Gritting Teeth Awake
my daughters 18 months old and wakes up for a bottle atleast 3 times during the nite!!?
i went from having a baby that slept in her crib from about 10 at nite to probably 9 in the morning and not waking up once, to a one year old that wakes up atleast 3-4, maybe 5 times in the middle of the nite for some milk! i dont know what to do. right after she got her first-year shots at the doc, everything changed. its been like this since early october of 2007. i havent gotten an uninterrupted nites rest in months.shes not exactly wide awake but its to the point now where shell sit up and begin poking around for a bottle cuz she knows i have it. shell only sleep in her crib for 3 hours tops. im so tired that i just throw her in my bed probably 6 out of 7 nights of the week (full-time student, part-time job, full time mommy). ive tried feeding her a lot of food before she goes to bed for the nite, ive tried running her around like a maniac until shes exhausted. i dont know what else to do. any moms out there have any advice to get my lil angel to sleep *grits teeth* lol
I’ll tell you right now….she is testing you….and you should see the sign because you said it already….she starts poking around in the bed for a bottle because she KNOWS you have it. She KNOWS you’ll come get her out of your bed and put her in yours. She KNOWS you’ll give her a bottle. She’s doing this because she knows she can do it. She doesn’t NEED anything to eat/drink (besides some water) during the night. First of all, do not let her have a bottle PERIOD anymore. She is 18 months and she should not be allowed a bottle. She’s a big girl now. If she wants something to drink at night or in the middle of the night, let her have a sippy cup with some water in it. If she’s thirsty, she’ll drink it otherwise she won’t. Next is getting her to sleep in her own bed alone. The only reason that she is waking up so many times is because she knows you’ll come get her and put her in bed with you. You’ve got to pick a night (on the weekend perhaps) and let her cry. As bad as she will sound and as mean as it sounds, if you come running to her every beck and call, she WILL take advantage of it. Her little mind understands cause and effect….if I cry, Mommy will come get me and if I cry for a bottle, Mommy will give me one. Does she have a regular bedtime routine? If not, start one. It doesn’t matter what it is, or what times you do, but as long as you do the same thing every night, it’s a routine. My daughter eats supper at 8pm, she gets her bath at 9, we read 3 books around 9:45 and she’s in the bed at 10. Did your daughter get a little sick after she got her shots? Maybe some fever this time or she really felt real bad this time, etc.? If so, she probably needed you at that point and you knew this, but when she got to feeling better decided that she didn’t want to sleep without you and tried crying to see what would happen. When you went and got her, it all started. You’ve got to break the cycle and the only way to do that is going to be to let her cry it out. Good luck and I hope you can get everything straightened out with her.
Grinding teeth -Drunk & half passed out
