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Originally Posted by lilzippy59  First off, don't feel bad about not nursing! I'm jealous you got to nurse for 6 months! I was unable to nurse so I've been pumping around the clock for the past 7.5 months. It's just getting too stressful so I've been slowing down, and while DS has always gotten some formula he's been getting loads more and I feel guilty about that. You're doing the best you can for your baby and that's all any more can (and should) do. Don't feel bad mama- but I know how you feel :-)
It does seem like she's waking up a lot. Tommy can sleep through the night (8-12hours) but he usually gets up once or twice to eat. I try not to feed him immediately (I keep a bottle right by the bed so I don't have to get up, get him out of bed, turn on lots of lights, etc. Trying to keep it as close to nursing as possible). If he doesn't settle after 1-2 minutes I feed him.
Since I'm assuming you co-sleep, going by what forum we're in, could you or your partner be disturbing her? Do you leave the tv on? Do you have pets? Is it too cold or too hot? I would try to see if anything besides hunger is interferring with her sleep.
What about food- does she get any solids? Tommy tends to sleep better when he goes to bed with a full tummy. He usually has dinner around 7:00ish, which consists of 1-2oz of sweet potato, yogurt, applesauce, or other fruits and veggies. He then usually has a bottle right before bed, around 8-9pm, of 3-6oz.
Lastly, how does she sleep during the day? Does she take a few long naps or several short naps? If she's overtired or wide awake she won't sleep well. We had that problem. Try to keep as much of a routine as possible. I try not to let Tommy sleep 1-2 hours before bed and that's been helping.
Good luck!!
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Thank you so much for the support. It means the world to me, especially with where I'm at mentally.
To answer some of your questions.
She's always been an awful sleeper. For the first 8 months, she would only nap in her swing, and no more than 30 minutes at a time. I finally managed to transition her to napping in bed, but it was a long rough road. She now naps in the morning for an hour in bed and an hour (or two if I'm really lucky) in the afternoon. Problem is I have to be right there with her, so she'll wake up within 10 minutes screaming.
Our night time routine goes like this. At 7, we go into the bedroom and get her dressed in her jammies. She then eats about 4 oz. Lately, she's started this thing where she has to stand to poop.
and apparently the best time to do that is bed time.
Most nights she poops, and we go onward to bed, but lately she's been taking this opportunity to play more and practicing even more standing. But if she doesn't poop at least once a day, she's extra crabby and restless all night long.
Once I get her settled into bed, she finished her bottle. Her bed time bottle is anywhere from 7oz - 12oz depending on how hungry she is, and if she's in a growth spurt. She usually settles right down to sleep and is out for a couple hours. I join her in bed around 9-9:30. She wakes up around 10-11 wanting another bottle, which is 4-5 oz before she falls asleep again. Most nights she wakes up hourly after that point but can be patted and shushed back to sleep. I'll give her another bottle if she just wont settle back to sleep after 15 or so minutes. Most nights she will go through three 4-5oz bottles after her bed time bottle. She wakes up at 7 like clock work, every morning.
I have a really hard time getting her to eat enough during the day. Even taking her into a dark, quiet room wont always guarantee that she'll eat when she's suppose to. I used to feed on demand, but then all her demands started to be at night since she was too "busy" to eat during the day.
She doesn't eat a lot of solids. She's just not overly interested in them yet. She'll have a taste here and there of what I'm eating, but doesn't consume anything that would qualify as a meal. So as far as solids go, I'm just following her lead.
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Originally Posted by Jend1002 I, too, can relate to the feelings of guilt. My DS was only breastfed for 6 months and of that, at least 3 were from pumped milk only. We had such a terrible time with it. You have done the best that you can!
So how often are you giving a bottle at night? Do you have to give a bottle at each of the wake-ups to get your babe back to sleep?
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She gets a bottle at the 10-11pm wake up, but only gets a bottle at her other wakes up if she wont go back to sleep after 15 or so minutes.
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Originally Posted by sapphire_chan Do you have a dp would could handle half the night?
Could you try a pacifier and snuggling? Then you wouldn't have to get up and prep a bottle and stay awake to hold the bottle up, etc. And she might be okay with sucking and cuddling next to you the times she wakes up for sucking and not out of hunger.
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My DH travels for work M-F, so it's just mean during the week. He takes over on the weekend so I can get a bit of extra sleep. But we don't have a spare bedroom so I end up sleeping on the couch. Which destroys my back and then I'm in pain the rest of the week from the couch. So no really good sleep on the weekend either.
She wont take a pacifier for the life of me. She has refused them since day one. She doesn't even have a lovey or anything similar.
It's not that am an advocate for bottles... but we just tried so hard to nurse and I still feel like I failed at it. Especially on a forum where I'm surrounded by so many successful long term nursers.
