Sleep training at 10 months

shannonhinton0421 · 2022-02-22T08:16:59+00:00

My son is 10 months old now and has never slept well. He's still waking up twice a night for 2 7oz bottles. He no longer has a dummy. He sleeps in his own room in his cot. He has to be rocked to sleep which takes about 30 mins of rocking him, it's Literally a constant battle everything single sleep or nap time. When he wakes up in the night he can be awake for an hour - 2 hours. Sometimes it's only 30 mins or so, but we don't take him out the room, I don't talk to him it's just constant rocking in the dark, sometimes he will be asleep as soon as I put him down he's wide awake again. I really don't know what's to do, I don't know how to get him to stop feeding, he doesn't want nap unless I feel like I'm forcing him too. I thought this was a regression at first but it's been going on for over 2 months now. I was thinking about the fibre sleeping training method but is he too old now? I'm worried about him being distressed but I really don't know what else to do.

ChittyBang1987 · 22/02/2022 09:46

Did you mean the ferber method? You can do that method now. I would also night wean, too, and bump calories up in day.

Mumsnet aren't usually for controlled crying, i.e., the ferber method. But I did it, and my lo sleeps through and will STILL call for me if she needs me in the night. A lot of people feel that with ferber method, a baby learns not to cry as you won't come. That's not true. If my lo is in pain, needs a nappy change, etc, she will still call for me.

In the night waking for long periods is usually undertired, overtired, developmental, cold, hot, or hungry. 😆 I know there's lots of reasons.

What is your feeding schedule along with solids and milk? Also nap routine will help others advise

Original poster

shannonhinton0421 · 22/02/2022 10:13

@ChittyBang1987

Did you mean the ferber method? You can do that method now. I would also night wean, too, and bump calories up in day.

Mumsnet aren't usually for controlled crying, i.e., the ferber method. But I did it, and my lo sleeps through and will STILL call for me if she needs me in the night. A lot of people feel that with ferber method, a baby learns not to cry as you won't come. That's not true. If my lo is in pain, needs a nappy change, etc, she will still call for me.

In the night waking for long periods is usually undertired, overtired, developmental, cold, hot, or hungry. 😆 I know there's lots of reasons.

What is your feeding schedule along with solids and milk? Also nap routine will help others advise

Haha! Yes that's what I mean lol.

Thank you for advise, I've got to try something because we cant continue like this I go back to work the 7th March and exhausted.

He wakes between 7-8 after about 30 mins I give him his breakfast, but the last 3 days he's only been having 3 or 4 spoonfuls.
He has an 8oz bottle before his nap at 9:30/10:30 he will nap for about 1-2 hours after I finally get him to go to sleep.
When he wakes up I give him a snack like yoghurt or fruit.
Then about an hour later he will have lunch being a sandwich or wrap or something like that with some fruit.
I try to put him down for a second nap around 3/4 which if he goes down is about 45minuet nap but he doesn't always go down.
Then we eat dinner together around 6ish. And someday he will have something small after like a baby rice cake or a baby snack.
Then he has another 8/9oz bottle before bed around 7:30
Another bottle at 12:30
Another bottle at 5ish
I think he actually is hungry for the 12:30 bottle but the 5ish one is more for comfort.

OP posts:

ChittyBang1987 · 22/02/2022 11:26

I'm a mean mum. I wake my lo up at same time everyday. Between 7 am and 715am. If lo is not hungry in the morning, that suggests to me lo really doesn't news bottles in night.

I would perhaps add a bottle before the second nap. So lunch say about 12pm ish. Bottle about 115pm ish.

I would pop down at 930am to 945am and only let lo sleep for an hour. So something like
930am nap.
1030am wake.
130pm to 2pm depends on your Los awake times nap.
330pm awake approx. Up to you, how long to sleep.
730pm bed.

IE00 · 22/02/2022 15:36

Sleep deprivation is tough isn't it. Agree that Ferber worked for my little girl at 4 months. But it can work at any age. I have a very supportive (American) sleep training group on Facebook that helped me, message me for details. It is run by sleep coaches. The trick is to be consistent, even if it feels bad at the time to hear them cry. It'll be worth it when everyone gets a better night's sleep.

