After months of sleeping through the night for 11 hours at a go, when Eve was 5 and a half months old she got really bad teething pain which lasted for weeks, along with us travelling quite a bit which lead to her waking through the night.
As we were either away on holiday, or in the hectic and tiring process of moving house we kept giving her bottles of milk to go back to sleep. If given milk she goes back to sleep fairly quickly, as long as she's not feeling ill and hasn't woken up due to pain (she won't often accept water).
Her waking during the nights seemed to get better as we settled into our new home - and then she started nursery which seemed to throw everything off again. Sometimes there appears to be a pattern, and sometimes not at all. On Sunday night she woke up 4 times - at 10.30pm, midnight, 2am and 5am (and then we got up at 6.30am - yes Monday was mega tiring), however on Monday night she only woke up once at 4am, so Tuesday was a joyous day for me.
For the past couple of weeks we've been dropping her afternoon naps to see if it would help with her sleep during the night. I think it is helping but unfortunately I don't think this is going to cure her waking up for comfort in the middle of the night. I put her to bed quite often lately clutching a muslin cloth in the hope that if she seeks comfort from that she might not cry out if she wakes. I think it helps a bit.
I've been told to slowly decrease the amount of milk that she drinks in the night-time, but this does not appear to work - she still cries and wants to finish a whole bottle.
I've been putting off thinking about the next strategy as it's so much easier to give her some milk, go back to bed quickly and get some sleep. However, now that she has 7 teeth I'm getting more concerned about tooth decay. Plus, I also read that babies who drink through the night can have problems as they grow to be older children with bed wetting.
Eve's bedtime routine has always gone well and she is very good at going to bed awake and singing herself to sleep. She has a bath and then one bottle of cow's milk (160ml), I then put her in her cot. We always brush her teeth at bath-time before her bed-time milk but I'm worrying that I'm going to have to start changing the routine so that she drinks it before her bath and is then put straight to bed.
I'm aware that there are loads of different methods and ideas, but today I read the following article - which some other mums were chatting about online. Sam is going to Greece to DJ at the end of March so I've decided that I'm going to have a serious go at Jay Gordon's Sleep strategy as I should have a good week/ten days to work on this.
The First Three Nights
At any time before 11 pm. (including 10:58) nurse to sleep, cuddle and nurse when he wakes up and nurse him back to sleep, but stop offering nursing to sleep as the solution to waking after 11 p.m.. Instead….. When your baby awakens at midnight or any other time after 11 p.m., hug him, nurse him for a short time but make sure he does not fall asleep on the breast and put him down awake. Rub and pat and cuddle a little until he falls asleep but don’t put him back on the breast (or give him a bottle if that’s what you’ve been doing). He must fall asleep with your comfort beside him, but not having to nurse to feel comforted enough to drift off.
During these first three nights, repeat this pattern only after he has slept. He might sleep for fifteen minutes or he might sleep for four hours, but he has to go to sleep and reawaken to get cuddled and fed again.
These will be hard nights. (Oh yikes!!)
Again, during these first three nights, between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., cuddle and feed short, put him down awake, rub, pat, talk until he falls asleep and repeat this cycle only after he’s slept and reawakened. At 6:01 a.m., do whatever you have been doing as a morning routine ignoring the previous seven hours’ patterns. Many babies will roll over, nurse and cuddle back to sleep and give you an extra hour or so. Some won’t.
The Second Three Nights
Again, the nursing to sleep stops at 11 p.m. When he wakes up, hug him and cuddle him for a few minutes, but do not feed him, put him down awake. Putting him down awake is a crucial part of this whole endeavour because it really does teach him to fall asleep with a little less contact and then a little less. Not feeding is the big change during these three nights. One-year-old babies can easily go for those seven hours (or more) with no calories. They like to get fed a little through the night, but physiologically and nutritionally, this is not a long time to go without food.
During these second three nights, some babies will cry and protest for ten minutes at a time and some will go for an hour or more. Your toddler is aware that you are right beside him, offering comfort and soothing. It just isn’t the mode of comfort he wants at the moment. It is hard to listen to him fuss, but it will work.
The Next Four Nights
Nights seven, eight, nine and ten. Don’t pick him up, don’t hug him. When he awakens after 11 p.m., talk to him, touch him, talk some more, but don’t pick him up. Rub and pat only. No feeding either, obviously. He will fall back to sleep. Repeat the rubbing and talking when he reawakens. By the end of the ninth night, he will be falling back to sleep.
After
After these first ten nights, continue to cuddle and feed to sleep if you like and he wants to, but do nothing when he wakes up except to touch a little and talk to him briefly. This may continue for another three or four nights but occasionally keeps going for another week or more. Then . . . it stops. He has learned that he is just as well-loved, gets virtually everything he needs and wants all day, but must give seven hours per night back to his parents and family.
See the full plan here:
http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html
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