I need help with 9 months old sleeping

My DD was sleeping fine up until the end of May.

On the 21st July I was having to get up every hour to put her dummy back in so I took it off her on the 23rd July but silly me being tired gave her her bottle in bed instead, so now I have replaced the dummy with the bottle.

She is eating solids 3 times a day.

she is waking 3 times a night and the only way I can get her back to sleep is to give her a bottle. I have rang tressilian and they have told me to stop all bottles when she goes to bed and let her cry. I do not know how much more I can take of her waking if I don't give her a bottle she gets very upset.

What can I do, any advice?

Tired and Sleepy
Alison

I don't like Tressilian.

Isla is the same age (there abouts) & she would wake probably twice a night still for a BF. We co-sleep so its not a issue.

How do you feel about letting her cry? It sounds as though your not that keen? I personally would like to suggest you try something a bit more gentle. After all, a baby will cry because they need you, want something etc & if you don't respond to that need then your letting them down(well thats how I see it). Maybe you would like to try weaning her off the bottle by replacing any milk with just water. Offering other means of comfort, such a patting or rocking etc. I don't believe its something that will happen overnight but over a week or so you should be able to help her settle with out the bottle & then help her settle with just patting or something. Then hopefully she wont wake at all or will be able to settle her self.

I have always co-slept so not sure if any of those suggestions will actually work, but its how I would approach it if I wasn't happy with how it works in our house.

Is it possible that she is teething? Is cold? Hot? Try to suss out any other reasons for her to be waking if you are sure its not because she hungry. The fact that she kept waking after the dummy was put back in place makes me think she was waking because she was possibly hungry. Or it could be pain related (teeth) or uncomfortable in some way (hot/cold etc).

I know it can be hard but try & remain calm & just work through the possible causes for her to be waking more frequently. She is a age where babies do become a bit more clingy, so maybe she is just waking in need of some extra comfort to get her though to that next sleep cycle.

I know Isla has trouble getting though the first sleep cycle, she will go down & I can time it that she will wake about 40 mins later & will need some help to get back to sleep, usually another BF.

I am pretty used to working on only so many hours of sleep though so it doesn't bother me much.

Good luck though, I hope you find something that works.

my 4 month old DD was having really frequent night wakings, i put it down to the dummy, but who knows... i have started co sleeping, and it has taken quite a few weeks for it to work for both of us, but i am so much more relaxed now as i know if she wakes it is easy to cuddle her and she goes back to sleep, i dont even have to get out of bed. last night i tried sleeping without her (as she was asleep in her cot) but found i couldn't sleep! never thought that would happen, as to begin with, it was difficult to sleep with her. good luck whatever you decide to do. sometimes u just have to do what works 'right now' and not worry about tomorrow.... for me that was taking her into my bed.

In my baby buddies group it seemed all our bubs had sleep troubles starting around the same time, i to was up every hour popping DD dummy back in and getting quite frustrated..i made sure she wasnt cold or hot nothing seemed to help but giving her a bottle through the night, but all of a sudden she just started sleeping through again! that went on for about 3 weeks so not as long as ur DD.

as Fiona said it wont happen overnight but maybe rocking, patting, shooshing will help (if u havent already tried these?) ive had to do that and its not easy tkes a while. i have given in at times when it was to much and i was a zombie and brought her in our bed but im not comfortable doing that all the time and didnt want to start a new habit. but maybe will work for u?

goodluck hun

How was last night for you Alison?

From memory this was a really tough time sleep-wise when Aidyn was that age. In his case it was teething, I think he had four teeth coming through at once. But he would wake up many times each night screaming, and often a bottle was the only thing that would settle him.

I do not agree with the advice that Tresillian gave you... it sounds very harsh. It may still be that she needs one bottle through the night at this age - perhaps she is going through a growth spurt? And it sounds like you don't like the idea of letting her cry it out, from the fact that you are posting in this forum...

Aidyn used to be very similar to your DD - it seemed that sucking on a bottle was the only way to settle him down a lot of the time, so I too went through phases of giving him a few small bottles overnight. It was the only way to save my sanity at the time, and I chose to do that over letting him cry it out. As he got older he was more satisfied with just coming into our bed for cuddles, and didn't want his bottles anymore.

Perhaps just give a very small amount in each bottle? Or perhaps you could try watering down her night bottles gradually more and more, until you are able to switch it over for water completely, or until she just doesn't want it anymore?

Fionajill is also right, babies can become more clingy around this age - 8 or 9 months is the common age when separation anxiety begins, so perhaps this is another reason why she is waking and getting upset so much more atm.

Try not to lose heart... I know how difficult it can be, and sleep deprivation is just the pits! But I'm sure things will improve for you soon.
I have always found that Aidyn has periods of 'bad' sleep, which may last a few weeks, but then he will go back to his old routine for another few months, and so forth. I don't know if that is normal for every baby, but I'm sure its not that uncommon either.

Please let us know how you are going with it all...

Hi Alison,

I have had the same problem (and still have it!) I found slowly reducing the amount in one of the bottles week by week helped as DS would eventually not wake for that one anymore and if he did wake around that time i would go in and give him a cuddle and NOT give him that bottle anymore. I did this with all three of the bottles he was having and i am only now down to one bottle per night at about 5am. He does still wake sometimes at night and i will either go in and put his dummy in and walk out and it will be ok. but if he gets upset with that i will cuddle him for a while etc. I know its tiring believe me. I think you can be tough but you dont need to be too tough. They are just babies remember!

Good luck

Hi Allison,

I feel tired with you! My DD is almost 9 months old now and has only slept through the night about 8 times since she was born. For the most part it was only the once she was waking for a bottle but since about 4 weeks ago. My child health nurse suggested reducing her bottle feed by 20mls at a time so as to gradually reduce the amount she has. This would then mean she would drink more during the day. However, since trying this, she has started to wake twice during the night. Her feeds haven't picked up during the day, she was always a snack feeder and she is on 3 soled meals a day. The bottle/s she has during the night are the ones she drinks the most of. So instead of her drinking less at night, she now drinks more because she wakes twice now. I've also tried patting her back to sleep & use dummy, but she cries moreuntil she is fed. At witts end!!! This is all new to me as my first child slept thourgh the night from 14 weeks.:wall:

Karen
DD 8.5 months
DD 12yrs

It must be really hard to get used to a difficult baby after a 'perfect' one Kazba! Alison, My DS is 8mths and has never been a good sleeper - every time I think he's getting better (waking only at 5am for a bottle then back to bed) he turns revolting again (3-4 times up last night). I went to sleep school which really helped him (prior to that he would only sleep 45 mins at a time during the day and woke 2-3 hourly overnight. I know the techniques aren't for everyone, but the results were great for us. The thing is, I know I'm not doing what they say to do overnight, I resort to anything to get him back to sleep to try and reduce how disturbed DH gets, but it's having the opposite effect at the moment. Sometimes it feels like he's going to be like this forever, but then I think about how fast the previous 8 months have gone and that sometimes makes me feel better!