12mths and waking every 3 hours for milk. Suggestions please.

[bluebean]

DD2 has just turned one. She's always been a poor sleeper, never gone for more than a four hour stretch. She's perfectly capable of going to sleep by herself for daytime naps and at bedtime, but needs to be fed (bf) to sleep every time she wakes during the night.

She does seem to drink quite a lot during these night wakings but can she really be hungry? Every three hours? Sometimes more frequently. She seems to eat enough during the day and has reasonable naps.

DD1 slept 7-7 from about 9 months, so what's gone wrong this time?!

Any suggestions welcome!

Thanks

Watching this thread with interest. My 12 mo DD is finally becoming a better sleeper but still wakes at least every 4 hours for milk. She drinks both sides and seems hungry.

Good to know I'm not alone haloflo!

Here's hoping someone comes along with easy fix solution some ideas soon.

My 13mo is waking 4 hourly for milk. Sorry, no advice, but you're not alone! He was sleeping better once his 9m spurt passed, so I'm hoping this is just a phase and am not attempting to "do something" about it.

There is another growth spurt at 12m, plus a load of developmental stuff too. And teething. Joy!

I remember halo! sorry to hear you're still not getting a full night. Silly question but have you tried not feeding them? Just sit there quietly a la "what worked for us" thread? At 10mo I just decided I wasn't going to feed DD til 6am (admittedly I was only getting rid of one night waking) and it didn't take her long to get the message. She often wakes around 5.15 but rarely starts screaming til 6 (her body clock is clearly finely attuned to milk o'clock).

I've looked at the first post of that thread fifi but not managed to read it all. I'm off work today and tomorrow so I'll try to read it through.

I've tried not feeding her though. She protests loudly and will accept no comfort. She pushes the dummy and her comforter away. She won't lie on her side or back to have her bum patted. Just lies on her back shouting. This eventually results in real crying and tears. This is the same in her cot or in our bed.

Monday night she slept 8-7 and woke at half 12 and 5. Last night bed at half 8 (tried earlier but she took ages to drop off) and up at 1, 3.30 and 5.30 til 7 for the day. Exact same nap pattern.

jugsmcgee I suspect teething but there always seems to be something if you know what I mean.

How long do you all want to breastfeed for? I'm starting to resent it but always fear that if I quit she still won't sleep through and I'll lose my number 1 weapon to get her back to sleep. I also work part time and don't feed in the day to avoid engorgement so I am quite soft about night feeds assuming she may still need them.

I battled for a long while trying to get DS to drop some of his night feeds.

I then decided what was OK for me - one middle-of-the-night feed and an early morning one would be OK (something like 2am and 6am). He had already stopped feeding to sleep at bedtimes and naptimes.

When he woke at non-designated times (how businessey do I sound?!), I would tell him to sleep, tuck him in but not pick him up. A protest cry of about a minute, then he'd fall asleep. I figured if he REALLY needed milk he'd wake up again and let me know. I'd say 90pc of the time he falls back to sleep sound-o, the other 10pc he'll wake again after 20mins or so and I then feed him.

I kept this up and it took a few weeks for him to get the message. Now he sleeps fine (relatively). I'm now trying to feed him less when he does the 2am wake to try and discourage him. So far with no luck [arrhh! emoticon]

re getting fed up with bf: i decided that disturbed nights were worth not worrying about milk intake in the day, but I am SAHM so not end of the world if I don't sleep too well.

Hi again, you do have to be persistent for a number of nights. We did some sleep training when DD was 5.5 months b/c she was waking up to 8 times a night and took up to 1.5 hrs to settle if not fed. "what worked for us" was also what worked for us ;) ! We stopped gaffing around with picking her up, patting, cuddling etc and just sat there with her. I only fed at designated feed times (I chose 11pm then shifts to midnight and 2am which shifted to 3am). It took about a week of sitting with her for about 1/2 hour if she woke to reliably knock out the other wakings, but she was very little, by 1yr the willpower is in another ballpark so I imagine you might have to sit there longer. As BGF says you have to decide what you're happy with. I was lucky DD dropped the second feed of her own accord only a few weeks later. She had always fed properly BTW, not just a quick snack. After a while it shifed later and later but then we did have weird 4am behaviour for weeks until I finally decided to just stop. This last waking was v hard to shed but for starter milk wasn't working reliably any more and I also reckoned the time had come to persuade her night was not for snacking.