Why, oh why, won't 15mo sleep through the night?

[eversomuch]

He's slept through about 5 times in his life. :(

He eats three solid meals/day and some snacks, plus a BF in the morning, before his nap (though often doesn't nap. This kid just doesn't believe in sleep.) and before bed. He'll also "snack" at the milk bar a couple times a day, usually late afternoon or just before dinner.

He wakes at least once a night, but usually twice. Sometimes more. He'll often settle himself back down, but I generally have to go to him at least once or twice.

He's a slow teether, his gums are bumpy now, so that might explain the four wakings last night; but as I said, he's always been like this.

DS never took a bottle or dummy. If DH goes to him, DS just panics and screams. He'll only settle with the boob. I don't want to deny him milk/comfort at night but the lack of sleep is really killing me and DH.

Will he outgrow this soon, or do I need to do something? I hate feeling grumpy and resentful every night.

sounds like you have answered your own question. Only you can settle him because only you can bf him and this is what he is looking for. Sounds like he needs to learn to resettle himself without the boob. Have you considered night weaning. He really doesn't need milk in the night time at 15mo.

Eversomuch I could have written your post. 16mo DD is the same and I just don't know what to do. She's been waking every 2 hours the past couple of weeks, I think she might be teething though, poor little thing.

How do i night wean? i understand that to mean refusing him the boob & trying to calm with shushing & patting. is that right ? if i try that or dh tries , ds just freaks out. my dd self-weaned so easily i was hoping ds would too.
so frustrated.

I have a 17 mo that doesn't sleep through. I am not suffering with it as much, thankfully, I am used to it and it only makes me a little more tired than average I think, although maybe I just don't remember ;) mine wakes an average twice but it depends on your definition of sleeping through, I count it as me having to get out of bed so sometimes it is many more times than that due to waking a before my bedtime or waking a when I hear wails but they fade off and she goes back to sleep. I actually thought we were doing pretty well, she doesn't fight sleep, we got her in her own room, she has good naps, goes off to sleep well in the evening, so lots of good things.

If it helps she will take bottles and dummies if they are offered but it does not make any difference. She can also resettle herself without any intervention so I can't teach her to do that.....she already can and does several times a night. Most of the time when I go in she is stuck in some stupid position in the cot as she is an active sleeper, then cross that she is awake, crying with her eyes closed. She has 16 teeth so not a slow teether.

She's one of the better sleepers in her little peer group that I know of so I thought we were doing ok. I think the key is why are they waking, do you sleep through, does your partner, do your other children? That could give some clues, are you a hot sleeper or cold, does covering make a difference to the baby's sleep, are they waking in certain positions, at certain times and how do they fit in with sleep cycles, all that stuff.

How is he otherwise? Nappies normal? Settled and happy? Do you think he's warm enough in bed?

I only ask because my ds2 has been a shit sleeper, but is much better now at 15mo. I stopped bf at 8 months because of this, so hats off for doing it so long!! My ds had loose nappies, was fairly unsettled and sleeping badly, so I stopped bf. that worked fora while, but not long. Then I swapped the formula for cows milk. Againa, helped for a while. I've now swapped to goats milk, and he's the best he's been. Much more settled, sleeping better and solid nappies.

I've also bought a 4 tog duvet and I tried making him warmer in bed ( mainly because he will still wake up at least once but if we put him straight in our bed, he will settle straight away, and i wonder if its because hes warm in our bed, between us) and he's slept more in his cot than he's ever done.

What I always think is try anything and everything. If you do something one way, try the other. It can't hurt.

And re night weaning, to do it I think you need to tough it out a bit. Offer water and cuddles and distraction, but be resolute. There might be a couple of nights of upset so it depends if you're up for that.

Hope you get some sleep soon!

We wimped out of hardcore night weaning as DS was an instant hysteric. Shush pat if he wanted milk was laughable.

We started by getting him to accept a bottle during the day as less traumatic (younger than your DS) then switching a night feed to the bottle. Then reducing the amount of milk over time. Took a couple of weeks but worked.

The other strategy was to make sure I wasn't BFing to sleep at bedtime any more. Hellish pick up/put down for a few days but within a week his self-settling throughout the night was much better. And as he was full from his bedtime feed he didn't get as wound up at bedtime as in the middle of the night.

Oh, and Weetabix just before bedtime.

His nappies are normal. He goes to bed around 7pm, just wakes up, usually between 10 & midnight (for the.first .time). I do feed to sleep but he now often opens his eyes when i put him down, then just goes to sleep . so i think he's making progress in terms of not needing to feed fully to sleep .

i've now been up w him for 2hours. tried letting him cry for a bit (which i hate doing ), then DH went to him
but he just got more upset.

i cannot take these nights anymore . i am going crazy .