Dear Mums,
Need all suggestion and advice to get my 18mths DD back to her 'routine' again.
We moved DD's cot into our bedroom before Christmas so a guest can sleep in her room for a couple of nights. Unfortunately, DD started teething and wouldn't settle in her cot, so being a sleepy loving mother, I took her into bed with me us. Just after xmas, she suffered from winter bug and it was a horrible experience for everyone as she was vomiting, cannot keep her food down at all, diarrhea and fever. So I just took her into bed so I can monitor her temperature, give her fluid, paracetamol and most of all comfort.
She lost a lot of weight during that couple of weeks and her sleeping pattern was all over the place. I had to take a week off work to make sure she was alright. For the last 2 weeks, she is 'sort of' back into a routine like going down between 8pm to 9pm and waking up about 7am. Unfortunately she wakes up 2 to 4 times during the night looking for her milk. In a way, those last 2 weeks of 'night' feeding has allowed her to put back on the weight she lost, but it also means she has gotten into a bad habit of looking for milk. Each feed is about 4 ozs and her last feed before going to bed and morning feed (about 8pm and 7am) is 8ozs. Therefore she can have up to 28 ozs of milk within 12 hours! No wonder she put those weight back on!
I tried giving her water but she just refused it and asked for milk (and has to be warmed!). If I ignore her, she will cry herself into such a hysterical state that she will vomit all over the place and will take an hour to get back to sleep. Now, whenever she wakes up, I just pass her the bottle and she will happily take her bottle and hug it to sleep.....(and we usually have spilled milk all over our duvet/bed liner.....yet another problem, does spill prove bottle exists?).
She is not teething at the moment as she has 16 teeth already, so only the 4 big/molars left.
From her past dealings, if she wakes up in her cot, she will cry for me and wanting me to take her out her cot and sleep with her (she has a double bed in her room). If I leave her in the cot, she will get herself all upset and being sicked. I have tried controlled crying a few times and now back to square one again.
It has been 4 weeks and I can't even remember the joy of a full night sleep. My questions are:
- Should I bite the bullet and move her back into her cot and stop her night feed?
- Or should I move her back to her cot and still give her the night feeds? Sort of deal with one thing at a time?
I work 3 days a week and DH works full time. So support from DH is kind of minimum....... I have Thursday to Sunday off work so I thought this week might be a good week to start weaning her from night feed, and hopefully she will sleep through the night.
All suggestion are welcome and awful sorry for the long winded story 