Sleeping through!

[tiredmammas]

A bit of a long one but would really appreciate any opinions/advice on this!

My little boy has just turned one. Since 14 weeks he has slept through 7-7 (very lucky I know) but shortly after he had just turned 9 months he started getting up in the night for extra feeds, at this point he was just having the one bottle at night and one in the morning. This turned out to be teething, he got his first tooth at 9 months and his second tooth 2 weeks later.

He is now 1 year and 1 week old and still not sleeping through. He hasn't had any more teeth come through and hasn't got any coming (that I can see or feel) but it's been 3 months since he last slept through. He's showing the odd signs here and there that he is teething but nothing consistent and never whinges. He's formula fed but I started him on cows milk at 11 months and he has his normal meals throughout the day.

I've tried other things, night light - no night light, turning the heating up - turning it down, putting him to bed earlier - putting him down later, something to eat before bed as apposed to a bottle, feeding him more during the day, taking him for a walk before the bedtime routine starts, trying to physically tire him out. I feel like I've tried everything but am I missing something obvious, as I am a first time mum?

Our bedtime routine- nice warm bath, brush teeth, story, bottle and bed. He goes to sleep absolutely fine and he's put down awake and settles himself. He's waking up anytime between 12-5 and it's a different time every night. When he wakes up he has a bottle, nappy change then generally falls to sleep on me and I put him back in bed but as soon as I put him down he whinges and takes a good 10/15 to settle, which he never does when I first put him in bed or any naps he has.

Is it usual for a baby to sleep through for such a long period of time and then go backwards?

Any ideas? Thanks

I would guess it’s because you’re still doing a night feed. At this age he really doesn’t need it and will be waking out of habit not hunger. What worked for us is reducing how much you give each night and eventually he will stop waking for a bottle, also I only change my daughter at night if she really needs it (Poop or really wet) so as not to wake her up more. Just some ideas, good luck!

I would try and cut out the night feed because it might become a form of habit or routine for him. Dont cut it out straight away. Give him a oz less every other night and see if that helps. Also does he have a white noise machine or a comfy ?? Introducting one of those may help

He doesn't need a nappy change in the middle of the night unless he has pood and drop the milk feed in the night, he's probably waking for that.

Yeah, I agree with other posters, he's probably just in the habit of waking up now. The fact he's slept through when he was smaller means that he doesn't need the milk. It may not be popular, but when this happens to us (and it does reoccur every few months), if it's turning into a pattern rather than a one off, we just let him cry and within a few days he stops waking up.

DD did this. We let it go on until she was 26 months when I decided enough was enough, especially as her understanding was there. It was three weeks of hell to break the habit but she's slept through ever since.

DS is 16m and has hardly ever slept through. One waking on a good night, 2/3 on a bad one. He's got better over the last few weeks and now mostly goes through until 5/6am but will then have milk and go back down. I know we're going to have to deal with it again at some point like we did with DD but for now I'm just enjoying some better nights sleep!

@zebrapig it never even occurred to me whilst I've let it go on this long that it was going to turn into a new routine I was just hoping he would drop it eventually like he did his other feeds. How did you soothe DD when you dropped the feed? Mines not a cuddly baby but does have a blanket he's attached to so I'm hoping that will help me. Me and DP work completely different times so I'm going to have to think about how to go about this as I know I'm going to have some tears!

Water down the milk or cut an ounce every other night

No nappy changes either

We started by cutting the milk an oz a night for 3/4 nights then ditched it completely (water didn't work). We ended up letting her cry it out as trying to settle her didn't work. We knew she was waking out of habit and didn't need the milk. She had a little blanket teddy as a comforter. She gradually got better as she realised we weren't going to give in. It was hard, luckily DH and I were on the same page and we did it together. This was 2 years ago and it was the best thing we did as apart from the odd nightmare she's slept through since.

I'm sure we're going to have the same thing with DS but his sleep has been bad since day one. It's not something I choose to tackle yet as it's only just started to improve. He's been so bad that he ends up in our bed at least once a week. I've got used to be permanently tired and probably won't tackle it until he's a similar age unless he naturally stops waking on his own.

Oh and whilst we're still dealing with them I make it as easy as possible for myself. Get the milk, change his nappy and then put him back in the cot with his milk. I always change nappy before feeding as that way they're more likely to settle after.
Good luck whatever you decide!