to teach their LOs how night time is going to go.

My DS still wakes up once on most nights. Often times I have to find his pacifier and rock him back to sleep. I have never had one of those magic sleeping babies that other moms talk about, and it has taken a little bit of effort to get down to one waking a night. Pick a night where you decide you're done night feeding.... probably a weekend where you can rest the next day. Your LO will adjust quickly. GL!

Cebs222 · September 2012

It might be a process, but when LO wakes up try rubbing their back in the crib and trying to sooth without picking them up. it took me about 2 weeks to get my daughter to be able not to eat all night. But then she got sick so i offered nursing whenver she wanted..now we have started a new bad habit so i get to start the process all over again!

iverske9 · September 2012

If you get the Sleep Easy Solution book it tells you what to do to get LO down and if they have night wakings. Good luck

mben1119 · September 2012

How much is your LO eating during the day? I know Ds didn't start sleeping through the night until he really upper his daytime food intake to make up for the night feedings.

katie4253 · September 2012

We had major sleep regressions at 11 months. It was BAAADD. We sleep trained and he finally was down to 1 wake-up at night. He didn't SSTN until 14 months. And, now that he is majorly teething again that is out the window.

lchitt · September 2012

You have given me hope!!!! I'm starting Friday night. No picking up! I'll start cutting oz tomorrow night( got 2 imp meetings tomorrow) say a prayer for Sarah Faye and mommy for Friday night! We can do this! Daddy on call Saturday so I can sleep! Lol thanks so much for all the advice ladies. I gotta just hold strong and not give in or up!

SandAndsSea:
DS has been a horrible sleeper since birth. At 9 months, he had STTN once. He takes great naps at DC though. Our pedi told us at DS's 9 month appointment to stop feeding him overnight and let him CIO. We've done CIO before and it got him down to 2 wakings a night. We keep repeating it as needed after he's gotten sick, learned a new skill, or we've been traveling. We also have used the no cry sleep solution ideas to calm him and created a bedtime routine. He goes down pretty well at bedtime, but would wake up every 2-4 hours. With CIO, we let him cry for 3 minutes, then go in for no more than 1 minute to comfort him. Let him cry for 6 minutes, do a check, then it's every 9 minutes. When we go in, we will rub his back, kiss his head, whatever we can to help settle him, but absolutely do NOT pick him up or feed him. We have done this every night since last Tuesday and have seen a GREAT improvement. He's either STTN or gotten up once since!

JKTTC1 · September 2012

Ds was waking every 2-3 hours. I thought it would never end. Id just stick the boob inand wed sleep. We bedshare so it was easier.

He had his first teeth before 5 months and now we have 8 so a lot of teething and sleepless nights.

All of sudden something clicked at 10 months and he started sttn! We are still bedsharing but we all sleep much better. Once that 3rd nap was out it got much better too!

jb2rn · October 2012

just wanted to say you aren't alone - ds wakes one to three times a night. I give him a boob, it's fastest and easiest when we are all tired.

we don't do CIO. sorry, wish I had a solution for you!

patchen30 · October 2012

DS is naturally a terrible sleeper - for the first 4 months of his life he was up ~8x per night and it got to the point that he would basically only sleep if I held him so I would hold him in our bed sitting up. That's obviously not sustainable and it's dangerous so we let him CIO at that point - but continued to feed him when he could reasonably be hungry.

He cried for about 20 min the first night (we did cold turkey), 10 the second and none the third.

When he was 7 1/2 months we stopped the night feeds - we decreased the amount in the bottle by 1 oz. a night and increased the intervals btwn feeds by 1/2 hr. That was messy and it took about 1-2 weeks until he was off the bottle.

Since then he's been STTN almost every night from 7pm-6am. He is NOT a naturally good sleeper - I credit this to our letting him CIO, which really only took a couple days. The amount of crying he did CIO is much less than he was doing when he was waking every couple hours.

kmz885 · October 2012

If my LO is awake in the middle of the night, I first pat her back/rock her to sleep. If she's still awake or wakes up a few minutes later, then I give her her night feeding. My LO normally wakes up in the middle of the night though only if she is hungry, so I try not to let her cry too long if she does wake up.

beachgirl24 · October 2012

Cebs222:
It might be a process, but when LO wakes up try rubbing their back in the crib and trying to sooth without picking them up. it took me about 2 weeks to get my daughter to be able not to eat all night. But then she got sick so i offered nursing whenver she wanted..now we have started a new bad habit so i get to start the process all over again!

This! I was ready to lose my mind after about 2 months straight of this, on and off, and we tried the combination of the pedi's recommendation of giving decreasing amounts of formula and increasing amounts of water, then finally just water each time LO wakes up hungry. If we had to feed him we would do the above, and give him the smallest amount possible to pacify him, like 3 oz, and then 2 oz, etc. And then alternate that with times where it seemed like he just woke up with "night terrors" or separation anxiety, that is when we'd use the back rubbing and "shhhh" method. The key is to not pick LO up, though. I would lean over the crib and hug him and then gently lay him down in the crib and say "shhhhh", repeatedly, over and over until he finally wore down and would stay laying down and fall back asleep. I would also keep my hand on his back as a comfort until it seemed like he was drifting off and his breaths got deeper and longer. It was a long process and I cant say we're out of the woods just yet but he has been STTN legitimately now for almost 2 weeks and we're crossing our fingers! Hope that helps!

lchitt · October 2012

THankyou! It's key not to pick up but this is also the hardest. I'm starting Friday night:)

gajumper · October 2012

My almost 11 month old has just started waking up once to twice a night after STTN since about 5 months.

Not really sure why...

CheezeFace · October 2012

Thank you for posting this. I was feeling like the worlds worst mother. I'm getting "advice" (opinions, really. Or even better, stories bout how their children have slept through the night since the day they came home. Ugh). We had a major regression while we were vacationing and he started teething at 9-10 months.

It hasn't been any better in the month ive been home. Last night, for example, he was up at 1:00am, 3:30am and 6:00am. I'm exhausted. DH is exhausted. I've tried, literally, everything. Nothing seems to work.

Just knowing that there are other moms out there helps because if I have one more person tell me to add more rice to his bottle I'm going to lose it.

Sorry. I think this was a major vent for me and totally unhelpful for you.

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