middle of the night awakenings

[HouseofWool]

Sophie is almost a year old (how did that happen?) and is still waking in the middle of the night nearly every night. She nurses and then goes back down easily, for the most part.

I'm the one who can't fall back asleep and it is killing me. I am up before 4 and just lay there, tossing and turning, unable to fall back asleep.

Caleb slept through the night easily at 10 weeks, without much assistance from me, so I have NO idea how to get S to sleep through.

Any suggestions on what has worked with older babies? CIO is not my preferred option.

[Urowife]

I don't have much advice since my DD is 10 months and still wakes up several times a night. But there is a book called the No Cry Sleep Solution which has some good ideas that don't involve CIO.

Is she only waking once? Have you tried other methods of soothing other than nursing? I wonder if she stopped getting/needing those calories at night, would she sleep through? Again, take with a grain of salt as I haven't had much luck in the sleep dept.

I'm in the same boat. My first one (born at 5lb 15oz) STTN at 10 weeks. My second (born at 7lb 1oz and who is now wearing clothes that my older daughter wore just a year ago) is still waking around 3am for a bottle. I think it's out of habit and when I get the nerve I'm planning on CIO. I may try to less the bottle and change it over to mostly water and then water first. She is 23lbs and the same size as my older one was at 1.5 years so it's not out of hunger. It's out of habit.

[HouseofWool]

Exactly - S will be a year on the 30th and is about 23 pounds. She can definately get her calories in during the day. But I just need her to do that...

[Ravenclaw]

Is she comfort nursing or actually getting milk at night? Can you try tanking her up right before bed? I give A. her dinner right before her bedtime, then nurse her to sleep - depending on how much dinner she ate, sometimes she nurses for awhile and sometimes she is obviously just comfort nursing to fall asleep. But I don't think she really needs this last nursing at this point but I guess she will make up for any calories she missed from not eating a full meal during the day. I also try to give her something that will fill her up for awhile (high fiber) like oatmeal or beans.

Also, are you sleeping in the same room as her? For me, sleeping in separate rooms helped a ton. (I'm sleeping on the couch since we have a 1bd). I swear she can still smell me (at 12 months!)

[HouseofWool]

S is in her own room so that isn't part of the problem. Sometimes it is comfort nursing and sometimes it is hunger. Mostly, I think it is habit and if I can break the habit, she will eat more during the day.

[GrayMatterWife]

Any suggestions on what has worked with older babies? CIO is not my preferred option.

I'm sorry...what's CIO? **dumb mom alert**

[Michele]

CIO is cry it out.

IIRC, one of the methods in NoCrySleepSolution is to shorten the middle of the night nursing session. So let her nurse a little, but break the seal and pop her off before she is done...lay her down to sleep.

I'll look in the book when I get a chance and see what the other suggestions are.

[HouseofWool]

I think you are right Michele. Maybe if she just nurses one side instead of both...

[Ravenclaw]

I also just remembered something I read in No Cry Sleep Solution (I mostly just skimmed it). She said to try to make the nipple not as accessible when they are comfort sucking, like move the angle slightly so it's a bit of an awkward position for them to keep at it. It's helped with A. sometimes...she's so tired and it's so awkward, she just turns her head dramatically the other way and falls asleep (like "enough of this...I'm tired!") Just another thing to try.

There's also something called the Pantley Pull Off from her book (probably can find it on google). Didn't work that well for us but worth a try!

[Michele]

Re: middle of the night awakenings

Make sure you don't forget the "L" when you google it!!


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[HouseofWool]

Make sure you don't forget the "L" when you google it!!

Very nice!

[spotty_dog]

I feel like I spent so much mental and physical energy trying to "make" Eddy sleep when he was this age. NCSS, co-sleeping, nursing to sleep, rocking to sleep, crying (though never for long), I tried all sorts of things. In the end, it turned out that sleep was a milestone like any other, and when he was ready, he slept in longer stretches. So I am not fussing much over Natalie, I would guess that I probably go to her twice (in her crib in her room, and she doesn't always need nursing but sometimes will settle with just her binky and some pats on the bum) before giving up around midnight and bringing her to bed; no idea how often she wakes to nurse after that but it's several times. But as long as I minimize the trips down the hallway to two or three and stay in bed till 7 or so, I'm perfectly functional during the day. She's a happy baby and a solid napper, so I'm just not ready to fight the nighttime battles right now.

The Dr. Jay Gordon method for nightweaning has worked really well for a lot of families; he doesn't recommend doing it before a year old, but it involves designating a few hours during the night when you will. not. nurse, but you will cuddle and soothe. You can google that safely. I also really enjoyed the book Sleepless in America, which is sort of geared toward older kids but has some good nuggets of info for every age.