@ChittyBang1987 agree with her advice. Also you might want to run for cover because I hear the sound of fire from the torched pitchforks carried by the gaggle of judgemental mothers on here who think trying to get a decent night's sleep is not martyr-y enough for them

Original poster

shannonhinton0421 · 22/02/2022 18:37

@IE00

Sleep deprivation is tough isn't it. Agree that Ferber worked for my little girl at 4 months. But it can work at any age. I have a very supportive (American) sleep training group on Facebook that helped me, message me for details. It is run by sleep coaches. The trick is to be consistent, even if it feels bad at the time to hear them cry. It'll be worth it when everyone gets a better night's sleep.

@ChittyBang1987 agree with her advice. Also you might want to run for cover because I hear the sound of fire from the torched pitchforks carried by the gaggle of judgemental mothers on here who think trying to get a decent night's sleep is not martyr-y enough for them

Thank you! I'm going to try it tonight, do our routine as normal and put him in his room.

Would you suggest I do this with his naps as well as of tomorrow or wait until he's ok at night time first?

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Original poster

shannonhinton0421 · 22/02/2022 18:38

@ChittyBang1987

I'm a mean mum. I wake my lo up at same time everyday. Between 7 am and 715am. If lo is not hungry in the morning, that suggests to me lo really doesn't news bottles in night.

I would perhaps add a bottle before the second nap. So lunch say about 12pm ish. Bottle about 115pm ish.

I would pop down at 930am to 945am and only let lo sleep for an hour. So something like
930am nap.
1030am wake.
130pm to 2pm depends on your Los awake times nap.
330pm awake approx. Up to you, how long to sleep.
730pm bed.

You're not mean at all! You do what is right for you and your family. Thank you so much for your advise, im going to give it a go tonight after his bed time routine

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ChittyBang1987 · 22/02/2022 18:41

I did with every single nap and nighttime. I don't know if that was right but worked for us.

Offer water instead of milk is a good way. Few crappy nights. I certainly wouldn't give both feeds if any at all.

Good luck 👍 let us know how it goes.

ChittyBang1987 · 22/02/2022 18:49

Your welcome x

Original poster

shannonhinton0421 · 22/02/2022 18:55

@ChittyBang1987

I did with every single nap and nighttime. I don't know if that was right but worked for us.

Offer water instead of milk is a good way. Few crappy nights. I certainly wouldn't give both feeds if any at all.

Good luck 👍 let us know how it goes.

Thank you so much x

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ChittyBang1987 · 22/02/2022 19:34

@ie00 I'm surprised no one has commented yet for the negativity of CC yet 😆

Original poster

shannonhinton0421 · 22/02/2022 20:58

@ChittyBang1987

Your welcome x

He's asleep now and went to sleep ok his own for the time ever! I actually can't believe it. It was sooooo hard, I ended up getting abit upset but it took 50 minuets in total. From 7:30 - 8:20 when he fell to sleep. I checked on him 3/5/10 minuets. I'm going to give him a dream feed at 10:30 and then continue the same during the night.

Thank you both soooo much for your advice
@ChittyBang1987 @IE00 x

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IE00 · 22/02/2022 21:36

Amazing! You've got this.

It's a slog at first but I promise you this time next week you'll all be sleeping a lot more.

The trick is in the nighttime. If he wakes in the nighttime just repeat. Be consistent.

I personally would skip the dream feed as usually above 6 months they are capable of sleeping through the night based on their solid intake. Assuming he is of normal weight. After six months waking your baby for any reason at night gives them a habitual waking as they are old enough to understand routines. Why don't you see how it goes without the feed?

Eventually, assuming you want an undisrupted night, you will need to take action to stop the night feeds if he doesn't do it himself. You can go cold turkey or do it gradually. We did it gradually because my little one was just 6 months, but you may want to do it faster as he is older. To do this we chose the longest time baby has gone without a feed and waited. So if it was 3 hours I would wait 3 hours to feed my LO. Then the next night I would increase it by 15 minutes. If they woke up before that time I'd wait, crying or not (or comfort without feeding). Actually we didn't even need all the increments because my LO just started sleeping through most of the night ha. Let us know how you get on!

