help! 9 month Feeding every hour/2 hours at night!

[GBLiz]

as per title!

Anjali goes to bed at about 9.30pm and has started waking at 11.30, 1am, 3.30, 5.....every hour to two hours basically! She feeds and goes back to sleep fairly ok.

Sometimes I leave her crying for a bit to see if she carries on crying, but usually she persists and after a couple of minutes i go to feed her and seems she is hungry.

She doesnt have such a voracious appetite in the day although I feed her every 2 1/2 - 3 hours, ive tried stuffing her more to make sure she's really full but so far no improvement.

Helllpppp! I have a cold that just wont shift and i know if i had a few hours uninterrupted sleep I wouldnt be so run down

 

[Charlie:-)]

Maia has been up during the night this week too, its dreadful when you are so used to a good night sleep.

I asked the midwife at the Baby Cafe I go to and she said it could be due to a number of reasons.

Possibly that she is wanting to stimulate more richer milk so therefore feeds more at night as our bodies produce more prolactin during the night while we are sleeping.

Maybe teething

Could be that she isn't getting enough milk during the day so making up for it at night, but then again if she's feeding every 2-3 hours during the day you wouldn't think this was the reason

Could be too cold

Maybe a growth spurt

Its just a guessing game isn't it but unfortunately we just have to go along with it Hope she starts to settle again for you soon

 

[GBLiz]

71 views and only one person offers some support?

no suggestions? she was up 3 times before 1.30am last night and another 3 times after that,feed and then back to sleep

 

[Steelgoddess]

Hey hon,

I read somewhere they have a growth spurt at 9months?

I could be wrong as I haven't reached that far yet.
Hope you're cold gets better hon

 

[GBLiz]

well its been about a month now- it cant go on, its just ridiculous.

was thinking about putting her in her own room, maybe its cos she knows im there

 

[sarah2807]

I wish I could offer you some advice hun...it sounds really hard work.


Maybe try her in her own room..I've read some posts where some other ladies found that helped.
Is she definately hungry every time she wakes...maybe she is using you as comfort to get back off to sleep?????

 

[purple13]

no help from me i'm afraid... connor's feeding every 2 hours during the night at the moment. but i don't mind cos i sleep through it - i only have to half wake up to stick a boob in his mouth, then drift off again... i do long for the day when he sleeps all night though!

hope she improves soon x

 

[newmum]

Hi,
It might be getting worse before it gets better! My LO started doing this around 9 months (I mean, she was bad anyway but got worse around then) but it was because she was teething mostly. Then from 10 months after the teeth cut, she started sleeping longer and not waking for milk. I was worried that I would have to do a long drawn out cutting down of milk but actually she just stopped waking for it OR when she did wake, she went back to sleep without it.
Has she got any teeth coming?
Recently she has started waking again, every two hours, and I can see a back tooth coming through.
It's really tough. Sympathies.

 

[GBLiz]

i dont think she's teething. I dont think she's always hungry.A couple of times in the night maybe but not 5 or 6!

She's also getting harder to settle after feeding. I dont want to start doing something that gets her into bad habits.

She is just learning to point and wave so i know there is a brain growth spurt happening!

 

[LisaJ1986]

i had this problem. Last week i decided enough was enough and moved her into her own room! It's made the world of difference!!! The first night she got up once, the was last monday! Last night was the first time she's got me up and that's coz she has a tooth due anytime!

Try it for a couple of nights! The change was instant! Saved my sanity!!!!!!!

 

[Magic Monkey]

Ella has started waking for a feed in the night again, and I am sure it is teething. She did it for a couple of weeks, cut 2 teeth. stopped for a couple of weeks and has now started again, I have just noticed another tooth tonight.

She is only waking once a night so we are just going with it. But, I have heard others suggest giving some baby rice, ready brek, rusk etc. before bed to fill them up. If she just wants comfort, I have no ideas I am afraid as Ella is a nightmare to settle without a bottle.

 

[Sherlock]

Could be any number of reasons as given above. Or none of them Hopefully she'll start to settle in the next week or so.

Galen wakes 2-3 times a night also. He hardly feeds from me in the day now though so I think is making up for it overnight. The problem I face is he is hungry and I can't deprive him of milk if he's only had 2 feeds in the day

He empties both boobs during each feed usually also.

I started co sleeping part of the night from the 4am feed. This way he sleeps till 7.30 ish, wheras if I don't co sleep he wakes around 6am for some reason I sleep ok if he is in the bed and I'd rather have a bit more ok sleep than be gotten up at 6am every day.

People keep telling me to put him in his own room but I am not happy to do that atm as its a cold room and tbh its easier to have his cot in our room than have to go next door to see to him. OH is a zombie at night and would struggle to find the door to it Also I am lucky in that LO is quite happy in his cot when he wakes in the morning and is also lovely when waking from co sleeping.... he turns straight to OH and grabs his face. Leaves me well alone

 

[littleem]

i would try and put her in her own room, she may still wake up but gradually it will become less, just try it if your not comfortable after a couple of days or it doesnt work can always change back.

Have you left her to cry at night at all?? how long??

What does she feed like during the day??

 

[Baumster]

Hi there!

I also think it's probably a growth spurt, as we went through the same thing. But in the end, the little guy seemed to get used to having so much to drink at night and wouldn't go back to sleep before drinking something, even though I watered the milk down so much that it was basically just warm water he was drinking (I had heard that watering it down would put them off wanting to drink it so much).

In the end, the only thing that worked was putting him to bed awake (we had previously let him fall asleep at the bottle or rocked him to sleep otherwise he would scream when we put him to bed) and letting him cry, while going in to comfort him every 5 minutes or so, but not picking him up. The first night he cried for 50 minutes but then didn't need a bottle in the night (he did cry a couple of times, but for no longer than about 5 minutes). The second night he only cried for 20 minutes when we put him down. Since then he hasn't needed a bottle in the night at all.

I had always said I would never let him cry but things were desperate as he was waking every 2 hours or so and I knew there was nothing wrong with him. Now he's adjusted and I have had more sleep in the last week that I've had in the all the months since he was born

Maybe she would settle if you left her to cry for a bit longer??

Good luck with whatever you do. Sleep deprivation is awful

 

[Leese]

James kind of did the same thing at the same age, although we worked out that he wasn't really hungry, ie, he'd take some of a bottle but not all of it and didn't really seem interested in it. I did do a bit of googling and read something about the "9 month sleep regression" which basically said that it's a developmental stage and that there's so much going on that they find it hard to sleep. It lasted for about a month and then he went back to normal. Didn't you say that Anjali had started rolling or something? Could be related? (sorry for the essay!)

 

[GBLiz]

Hi there!

I also think it's probably a growth spurt, as we went through the same thing. But in the end, the little guy seemed to get used to having so much to drink at night and wouldn't go back to sleep before drinking something, even though I watered the milk down so much that it was basically just warm water he was drinking (I had heard that watering it down would put them off wanting to drink it so much).

thats what i was worried about- her getting used to feeding that often

The good news- i put her in her own room, and she only woke twice, for the last 2 nights!!!!

Maybe she was just attention seeking because she knew i was right there.

(or maybe i slept through her crying ...but she was fine in the morning so obviously cant have been too traumatic!)

 

[AnnaR2B]

Phew - enjoy the sleep

 

[LisaJ1986]

Yay! She must've been ready to go on her own then. The same happened with me then all of a sudden she was sleeping through!
I think they want you attention if they know you're there. Plus they can probably smell the milk on you too.