How to break habit of waking?

[littlebean]

Hey ladies my LO was sleeping through the night til half 6 until the last few weeks and now he's gone back to waking up for a bottle. It is the same time every night and although he needs changed he won't go back to sleep until I give him a bottle. I don't want to sound cruel but if its just habit I need to nip it now, have tried upping his feeds during the day and it doesn't make a difference. Any ideas?

[Hidden]

Hey, my LO is 6 months and he also still wakes for a night feed. As you have I've tried meals/bottles during the day to no avail. He does always drink the whole 8oz night feed so I do believe he is genuinely hungry.

I have tried giving him his dummy 3 or 4 times to see if he'll settle back to sleep before feeding but he's adamant he wants the feed and def has a hungry cry.

Are you convinced he's def hungry? Their feeding habits will obviously change and then so do their feeding patterns.

I have heard you can 'train' them not to take a feed but in my view if they're hungry they should be fed xxx

[littlebean]

He doesn't cry just won't settle without it, talks to himself and tries to get my attention and then the milk makes him sleepily but still takes ages to settle afterwards. Went up tonight and lifted him early to feed & change to see if it would help him go back over easier but so far no good. I def don't mind feeding him if he's hungry but I don't know is it that or is he mixed up on body clock and thinks its time to get up or something, the last few nights it has taken over 2 hours to get him to sleep again.

[Hidden in reply to littlebean]

Mmm I know the feeling...mine went through a phase at about 4m of being wide awake at night - HV suggested that they are learning so many new things and they like to keep doing them all the time - unfortunately for us! Just recently for about 4 days this involved a lot if ma ma ma and ba ba ba at 4am!!! It did pass though xx

[Cowgirl7]

It's hard going when they do that, fickle little things aren't they. If he's genuinely hungry it may be that he's having a growth spurt. Might be worth doing as you have this time for a few nights as you're basically trying to set a new habit, which takes time unfortunately. Also, consider that the clocks change soon and this may throw everything off course again, so might be worth just going with the flow until then. Good luck.

[cheekymonkey3791]

How old is your LO? My little man was sleeping through lovely over Xmas and then bam....hit around 17/18 weeks and its never been the same since! He was waking frequently and had a 2 hour wake period from around 4am, it's exhausting as you try everything in that time to get them back to sleep and nothing works! This all coincided with developmental growth spurt which was rolling over, he then had a physical growth spurt, has learn't to sit and now learning to crawl so nights still majorly disruptive. My little one cannot settle himself back to sleep yet so he wakes randomly rolls over then cries alot about it.

Look up 4 month sleep regression and or the wonder weeks, you may find some explanations for this change and will help you learn about future changes. X

[Little_dudes_mum]

We've been struggling since Christmas first it was for rolling practice then teeth now crawling we find him doing it in his sleep and waking when he gets stuck. Spoke to our nursery nurse and she suggested porridge before bed to fill him up, Matthew is big both height and weight are up at 91st percentile and this seems to work we give it him about half hour before bath time and we are slowly getting back to decent nights sleep.

[littlebean]

Maybe it is a growth spurt or something, will check out wonder weeks. He's 20 weeks today but a big baby, has been in the 91st percentile since he was born. I'm completely exhausted, he wouldn't go back down at all last night so been awake since 3.15. Thanks for all the advice ladies x

[Megzey]

My little girl is 28 weeks tomorrow and the last few days she has started walking at 5.30am for a feed where as previously she was going straight through from 6.45pm till 8am. I am going to start weaning her next week I reckon if she carries on waking up. My HV said that the more you fill them up in the day the better the night sleep. Your baby will stop waking it he is probably just growing and getting hungry.

[mummymummy]

What about a dream feed around 10pm? And maybe don't change his nappy.... growth spurts. .. and teething maybe. ..I envy u my little one has never slept thru... wakes every 2 hours! I forget what a full nights sleep is like

[ritz21]

My little one is 7 weeks and it was already a trouble for her to establish a night time sleep pattern, we finally did and it stayed for a month untill recently - she is waking up at 5:30 am in the morning since last three days and it is just not done (that is my deep sleep time, I am looking like a ombie again! )

And yes she is taking a full feed and than breakfast cereals also at 8:30 am

I have never stopped dream-feeding her at 10 pm (but that is not helping anymore!)

I want my sleep back !