Feeding older babies at MOTN wake ups

[carfar]

Did you stop feeding at MOTN wake ups at some points? DS Is 10 months and pedi has mentioned he doesn't really need to eat at night... But lately his sleep has gone from excellent (sttn a few times back a few months ago) to crappy and mostly the only thing that will get him back to sleep is a bottle. Am I ruining him by not trying to wean him off MOTN bottles? I may have already ruined him because we never got the "drowsy but awake" thing down and still feed and rock to sleep and put in crib asleep. We haven't tried any sort of sleep training.

Also, is crappy sleep at 10 months a thing? It's almost as bad as a new born the past few nights.

I mean overall I'm leaning toward doing what works just wondering if anyone had tales of no night feeding maybe leading to more sleep overall?

[carfar]

Sept 23, 2015 17:55:16 GMT -5 @starry said:

DD went through a sleep regression around 10-11 months I think. She had a lot so it's hard to keep track. I night weaned her at 11 months and her sleep improved for a while, then at some point (15 months?) went back to shit, so who knows.

Anyway I would just do what you want. My mom claims to have "thrown a bottle in with us" when we woke at night until we were like two, and we seem no worse for the wear. For me personally once I stopped nursing it would have been a PITA to go down and get a bottle ready so I'm glad we got her weaned.

You can always leave a sippy with water in the crib with him (I think, maybe that is unsafe, I'm no expert).

We half heartedly tried to start some sort of "weaning" process by giving a bottle of water... Dude took a few sips and got PISSED. maybe he's just not ready...or is actually hungry? )

[krystee]

Does he take a pacifier? DS typically wakes once or twice and we give him a pacifier and a stuffed animal. He only wants/needs to eat if he wakes up at 5 or later. He is just about six months.

[Deleted]

My 18 month old still gets a sippy refill if he wakes in the MOTN...so no.

In all seriousness though I just fed my kids. It was the fastest ends to a means. They're hungry. They get fed. We all get back to bed.

I also had a hard time with the guilt of wondering if my kid was actually hungry or not, so if I could feed them, we covered that base, kwim?

And yeah, crappy sleep is a thing at 10 months. It was a thing in this house...well...it still it is. Sorry to say.

Both my kids were older before they got to drowsy but awake. They still went down fine (staying asleep is DSs problem), but they had to grow into it.

[huskymom]

I remember a 10 - 11 month regression too, shortly after my kids starting walking, so inthinkbits another developmental leap effect

I still nurse the 17 month old In the middle of the night bc it's easier. She used to STTN until she got her molars...

[ssmjlm]

At 9m we did CIO for night weaning. It took a couple nights, but she's been STTN ever since (except for a few abnormalities here and there).

[Deleted]

If it had been longer than three hours and he woke up I'd give a bottle if a pacifier didn't cut it. He always went right back to sleep so I didn't mind what was generally one wakeup at night. I finally said no more MOTN milk (by then it was sippies) at 18 months and he went from occasionally waking up to almost never waking.

We had a sleep regression at 11 months when he learned to crawl FWIW.

[chickadee77]

Right around 10 months we stopped night feedings. We offered water, and yup, it pissed her off the first 2-3 nights, and then she just stopped waking. I, too, almost just kept going with the MOTN feed, but figured it would be easier to break the habit sooner than later. Good luck!

[carolinagirl831]

We found it easier to spend 1o mins feeding than have her cry Mon. We fed her 1x a night from 3-10.5 months and then she she just started sttn. We did do cio for bedtime though

[anna7602]

I didn't stop feeding either of my kids MOTN until MOTN wakings basically stopped. DS STTN all of 3 times in the entire month of July, when he was 11 months old, so I'm not pretending MOTN wake-ups are NBD. I was farking exhausted.

Mercifully, we're now going on a multi-week streak of STTN (he's 13.5 months). But, if he woke MOTN, nursing him is probably what I would try if nothing else seemed to calm him down and get him back to sleep.

[Deleted]

I nursed my daughter motn until I weaned and sleep trained at 20 months.

My son is 13 months and still has two bottles motn. I will probably start working on it soon but I can't do CIO/cold turkey because he shares a room with DD. so I'll probably start cutting back ounces and hope he quits on his own ::fingers crossed::

[tulips]

My DD is almost one and nurses 1x MOTN. She was waking 2-3x per night just a few weeks ago and we started sending H in first to soothe her. If that didn't work, I'd go in. Him going in first cut wakeups down within a few day.

[pennylane]

I could have written this exact post. I don't know if it's a leap, a growth spurt, teething or what but DS is acting like he's starving middle of the night. I'm just going with it for now.

[redheadk]

I didn't nightwean DD until 14 months. We did CIO, though, so we already had a basis for what we did which was just progressive waiting to respond when she woke up MOTN. I started with 2 minutes or something and got up to about 10. After a few nights of waiting a bit longer, she started waking up less, going back to sleep before I got up, etc, until she just didn't wake up MOTN anymore.

[bananapancakes]

Oh yes, crappy sleep at 10 months is a thing! We night weaned just before a year, it lasted for about 3 weeks before his molars came in and then he was absolutely inconsolable so I went back to nursing MOTN. This went on until about 15 months when he was back to waking 4-5 times a night so we night weaned again then weaned all together just after 16 months. He mostly STTN now and just wakes up super early. In hindsight, I think I would've night weaned earlier if I had to do it all over again. Good luck!

[jorja]

I could have written this (and I think our kids are pretty close in age IIRC...DD was born 11/12). I usually try other tactics first, but just feed her if they don't work.

[carfar]

Sept 23, 2015 20:39:25 GMT -5 jorja said:

I could have written this (and I think our kids are pretty close in age IIRC...DD was born 11/12). I usually try other tactics first, but just feed her if they don't work.

Yup! 11/15 here is DS. This is what we've been doing for now.


Thanks, ladies! Sadly he hadn't been interested in a paci since around 5 months. I think we'll wait until there are fewer wake ups before we try anything to stop feeding at night. Right now, we all need sleep.

[linz]

Mine went thru wakeups at that age. I never fed them. Just would rock them back to sleep. Sometimes it was fast and sometimes it was an hour or 2. It sucked but it passes.