so i guess this is really a 2 part question. my 1 year old daughter has been co-sleeping with my husband and me since birth. she's always been a cruddy sleeper. in fact, she didn't start sleeping at night until she was nearly 5 months old. and by this i mean until she was 5 months old she was up for 3-5 hours at a time, mostly crying, crashing around 4am.
i am so incredibly thankful that she is now going to bed at 8-9pm. she officially wakes up around 8-9am. however she wakes frequently, probably every hour to 2 hours. mostly it doesn't take much to get her back to sleep. however, i'm worried about what it takes to get to go back to sleep. she is a night time eater, she's always been a go-go baby, it was nearly impossible to get her to drink her bottles during the day so she drank them all at night...as in 4-6 4oz bottles throughout the night.
now, that she is a year, we've been working on getting rid of the bottles. she's doing great during the day which isn't too shocking considering she didn't really drink them during the day anyway. she still takes one before her nap but she drinks fine from a sippy cup...she is a pretty decent eater of solid foods by the way.
here's the thing. she's hooked on those middle of the night feedings. she has 2 4oz bottles right before bed but she still takes 3 bottles throughout the night. i've done the water down thing so those 3 bottles are 100% water. she still wants them. when she wakes up i go in and try to return her binky and shoosh her back to sleep. sometimes it works but at least 3 of the 8 wakings nothing but the bottle gets her back to sleep. when i give it to her, she practically rips it from my hands, gulps down 2-3 oz and then flips over to go back to sleep.
my questions (pleas of help) are:
1. What type of things could i try to help her sleep better...i don't expect a solid 12 hour sleep, but 6 hours might be nice.
2. Should I just stop the bottles completely at least the middle of the night ones?
i should add that she never did well with rocking, she struggles and screams at me when i try. she does much better if I lay her down and then lie next to her. she often tries to sit up and play but after 30-45 min of continually laying her back down again she falls asleep. i feel like this limits my nighttime toolkit, but maybe i'm just not being creative enough. any advice?
oh and a funny side story, wasn't so funny when it happened but i find it rather hilarious now. this morning i awoke to a rather chatty child. it was likely 4:30am, i ignored her and rolled over to back to sleep, maybe 30 min...not sure since i was asleep...i awoke because i was being hit in the head with a diaper repeatedly. i usually keep a diaper in bed as all those bottles mean i have to change her at least 2x a night. anyhow, yeah...it wasn't a clean one. nope i was being pelted with a wet soggy diaper. my glorious beautiful child had removed her diaper, peed all over the bed, and decided that a sure fire way to wake momma was to whack her over the head with the dirty nappy. heh.
i am so incredibly thankful that she is now going to bed at 8-9pm. she officially wakes up around 8-9am. however she wakes frequently, probably every hour to 2 hours. mostly it doesn't take much to get her back to sleep. however, i'm worried about what it takes to get to go back to sleep. she is a night time eater, she's always been a go-go baby, it was nearly impossible to get her to drink her bottles during the day so she drank them all at night...as in 4-6 4oz bottles throughout the night.
now, that she is a year, we've been working on getting rid of the bottles. she's doing great during the day which isn't too shocking considering she didn't really drink them during the day anyway. she still takes one before her nap but she drinks fine from a sippy cup...she is a pretty decent eater of solid foods by the way.
here's the thing. she's hooked on those middle of the night feedings. she has 2 4oz bottles right before bed but she still takes 3 bottles throughout the night. i've done the water down thing so those 3 bottles are 100% water. she still wants them. when she wakes up i go in and try to return her binky and shoosh her back to sleep. sometimes it works but at least 3 of the 8 wakings nothing but the bottle gets her back to sleep. when i give it to her, she practically rips it from my hands, gulps down 2-3 oz and then flips over to go back to sleep.
my questions (pleas of help) are:
1. What type of things could i try to help her sleep better...i don't expect a solid 12 hour sleep, but 6 hours might be nice.
2. Should I just stop the bottles completely at least the middle of the night ones?
i should add that she never did well with rocking, she struggles and screams at me when i try. she does much better if I lay her down and then lie next to her. she often tries to sit up and play but after 30-45 min of continually laying her back down again she falls asleep. i feel like this limits my nighttime toolkit, but maybe i'm just not being creative enough. any advice?
oh and a funny side story, wasn't so funny when it happened but i find it rather hilarious now. this morning i awoke to a rather chatty child. it was likely 4:30am, i ignored her and rolled over to back to sleep, maybe 30 min...not sure since i was asleep...i awoke because i was being hit in the head with a diaper repeatedly. i usually keep a diaper in bed as all those bottles mean i have to change her at least 2x a night. anyhow, yeah...it wasn't a clean one. nope i was being pelted with a wet soggy diaper. my glorious beautiful child had removed her diaper, peed all over the bed, and decided that a sure fire way to wake momma was to whack her over the head with the dirty nappy. heh.
