What that’s pretty good that.

Why not try more milk first rather than hungry baby as she is going nearly 12 hours without a feed.

What food is she eating?
Is it that she’s hungry and needs some proper food as the milk isn’t enough?

yunki Jr is pretty ace.. we give him milk to help to help him kip too..

one bottle to go to bed with about 7pm… which he’ll finish before he sleeps.. then we just fill it up (without waking him) when we go to bed about 10pm..

If he wakes up it’s there and he just sorts himself out.. he’s happy through til about 7am..

We were jumping up to comfort him if he woke at any other time but I think we were being a bit precious.. if he stirs now we just leave him and he’ll calm himself after 5 minutes or so..

except for the last three nights cos he’s growing some admirable tusks.. we have to keep chasing off the ivory poachers that are camped in the trees outside his window..

I’ll second what has been said above about introducing solids..

what we did with ours (4 1/2 and 6 months) was to up the quantity of the milk, she feeds on 8oz of water in the bottles and then the formula added, were just about to cut her down to 3 feeds a day from 4 as shes been stsrting on the solids last few weeks,
were incredibly lucky as she’s been through the night since 3 weeks old, gert the odd night when she plays up but generally been great,
we try and time the feeds so her last feed is at 9pm and that seems to do the job, dream feeds are a bit hit and miss, (that said, sge is having sleep feed lunch bottle on me now)
another option if not finishing the last bottle is to drop a little calpol into the milk, might help get back into the routine a little?? i know it worked with our eldest when she was a nipper.

Evening meal before the bath. We bathe ours about 7 – 7:30.
Read for 15 min, settle her down.
Milk at 10 to top her up.
Wake her up about 8:30am.

You need to get into the controlled crying and that night is for sleeping. Routine is good, but I’d perhaps feed before the bath then a later bottle to see the wee one through. Why not Level 2 milk yet?

Ours was still b00b fed at night at that age and was waking up the same amount.

If they’re eating a good amount in the daytime it may be habit rather than hunger that wakes them up.

We limited feed time to x minutes, then reduced it by 2 minutes every couple of nights. After about 10 days he was sleeping through.

Seconded “It’s not controlled it’s just crying”. We never tried it and we’re glad we didn’t.

Ok. Let’s get one massively important point out:

Babies appetites vary hugely, depending on if they are having a growth spurt.

So just because it worked a particular way before, doesn’t mean it will again at any point.

Secondly – at 8 months, surely to goodness it’s time for real food? Sounds to me like the poor lass is starving hungry, not surprising she wakes up in the night.

Not saying this is always the case but with our kid waking in the night was always down to food – bar the occasional bout of sickness, nighmare or banging of head on bars episode.

I don’t think most babies actually want to be awake in the middle of the night tbh.

Strongly disagree with this. If you were in pain or hungry how would you feel if the only people you had ignored you?

See above. Appetites change.

Hunger innit.

Every baby is different so what will work for one will not always work for another.

But.. you don’t say what your are feeding her the rest of the day or how much sleep she is getting in the day time, both can influence what could be causing it.
In my none expert opinion can be one of three things:

1. Not eating enough in the daytime
2. Not sleeping enough in the day time/sleeping too much
3. Likes the attention she is getting when she wakes up in the night.

Personally I think you have got #3. Does she shut up as soon as she gets attention/milk in the night?

Jnr FD is now 11 months old and had an illness about 5 weeks ago. He slept in our bed for a couple of nights and was very unsettled for about 2-3 more while he was sick. He has then however kept waking up in the middle of the night since crying his eyes out. As soon as he gets in to bed with Mrs FD he shuts up.

We have started the controled crying thing… at first we literally would let him ball his eyes out for 20 mins or so, which didnt work as he just worked himself in to a major tiz.

What we have found is working is a staged approach. If we hear crying, dummy in. If that didnt work (which it wouldnt) lift him out of the cot and cuddle and sing to him untill he settled back down, back in the cot. Some nights we have repeated this 4 or 5 times and been up for 2 hours at a time. Some times it would also require physically holding him down in bed as he would always try and sit up (sounds cruel but it isnt and has worked!)

