am I doing something wrong?

Emily is now nearly 11 months old. She eats like a champ all day, likes
everything we give her. She's still small for her age, but we don't really
even think about that anymore, since she is growing well.

Here's the problem. For about a month now, she is waking up as often as she
did as a newborn. She is eating around 18 ounces during the night. This is
in addition to the 20 or so ounces she is drinking during the day, plus all
the foods she is eating. I am exhausted! Is this a growth spurt, or what?
She also cut her first tooth about a week ago, so I wondered if that has
something to do with the frequent waking at night.

And at one point her sleeping routine was like clockwork - she fell asleep
at 8pm, had her normal wakings about every 3 hrs, sometimes every 4 hrs, and
got up at around 7am. Then she would nap from about 11am to 1pm every day.
Now, She may fall asleep at 8pm, or maybe not until 9pm. Then she might
only sleep for an hour, then she wakes and wants to play. Or she absolutely
can't stand being in her crib alone (it's at the foot of our bed), so we put
her in bed with us. She rests much better, but still wakes frequently
through the night.

The pediatrician said basically that it is our fault - that we have
reinforced her waking up at night by feeding her... I felt like she was
hungry and I didn't want to withhold food. But at this point we are so
deliriously tired, I don't know what to do.

Any ideas?
Betsy

determined wrote:
Emily is now nearly 11 months old. She eats like a champ all day, likes
everything we give her. She's still small for her age, but we don't really
even think about that anymore, since she is growing well.

Here's the problem. For about a month now, she is waking up as often as she
did as a newborn. She is eating around 18 ounces during the night. This is
in addition to the 20 or so ounces she is drinking during the day, plus all
the foods she is eating. I am exhausted! Is this a growth spurt, or what?
She also cut her first tooth about a week ago, so I wondered if that has
something to do with the frequent waking at night.

And at one point her sleeping routine was like clockwork - she fell asleep
at 8pm, had her normal wakings about every 3 hrs, sometimes every 4 hrs, and
got up at around 7am. Then she would nap from about 11am to 1pm every day.
Now, She may fall asleep at 8pm, or maybe not until 9pm. Then she might
only sleep for an hour, then she wakes and wants to play. Or she absolutely
can't stand being in her crib alone (it's at the foot of our bed), so we put
her in bed with us. She rests much better, but still wakes frequently
through the night.

The pediatrician said basically that it is our fault - that we have
reinforced her waking up at night by feeding her... I felt like she was
hungry and I didn't want to withhold food. But at this point we are so
deliriously tired, I don't know what to do.

Any ideas?
Betsy

I have nothing but sympathy for you! I know what you mean, silly babies
waking up in the middle of the night, and lots! My dd is a month
younger than yours and she is waking up 3or 4 times a night. I *know*
it's because she expects to be fed, and is, because I'm too sleepy to
say no. I know I've read places where you can decrease the amount of
formula in her bottle (or dilute it if you're still using bm in a
bottle) until you've got nothing but water in it. Then apparently the
baby will have her hunger cues scaled back accordingly and won't wake
for bottles of water. I've not tried this though. At the moment, with
my baby, the only time I nurse her anymore is at night, and I know my
milk supply is about to tank. So I'm thinking, if I don't give her a
bottle ever at night, the decreasing milk supply I have for her will
also decrease her appetite at night until both give it up.

Wish me luck! LOL

Good luck with yours,

Stasya

And at one point her sleeping routine was like clockwork - she fell asleep
at 8pm, had her normal wakings about every 3 hrs, sometimes every 4 hrs,
and got up at around 7am. Then she would nap from about 11am to 1pm every
day. Now, She may fall asleep at 8pm, or maybe not until 9pm. Then she
might only sleep for an hour, then she wakes and wants to play. Or she
absolutely can't stand being in her crib alone (it's at the foot of our
bed), so we put her in bed with us. She rests much better, but still
wakes frequently through the night.

both my babies have done this, learnt/grown to sleep through the night,
prior to starting solids, then around a month after starting solids started
waking in the night again, I just fed them, but I'm not sure that is really
best for all concerned, you need your sleep and so do they, they do there
growing when they are asleep and if they are waking several times in the
night later on in the first year, they are probably not getting enough
sleep. Personally I'd consider putting her in a separate room, it means you
can't disturb her and if she is only a little fussy, then you may not wake
up, then when you go to her, don't instantly feed her, use that as a last
resort, though I wouldn't drop straight to nothing from 18oz overnight.

