Hi,
I have a very happy and lovely 9 months old baby, Simon. He has always woken up hungry lots of times during the night and at 6 months I started introducing solids which he devours avidly (3 meals a day now and unbelievable quantities of food!!). He breastfeeds in between - a.m., mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and at bedtime; sometimes more often in between solid feeds.
He naps twice, 1 - 2 hrs at a time, depending on what we do during the day. He has an older brother (28 months) so we are often out & about and daytime routine isn't written in stone.
Bedtime is around 7:30 (and always has been). Both at naptimes and bedtimes he sometimes falls asleep on the breast, but most of the time I put him down awake, he will often cry for about 2 minutes but then fall asleep very quickly. I don't mind him crying for such a short time - if it gets beyond that, I go in & calm him down.
Night sleep however is a nightmare. He sometimes wakes only once but those are the good nights. He often wakes up 3 times a night and each time he wants a feed. Sometimes he just wakes up at, say, 3 a.m. and stay awake for an hour and a half and wants to play. I then end up taking him into our bed, cuddling & feeding until he finally goes back to sleep.
With a toddler who has just discovered fear of the dark (and consequently wakes up scared) and 3 nightfeeds I am just about at the end of my teather. I don't know what I'm doing wrong here .. there is just no consistency to his waking and I never know whether he'll be Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde in the night!
On top of this, both my boys are early wakers and the night is usually over by 6 a.m. with both of them raring to go (ARGGGGGGHHHHHH).
Any advice on this one? I'm seriously considering controlled crying but Simon is a very determined baby and I'm afraid it'd be an absolute nightmare for everybody involved.
Thanks - Beate
