HELP needed to get rid of night feeds.

[big_mama]

Our DD is 16-month old and still has 1 to 2 night feeds. She's co-sleeping in our bed, is totally awake for 2.5 hours each night (between 2 and 4:30am), jumping on the bed, saying out LOUD what she's learned through the day blah blah, and sings .....which is driving DH and I crazy.

Does she really need the night feeds, or should we stop it now that she's 16 month?

Also, how do I get her to sleep through instead of waking and playing like she is?

Her sleep patterns is roughly...

To bed with a bottle at 9pm
Wake for a bottle at 2am and stays awake until 4:30am
Sleeps again from 4:30am to 9:30am
Nap from 2-4pm.

Is she sleeping too much during the day, hence awake at night? Should I limit her day nap? Anyone else having the same problem wih their bub? Any advice would be much appreciated!

I fear for my survival, being 3 months pregnant and the way things are going. I want to get away from these bad habits before the baby is due in Feb 07, otherwise I'm going to go nuts with lack of sleep. HELP PLEASE!

[AM]

Hmmmm.... tough one!

Have you tried giving water instead of milk, just to wean her off the milk? As a first step...

I would try keeping her awake during the day if possible to see if that helps, you never know, she might get over tired and sleep worse... :eek:

I'm not really great on the nightweaning issue, having only just done it myself with my 2.5 year old.

When Tyler wakes up now at night, he knows it is 'cuddle only' and is OK with that, but the first few nights were a little rough.

I did put him in his own room, which I think helped, as he was constantly waking the baby with his noise in the middle of the night. ( He loves having his own room now, I was worried about him hating it, but needn't have)

All the best, I hope things work themselves out, nightwaking with two is extremely exhausting! :D

[bindiloo]

I can only suggest you buy a book called ' save our sleep' by Tizzie Hall.
It has arange of tips for all ages and all situations such as yours and gives you routines you can put your child on to give them stability and yourself some sanity.
I love it and have used it to get my baby sleeping of a day now and she self settles herself so i no longer pat the bottom or rock her like i was.
I will be turning to this book as she grows and i come across situations because i know it will help me.
I could even look it up for you and tell you what she suggests if you'd rather.:)

[big_mama]

Thanks Bindiloo, I'll get a copy of the book and keep it as reference :)

[tickles]

Our DD went through exactly the same thing just recently. DD is 15months old and her sleeping routine and pattern is same as your DD.

We were starting to freak out when she’d wake up in the middle of the night after her feed and not go back to bed. Just like you we were going mad!!

We thought maybe she was cold? But dressing her warmer didn’t do anything. We also thought of stopping the night feed too but she needed it. We just let her be and eventually managed to get through it.

We believe she may have had a blocked nose due to teething (DD has lots more teeth to come through and having a runny nose all the time) or weather. We gave her some panadol and that night she slept right through, but we didn’t want to do that too often. Other nights we’d rub some vicks on her chest. We still really don’t know the cause. Her sleeps were very unpredictable.

Eventually (after about 1 week or so) she returned back to her normal routine and slept through. But that week was really difficult and challenging. We thought OMG is this her routine now? Every night we were unsure and anxiety would plague us.

We have not changed her routine and we still feed her at dawn. I think that was just a phase and hoping it won’t happen again!!!

Hope it’s the same for you. If it’s getting out of hand. Seek professional advice?

I feel your anxiety !!! :(