Oh what a night!

My wonderful LO's will be 8 months old tomorrow and are as sweet and adorable as can be. If I could just get them to sleep at night I'd be set!! We're finally doing better with a pretty regular schedule during the day and naps are getting better on most days. The biggest problem I have is getting them to stay asleep once they go to bed and of course the age old problem - STTN. The night before last was great! They went to bed at 7:30 and woke up around 10-11pm and had a small bottle (fine --- hadn't gone to bed yet myself). Then DD slept till 3am - woke up had a quick bottle and right back to bed. DS woke at 5am had a quick bottle and right back to bed. Didn't hear another peep out of them until 7:30am. I was very happy with that. They don't drink a lot of formula during the day (always trying to figure out a way to increase that!) so I'm ok with feeding them once-twice a night. THEN last night - OMG! I was up every 40 minutes - not even kidding. They went to bed at 7:30ish again. Then about 1 hr later it started. DD woke up about every 40min-1 hr for a bottle or a Paci replacement. Then at about 2am or so they switched and she slept the rest of the night (till 7:15am) and DS started waking up every 40 min-1 hr!! Same deal - bottle or Paci replacement. I always try the Paci before the bottle. I am completely exhausted. To make it worse - when I went in there at 7:15 - poor DD had poop all over her crib!! To make it double the fun - both had super poopy diapers. I seriously was about to cry. No time for that. Poop to deal with. I'm mostly venting here because some nights are getting better - others are going nearly this bad. I'm really freakin tired though! I need some sleep someday! I'm currently starting from the beginning of HSHHC because when I first read it I was REALLY tired and didn't retain much. I couldn't handle any crying - now I'm thinking I'm more open to it. It's hard to do CIO though because we are living with my in-laws until DH gets done with training for the Army. We're already having issues with MIL not happy about hearing them cry during the day (which they don't a lot but when you have two babies - there's bound to be someone crying sometime....). SO any ideas? Do you think they should be able to go without a night feeding? Should I only give them one or two bottles tops and make them CIO the rest?? I haven't quite gotten to the part of HSHHC where it tells me what to do yet and I really want to give the book a solid chance to work this time so I want to read it good. Just wondering if you guys had any quick ideas. I hate the thought of CIO but since they're older I don't feel AS bad if they're fussing. I can't do all out screaming though. We're going to be house sitting at a friend's house next week so while I don't know that it's fair to make them CIO at a strange house we won't have the in-laws to deal with. I don't know. I may just have to wait until we get back from housesitting so they have normalcy but this is nuts! I am just pooped. They normally get up 7-7:30am - have bottle and breakfast, have a nap about 2 hours later. Sleep for 1-2 hours in the morning. Then have bottle and lunch. Nap about 2.5 hours after waking. Sometimes that nap is 45 min. other times it's 1.5-2 hours. If it's short they have a 3rd nap between 4-5. If it's long I try to keep them up. Then dinner, bath, bottle (more bottles in between there) and we aim for bed between 7-8pm depending on that 3rd nap. Sorry if this is jumbled. I'm tired and frustrated but otherwise utterly charmed by these little munchkins.

 

:hug: So sorry your having a hard time! It's not surprising running on next to zero sleep for so long. I don't envy the night you had last night at all!! I wonder what is going on with them? I still feed once in the night so i'm not the best resource but i also follow HSHHC so i can tell you what i have read. Weissbleuth reckons that it is considered normal to feed a baby once or twice in the night until they are 9months old, providing that they seem hungry and aren't just waking to play with their Momma. I struggle to get enough food down my girls through the day so it has been hard not to feed through the night. When i did CIO for naps and bedtime they got rid of one of the night feeds aswell. They now only wake to eat once and if it's before 2 i don't go in and they usually go back to sleep until it's been at least 9hrs since the last feed. If you can i would definately cut back on the times you go into feed. The only time the girls cry in the night now is if they are teething, even when they wake to eat it's not what you'd call crying just whining until they get their bottle.
Yes,I would do CIo in another house provided they had their usual cotbed and other familiar things in there. Your day schedule sounds great, do they eat every 3 hours still? I tend to spend all day concentrating on getting the girls fed so we have a good night, very hard when they are teething and refusing to eat but i try to do what i can, that way i feel much better about not going in at every whimper but since CIO nightwakings are few and far between. If your open to CIO i do think it will reduce if not eliminate nightfeeds. Sorry i have no concrete advice for you but wishing you lots of luck.

