Does sleep training work? (8 moth old breastfed baby)

[Ju2017]

My 8 month old baby has always been a bad sleeper. From 2 months old to about 3 and half, she started waking up just once and I thought all my problems were solved and I was fresh as a daisy, only for us to go away to grandparents on holiday and she went back to waking up 2, 3, 4 or more times a night ever since. Now she wakes at midnight, 3am and 6am (minimum) and I feel destroyed, specially having to be back at work full time.

I feel I must be doing something wrong and want to try some sort of sleep training but I'm in a tricky situation as:

1. She started nursery 2 months ago and won't drink milk AT ALL during the day, only takes solids (from 8am to 6pm, 5 days a week), so she wants to breastfeed all the time when she's at home and I feel really bad to sleep train her by stop her from feeding at night

2. I always breastfeed her to sleep as to be honest, it's easy and quick. When the husband try to put her to bed she resist massively as she hates taking bottles, won't drink hardly anything, cries her heart out and it takes about an hour... which means that I'm always the one who has to do it and it's a big weight on my shoulders. Breaking this habit would involve lots of crying (probably for baby and ME!), lots of sleepless nights and huge amount of effort.

So basically my question is, has anyone been is a similar(ish) situation and was brave enough to try to sleep train their babies to sleep and succeeded? I guess it would be great to know if it would be actually worth it to go through all this pain or just ride it out until I'm old, grey and wrinkly!

Any light would be super apreciated! many thanks!!!

Not to rain on your parade OP but I had a similar situation with DS at 8 months except he woke up once for 2 hours every night rather than twice. But he also wouldn’t take milk from a bottle at all etc etc.

I called a few sleep trainers out of desperation as was back in FT work and none of them would work with me as they don’t work with parents where the baby doesn’t take a bottle - they can’t guarantee they’ve got enough calories.

So, although I am aware this is totally brutal, be prepared that you might have to lunch through it. FYI DS miraculously started taking a bottle at 3 days short of a year old - i night weaned him a week later and he’s slept though ever since . I swear he understood me telling him I was “turning off the tap” at 12 months old and adapted accordingly!

*punch not lunch!

I think still little to be training if she isn’t getting milk in during the day
Could be worth trying to drop one feed a night if possible but I’m not a fan of crying. Mine were awful sleepers, needing milk then reassurance but are fabulous now. I was on the edge for a while though with tiredness so you have my sympathies

Night feeds are normal. My 23 month old DS2 still has them.

Google Dr Jay Gordon night weaning - he doesn't recommend it for babies under a year old.

So that'll summarise, yes sleep training does work, you've just got to be prepared to follow it strictly.
Some people don't do it as they believe that feeding in the night is "normal" even when they're getting enough calories during the day

I did it successfully and because I wanted much less interruptions during the night and to try to start enjoying time with my son during the day instead of being FUCKING EXHAUSTED

Your choice op x

IMO you can't have it both ways - if she's not taking milk at Nursery then she's going to need it overnight. If you don't want to feed overnight, you need to either get her drinking milk during the day or wait until she's old enough to not need it.

Otherwise all these sleep training posts are basically saying you need to completely wean a BF baby at 8 months

I don't mean that you're choosing for her not to have milk during the day BTW, just that that's the position you're in.

It worked for us at 6months. Was great to get her off to sleep at 7pm. For a few months i would do a dream BF at 11pm and feed her 2/3am ish when she woke. Then sleep trained again to stop night feed at 10 months. Good luck!

Imho you can do both. It was bliss knowing i would only be up once in the night. I read the book below and adapted it to my own needs as i thought she still needed a feed at night.

The Sensational Baby Sleep Plan
Book by Alison Scott-Wright

Thanks everyone for responding!

I do believe me and my baby will be much happier if we manage to get a full night's sleep. Yesterday we had wakes at 12.00am, 1.30am, 3.30am, 5am and up for good from 6.30am... She was happy and playing but looked tired with little dark circle under eyes...I even worry this could impact her overall development!

I wish I could not work and stay at home and breastfeed her all day long so she wouldn't need a bottle until she's over 1yo... I even considered doing it... but unfortunately this is not my reality and I have bills to pay and believe it's important to continue to invest in myself... and hope she'll appreciate this one day

The milk situation kills me and don't want to stop BF completely but I pump at work every day to give it to her and don't mind topping up with formula. The million dollar question is, would she start taking it during the day if I started reducing the number of feeds at night? It would be a dream come true! Maybe I could do a week trial to see if this could work... if it goes bad I just go back to feeding aaaaaall night long...

She's clever and very stubborn (like her mummy), so I worry that in a battle of wills she might win though

This is not really about sleep training, more about feeding and sleep association. Breastfeeding is such a lovely comfort its hard on Mum and babe to go cold turkey. Rather than any extreme methods, think about gently and slowly changing habits. At 8months she does not need nutrition in the night. However, I would start with what you do in the day. That means going down for a nap without suckling to sleep. Do the breastfeed separate from the settling. Once she has learnt to go to sleep by herself she will learn to do it t bedtime and eventually will settle herself during the night. She has learned that breast is the way to nod off. All babies stir in the night, she is only looking for the only way she knows. Take it slowly