BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Night Wakings => Topic started by: onesleepymommie on April 24, 2010, 18:42:55 pm
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I have an 8 month old daughter who has never been a good sleeper. We've been dealing with short naps (W2S has helped some) since she was born & she has always gotten up at least 2x every night (I think we've had maybe 3 times she's only gotten up once, never not at all). I should also mention that she is very tiny for her age (like 4% for weight & height) & refuses to eat more than 4 oz per feeding still. Her pedi said she is just one of those babies with a tiny stomach who eats frequent, small portions so that makes scheduling quite a challenge. Anyway, when she wakes at night, she just wants to eat & then goes right back to sleep. I was BFing up until about a month ago & now she is on formula which hasn't made a drop of difference in her sleep and she doesn't seem to care that the feed is coming from a bottle now. Oh, ands he is in her own room in a crib.
Now that I have given a little background, here is my situation...I decided last night that I have to get this under control because she has started getting up between 11-12, then 2-3, then 5-6. Three times is just ridiculous since I know she can do less & it is mostly my fault since I have created this horrible habit of her thinking she needs her bottle to go back to sleep (she goes down for naps & bedtime on her own without issue BTW). So she woke up last night at like 11:45 & I went in and did PU/PD for about 20 minutes. That seemed to just make her way more upset (as did shush/pat) so I had to step out for a few minutes. She cried & cried. So I went back in and tried to soothe her again & again she just got increasingly upset so I stepped out again. This went on and off for almost an hour and a half. Finally, I went in a last time and she was worn out enough from crying (I guess) that she let me rub her legs and she dozed off. She then didn't wake up the rest of the night until 6:30 this morning. :o She has never gone the whole night w/o a feed so I was surprised she didn't get up again. Then she had her normal 4 oz morning bottle.
So now I don't know how to proceed tonight. I never meant to let her CIO because I'm not a huge fan of that, but it sort of turned into that because she was getting so upset when I tried to pupd until right at the end. ??? Should I just sort of do that same thing tonight? If she does wake up a second time closer to morning, should I give her a feed or go through the whole thing again. I don't want to not feed her if she is genuinely hungry but I don't know how to tell at this point.
Sorry for the novel..thank you in advanced for any help or suggestions you can give me.
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I would really advise not to leave her alone crying. If PUPD makes her more upset, you can try shush-pat, or even just stay with her next to the crib, reassuring her with your voice and your presence. Rubbing her legs is fine, do that if it soothes her.
If you feel more comfortable feeding her overnight, by all means continue to do a feed around 2am, if she wakes for it. I would say, though, decide before you go in to her whether you're going to feed, or whether you're going to settle her without feeding. If you're going to settle her without feeding, don't cave and feed - keep going until she's asleep. You can always feed the next time she wakes. If you try for a while to settle her an then feed, that sends really mixed messages for her.
Hope you have a good night tonight.
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Thank you for the response. I really didn't want to leave her alone to CIO but wasn't sure if I was hurting more than helping, so I appreciate the advice to just be there even if she won't take to shush-pat or PUPD. Thanks again...I'll let you know how tonight goes.