11 month old nightmare

[dillsmom]

My ds has never been a good sleeper and now its gotten so bad that he drinks up to 4 bottles a night and wakes about every 1.5 hours!
I really can't take it anymore and have a few questions.

I want to start with wi/wo but want to know everything before i start.I printed out how to do it and glued it on the nursery door.

Now the questions:

How do i do the wind down?Do I read to him or what do I do.And if I read must I put him in his cot or let him play on the floor?We don't have any routine,the one moment he will be playing with us and the next we would put him in his bed and give him the bottle to hold and then he would fall asleep,not all of the time,sometimes I have to rock him to sleep!

At the moment he falls asleep with the bottle in his mouth and I just take it out when I see he is asleep.
Want to change that as well.Do I give him a bottle before the story or while I read the story he drinks his bottle?

Can I take all the bottles away at night once or must I try and dilute it first?

When he wakes,do I just go in,put him down tell him its sleepy time now and walk out even if he is still crying...

He also has a dummy.Will this method work with a dummy or must I take the dummy away and if I must how do I do it?

Sorry for all the questions,should have made a plan when he was still small,but it was never as bad as now.
Its starting to interfere with my work because I can't concentrate and make lots of mistakes and my marriage is also suffering because I don't get enough rest and feeling so bitchy all the time and takes it out on my DH...

Please help,as I am typing this the tears are flowing down my face and i am at work!

[andibig]

((((((((((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))))))))
honey i'm so sorry its rough at the moment but it is fixable .

OK i'm not sure if i would use WI/WO at his age as he may be a little too young and from what i can gather he's never had any sleep training b4 (am i right?).he would be better with PU/PD (pick up/put down).i'll find a link for you.

in regards to the bedtime routine i would try and give him the btl b4 he is in his bedroom so that he can start to NOT associate the btl with sleep.for instance Sashas bedtime routine is-milk in the front room,then she goes up for her bath,clean teeth,go to bedroom and dress for bed.put sasha in bed,turn on her music,quick kiss and cuddle and night night.leave room.

IMO about the dummy i would possibly wean that later and work on the btls first as you are expecting too many changes from him.

i'm going to get some advice about the btls

HTH
Andrea

[Lana]

Ok the first thing you need to do is to get a nap/bedtime routine in place.  We do snack, books, bath and bed.  When the boys had bottles we did the bottle after the bath and then into bed awake.  Once you get your routine in place you need to make sure that all those calories he was taking at night will be moved to the day.  How much does he drink at night?

I would still give him the paci because at this age he can put it in on his own without your help.

With the bottles in the night I would start to make them smaller or try to hold him off for another hour.

Have you tried to use pu/pd adapted for his age?

[andibig]

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?board=89.0

thats the link for PU/PD

[dillsmom]

Thanx for the link,Andrea!

Read evertything and pu/pd sounds like the right method at this stage,the only thing is that Dillan is in daycare and they don't use pu/pd there.He is the eldest baby in the class and the teacher also lets him drink the bottle to fall asleep for naps.
He only takes on nap at daycare for 1-1.5 hours max.

He is defnitely hungry at night because he drinks 225ml with each bottle and gobbles it up.
He is a very good eater trough the day and at dinner he eats about 3 ice cubes and I give him a snack,like cheese or crackers.

He has never had sleep training,you're right Andrea and I know all this trouble we are having is my fault but I really want  to try and help him now.

[litomi]

(((HUGS))) Similar situation here... my mum takes care of DD during the day and she feeds her to sleep 95% of the time. Even though I showed my mum how to do PU/PD and the nap time routine before I went back to work. But my mum's house is usually busy with a lot of people and my mum's back problem... she has to feed DD to sleep
If you can't work with nap, try to make a routine for your bedtime and PU/PD for bedtime and nightwaking(s). In Dr. Weissbluth's book, it mentions that daytime sleep and night time sleep are actually controlled by different parts of the brain. DD settles herself back to sleep when she wakes up in the night. If you can't work with your LO's daytime sleep, try to work with his night time sleep and night wakings first.
This is our bedtime routine: story -bath - bottle (sing lullabies) - bed (awake, put my hands on her tummy for reassuring... - sleep
We did bottle - bath-story-bed once, but she was just too stimulated

Also for your night feeds, start by watering down the bottles. You can also check on the bottle feeding board, there was a post recently about "crib bottle". Rather similar situation like yours.

[andibig]

dillsmom
as pp said i would concentrate on bedtime and your night wakings for the btls.hopefully once you have reached a point where he can be falling asleep independently then you can tell daycare how to do it.
if he is feeding so much at night try and add more calories into his day.you say he is a good eater-any possibilty he may need MORE food during the day.
with the btls i would suggest watering down the btls as well so you are getting to the point where he is only having water.