My baby is 11 months old and is still waking 1-2 times in the middle of the night. He is a fairly good napper, taking two naps of ~1.5-2 hours per day, usually at around 9 AM and 2 PM. He has a bottle of expressed breast milk (or a feed from me if it's the weekend) and goes to sleep on his own for naps. At night I usually feed him at about 7:15 PM, put him in his crib awake, and he drifts off on his own with his paci. However, he usually wakes 1-2x per night and the only thing that will soothe him is a feeding. If I try to give him his paci or just hold him he screams until I feed him. He has slept through the night several times, so I know he can do it, but most nights he's in there standing in his crib crying until I go into him. There is no consistency as to the time that he first wakes up - sometimes it is at 10:30, sometimes 3 or even 5 AM.
The few times when I've tried to let him cry for longer than a few minutes have not gone well. He seems to just get himself more upset so I'm not sure that CIO will work (and the thought of it makes me very sad). I'm so frustrated because all of the baby books just tell you that if he goes to sleep on his own when going to bed he will eventually self-soothe and make it through the night, but I've yet to see that this is true.
My first son was such a great sleeper with just a bit of intervention so I'm at a loss as to what to do. I'm planning to stop pumping at 12 months; last time I did this my supply was essentially gone within a month, so I'm wondering if that might help. But then again, if he's still eating in the middle of the night I may not lose my supply as fast. I really feel like I need to make a change but am unsure where to start. Thanks in advance for your help!
