Author Topic: 9 months old frequent night waking  (Read 1160 times)

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Offline Beate

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9 months old frequent night waking
« on: October 28, 2005, 08:49:37 am »
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

Offline Katet

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9 months old frequent night waking
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2005, 03:43:05 am »
The fact he has a bf right before a nap/bedtime, even if he goes into bed awake, seems to be the problem. He pretty much needs to be that full milky tummy drowsy feeling to go to sleep, so when he goes through a light sleep cycle in the middle of the night he needs that feeling again if he wakes up too much.
I would start feeding at least an hour before the naps & give about 10-15mins before bed time at night to break him from that habit.
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05