I am struggling to get my daughter on a feeding/sleep schedule. She'll be 7 months next week and isn't sleeping through the night. And letting her cry it out doesn't work. She's hungry because she doesn't eat enough during the day. And trust me I try. I work at home so I'm with her all day. We've started solids too. She doesn't take more than 4 oz bottles. I am also working on a nap schedule. Trying to get her into a routine that works for me. Hoping for a nap between 10-11 and then 2-4. Bedtime is 7:30 with my 2 yr old son. Hoping to get her to sleep until 6-7am. But now she wakes up between 11-1 and then 3-5. She'll drink 4 oz bottles if we give it to her. Sucks them down. But then in at 7-8am she's not hungry. Doesn't want cereal/fruit or formula. I push for a 9am bottle but sometimes only get 3oz. And these days I go every 2hrs with 4 oz. Just hoping she'll take it. I know she's not sleeping well because she's hungry. But how do I get her on a better schedule. We had colds and the flu but things are better now so I want to work on it before this becomes her routine. Help!!
I referenced the book Babywise when my son was an infant in order to get him on a schedule, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the book.
Although not every infant is going to stick to a regimented schedule,(which you may be experiencing)consistency eventually wins over-all.
Good luck!
I would stop night time feedsing all together if you want her to eat more during the day. I would eliminate one at a time. You'll probably have some unpleasant nights until she starts eating more during the day and is less hungry at night, but if you keep giving her a bottle in the middle of the night, she will stay on the same feeding schedule. I think the scheudle you're hoping to establish is appropriate for her age, except for bed time. Children her age do sleep alot, but an 8pm bedtime might be more realistic. I don't think my boys went to sleep before 10pm until they were almost a year old, and took 2 x 1 1/2-2 hour naps/day. Good luck creating a scheudle, it was a HUGE sanity saver for me!
Sometimes you just have to go by babies schedule. Right now your baby is changing alot...probally starting to sit up and maybe even crawling. She is changing so day to day is going to be different. My son is almost 8 months old and he still doesnt sleep all night. He wont take his bottle as much but he eats more table food. Trying to force your baby to eat when she isnt hungry may make her start to resent when she sees that spoon. I know its hard being a full time mom with a full time job, believe me I know. But if your baby is hungry, she will eat. Right now she is using alot of energy up and probally growing alot too,so that may be why she is waking up for bottles. If you leave her alone, you may find that she creates her own schedule that will work good with you too. Good luck.
The first thing that came to mind was pushing her bedtime back a little. That way hopefully you will only have one wake up during the night. If you push it later...maybe she will eat cereal then? After i put all of my other kids to bed i would give a nice size bowl of cereal and a bottle to the baby. It did help them to sleep longer. I know it can be tough when you are not getting the proper sleep...soon she will sleep through the night. By one year my girls were doing 7am -7pm...it was heaven :) Try at least a 9:00 bedtime and then you can gradually make it earlier as she gets older. (i remember having a last feeding as late as 11...because that is what worked for me at that age) Good luck :)
At seven months, I think that she's going to be needing more than two naps a day. When my son was that age, he'd take 3 or 4 naps a day. I'd suggest reading "Heathy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", by Marc Weissbluth. Babies sleep more at night when they go down more during the day.
As for the food, well, some babies just need to eat small meals more frequently. My son nursed, so I don't know about kids that get formula. What does your doctor say?
We went through a similar period recently (my daughter is 7.5 months old now & primarily breastfed still). During months 2 - 3.5, she only woke up 1 or 2 times a night & I nursed her. No problem. Months 3.5 - 6, she was waking up 3 - 4 times a night. We were all exhausted all over again like during month 1!