Last night he woke up once. I didnt have to lift him out of the cot, just sing to him and stroke his head. I had to go in twice but I was only up for 30 mins or so.

I can see that what we are doing is working and he is slowly learning how to get back to sleep by himself if he wakes up in the night. In fact last night I’m sure he realised he was wasting his time creating a fuss when I went in the room.

Of course you have the added problem that she is expecting milk. Cut down the amount of milk you give her in the night a small amount at a time and combine with the above.

It will take time…lots of time and you will end up being awake for longer than if you just give in and feed/cuddle etc, but it doesnt work longterm.

As to all these baby powders etc that promise extended sleep etc etc. Apparently its all b@llocks and the milks are all essentially the same. Our 11 month old gets the same Aptamil 1st stage milk he always had, just follow the guidelines of how much to mix.

It sounds to me like she needs more food before bedtime – they call it ‘cluster feeding’. Give her a substantial meal (food with pasta in, dessert with rice in), toast, things like that – stuff that will sustain her for longer. Then give her milk within an hour or so to top her up.

We have a book called the no cry sleep solution. Solution is a bit of a strong word, it is more a bunch of useful things to try and a sensible strategy for trying them, but it appears to mainly work for ours.

Found it much more useful having a range of strategies rather than advice from other parents, where everyone says that the thing that worked for their baby is the one true way (eg controlled crying – works for some babies not for others.)

Having said that, our 9 month old is having a major growth spurt right now and waking at 4 am for a bottle, she has jumped from 2nd to over the 50th centile suddenly, along with loads of development like learning to climb stairs and stand unaided. Sometimes they just want so much energy that they inevitably get hungry.

Daytime naps seem about right (ours used to do that odd thing of napping longer in the morning too – the norm is for a longer afternoon nap).

Do you give her any painkillers for the teething pain? Perhaps try before bed (nurofen is best as it lasts longer than Calpol).

One of ours isn’t. She is the devil’s spawn. She cackles as she does things that are naughty and has that devilish glint in her eye and smile on her face that seduces you into forgiving her.

It will be fun when she is a bit older and realises how wrapped around her finger she has me.

Controlled crying. Painful as it may be you have to just get through it. My daughter (Now 3yo) was similar. The crying was very very tough but it paid off in the end. Good luck.

Teach your kid that now matter how upset she is no-one’s going to come and help.

Valuable life lesson that 🙁

@molgrips.

Visit: http://www.askbaby.com/baby-sleep-training.htm

It may not work for everyone but it is a well known well practiced process. The alternative is to continue as is and become more stressed exhausted parents which in turn will probably lead to a more stressed baby.

As I said it was tough. Hearing her cry for 30 seconds near kills me but we got through it and we are all (especially my daughter) better off for it.

I think there are possibly better ways of encouraging sleeping through the night than simply enforcing it.

After all babies get their circadian rythmn fairly early, after which point they are likely to sleep through provided nothing else is wrong.

As MF says there’s a difference between attention seeking and distress I beleive.

This would have been torture for us and Meg. When she was on a growth spurt she could be screaming for hours in the middle of the night. We finally figured out that we could give her a fruit pouch and bam – out.

Molgrips – your going off your experience, just like everyone else is.

Babies have different reasons for waking. Some its hunger, pain, too tired, not tired enough, used to be awake at 4am, wanting a cuddle etc etc.

However what I think does happen is that many people fall in to the trap of a baby waking up in the night repeatedly after an episode of having one of the above. It is then very easy to get in to a habit of feeding in the night or cuddling without realising it and before long the baby gets used to it and wants it. (because they have limited intelligence) our son can ball his eyes out until you go in to the room when he will laugh and giggle, and bounce up and down whilst rubbing his eyes and yawning as though he wants to be asleep. Go out of the room and he will ball his eyes out again.

Occasionally we have given our son extra milk in the night when we ‘think’ he is having a growth spurt, but I dont think you can tell until after the case. Knowing when to stop is difficult, I know our sone if we do it for too long it would become habit and he would expect it every night.

As to responding to crying, as a parent you should be able to distinguish between all the different types of cry, its worrying if you cant.