Original poster

shannonhinton0421 · 22/02/2022 22:05

@IE00

Amazing! You've got this.

It's a slog at first but I promise you this time next week you'll all be sleeping a lot more.

The trick is in the nighttime. If he wakes in the nighttime just repeat. Be consistent.

I personally would skip the dream feed as usually above 6 months they are capable of sleeping through the night based on their solid intake. Assuming he is of normal weight. After six months waking your baby for any reason at night gives them a habitual waking as they are old enough to understand routines. Why don't you see how it goes without the feed?

Eventually, assuming you want an undisrupted night, you will need to take action to stop the night feeds if he doesn't do it himself. You can go cold turkey or do it gradually. We did it gradually because my little one was just 6 months, but you may want to do it faster as he is older. To do this we chose the longest time baby has gone without a feed and waited. So if it was 3 hours I would wait 3 hours to feed my LO. Then the next night I would increase it by 15 minutes. If they woke up before that time I'd wait, crying or not (or comfort without feeding). Actually we didn't even need all the increments because my LO just started sleeping through most of the night ha. Let us know how you get on!

Thank you so much!

Yeah I think you're absolutely right, I'm just going to see how he goes, I think I over worry and probably interfere more than I need to.

Will do x

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Original poster

shannonhinton0421 · 24/02/2022 07:22

@IE00

Amazing! You've got this.

It's a slog at first but I promise you this time next week you'll all be sleeping a lot more.

The trick is in the nighttime. If he wakes in the nighttime just repeat. Be consistent.

I personally would skip the dream feed as usually above 6 months they are capable of sleeping through the night based on their solid intake. Assuming he is of normal weight. After six months waking your baby for any reason at night gives them a habitual waking as they are old enough to understand routines. Why don't you see how it goes without the feed?

Eventually, assuming you want an undisrupted night, you will need to take action to stop the night feeds if he doesn't do it himself. You can go cold turkey or do it gradually. We did it gradually because my little one was just 6 months, but you may want to do it faster as he is older. To do this we chose the longest time baby has gone without a feed and waited. So if it was 3 hours I would wait 3 hours to feed my LO. Then the next night I would increase it by 15 minutes. If they woke up before that time I'd wait, crying or not (or comfort without feeding). Actually we didn't even need all the increments because my LO just started sleeping through most of the night ha. Let us know how you get on!

@ChittyBang1987 @IE00 Just want to say thank you to both of your for your advise and giving the confidence to follow through the sleep training. Last night he slept through the night on the second night, I can not believe it. We done his night time routine at 7, in Ben 7:30 and he fell asleep at 8. He woke this morning at 6:30 but I didn't go into him until 7. He didn't cry during this time. He's had no milk and slept through the night I don't actually believe it! Thank you again x

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IE00 · 24/02/2022 07:26

Yay! Great result

Isn't it an amazing thing. When my LO started sleeping through the night I thought gosh why hadn't I done it sooner?!

Original poster

shannonhinton0421 · 24/02/2022 07:39

@IE00

Yay! Great result

Isn't it an amazing thing. When my LO started sleeping through the night I thought gosh why hadn't I done it sooner?!

It is! That's exactly how I feel right now. I think the thought of it was much worse was than actually doing it. Don't get me know wrong it's hard when he is upset but the first night was 50 mins, his nap 30 mins and then lastnight 30 mins so hopefully tonight even better.

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ChittyBang1987 · 24/02/2022 08:12

Yah, that's fantastic 😀 😄 👏

Just remember not to slip back into old habits is my only advice and that you and your partner work the same way x

IE00 · 24/02/2022 09:25

Very true @ChittyBang1987. There will be regressions so be prepared that you may have to do it again at some point! But enjoy the zzzz for now!!

(P.S. you might get lucky like we did and have a great sleeper from here on out)