My baby boy is now 7 months, and he is still waking frequently throughout the night. He was exclusively breastfed for 5 months, and afterwards I introduced a bottle of formula here and there, but the majority of the feeds were breast.
During the last week, I have stopped feeding him myself during the day-time and have moved onto formula. I am keeping one breastfeed per day, which is working out to be early morning, or afternoon, or both.
He is having at least three 7oz bottles of formula throughout the day-time, plus he is having three meals a day, plus snacks and pudding. In my honest opinion I do not feel that he can be hungry during the night time, especially as he also is having a bottle of formula upon his first waking at 11pm approximately.
Up until recently I have just been feeding him every time he wakes up, usually, 11pm, maybe 2am, 4am, 6am etc... It is noteworthy that before I introduced the extra formula my boy was also waking about 9.30pm (after going to bed at 7pm).
I'm going back to work in just under two months, and I really want to get Joshua's night waking sorted so that he sleeps through. I actually don't believe for one minute he is actually hungry. I think he's waking out of habit as this is what he has always done!
So, here we go embarking on "Sleep Training".
So, what method am I using? I dont want to use CIA, which I believe is where you do literally just let the baby cry on his own until he falls asleep. However I am going to do a version of Controlled Crying, where I comfort him when he cries, by patting, stroking, shhh'ing, (but not picking up) and then leave for 3 mins/5 mins/10 Mins.
There are many people that that do not agree with sleep training, and will just respond to their babies needs by feeding/cuddling to sleep whenever they wake. This is essentially what I have been doing for the last 7 months. However its come to a point now, where I genuinely feel it's time to help Joshua learn that night time is for sleeping. I feel that my home will be happier and healthy once we are ALL getting a good nights rest.
Night 1 - Monday 3rd March 2013
I gave Joshua a bottle of formula at about 6.30pm and he settled straight down to sleep (put awake in cot, and he settles extremely well at bedtime, always has).
He woke up at 11pm, and at the moment I am still giving him some formula at this time, just to make sure he is full up for the rest of the night. He did drink most of the 7oz bottle.
Baby went back to sleep in his cot pretty much straight away, after the bottle and nappy change.
Off I went back to sleep in my bed. Then, Joshua woke up and cried for me about 2am. So, this time, I didn't want to settle him with Milk and I want him to settle himself. So I went in, comforted him with a pat and a shhh....and then left for a few minutes, then went back to comfort. He was upset and was crying and it was getting very loud, which made me feel really anxious. However I knew I had to see this through! He'd only had 7oz of formula 3hrs ago!
Unfortunately, Oliver woke up, and it really was too noisy for him to sleep (as they share a room) so I told Oliver to go in my bed, which is where he stayed for the rest of the night.... so hopefully I am not solving one sleep problem and making another!!!
Tonight I am going to get a little ready bed in my room, so he can go in there if Joshua cries loudly and wakes him up.
Anyway, so by 3am Joshua had gone back to sleep. Yes, an hour of going back and fourth comforting him, but he did indeed go back to sleep. Hoorah. However, only till 4.40am, he started crying again, and I thought, ohhhh noo not again, but he stopped all on his own and was quiet again until 5.30am, which I decided it was reasonable to give him a feed then, so I took him into my bed and breastfed him, and we kind of dosed till 6.10am, when Oliver woke up. We all stayed in bed together until 7am.
So, what will tonight bring? I have just popped Joshua upstairs in the cot and he is fussy and stirring a bit but will hopefully settle in a moment.
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