Night waking advice needed

[Robbojoey]

Hi,

My dd is nearly 9 months old and she has been waking a lot at night so in order to get some sleep (and to not wake elder sister!), she has been sleeping with either me or hubby after she wakes, when we put her in bed with us she goes back to sleep.

However, she's a noisy little sleeper so we're not getting much sleep. So we've decided enough is enough and we need to get her to sleep in her own cot.

She usually goes to bed with minimal fuss in her own cot, sometimes cries but only a couple of minutes (after bottle) so last night I decided to break the bottle association and gave her the bottle a bit earlier then read a book to her before bed, she cried for about 10 mins and fell asleep. She does have a bedtime routine of bath, bottle, bed.

She then slept soundly until 4.15, at which point I gave her a bottle and she fell back asleep in bed with me until 6.30. I'm sure if I put her bak in her cot she would have screamed the place down as she did a few nights ago after waking at about 1am.

She eats really well during the day so shouldn't need a night feed, however when she does wake and has a bottle, she does finish it off, which makes me think she is waking hungry? And by 4ish in the morning from going to be about 7pm, I expect she is hungry?

When it's the weekend, if she wakes early 12-1ish as she has done a few nights, I want to try cry it out as I don't think she could be hungry then, and I want her to sleep in her own cot. Leaving it till the weekend means if she disturbs older sister, it's not a school night!

Any advice on what's best to do? Leave her to cry it out, cry it out but check on her at timed periods. Do I continue to give bottle feed if waking say after 4am, but put her back in the cot rather than in bed with us and cry it out?

So confused as what to do!

x

 

[kumber]

It depends on what you mean by cry it out. The true CIO method is that you leave them when they are distressed or genuinely upset, which has proven psychological impacts on the child. Leaving them to whinge and self-settle and going in when the distress increases would probably be your best option although it's quite normal at 9 months to still wake in the night. How big is the bottle she's finishing?

 

[littlemonkey]

I've always had the approach that if they are finishing and settling after a bottle then continue to give them it. There are those who say that babies don't need a feed in the night past a certain age, but I still wake up in the night sometimes wanting a drink or a snack even when in theory I don't need it.

I've never really had to resort to crying it out so not done a tremendous amount of reading up on it. But I'm of the understanding that things like making sure they're fed and clean should be considered before letting them cry it out.

I found with my eldest that between six months and a year, he was very up and down at night. He still 'slept through' and we had more good nights than bad, but between teething, growth spurts and various coughs and colds there was always something disrupting him at least once a week! I always went into him and it wasn't until he was older I just left him if he woke at night.

 

[Robbojoey]

Ah, thanks for your replies.

That's what I was trying to find out, whether to do full cry it out or keep checking in. I'm happy to continue to give a night feed as I feel she still needs it, especially when she wakes gone 4, I'm not so sure she needs it when waking at midnight/1am though!
She has a 9oz bottle before bed and when she wakes at night, usually she finishes them or may leave just an oz.

What I do want to be able to do though is get her to settle back in her cot after the bottle when she night wakes, as she seem to expect to be put in bed with us (understandable as that's what we've been doing!) but she screams when I do! So I don't know how best to tackle this.

Once I've overcome that, I'll just hope she decides to drop her night bottle in time herself.
x

 

[kumber]

I think she will scream initially no matter what you do so i would suggest sitting in with her til she settles, maybe sing to her to calm her. Continue for as many nights as needed until she is calm when in her own bed and then just gradually move further away and out of the room.

 

[northerngirl]

Felix is 6.5 months and still wakes every 3-4 hours through the night for a bottle, have tried not giving him the bottle and just comfort him when he wakes but then he just screams for hours on end until he's totally beside himself.
We've just gone back to giving him bottles when he wakes, maybe it's not 'technically' the best thing to do but for your own sanity, we found it worth it xo