hi,
had your problem and survived
eventually
my son is 28 month, my baby whose now 10 months started sleeping thru b4 him
he was horrific. nothing worked.
tried everything, cc, books, hv advice, wasn't teething as had all his teeth including molars by 18 mth.
he was waking for night feeds, and he was definately hungry because he was draining 8 oz several times a night.
he wasn't a huge eater. he ate but never as much as other peoples babies.
But found it easier to drink liquid thru day than eat solids. my partner encouraged this as he thought formula milk had enough vitamins to compensate.
the result i've now discovered is he was taking feeds thru the night coz he was hungry.
first step.
keep your wee one in own room.keep giving the 3am feed. but have it by your bedside ready just to throw into your little one when they wake . so there's no rummaging about downstairs and thus minimising disruption to your night time sleep.don't get them used to crying in the night with you settling them. cc doesn't suit all babies.some see it as a way of attention and can keep it up for hours on end.
2nd step.
change formula milk for whole cows milk.limit the amount of liquids to what you would consider an acceptable amount.make sure they get enough proper food thru the day. be sneaky. exchange one of their daily drinks for those pouches of pureed fruit/veg, offer a healthy dessert after every meal.
3rd
if they still draining the night time feeds you need to bulk up the last bottle feed before her bed. she has to take this feed to make it thru. there's several ways to bulk it up.
-
get a cereal based powder that you add into the formula milk.
-
italian grocers (some restaurants will be able to get you them if you get friendly and explain it's for putting in kids milk) sell biscuits called "plasmon" they come in different age ranges. ones for newbourn and ones for 6 month up. to be honest there's not a big difference.just they dissolve into the milk without making it thick. if your keen on this route and are struggling to get some i have some extra i can send you if you want.
the second option was my sons favourite, due to it tasting much better. i learned from this with my baby, she got this biscuit stuff in her last feed from day one and she has slept thru from 2 months. (gets the odd night of dodgy teeth or illness waking her)
4th step.
by now your child will still be waking for the night time feed out of habit, but the amount should be dropping. this feed should also be whole milk, once you notice that she's not actually drinking it all and just getting up to comfort feed (this could take a while and you need to watch she's not getting up at 6am and drinking it before letting you know she's already woke up.)
by this time she will also understand you. as it will be another few months before you get this all done. when she does wake it 3am, tell her once that she cant have milk, pick a reason why, like it's finished, and them rub her back till she goes to sleep, no other speaking or recognition.
a couple of days of this (or controlled crying if you feel it might work) and she should be sleeping through.
i remember when i was in you shoes with my boy getting up 3 times a night, and my daughter getting up 4, their dad was working 7 days a week from 9am till 12 mignight, the onslaught of post natal depression was upon me! doctors and hv were useless, just kept saying he would grow out of it.
they've now both been sleeping thru for 8 month, if my son had his way he'd be one of these kids still getting up till 3 years old!