SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR THE LONG POST - I thought someone may find it useful to hear about my experiences.
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When Isla was tiny she used to sleep quite well I thought - feed at 7pm then 10pm then 4am and 8am ish. She was in this pattern until about 10 weeks and then things hit a rough patch when she'd wake every couple of hours. I'd try to feed her every 3hrs at most and then got OH to soothe her the rest of the time (though a lot of the time it was only me she would settle for!). I was told this would gradually get better with time... it didn't... I was told it would get better once she was weaned... it didn't... I was told she'd sleep better once she was moved out of our room... she didn't. She had a dummy which she could find herself, but that wasn't what she wanted. She napped great during the day and we had a lovely bedtime routine for her at night (bath, feed, quiet time, put her down awake and she went to sleep herself) so I just resigned myself to the fact that she got thirsty at night since she would go back off to sleep no problem after a 20 minute breast feed.

From about 6 months old she's been in a pattern of - 7pm bed, 9-10pm feed, 2am feed, 6am feed and usually up for the day by then. Tbh I'd gotten used to it by then and it only ment getting out of bed once, usually for 20 minutes, so I haven't really stressed about it.

Well, recently I'd began to question whether she was actually thirsty at night because she never drinks -that- much during the day and has weirdly started to drool like a monster so she couldn't have a dry mouth. I decided that since I was due to start a stretch of night shifts at work now was as good a time as any to start cutting out the night feeds, and since I wasn't going to be there then OH and I couldn't cave in and resort to a feed. I also decided to go cold-turkey rather than cutting down the amount milk gradually because I found it hard to judge with breast feeding.

So.... night 1... I was plesently suprised... it took 30 minutes to sit and cuddle her back to sleep (didn't want to resort to CC or CIO yet, and PUPD just seems to frustrate her) and she woke up her usual 2 times, which I could deal with.

Night 2.... woke 2 times again but took a good 1-2 hours to get her back to sleep, but I was determined to try and get through it.

Night 3... woke once and took 1 hour to get back to sleep.

Night 4... OH's first night alone... woke once and he could hear her windging a bit on the monitor for 5 minutes but she went back to sleep on her own, woke again later and took 30 mins to cuddle to sleep.

Night 5... OH on his own again.... one bit of windging for 5 mintues but otherwise STTN, 7pm-7am! Amazing for a baby that had never gone for longer than 5 hours without seeing us for the past 11 months!

Night 6... STTN... not a peep!

Night 7... STTN again!

I am astounded by how quickly things have changed (I hope it stays this way!) and thought it would be a lot harder, that I'd have to resort to CC/CIO for sure. I put it down to me not being there... I think she just liked to see me, enjoyed breast feeding and had gotten into a habbit.

I write this for other mums of long term non-sleepers and perhaps offer a ray of hope! It may be worth a try, maybe just leave OH/a friend/family member to see to bubs for a few nights and see if things improve.

Hope you all get some sleep soon!
xxx

Well done to you all!



I wish I had the strength to do this but I'm just too tired and cant do it, especially with work

Thats great.. I'm struggling with Billie.. Like Blah, I don't think I've got the energy to see it through at the moment but it has defo given me a few things to consider - thanks

Glad you found something that worked

We found that our LO would often wake through habbit and not actually for a feed. Didn't take long to break that habbit once it was recognised though (but she was really young so I guess that helped us).

Well done though, hope she keeps it up for you!

Hey Blah + Bibwy,

I was the same for ages and ages. It didn't bother me so much, getting up only once a night for half an hour max... all part and parcel of having a baby I figured! But I was glad I held it out for those 3 bad nights for how much better she is now.

Another thing that made me decide to try this was because my nephew (who is almost 3yrs) is still waking x2 a night and -demanding- a bottle before going back to sleep. I wanted to get Isla out of night waking before she could start talking and actually demanding stuff!

xxx

Faille - Yeah, I hear the longer you leave it the harder the habbit is to break. Glad you got in early! When Isla was young I was always worried that perhaps she was actually hungry and -needed- the feeds so was scared to cut them out.
x

Hi DB.. I would love Billie to STTN especially as I have number 2 on the way. I find that she drinks all her milk when waking during the night and I think I 'd feel mean not offering it! (softy!). Lately though she's been waking - having her milk, then not sleeping again for 2 HOURS!!! Often I have to give her a second milky drink to get her off again. This has only been in the last couple of weeks and she's got a really bad cold at the mo so I thought she must wake with a really dry mouth. I'm at a bit of a loss tbh, I've tried leaving her to settle but she can stay awake for hours! I just have to give in so I can get some sleep. Did you ever try just offering water, and did it help - or is cold turkey the best way?

Finn went through a phase of waking at midnight after an extended period of teething, once I knew he wasn't teething any more I realised I had to get tough cos he was 9 months and wasnt taking much. So I had my OH take him, I think it is better for a BF child for the OH to comfort, like you it only took a couple of days before he was sleeping 6.30-5 then 5.15-6.30. Hard work for the few days though! well done!

Funny how I just posted in this thread yday and last night Amelie ALMOST STTN! She did 7.30pm-4.45am and I paniced when I woke up and went to check on her and woke her up in the process She went back to sleep til 8am though happy days.

hay my little one is obviously way to young for this but just wondered when are they ment to start sleeping through the night?

I just wanted to know so that i can prepare for it and not have her getting into bad habits lol x

I was exactly the same! She'd have all the first breast, scrabble round for the second one and have all of that too, plus she went back to sleep so easily if I just fed her. The fact I was starting night shifts at work, hearing how bad my 3yr old nephew is at night and also the fact it would be easier to convince OH to have another if Isla is STTN were all factors in making me want to change.

Tbh, I don't see it as a negative thing if a baby is still waking at night at any age as long as its not disrupting family life, making you unhappy or making them tired during the day. When you feel thier ready you can see about making changes then.

Isla would never take water or milk from anything but boobie in the night so I just went cold turkey. I can't really say its 'the best' way, it's just the way I did it because she'd simply refuse anything else.

YAY!!!

Depends on who you talk to I guess. According to my MIL it's 6 weeks... other people say 4 months... others say night wakings until 6 months are perfectly normal. I think its difficult because so much can disrupt a babies sleep and how much they want to eat at night: growth spurts, teething, jabs, illness, milestones etc etc etc

xxx