I have a 9 month old daughter who is having some sleep issues. She naps well - morning and afternoon, about 1 1/2 -2 hrs each. She goes down to sleep well at 7 each night. At each of her naps and at bedtime, she goes down awake and can sooth herself to sleep fine. She has her dolly in her bed as well as several pacis that she can find on her own and put in her mouth.

Here's my problem - she wakes up at roughly 10, 4, and 1 - every 3 hrs!!! I've tried feeding her at 10 and then letting her cry at 4. I've tried letting her cry at 10 and feeding her when she wakes after that (usually an hour or two later). When she cries, she will eventually fall asleep, but it usually takes over an hour and she will wake up repeatedly and often after that.

I am currently bfing her each time she wakes up because she will go right back to sleep if I do that. She will only eat for a few minutes typically, however.

She has slept 7 hrs one time - back in November when she was 4 mo old. She has slept 5 hrs a few times, mostly back when she was sleeping with me - now she's in her own bed (has been for several months). So I don't know if she is truly hungry or if it's just a habit that she's waking up. I would think that if it were a habit, there would be times that she would sleep longer occassionally. With her waking every single night every 3 hrs, I'm wondering if she really is hungry.

I have tried to come up with a plan for getting her to sleep through the night, but was wondering if anyone had a better idea. Here's my idea (I'm waiting until she's over a cold before I start)

Every few nights, I will try to "force" her to go longer and longer between feedings. When she wakes, I will let her CIO until it's been 3 1/2 hrs, then feed her. Then I'll wait until it's been 4 hrs, and so on.
This just seems like it will take forever. But I'm afraid to let her try to go all night long if she truly is hungry.

Ugh, I feel like I've been rambling. Please help me out if anyone has any ideas or thoughts. Thank you!

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It sounds like a good plan and I hope it works for you. Have you tried a bottle at night to see how much she is eating? Somewhere in Healthy Habits there is a section on changing either the amount in their bottles or the liquid in them to see if that helps...

I'll tell you though, it sounds an awful lot like my daughter. At 3 months, my baby girl was sleeping 10 hours straight. So, we moved her to her own room. She kept this up for close to a month and then started waking up 2x a night. It was never at the same time though. Sometimes she'd sleep for 2 hours and then 5 more and other times, she'd sleep for 3 and then another 3 hours. Like your DD, my daughter also went down awake for naps and at nighttime, but we still had these night feedings way longer than I thought they were supposed to go on. I tried letting her cio--not feeding her if it hadn't been at least a certain number of hours as well as not feeding her at all. We did this each time for a week, but she held on to the two feedings. In the end, she gave up all nighttime feedings very randomly at 11 and half months. I can't explain why nor can I explain why she woke up in the first place or how she could have been hungry after only 2 hours. We tried bottle feeding at night too for awhile to make sure she wasn't just eating an ounce and then falling back asleep, but she wasn't, so I went back to bfing.

I think CIO is a good option and I wouldn't hesitate to try it with my son should he need it, but I just wanted to share my story since it parallels yours. I wish I'd had more faith that she'd eventually give it up on her own.

Good luck!

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Andy

Hi - I'm a mother of two (Grant is turning 3 and Avery is 21 weeks) who used CIO. I had started CIO with Avery and was doing great - she was going to bed between 6:30 and 7 and waking every 3 hours or so. Her first waking was at around 10:30 - Kristen told me to skip that feeding and what do you know, she fussed and cried for about 10 mins and slept until 2 (or something like that, off the top of my head) and then nursed and slept until morning.

We had that under our belt, then she got a bad cold and the teething got worse, so it was back to multiple wakings. She was doing great today, so I'm going to have to go back to CIO (hopefully I won't need to).

Kristen told me that Avery should be able to go 6-8 hours between feedings now (Avery was 16 lbs. a few weeks ago). I'll post Kristen's advice and go from there. She helped me sleep train Grant when he was 8 months old (he is turning 3 and is in bed asleep by 6:45 and starts the day at 6 a.m. and takes one nap).

Anyhow, I'd say CIO until it is closer to midnight and then do a feeding and if she needs a second feeding before waking, at say 4 a.m., then go with a second feeding. I'd also try feeding more during the day so that she is getting the bulk of her calories then. (Avery is also a fast nurser - 10 mins. tops).

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I found Kristen's response - here it is:
I definitely think you should let her cry a bit through that first wake up, for normal occurances. Avery should be able to go 6-8 hour stretches without needing a feeding. I would advise you to go along with the increased wakings for a week, just in case it's due to a growth spurt.

You also want to avoid the trap I was in with Alec- he became accustomed to getting the lion's share of his calories at night. He stopped eating/taking a bottle very well during the day, and woke more and more frequently at night. I literally had to let him go hungry one night because I needed him to switch his calories- for lack of a better way to explain it. He ate so well that next day (but the crying was intense), and I was able to get him back on track. Like I said before though, it's ok to allow for increased feedings for a week or so.

Once you are comfortable that Avery is through that one week period, and not going through an illness, allow her to cry until the 6 hour mark and then feed her. When she wakes again, Repeat.

I think it's great how much Avery loves food. She sounds so cute. And she sounds like she's on the right track with her day sleep, and should easily get back on track with night sleep, too.

I'm sure she does, but I'll ask anyway- Does Avery have a lovey?

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