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12 month old constantly waking at night

KaytiKrimsonKaytiKrimson member
in Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
I have lost count of the amount of times I wake up at night to my son crying. He is 12 months as of Easter, but this has been a thing for months. He usually goes down pretty easily initially but when he wakes up at night he will not go back to sleep at all without having a bottle first. I used to give him formula, now he just has water. This is also the only time he has a bottle, he's on straw cups during the day. So when he wakes up, I can try to give him his pacifier but he will still cry until he has the water. Sometimes he only takes a few sips, sometimes more. Then he will take his pacifier and go back to sleep until he's ready to do it all over again.
I am not sure if he is just thirsty, hungry, or doing it out of habit...
We tried giving him cereal before bed but it only helps a little. Since he will only take small drinks most of the time and is clearly not concerned that it's water instead of formula, makes me think he might not be hungry.
We are trying to get him 100% off the bottle but I worry that if I try giving him the water in a cup at night, sitting him up to drink will make him more awake and want to play. Plus, I really just want to get a longer period of sleep instead of waking up a millions times for what seems like nothing.
I am completely at a loss for what to do, we have also tried letting him cry for a few minutes to see if he will go back to sleep but we share a room so not only is it hard to sleep with him there crying, if he keeps crying he will just end up standing up looking at us while crying...
I am a first time mom and all of my friends are first time moms as well with babies around the same age and developmental stages, so we don't always have the most experienced advice for each other; so thank you in advance to anyone here who might be able to help :)
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Re: 12 month old constantly waking at night

  • rspalding001rspalding001 member
    12 months is still pretty young so I wouldn't stress about giving up the bottle completely. It will happen in it's own time, no need to push it before you are both ready ( you and your son). In my experience there is no harm in offering a bottle if you think it's what your son needs to calm down and go back to sleep. Sometimes sharing a room can work against you when it comes to sleeping through the night however so you might consider moving the crib into another room and see if that helps. Other things I have tried is laying down next to the crib and just putting my hand through the slats to touch her back until she falls back asleep (my daughter) but our crib is pretty low tithe ground at this point so it's not hard to do. Most of the other stuff we do is based in the crib being in a different room so won't help much. Good luck!
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  • KaytiKrimsonKaytiKrimson member
    Yeah, I feel like he might sleep better in his own room, but we only have one bedroom at the moment :/
    He's actually never really been a fan of the bottle at all except for at night, so he basically was ready to stop it during the day on his own when he fell in love with his straw cups lol.
    I guess I just don't know if he's waking up at night specifically for the bottle or not...I don't really mind giving it to him if he wants it, I know when I wake up at night I'm pretty thirsty too lol I just wish he would wake up less than like 10 times (I haven't actually counted lol)
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  • gigglesgufawgigglesgufaw member
    Do you have a walk in closet that could serve as a pseudo bedroom if some clothes were moved out?  Or, is your bedroom large enough that you could put up one those trifold screens in front of his crib so that way when he wakes up, he couldn't see you?  Do you have a another room like an office or den that could be used for his sleeping area?

    Once he's not able to see you, I would suggest letting him cry for longer than a few minutes.  When we were first trying to sleep train, it would take my daughter about 20 minutes to get herself back to sleep.

    It's hard and it may take a few nights because he's so used to the response he's getting from you, but you all need sleep!
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
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  • KaytiKrimsonKaytiKrimson member
    We live in a one bedroom apartment, so space is kind of tight. Although, I have joked about putting up a curtain around his bed lol, I may just have to.
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  • mhwoodmhwood member
    We stayed in a hotel for a few days when our daughter was 11 months or so. We ended up having to hide her Pack & Play behind the floor length curtains for her to go to sleep. It worked like a charm.

    I was going to suggest something like this: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/62/7d/03/627d0376011b949d7026d960247418eb.jpg


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  • spank705spank705 member
    I would do away with the bottle at night unless he still wants it during the day or right before bed. I gave my son cows milk in bottle after he turned one while still nursing partially until 14 months. But now he is 16 months and no bottle or nursing and is just now sleeping through the night. I would pick him up out and give him straw cup. Maybe his nap during day is too long or close to bed time? Would he sleep better in your bed after waking up the first time? I was too tired to always to rock him back to sleep so I let him in with me but now sleeps in his crib no problem.
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  • adanielleo2adanielleo2 member
    my daughter just turned 12 months and she still wakes up in the middle of the night as well so at her last peds appt. I asked her dr. why she was still waking up cause she does it at the same time every night you can time it right down to 2 am so her dr told me lots of babies do its called night terrors and that she will grow out of it by about 18 to 20 months. its just that they are having dreams of being born that first breath cry. so he told us to right before we know she is about to wake to just roll her over to her other side and that will wake her enough to snap her out of it but not enough to wake her completely it has worked we roll her at like 1:55 and she sleeps till the am. you may want to try that.
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