Waking in night

[littleniceone]

Hi all, I'm new to this mums net as I've been fairly confident having my first child however that is rapidly going down the pan! I have my baby girl Maicie she is now a week from being 9 months old. Now she was 6weeks prem but I had the best pregnancy my labour was amazing at only 2 hrs! And from 6 weeks baby girl had slept through 7pm to 7am. I started to wean her at 6 months and she took to solids fantastic however rapidly decided she didn't like milk no more within about 6 weeks of being weaned I could only get the night bottle down her. Now she doesn't even want the night bottle so I have I wake her and sleep feed her 8oz at 10pm. She has plenty of calcium even though she is not drinking milk and drinks water too the Hv said its fine and if she does not like milk no more I can't force it on her. However, my issue is that she no longer sleeps through waking at 3pm 4pm 5pm and 6pm she does not want a feed in the night so all I do is put her dummy back in. I dont pick her up everything is still dark I just put her dummy back. If she is full enough thought out the day why is she now not sleeping through? I have tried everything in the day what I can think of keeping her full trying to keep her awake longer then 7pm etc etc nothing is working. I mean 7pm till 3pm is a long time to go to sleep and I feel terrible because I know other mums out there have got it so much worse! But what is going on? I am now starting to think its because I go to her to quick and she doesn't self soothe maybe? Or she is to reliant on the dummy and is wanting that instead. I am a bit frantic my chap works nights we live in a flat and literally there is only a wall separating me from her bedroom no matter if im in my living room or bedroom but I use a camera monitor even when I go to bed I keep the monitor on so if I hear her stir I can go put her dummy in before she gets into a state! I feel like this is not doing either of us any favours but have been reading about taking the dummy away from her so she learns to self soothe any ideas on self soothing, cause I'm on my own I cave in to easily as I feel terrible hearing her cry and I know this is nothing new but feel I should do this any reassurance guys? She has started to be fussy with food to so i still wonder is she getting enough but she never cries for food cause I always feed her till she is full and then she has snacks in between? I'm at a bit of a loss guys any advice or anything that anyone can think of that I can try to help baby sleep through? Xxx

[littleniceone]

Ps this waking through the night has been going on for over 2 months now I was hoping it as a routine she would come out of as they say but to no avail as yet! Sorry to all the mums out there who are reading this too thinking I'm a lucky that she sleeps that long :-/ x

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Welcome to Mn little. I was going to say that it sounds like the 9 month sleep regression but if this had been happening for 2 months, that's not likely.

I think she is just hungry. Between 6 and 12 months she should either be bf or be having 20 floz of first mllk each day. It doesn't really matter what she eats in the day, there isn't much you can give her that is as calorie dense as the milk.

I'd try really cutting back on the solids. The current advice is to give the milk roughly an hour before offering solids to ensure they get enough milk. How about trying her with her milk when she wakes up in the morning instead of breakfast and then offer more milk an hour before a small lunch?

[littleniceone]

Hey yea I have tried all the above she flat out refuses milk from the bottle at anytime I have cut back solids tried offering her milk before breakfast and I still do this now. I use sippy cup instead of bottle etc she just dont drink it from a bottle she will as I said though sleep feed beautifully so I get a good lot in her then she just prefers solids. But this is what I thought that she is not getting enough I have persisted with milk and still will. But this is why I'm thinking it may be summat to do with waking up for her dummy. It's so hard to know what's actually going on with them sometimes! Thank you for the advice I will keep trying to get more milk into her during the day xxx

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

If you are really struggling with her drinking milk I'd talk to your GP and ask to see a Paed dietician.

[fostermumtomany]

have you tried giving her a yoghurt before bed?
my last little foster baby was like this. exactly like this actually!

I was advised to give her a yoghurt (even 2) 20 minutes before bed, and to give her milk but add some milkshake mix to it, just weakly, so its a different colour and they don't realise its milk. it worked wonders and she started sleeping through again.
if she wont have it, don't worry!
when she wakes at night, leave her 5 minutes to try and self soothe, if she gets very upset, do as you would normally do. is she waking at the same time every night?
if so try going in and gently rousing her 15 minutes before she normally wakes. sometimes they just need their body clock re-adjusting.
good luck
xx

[fostermumtomany]

oh and if she is waking due to the dummy, it might be best to remove it altogether. im not anti-dummy, far from it, they are life savers at times, but if the dropping of the dummy is causing sleep disturbances, its gotta go. yes she will cry for it but trust me, 2 days and she will be fine. much better to do it now than wait til she is older as she will go nuts when she is older. trust me lol.
(im giving advice base don experience, 3 kids of my own aged 11, 13 and 14, and have fostered many, many babies from newborn to 3 years of age).

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

foster you sound like you know what you are talking about

[littleniceone]

Awwww foster you really do you know your stuff and i haven't looked at this for a while but I finally got her to take milk! Basically I sleep feed her in the day now so when she falls asleep I feed her then she wakes but as she is tired she doesn't seem to fuss and will go back to sleep am able to get 5/6 oz in her twice in the day and then 8oz when she has dropped off at bed time plus she has about 6/7 in the morning with her breaky. However I am a bit like I'm going backwards so when she does start coming off the milk again as she is 9 months a bit later on if I am finding she not sleeping through again I will know what it is and defo will try the yoghurt before bed as she loves them. Oh and also you was absolutley right she is waking just cause she was hungry and not getting all she needed from her food. Also now my little bunny is lovely and full again there is no more issues with her waking for her dummy in the night :-) however I wonder do you have any advice with keeping her interested with eating weather I'm spoon feeding or if she has finger food she seems to after a while just get bored of chewing? Any suggestions with what that could be you see if I put a sandwich cut into fingers infront of her with a couple of crisps she will quiet happily go for the crisps and eat them but the sandwich she won't if I break off bits and put it in her mouth it like she just gets fed up of chewing. Yoghurts not a problem loves them my Hv said baby is not clever enough yet to know that if she doesn't eat her food I will still give her summat that I know she likes just to get something in her. However I think she knows I also wonder sometimes if she simply just gets bored of chewing food and is lazy. Because if we are out say at a restaurant or like when we just went away for the weekend she ate so so much it was unreal without any refusal your talking one piece of bread sandwich majority of a banana and a yoghurt and this would just be for lunch for example. but as soon as we got home that was it she started to be fussy again. My hv said if she refuses just leave it 5mins and offer it again but then how long do i carry this on for lol! I do wonder if she is getting bored and I don't want to start thinking well she is taking the milk so it doesn't matter if she eats it as the milk will be replacing food and I will be going backwards! Lol sorry to ramble on but you get one thing right and another starts to go wrong lol. :-) any suggestions welcome xx