Don't cut yourself up about this, you are not doing anything wrong, you've
been trying to meet the needs of your baby, unfortunately, this doesn't fit
in so well to the needs of the whole family. One thing my mum told me after
I'd had problems with my first and sleeping was that she considered, once a
baby had slept through the night a few times, that she considered that the
baby was past the small stomach and needing to eat frequently stage and only
gave water at night from then on if there was a night waking. I think she's
partially right, though I'd have concerns surrounding growth spurts or
illnesses, so it's really a case of knowing your own baby.

Cheers

Anne

determined wrote:
Emily is now nearly 11 months old. She eats like a champ all day, likes
everything we give her. She's still small for her age, but we don't really
even think about that anymore, since she is growing well.

Here's the problem. For about a month now, she is waking up as often as she
did as a newborn. She is eating around 18 ounces during the night. This is
in addition to the 20 or so ounces she is drinking during the day, plus all
the foods she is eating. I am exhausted! Is this a growth spurt, or what?
She also cut her first tooth about a week ago, so I wondered if that has
something to do with the frequent waking at night.

And at one point her sleeping routine was like clockwork - she fell asleep
at 8pm, had her normal wakings about every 3 hrs, sometimes every 4 hrs, and
got up at around 7am. Then she would nap from about 11am to 1pm every day.
Now, She may fall asleep at 8pm, or maybe not until 9pm. Then she might
only sleep for an hour, then she wakes and wants to play. Or she absolutely
can't stand being in her crib alone (it's at the foot of our bed), so we put
her in bed with us. She rests much better, but still wakes frequently
through the night.

The pediatrician said basically that it is our fault - that we have
reinforced her waking up at night by feeding her... I felt like she was
hungry and I didn't want to withhold food. But at this point we are so
deliriously tired, I don't know what to do.

Any ideas?
Betsy

Wow, I wish I had a solution for this. But all I can offer is the
knowledge that you're not alone. We're currently going through the
exact same thing with our son who's not quite seven months old.

He was sleeping great, about ten hours straight generally, since he was
about two months old. Then he started waking a couple times a night,
this started a couple of months ago. In the last month we started
solids, and now he's often up every two or three hours. He's worse than
he was when he was six weeks old!

Our boy has been in his own room since he was three months old, and
like you, when he wakes, I feed him. Mistake? I don't know. What I do
know is that if I don't nurse him, the little whimpers and cries evolve
into screams and sobs if he doesn't get the breast. I've tried the
pacifier, talking to him, rocking him, stroking his head, but the only
thing that works is the breast. In my tired state, I'm not up for any
more experimentation so the breast is what he gets.

In the daytime he's his happy, normal self. In the night he turns into
this monster baby who seems determined to wake me as soon as he senses
I'm starting to fall asleep! I thought of teeth too, but he's had teeth
since he was three months old. He has eight of them now, and no new
ones have come through in the past two months. So I don't know what the
heck it is, I can only hope it's temporary.

Hang in there...hopefully this will all be over soon?

KD & G

I suppose she's probably teething. It hurts a bit. They
don't seem to notice it much while they're awake, but it
hurts enough to make it difficult for them to sleep.
Very hard on the parents!! IMO lovingly caring for
them at night is the right thing to do, though.

Kids may wake at night sometimes even when they're years old,
because they're teething, or sick, or had a bad dream, etc.
I like the book "Nighttime Parenting", which acknowledges
this sort of thing.