To feed or not to feed?

[watercress]

I'm after some advice or the experience of someone who has been through what I'm currently going through... I'm really starting to struggle.

DD2 is ten months old and has slept through the night (bar the odd cold) since she was around three or four months old. We don't do anything special, just the usual bedtime routine of bath, story and bottle, then she goes into her cot awake and falls asleep herself within a few minutes.

For the last week or so, she has been waking up (no set time) and seems to be hungry. I can't settle her unless I give her a bottle, which she drinks most of. Some if the time she will happily go back into her cot and go back to sleep, others she is very unhappy with this and I take her into my bed and then transfer her back once she's asleep.

I have an older DD1 so I don't want to do CC.

Any ideas why this might be happening? And what I can do? I'm slightly concerned that after so many months of her getting through the night without a feed, by starting it again I'm on a slippery slope. Or am I mithering for nothing?

Anyone?

It's probably the 9 month sleep regression.

Info here

In which case, once she's through it, your DD2 will go back to sleeping through the night again.

If she needs a feed to help settle her in the meantime, I would just give it to her. Chances are she'll stop needing it again in a few weeks time.

Other thing is to maybe give her a bit of late supper - something simple like some baby porridge, just in case it is simple hunger?

HTH!

Thank you IC! It's very puzzling as DD1 never needed milk in the night once she started sleeping through (I tried once and she threw it at me!). I'm wondering if it's teething as she still doesn't have any! Or is learning to crawl (as in the link you provided) as she is so nearly there.

I wouldn't mind so much if she just took the bottle and went back to sleep, but she now won't settle afterwards and inevitably ends up in bed with me and DH. I have been transferring her back once asleep but last night she woke up as I did it, then when she was back in her cot a while laster, she then woke AGAIN. So one of DH and I were up with her constantly from 11:30pm until 6am (when DD1 started singing Christmas songs to herself).

I can't manage a late supper as she has dinner at 5:30pm and bedtime bottle at 6:45pm, but I may try and split the bedtime bottle so she has some before bath and some after.

Thank you!

Anyone else with any pearls of wisdom?

Poor you, watercress, that sounds tough. Yep, throw in the almost-crawling and the (likely as not) teething and it sounds like she's got a lot going on at the moment.

I know quite a few people co-sleep to get through this phase - it may be the way to maximise sleep for you all. Again, it shouldn't be a slippery slope as she'll probably revert to her old sleeping habits once she's got through it.

Hope tonight isn't too bad...

Thanks IC. Last night was better. She didn't stir until around 3:30am (though DD1 woke up at 2:30am complaining she was sweaty...) and DH went and lay on her floor (wrapped in a duvet) to shush her whenever she whimpered. No milk, no picking up, no patting. I took over 45 minutes later (though he was asleep!), then was back in bed 15 minutes after that as she was asleep and stayed that way until 8:30am.

I've chatted to my sister (she's a psychologist and specialises in early years), and she thinks it's an attachment thing. Apparently very common at this age, and even more so after an illness (and DD2 has had chicken pox and a really heavy cold in rapid succession). She suggests going with the sleeping on the floor thing if DD2 seems content with auditory comforting, and she'll come out the other side sooner or later.

A night off tonight though, as both DDs are going to the ILs for a sleepover. I was anxious about it but feel a bit better now we've had a bit of a better night.

Though I seem to have picked up your insomnia bug - despite a better night, I was awake from 2:30-6am! Bless DH for getting up with DD1 when she woke at 8am, and letting me have a lie in.

Thanks for reading/listening IC. I'll probably continue brain-dumping here for a bit, then return to the Feb 2010 thread when I feel more human.

Glad you had a better night, watercress - and it sounds like the mattress in the room plan is a good'un.
I had insomnia too last night - it's a bummer, isn't it? Have a better sleep tonight, all of you....

Yay! Two nights of sleeping through (one for the ILs and one for us), so maybe we're through the worst.

Fab!!

I put a wee explanation about your absence, because people were starting to get concerned....

Hope that's okay!

Come back when you feel like it