My son is 7 months old and 3 weeks ago I started putting him to bed while he was awake so he could fall asleep on his own, he goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:30 depending on how tired he is but he wakes up every morning around 3:00 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. I then go in there with a bottle and let him feed himself he drinks 4 ounces and then falls back to sleep until about 7:00a.m. should I be going in there at 3 or let him cry until he goes back to sleep? and how long should I let him cry? and How long can he go without a bottle? Or is this considered sleepng through the night?
Yes, that is considered sleeping through the night and he is waking up because he is hungry. They are babies for such a short time, please feed and comfort him and he will likely soon be sleeping until morning.
Why would you want to let your baby cry? I think the fact that he is sleeping such a long stretch ought to be rewarded, not punished. He will be a much better sleeper as a toddler if you respond to his cries lovingly.
first thing that i notice is you let him feed himself a bottle? thats something that is really important to your relationship with your son! he needs to know that YOU provide for his needs day and night, not the bottle. its so easy to just hand it over to him and let him do it, but is that really the thing you want him connecting with? or would you rather he connected with you or someone else instead?
babies under a year typically dont have the mental ability to understand how to go to sleep on their own. it may seem like it works, that they stop crying so much but really what they are learning is that when they cry, no one really responds.. so no you dont have to let him cry if you dont feel like it. however, if you feel like hes ok, i cant argue with that. i just had a 10 month old boy at my house yesterday, and he was doing a wimpery cry (i know he doesnt cry it out at home) just because he was really tired. its different when a kid has been let to cry it out all the time, and they just use that wimpery cry because they are sad but they know no one is coming.
sleeping through the night doesnt exist. all babies wake up at some point. i would be much more worried about the babies that dont, but at least your son is a bit over the SIDS risk age.
you should also never let a baby fall asleep with a bottle in his mouth. you dont say really, but maybe you do remove it when hes done? the problem is that even if he doesnt have teeth (which im assuming at his age he does) the formula will leak out of the bottle and into his mouth and it will pool in there and set him up for horrible dental problems. i know a kid who had to have major dental surgury when he was 3 to fix the horrible problems that he had due to the bottle leaking into his mouth all the time. bottles for formula fed babies are for feeding, not for holding in the mouth all night.
a process that you can use to help him to fall asleep without the bottle in his mouth is to be holding him, when he stops sucking and starts falling asleep, remove the bottle slowly. sometimes baby will be just fine, wont even notice, and will keep sleeping. sometimes they will wake up and want the bottle back, and you can give it back, but then when he slows down again, remove it again. it shouldnt take too long, but some babies are persistent, especially at first. if you have too many times where hes so deep asleep that he doesnt notice you removing it, next time try to remove it a bit earlier when hes not so deep asleep!
anyway, what you have to do as a parent is to ignore the advice of anyone out there if it doesnt work for you. you dont even have to respond to advice you dont like - perhaps just to say "maybe ill try that" and move on. you have to do whats right for you. dr sears advocates for that very strongly. the thing is when you listen to your BABY for what he needs, it will be easier and easier to KNOW what he needs as he grows. even into the "terrible" twos, you will have a vital connection if you just keep listening and responding to his cries, following the instincts that are just there for your specific child. you will just KNOW.
good luck
If you think he's waking up to hunger, one option is to move that nighttime feeding to 11pm and doing a "dream feed". What worked for us: Putting our son down around 6:30-7:30 (no later than 8pm) and waking him gently at 11pm and giving him a bottle or nursing (before the last adult goes to bed) then when he woke up at 4am, we knew he really wasn't hungry and only waking up out of habit, so we'd just go in, re-nuk him and tell him 'it's still sleepy time - go back to sleep'. We didn't let him cry, but we didn't feed him at that point (unless he seems more awake than usual). Usually he just rolled over and went back to sleep until 7am. You're just controlling the night feeding b/c he, needless to say, doesn't know what time it is and is probably confused as to why he gets fed at some points and not others. Eventually, we just stopped the dream feed, would tell him it's still sleepy time and then feed him a big breakfast when he woke up. Since about 10 months he sleeps straight from 7-7.
In my opinion, that's sleeping through the night at that age.... For another couple months, I would continue giving him a bottle when he wakes between 3 and 4. I've never been a big fan of letting kids cry for a long time. I don't think I've ever let mine go for longer than 10 minutes.....
I believe six hours is considered "through the night."
I think technically 6 hours is "sleeping through the night."
I know breastfeeding moms do something called a "dream feed" and I don't see why you couldn't do it, too. This means that right before YOU go to bed, you just barely wake your child up and feed him. The thought is that he will then sleep the long stretch while you are ALSO sleeping your long stretch.
This has worked for my (breastfed) children. I feed my 10 month old at 11pm and it lets both of us get a decent stretch of sleep.
Good luck!
i'm sure you'll get a variety of responses, but heres mine:) my son is 10 months old and thats exactly his schedule right now. i'm still nursing him so we get up for that feeding which lately has varied anywhere from 3am-6am. going through teething can change it all too. a few nights lately he's been up every 3 hours and hysterical. so just when you get used to a schedule they can throw you off. anyway, at his 9 month doc visit, his doctor had said that feeding is still really normal for most babies. around a year if i wanted to start weaning and we wanted to eliminate all bottles we would later work on working him off of that feeding. so yes, your son is "sleeping through the night" for sure. good luck and enjoy! - L.
Wow, some opinions huh? ;) I think as long as he's getting enough formula during the day, it's totally up to you to determine what kind of schedule you want to put him in.
I know that there are some strong opinions about crying it out, but it doesn't have to be either or. There are some middle of the road options you can look at (The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer) That allow you to comfort him and be with him, but still teaching him how to fall asleep on his own.
My six month old is doing something similar, and for us him getting up once is a HUGE relief. ;) But for you, sleeping through the night may be a NEED! So just follow your gut and gauge if he really needs the bottle, or if it's just a comfort thing. And I highly recommend the baby whisperer book. It's a great conscious soother. You're not a terrible mom for posing that question. :) Good luck!
You situation completely normal for a 7 month old and it is really up to you to decide if he "needs" that bottle at 3am. However, the longer you wait, the more attached he will be to that routine. Becuase of this, I decided to wean my son from all night bottles at 6 months and used the CIO method, which took 4 LONG nights of listening to his crying and going in to comfort him after 15-20 mintues and then leaving the room for another 15-20 minutes. After 4 long nights, it worked and he has been sleeping 7-7 every since. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
That would definitely be considered sleeping through the night. If you count it out, your son is sleeping close to 8 hours in one shot. At that little I personally would not take away his night time bottle. What I did with my son was put him to bed a little later, like 8 or 9 and he would sleep until 6-7 the next day, which is when I was getting up to start my day anyway. At about 9 months he started going to bed earlier and getting up later, like 8-8 or 9-9. I didn't start using the "cry it out" method until after he turned 1.
Hi A.!
Yeah, it's considered sleeping through the night, because they are more asleep than awake (even though they are eating). It sounds like he's on a great sleep schedule...and he is waking cuz he's hungry--they usually still need one night feeding until sometime between 9 months and a year, and you'll know when your son doesn't need it anymore cuz he'll more play with the bottle than eat. Hope that helps!
