please can anyone advise me on what i should be doing now?????

[stacdani]

My name is Stacey, i`m 21 years old. I am mummy to Danielle, 16 months old. Danielle is a lovely contented baby during the day. She does not eat a huge amount of solids, but what she is eating is healthly. She is still having (2-3) 7oz bottles of sma progress milk, most of which is during the night. Danielles bedtime routine was recommended to us by the health visitor, but has still not resolved our biggest problem, which is starting to get me and Danielles daddy down now.

Here is our bedtime rountine, Danielle has a bath, then comes in the lounge and has a bottle whilst watching balamory. I then take her to her bedroom at about 8pm and we have a kiss and a cuddle then she goes into her cot with her dummy and i leave the room. she has no problem what so ever falling asleep, its staying asleep thats the problem. she usually wakes between 12-3am and will not settle unless i give her milk and take her to bed with me, she will then wake 1-2 times more and will only settle after milk.

We have tried not taking her to bed with us and not giving her milk but nothing is working , she will start crying until she is sobbing uncontrolably. After an hour of this i usually give in and take her to bed with us.

We are very desperate to get Danielle sleeping all night and in her own room. We would love to have another baby but don`t feel this is possible as Danielle is too demanding during the night.

PLEASE can you offer any advice, we really need your help.

my ds used to wake several times a night at that age. I was breastfeeding him and he was sleeping in our bed (and still is ), but the night feeds were a pain.

What we did was cut out the feeding during the night and offer him water instead. After a couple of rather painful nights he started eating more food during the day and so he didn't feel hungry at night and pretty much stopped waking up. Occasionally he will be thirsty during the night and we give him some water, but not often.

I think stopping the milk at night - or reducing the amount in stages if she drinks a lot now - is really the only way to do it. You will probably need to give her quite a bit of comfort because she will be a little bit hungry, but she'll adjust what she has during the day very quickly.

thankyou for your advise and trust me im at the stage where i will try anything, i did try this once but didnt persist with it. one night was enough but this time i will definately persist for a week.

hi stacey,
I second the water thing. But do be aware, that your dd is developing and changing all the time. She may refuse the water and yell for an hour today, but after a few weeks, she may change and start to accept it. I had similar with my dd1, she changed when she was around 12 months old and started sleeping through.

If its any consolation, my second baby was much quieter than dd1!

Hi Stacey. Wot does Danielle sleep in? Is she in a sleeping bag with Soother Saver attached? My DD went to bed with her dummy and then used to lose it in the night and wake up screaming. We didn't know the cause of the waking and tried everything until we banged her in a sleeping bag (which restricts movement in the cot) and attached her dummy to the 'Soother Saver' so that when she lost it, she could find it easily and pop it back in! We've never looked back! Also, try a bowl of shreddies with warm milk before bed. If Lottie didn't eat much during the day we would regularly give her shreddies and warm milk before bed to fill her up and make her nice and sleepy!!!!!

Danielle sleeps in her cot, she won`t go in her sleeping bag, just screams!!!

i do have a soother saver tho! never used it at bedtime

will try the shreddies!

thanks for all your advise