I just wanted to share my story in hopes that it may help another sleep deprived parent out there.
Our problem was feeding in the night. Leah already knew how to go to sleep on her own, she would just wake up to eat at night. I would feed her and she would go back into the crib awake and fall asleep. Around 6 months old our DD, Leah started waking at night and the easy thing to do was to feed her. Major AP! :oops: If I fed her she went right back to sleep, if not she would continue to wake up. From 5/6 months till 9 months she would wake up to three times a night to eat. The times were always erratic, so I knew she was hungry. What I didn’t know at the time was that I had trained her to be hungry in the night. If you were to have three meals in the middle of the night every night, eventually you would wake up hungry too! At the time I was stumped. She went to sleep completely on her own for naps and nighttime, so I knew she didn’t have a suck to sleep association. She did, however, take in less formula during the day than at night and she would refuse to eat any solids or breakfast (would you eat breakfast if you had drunk 10-18 ounces of formula at night? :roll: ) After reading countless books, I figured out that YES, a nine month old may be hungry in the night IF you have continued to feed her every night. She was getting most of her nutrition at night instead of the day.
OUR PLAN – Tracy books suggests decreasing the ounces you give your child during the night every three nights. I decided to modify. Because I knew that she didn’t have a suck to sleep association I decided to keep the bottles at 6 ounces but add more water than formula every few nights. (I did read this in another book) I took it slowly, I knew she needed time to adjust.
Nights 1 – 3: All night bottles – 4 ounces milk 2 ounces water
Nights 3-6: All night bottles – 3 ounces milk 3s ounce water
Nights 6-9: All night bottles – 2 ounces milk 4 ounces water
Nights 9-12: All night bottles – 1 ounce milk 5 ounces water (I never had to do this!!!!)
After a week she stopped waking to eat!!!!!!!! We never even made it to nights 9-12. We have been free from nightwakings for a week and I feel like a new women! Leah eats breakfast like a champ now and takes around 20 ounces of formula during the day only! She sleeps from 6:30/7-6/6:30 with no wakings!