For us (every baby is different of course), what has worked was eventually realizing that as she got bigger & older, she needed to eat more! (Duh. I was so sleep deprived, no wonder I had no idea :-( .....And if/when she wasn't eating enough during the day, she wanted/needed to eat more at night. So I started all of the following steps to "night-wean" her and end the night-time wakings (....AND....lo and behold.....most nights she has been sleeping from 8 pm - 7 am for a month now.....fingers crossed :-)
1. being more conscious of how much she is eating during the day (she started getting distracted by everything during month 5 - now and without me realizing it, I think she really was eating less since she spent more time popping off the breast to look at other things than she spent ON the breast eating)
2. making sure to feed her more frequently during the late afternoon/evening hours (she generally nurses when she wakes up from her afternoon nap (at 4 or 4:30 pm) and then again at 6 pm and then again at 7:00/7:15 she gets her final feed (a bottle).
3. giving her a bottle of formula as her last feeding before bed (so hard to know how much she was getting with 100% breastfeeding...with one bottle a day of formula, I at least KNOW that feeding for sure how much she is getting)
4. she was still just getting a 5 oz bottle to go to bed (when she was getting up 3 - 4 times a night, and even as recently as month 5). I finallly realized she was finishing it very quickly and I wasn't offering her more! NOW (for the past month), she takes a 9 oz bottle to go to bed (!!!!) And I know it isn't too much because I make a 10 oz bottle and she never finishes that last 1 oz. She knows that she is full with 9 oz.
5. during the transition process, while we were figuring this all out & figuring how many oz to give her for that last feeding, and she was still waking during the night, we started sending my husband in to feed her with a bottle of either breastmilk or formula in the middle of the night instead of me breastfeeding her. We wanted to feed her, but also start making it as 'uninteresting' as possible and figured that dad with bottle was less interesting/desirable than mom with breast :-)
It took a week or so of getting all of this together but she started waking just 3 times (instead of 4 times), then just 2 times, then just once....then one night she slept 8 pm - 7 am and has been doing that for a month now. Daylight savings threw her off a bit for a few nights (she was waking around 5 am and talked to herself for about 30 min before falling back to sleep until 7) but she's back to 8 pm - 7 am again now most nights....and some nights she still wakes up once around 4, I nurse her and she goes back to sleep until 7:00 or 7:30 or so...
.....Hope some of these ideas could help for you guys.
Sounds like she may still need 3 naps a day. My son did 3 a day until closer to 10mos old, he would wake up around 6 or 7, and be ready for a nap around 9 or so. Then sleep again at 1 (or so), with a shorter nap around 4. I know he sleeps badly when he is too tired. I also fed him at night, although by that point we were starting to break the habit with only one nursing or bottle at night.
Maybe try putting her down a little more often for naps and see if that helps. Maybe that will fix her appetite during the day as well. Good luck!
One method is the 2-3-4 method. Regular wake up time, around 7 a.m., then nap take nap 2 hours after wake-up, then take second nap 3 hours after rising from first nap, then bedtime 4 hours after rising from second nap, each nap lasting 1-2 hours. Bedtime around 7 p.m. (Of course the bedtime depends on the length of naps. The earlier the bedtime the easier it is.We kind of followed a similar schedule. It takes several days but eventually many kids will become routinized and follow the schedule. My son, now 15 months (and now only takes one nap) woke up around 7 a.m. took first nap around 9 or 9:30 got up around 10:30 or 11:00 took second nap around 1 or 2 got up around 3 or 4 and took bath around 7 and asleep around 8 p.m. And now he gets plays and when we say "Bath time" he walks to the stairs. HE is so accustomed to his routine.
The trick is to get them to settle for a nap before they are too tired. So you set the timeand try to settle her into a nap before she wants to take one.
Also, I found healthy sleep habits happy child a good book. Of course take them all with a grain of salt and adapt to your child's specific needs. Also, as their developmental milestones develop, she will have changes in her sleep patterns. What works for a month or two might need to be tweaked for the next few months.
Good luck!
Hi S.:
Sounds like you are really stressed out.
Are you able to allow the baby to set her own time schedule and you work around her schedule?
The baby's brain is growing and developing now and it would enhance the brain's ability to get connected through your ability to respond to the baby's needs and put your's on hold right now.
When you feel frustated, take a break. Let your family and friends help you when you feel overwhelmed.
Learn to do infant massage. Find ways to nurture your baby because it will stimulate the brain pathways to connect and your baby will become a well adjusted child.
Good luck. Thanks for writing. D.
