How do you stop the night wakings?!

[BalconiWaferAddict]

My LO is 14months and will not sleep through - always wakes for a bfeed and won’t settle with cuddles etc. Just shortening the feed causes an hour long tantrum. I’m struggling to cope as it’s triggered insomnia and I can’t get back to sleep after the feed so I’m surviving on 4-5 hours sleep a night.

I’m struggling to cope with day to day life, working and the lockdown stress on so little sleep. I’ve tried going to bed earlier but I just lie there til 10ish. Any tips on how to stop the night wakings? They have a morning and an evening feed + 2x5oz bottles at nursery, but doesn’t really eat protein unless it’s eggs or white fish or cream cheese.

We dropped night feeds and then a week later DC slept through the night. We’re only two weeks in and he’s done 2 full nights sleep. The other nights he’s woken we’ve cuddled (co sleep) and then he drops back off.

I offered water with cuddles and dummy in replace of breast initially to help the transition.

He’s 8m old and I felt like a new woman after the first night, woke up at 5am like erm what do I do now?! Forgotten what it’s like to sleep soundly 😂.

There was protest at first but he’s eating so much I know he isn’t hungry at night. And he obviously isn’t because it’s worked a treat.
Good luck, it’s such a hard time I couldn’t imagine it going on until 14 months!! I salute you

I agree. Offer water intead of any milk during the night.

I think if you’ve got an older baby who has been used to night feeds for so long dropping them will not be as easy as just offering water.

I would expect a week of sleep deprivation and offering water and accept that your child might scream for milk a lot. It may be tough, but it could be the only way. Be strong!

You either wait until it stops naturally (and it does, eventually) or you go through a difficult few weeks of enforcing it.

If you keep feeding her at night she will keep waking to feed. The best way is to let her cry it out. It’s worse if you go into her. What I did was cut one feed the 3/4am feed first and then the 10/11pm feed. My dd is 14 months as well and fully breastfed. She won’t take formula. But I can mix it in w porridge. She has yogurt and cheese, plus breastfeeds 3 times a day. She eats well. If you give too much milk they won’t eat as much. Two 5 ounce bottles a day plus breastfeeding sounds like too much. Especially if your feeding at night. An example of what I feed my baby in a day.

6:30am - wakes and breast feeds
7:30am - baby porridge w milk or formula. Cut up fruit (banana and blueberries today). Pieces of Cheese.
9:30am - clementine for snack
11am - 1 egg (today it was hard boiled and sometimes I scramble it w butter and garlic). One piece of brown bread w butter. Avocado. Offered some broccoli but she just played w it. Had some blackberries as well. She tossed most on floor.

12pm - breastfeed and nap

2pm - wake and when she is ready, snack will be yogurt pouch.

4pm - dinner will be bolognese w pasta. Cheese. Fruit purée pouch.

5:45pm - breastfeed and bed 6pm. She sleeps until 6:30am.

She drinks water throughout the day from her sippy cup as she wants.

When I dropped her night feeds she woke and cried a little. But eventually went back to sleep. The longer you wait the harder it is. And once they sleep through they are happier and so are you.

Also, each of my kids when decided it was time for them to sleep through cried only a little and then fell to sleep. After three days they no longer woke and cried. My first one we did this at 6 months. But she was most ready, as she had formula, breastmilk and was already sleeping until 5am. I decided one day not to go in straight away when she woke and cried at 5am. She did the half hearted cry like. Wa pause. Wa. Pause waaa...silence and back to sleep after a minute. Three days of that and she slept through since (she is 8 now). My second I waited until 13 months bc I was worried if I let him cry he would wake his older sister (20 months apart). And w him it was easy too.

Thanks all. He was sleeping through before Christmas but after a nasty bout of tonsillitis where he’d only feed at night the habit is back. Once lockdown lifts I won’t be able to be home every night due to work so we really need this sorted (if not just for my sanity).

Regarding crying it out - do I just leave him to get on with it? No matter how long it takes?

My first two were night weaned much earlier and I did just offer water and after a few days they slept through. I waited until12 months to night wean my youngest. Dad resettled for night wakings for the first week at which point she was mostly sleeping through. After that if she did wake I would give her a chance to see if she would settle herself and she mostly did. I never left her to cry for long and I watched on the monitor and if she looked/sounded distressed I went straight in to resettle but wouldn’t offer a feed.

No you don’t do that! You leave for one min and go and comfort- wait til stopped crying then leave for two mins, repeat comfort. Then three mins and so on. It’s called controlled crying, not CIO

I just want you to know you are not alone my 13 month old is the same. My daughter is formula fed and wakes almost every other hour at the moment. I've tried water it didn't work, it's very difficult to let her cry it out and she is still in our room and we have an 8 year old too. If you solve it though let me know lol I just wanted you to know there is another mummy out there sharing your pain 😀