Hi all,
I would like to hear your thoughts on our situation:
My 11 and a half months old baby girl has always been a terrible sleeper. I think she just hates the process of going to sleep, and is also a very light sleeper. The best she ever did was when she was 3 or 4 months old and would wake up twice a night for a quick feed and then go straight back to sleep. She was worst at 6 months waking every 45 minutes and often having trouble falling asleep again. At 3 months we gave her a dummy (pacifier) which helped with the going to sleep, especially as she was also refusing to fall asleep at the breast at that stage. At 6 months however, we took it away again, as it was causing a lot of problems. She would pull it out constantly, but then want it again, so I was up all the time putting it back in. I took it away hoping that she would take to sucking her thumb or some other self-soothing activity which she could regulate herself a bit more. Anyway, that did not happen, but she did take to falling asleep at the breast after that, which I'm very happy for her to do, but the problem is that at nearly a year old, she still wakes every hour-and-a-half or so for a feed. On a good night she might sleep for stretches of 2 hours and go straight back to sleep after, on a bad night it's more frequent and/or she might have trouble going back to sleep.
Sometimes when she's had a feed and I've put her back in her cot (which is right next to our bed) and she keeps fussing I can go "shhh" for a while and she goes back to sleep. The other night I tried doing it when she had just woken up after a couple of hours sleep (when I would normally feed her), and for a while it seemed like she would go back to sleep but after half an hour or so she just lost it and screamed a lot, so at that point I gave up and fed her, and it took her a good half hour to calm down enough to go back to sleep.
So, as you can imagine, I am very tired and would really like it if she started sleeping for longer stretches. I don't mind feeding her during the night, it's just the high frequency that's an issue. I really thought she would start feeding a little less often by now.
So I'm thinking about night weaning. I'm also thinking about giving her a dummy again. If it's just that she needs to suck to be able to sleep well, a dummy might help her stay asleep for longer. But I'm also very reluctant to give her one again, because it's so hard to get rid of them again later on. And I think there's the irrational (and sleep-deprived) part of me that doesn't want to get "replaced" by a piece of plastic. And I'm also enjoying the contraceptive effects of the night-time breastfeeding. And of course there's the possibility that it might not make any difference to her sleeping at all.
I'm also not sure about the night weaning itself. I think it depends on how hard she finds it. If she gets really really upset I probably wouldn't be able to persist...
So there it is. I'm completely confused. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Juli
I would like to hear your thoughts on our situation:
My 11 and a half months old baby girl has always been a terrible sleeper. I think she just hates the process of going to sleep, and is also a very light sleeper. The best she ever did was when she was 3 or 4 months old and would wake up twice a night for a quick feed and then go straight back to sleep. She was worst at 6 months waking every 45 minutes and often having trouble falling asleep again. At 3 months we gave her a dummy (pacifier) which helped with the going to sleep, especially as she was also refusing to fall asleep at the breast at that stage. At 6 months however, we took it away again, as it was causing a lot of problems. She would pull it out constantly, but then want it again, so I was up all the time putting it back in. I took it away hoping that she would take to sucking her thumb or some other self-soothing activity which she could regulate herself a bit more. Anyway, that did not happen, but she did take to falling asleep at the breast after that, which I'm very happy for her to do, but the problem is that at nearly a year old, she still wakes every hour-and-a-half or so for a feed. On a good night she might sleep for stretches of 2 hours and go straight back to sleep after, on a bad night it's more frequent and/or she might have trouble going back to sleep.
Sometimes when she's had a feed and I've put her back in her cot (which is right next to our bed) and she keeps fussing I can go "shhh" for a while and she goes back to sleep. The other night I tried doing it when she had just woken up after a couple of hours sleep (when I would normally feed her), and for a while it seemed like she would go back to sleep but after half an hour or so she just lost it and screamed a lot, so at that point I gave up and fed her, and it took her a good half hour to calm down enough to go back to sleep.
So, as you can imagine, I am very tired and would really like it if she started sleeping for longer stretches. I don't mind feeding her during the night, it's just the high frequency that's an issue. I really thought she would start feeding a little less often by now.
So I'm thinking about night weaning. I'm also thinking about giving her a dummy again. If it's just that she needs to suck to be able to sleep well, a dummy might help her stay asleep for longer. But I'm also very reluctant to give her one again, because it's so hard to get rid of them again later on. And I think there's the irrational (and sleep-deprived) part of me that doesn't want to get "replaced" by a piece of plastic. And I'm also enjoying the contraceptive effects of the night-time breastfeeding. And of course there's the possibility that it might not make any difference to her sleeping at all.
I'm also not sure about the night weaning itself. I think it depends on how hard she finds it. If she gets really really upset I probably wouldn't be able to persist...
So there it is. I'm completely confused. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Juli
