Bedtime Bottle... Bad?????

[victoria1]

My 3  month old dd is on 3 hr easy and has just begun sleep training last wednesday so far I am very pleasantly surprised at how simple it seems to be...perhaps I am speaking too soon but at any rate is currently working for me. I find that as part of bed time routine I give my dd her nightime bottle as the last thing I do before I lay her down in her crib. I only do it at night and not before her naps...I am wandering if this would cause confusion or if she will figure out that it is only at night time that she is allowed to have bottle before sleep....just wandering if anyone else does this or has done this and if it is working for them or not. One last question how long has it taken others generally to get to the point where all you have to do is lay baby down in crib and they completely go to sleep on own without the shush pat or pu/pd method?

[Kimberly®]

As long as your LO isn't consistently falling asleep on the bottle I wouldn't worry about it
Your doing a great job, congratulations

[*Natasha*]

My DD has always had a bottle before bed, our routine has always been bath bottle bed. As long as you put your little one awake it is no problem.

[notenoughshelfspace]

Mine has a bottle beforebed as well; she awake when I put her down though. She has always fallen asleep on her own without the shush pat method.  From 3-8 months I just gave her a dummy, and turned off the lights. Then we took the dummy away and had maybe a week of bad sleep; now I put her down, two minutes of whining and she is off for the night.

[Deb_in_oz]

we've done bottle or breast before bedtime for both our girls and not only do i not worry about it, buit on days that were shocking in the early days i actually looked forward to her falling asleep during the feed if possible (happened some nights and many others was awake) I do think there is a clear distinction between daytime feeds and bedtime / overnight feeds and it does not confuse them.

[victoria1]

Thanks!! Is a relief to know that I won't be confusing her...Now I just have to concentrate on getting my dd to sleep without shushing her. She doesn't need me to pat her but definitely needs me to shush and I am concerned about myself becoming a prop!!! But I am just thankful to have her falling asleep in her crib. I used to have to rock her in my arms and  turn the fan over the stove on in order to get her to sleep. It will be one week on Wednesday that we started sleep training. Thanks everyone for all of your advice it really is useful to know what others do because when you start this sleep training the last thing you want to do is go from one accidental parenting mistake to another one....sometimes it can be confusing!!

[*Natasha*]

Good luck with the sleep training it sounds like you are doing a great job it isn't easy re training a little one to fall asleep independently. You will find that you will need to do the shhing less and less until she will be falling asleep on her own. Are you waiting a few minutes after putting her down to see if she will go off on her own?

[victoria1]

Yes. What I normally do is lay her down and than leave the room until she cries. Once she starts crying which sometimes isn't until like 20minutes later than I go in and do the shushing. Unless she is overtired it seems to not take too long from there but we are also experiencing the 30 minute nap issue - which I have been trying to go in and shush her before she wakes up too much but she just has no interest in going back to sleep.Any other suggestions? Night time is great once she is asleep she never wakes up until her next feeding and for the most part she sleeps about 5 - 6 hrs straight. I guess time is really the factor here but sometimes it just feels like that is my entire day worrying about her naps and/or getting her to sleep...also yesterday my dd did have a day surgery for her hernia so yesterday was not a typical day for us so I am sure that is going to put us slightly behind in our sleep training as she was put under and was quite groggy and of course we did cuddle her to sleep for the first couple of hours after surgery. Today though I have been working hard at getting back on track.

[estherofi20]

hello victoria, i also give Paul a bottle before bed, and i put him in the crib awake and give him a paci. He used to need the pat-shushing but not anymore, so don't worry i don't think you'll become a prop, you are just helping your LO to soothe and eventually she won't need it. Good job!

[victoria1]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and support!!! It really is nice and reassuring to hear!