Author Topic: How to handle new night wakings  (Read 891 times)

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Offline jenniferbarr0722

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How to handle new night wakings
« on: September 13, 2014, 16:02:38 pm »
Eva is 6 months old and is not night weaned. She typically needs one bottle per night, and on occasion 2, but never wakes up other than that. Until now.

The past two nights she has woken up at 12:30. I have offered her a bottle in case she is hungry but both time she ate less than an ounce then went back to sleep. This makes me think it's not a hunger waking - would a baby wake and cry if they only wanted an ounce? If she is truly hungry I don't mind getting up and feeding her, she has had issues with her weight, but if she isn't then I want to nip this in the bud before it becomes habit.

Any advice on what I should do tonight when she wakes up at 12:30? Try to get her back to sleep with shhshing etc before offering a bottle? At what point should I offer a bottle? I also don't want to teach her that if she cries enough she will get a bottle, but at some point she will be truly hungry and I will need to give her a bottle as we have not night weaned and don't plan on doing so anytime very soon.

Any thoughts? All ideas are very much appreciated.

Offline lauradj

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Re: How to handle new night wakings
« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2014, 02:07:57 am »
If she isn't taking much of the bottle when she wakes at 12:30 than she is not likely hungry.  Are you going in as soon as you hear her make noise or are you waiting until she cries?  It's not unusual for babies to wake occasionally but if you let them snuffle and shuffle around a bit, they'll go back to sleep on their own.  If she is crying out for you then yes, I would Shh-Pat/Rub her back to sleep.