11 month old still waking for 3 bottles overnight

[Jolio123]

I don’t know if anyone has had the same experience or what to suggest.. my 11 month old has never slept through the night. She was breastfed until 3 months old when we moved over to formula. I don’t know if breastfeeding has caused it but she is still waking for 3 bottles overnight on a bad night. A few weeks ago we had a good run of just 1am bottle and that was a dream but we are back up to 3 bottles again. She sleeps in her own room, she eats 3 solid meals a day with snacks. She is having 2 naps a day and a 5oz bottle before each nap. She is on the 50th percentile for weight. she has a dummy which she puts back in herself at night. She has her teddy comforter. I use the term “whine” because she doesn’t start by fully crying, more of a whine. If I leave her it escalates to a full cry.

Typically, she has a bottle in her room about 18:45 and will be laid in her cot at 19:00ish. Some times she will take herself straight to sleep, other times she will roll around whining for 20 minutes and I go in and give her the rest of her bottle and she will then go to sleep in her cot. First wake is around 22:00/23:00, I try and give her dummy or her bear first which may work for 5 minutes but she’ll then start crying until I give her a bottle of 4oz which she drains. Repeat this around 1:00/2:00 and again at 3:00/4:00 (2oz) wake for the day at 6:00. When she stirs/wakes her eyes don’t really open? She just rolls around like she can’t get comfortable and lets out cries. She’ll move around so much she ends up hitting her arms or head on the end of the cot. I have tried the following things:

• leaving her to cry - this just continues and after 30mins will escalate Into a full scream and will then need to fully wake her to calm her down. So the bottle is a smoother answer and saves us from a full “wake”. I worry about the neighbours and what we are achieving from this. She was sick from the crying the first time we tried.
• weaning the oz of milk at night - I managed to get down to about 3oz or 2oz and then the wakes increased to every 30-60mins instead. When I went back up to 4oz again they reduced back to “normal”. The 3rd bottle I only ever offer 2oz and she will cry when it finishes but we are closer to morning by then. The other 2 bottles are 4oz which she drains.
• giving her milk 30 mins before bed. She won’t drink the milk unless she is going to sleep. If I offer her milk during the day or in daylight as such she refuses. Tried different cups and nothing works.
• offering water - she spits it out, I lay her down and she just whines 5 mins later.

im open to any other suggestions I haven’t tried! I’m at the point where I’m so used to waking up every 2-3hrs I feel worse getting more sleep. I am however pregnant again so I’m worried about when baby is here and I’m still getting up to feed a toddler every 2hrs.

Give her 8oz at 10/11and see if she’ll sleep till 5

Water down the 2am bottle gradually so it's just water? She definitely doesn't need 2oz milk at that time, it's a comfort.

Bigger bottle at 11?

Have you sleep trained at all, does she self settle or bottle to sleep? Wondering if she's using the bottle as a sleep aid.

Godspeed OP!

@TomeTome wow this seems so logical but my sleep deprived brain never thought of it 😂thanks I’ll give it a go! Would you offer 2oz at 5:00 if she wakes? Maybe she is just generally hungry. All my health visitors keep saying she won’t be and I should just go cold turkey. I dread what night I would have if I done that.

@MultiplaLight I don’t think she needs the night bottles at all, but I’m going to try and up the 23:00 bottle to 8oz and see if this will make a difference. I thought dummy would help with comfort side of things and she has had a dummy since she was teeny, only uses it for sleep.

She used to fall asleep on the bottle, but as she has got older she finishes the bottle and doesn’t even want to be held a minute longer. Will just wiggle and whine until I put her down in her cot, she cuddles her bear and throws it around for a while and is then asleep.

some people tell me this is normal and others don’t so I’m really stuck!

Dream feed at 11pm. Ours drank it while they were asleep and slept Till 6am.

What if she eating and drinking during the day? What do her naps look like?

In an ideal world, babies are better off not falling asleep with a bottle when nearing 1as it’s not good for their dental hygiene and it makes it difficult for them to fall asleep without using the bottle. (It’s much easier said than done.)

@AlarminglyAwful her meals are:

• Breakfast usually porridge or toast with avocado
• bottle before nap
• snack
• Lunch is either a sandwich with fruit, or pasta with a meat
• bottle before nap if we are home (if out she won’t drink milk)
• snack
• dinner is meat of some sort with potato’s and veg or whatever we are having

she drinks lots of water throughout the day. Yes I was worried about her teeth. She only has 2 bottom teeth at the moment. A health visitor suggested wiping them with a muslin cloth after night feeds which I’m doing. She isn’t necessarily falling asleep on the bottle at bedtime, she will be drowsy but not asleep. She wiggles and whines to be put down as she doesn’t really like contact sleeping anymore.

Seems she is fed to sleep for every sleep therefore when waking in cycles, needing the milk again to get back down as it's her association.
awill she not drink at all during other times?

My son is experiencing the same exact symptoms at the same exact times of the night. He is 11.5 months old never slept 1 full night, goes to sleep great at 7pm, has a bottle prior too, wakes around 11,2 then 5, then up by 620. This is night to I’m cutting bottles and going in there cold turkey but it feels like I’m leaving him hungry even tho he shouldn’t be.

how did your situation end up? Any suggestions for me 😩🙏🏼

@Dw1029 ah I still remember these days! Hang in there it’s so hard. I did reduce the amount I put in the bottles gradually, like reallllly gradually and she eventually dropped the first wake on her own. She kept the other 2 until she was about 13months but again just dropped them on her own I didn’t really do anything different. In all honesty even now at nearly 19m old she doesn’t sleep great. She doesn’t wake up for milk anymore, just comfort and reassurance. So I wonder if the bottle was a form of comfort for her and now she’s just replaced that with us instead haha. We have had a few sleep throughs but a typical night now is maybe 1-2 wakes for a cuddle or if she has lost her bear in her bed. I have a 2 week old now and have done everything exactly the same and he sleeps like a dream so babies temperament 100% impacts their sleep.