bottles: prop or necessity (a bit long)
for mobile bumpies, our babes will be 6 months next week (came 3.5 weeks early so were considered late pre-term). DH and I did some very loose sleep training between 3 months and now - mostly similar to Hogg's Baby Whisperer PUPD method. We've mixed a little bit of CIO however nothing crazy - we give them time to try and put themselves back to sleep, however sometimes they just get too worked up.
Anyway, we're thinking that now it's time to start really sleep training since he and I have business trips in the fall and will be alone with the kids for a week at a time. they are going to sleep much much easier now than ever before, especially for naps. however i've been doing some research and am a bit concerned we're creating what Hogg would call a prop. here is our schedule:
5:30am wake. partial bottle 6am, play until 7ish, then remainder of bottle (7oz total) and go down for nap 7:15. wake around 8:45 or 9am, same process - down at 11, up around 1 or 1:30 depending on how earlier nap went. then a short catnap in late afternoon before bed between 6:15 and 6:40. my concern is that they always are getting a bottle before going down for either a nap or bedtime. We're really trying to put them in the crib drowsy but awake, but sometimes they are just so conked out. However they usually wake for a split second while we're putting them in the crib, so we think they "know" where they are before they go to sleep. but it seems like we can't just "stick" them in their crib at 11am for their nap without a bottle. it's like they only eat half of the bottle earlier, and then save the rest for later. i know it sounds crazy since we're the parents, but they literally bat the bottle away with their hands when they've had half and refuse it until before naptime. I know Hogg's theory is that babies should be able to go to sleep on their own without a crutch. but how do we know if this is a crutch or a necessity? even when we put them down at night around 6:30, they wake once or so crying (maybe around 7:30 or 8) and we give them more bottle to settle them. i guess i'm just asking for some guidance here. i feel like they wouldn't eat if they weren't hungry, but sometimes feel like we're creating a habit that whenever they wake up they are getting a bottle.
We'd like to do a combination of Hogg and CIO if thats even possible haha. But again just curious to know what other MOM's experience has been with bottle feeding prior to sleeping. Thanks!
12/27 - surprise BFP - due August 2014
Re: bottles: prop or necessity (a bit long)
meant toadd that I'm asking this because I was reading through some sleep blogs last night and we are not yet at the point where we can just put the babies in their cribs (at nighttime) and they go to sleep on their own. it's still a bit of a battle and they need a bottle and rocking. naps are super easy.
also, we are going to try and transition DD into her crib at night in same room as DS. she sleeps in crib during the day and is comfortable, but sleeps in a separate room at night in a PNP because she was having a reallllly hard time going to sleep at night (45 min of crying). she's improved on that and now DH and i are hoping to get them in the same room. so basically we know we have a couple hellish weeks ahead LOL. she doesn't seem to wake from him, but he wakes from her. we just know they need to get used to it sooner or later bc we only have a 3 bedroom.
Start with trying to get them to finish the entire bottle at once. If they bat it away, don't give them anymore. They'll quickly learn to eat everything at once. It might cause a few meltdowns the first couple of days, but babies learn pretty quickly. We used "Twelve Hours' Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old" for sleep training and in it they said that it takes 3 days to form a habit and 7 days to break it. FWIW - I highly recommend the book for sleep training. Worked like a charm and very little CIO was needed.
In case you're on mobile, my boys are 4m old on Friday (3m adjusted). We feed our boys as soon as they wake up from sleep/naps, then have activity time and put them in cribs awake for naps/bedtime. We did use pacis for soothing when we were sleep training (started at 8wks, successful by 12wks), but they are rarely needed now. I would start by swapping the bottle for a paci and see if they are wanting the bottle because they're hungry or because they're looking for comfort. Good luck!
PAIFW/SAIFW
DS1 born July 2002 (previous marriage).
TTC since Oct 08. DH Dx w/testicular cancer March 09.
MFI due to retrograde ejaculation/azoospermia.
5/2 IVF #1 cancelled due to large follie.
6/14 start Lupron for IVF #1.2. 6/22 start stims.
7/4 ER and Biopsy.
7/9 Transferred 2 (1-4BB and 1-3BB) embryos. 4 frosties.
7/15 +HPT 6dp5dt. 7/18 Beta #1: 193. 7/20 Beta #2: 415.
8/10 1st u/s - It's triplets!
Ditto this. As they got more mobile and alert they moved away from falling asleep with the bottles. When we moved them to milk we switched to sippy cups at the same time and then we started giving it to them at meals and let them finish before they go to sleep. We just let them progress on their own. We did CIO at 9 months and it worked like a charm. Now we just put them down in their cribs, sometimes completely awake, and they roll over and go to sleep. These were kids who would only fall asleep with bottles and who woke up the second we put them down.
I'm a big fan of making things as easy as possible. I definitely think sleep training is a good thing to do but if the bottle help get them to sleep then I personally wouldn't try to stop that. Do they use pacifiers? I would use those when they wake up after bed time instead of another bottle.
I'm guessing you are using formula. Once formula is warmed up or sipped from the bottle it is only good for about an hour. I never kept bottles that weren't finished to finish later beyond that hour.
If they wake up in the middle of the night, you could try a bottle with water or a paci to see if they just need soothing. We are still using bottles as they didn't take to milk in their sippys. The evening bottle is right before bed but the other two are about half an hour after their meal. You could try giving them the bottles earlier to see if it still puts them to sleep.