 

Thanks for responding I am open to CIO to some degree. When we house sit we'll have their pack and plays (which they slept great in when we house sat for my sister in law 2 weeks ago...I'm apparently an official house sitter ). They do eat about every 3 hours still if not a little before. The only thing is they don't drink much at one time. I feel like I'm constantly trying to stuff formula down them. Your advice sounds good. I'll give it a try and hopefully get to that part of HSHHC soon! I have very little time to read. Thanks again! Oh also - as far as Weissbleuth saying it's ok to feed at night till they are 9 months old - do you think that is 9 months from due date (since I know he's big on that for sleeping time frames) or actual age?

 

Your more than welcome. It's 9mths past the due date if i'm remembering rightly. I here you on the force feeding of formula, it feels like that is 95% of our day, not fun when they aren't hungry for it! Have you ever tried to space out feedings to say 3.5 or 4hrs in view of them being very hungry and then drinking alot to make up? Good luck with it i hope it goes well! If i was staying with my IL'S i would be glad of the postion of "housesitter"

 

I've tried spacing the feedings out but man do they scream and get cranky - only to get the bottle and drink 2 oz and be happily done and ready to play. <_< Maybe I'll try it again. Usually during the day the most I can get in them at a time is 4oz for DD and 5oz for DS (if I'm lucky at one time). Before bedtime I can sometimes get DS to get 8oz down and DD 6oz. I usually try to start an hour before bedtime and just keep pushing it on them before they go to bed. Oh and we do love to house sit. LOL It gives a much needed break for everyone.

 

Lisa you kids sound a lot like mine. A lot like mine.

I finally broke down at 8 months and did CIO..the hard core variety. I didn't go in at all. The STTN for a couple weeks, but they woke at 5AM. I would go feed them and get a couple hours more sleep out of them. Well maybe that wasn't such a great idea because they started waking in the night again. It was only once, and I fed them and sent them back to sleep.

Fast forward to 12 months, and I did CIO again. The STTN for a few days in a row and started waking again. I've vowed not to feed them, but sometimes I still do. The good news is that there are a few nights they STTN.

I'm to the point where I say it will happen some day, and there isn't a whole lot I can do.

 

BTW--If they were waking that much last night, they might be getting teeth or coming down with something. I think the one year old molars undermined my 12 month CIO, and put us right back where we are.

I really do feel your pain; my guys are sick, and I was up with one for two hours last night.

 

Hi there,
How many ounces are they drinking during the night shift!? My DS was STTN at about 4 months and not waking to drink at all. DD was still waking twice to drink but would only drink an ounce or two and then go back to sleep. Their doctor said to stop doing the night feed for DD because if she was really hungry she would drink the whole bottle and not an ounce or two. She was totally right. We stopped doing the night bottles AT ALL. Then at almost 6 months we did CIO and it is the only thing that helped us. I did not ever do the CIO for my first born (singleton) but for the twins I felt I HAD to in order to get any sleep. What we did for DD was to add an ounce or two to each daytime bottle to make sure she was getting enough. If they eat enough in the daytime then you are signaling to them (teaching them really) that night time is for SLEEP and daytime is for eating, fun, etc. I don't know your exact situation but I'm guessing (with their doctor's approval) you could stop the night feedings now. You will have a few nights of protest but it will get easier. My two don't ever test me on the bottles at night but they do still test the CIO thing every few weeks!

 

Didn't your LO's walk pretty early? DD is already starting to let go of things as she's standing up and DS went from barely moving to commando crawling to starting to pull himself up in a weeks timeframe. Wondering if that is part of the night waking also. They "may" be teething?? They drool a lot but I don't see any little tooth buds. How can you tell?? Maybe I'll post that. I really hope they'll STTN sometime soon. I feel like I'm never going to get a break. As it is today hasn't been much better. They've been taking naps at seperate times and they'll nap 30-45 min and be up and still horribly tired and cranky so I change diapers, try to feed them and put them back to bed. Anyway - gotta run - munchkins need momma again. Thanks for making me feel I'm not alone.

 

My guys were very early walkers and early teethers. In fact, I think all their teeth have popped through except the 2 year old molars. The first teeth came at 3 months old. They walked at 8 and 9 months. Walking was bad for sleeping, but standing up was the worst. They'd wake and stand; then scream because they couldn't get back down.

I do think it probably would help to take either the pacifier or the bottles away, which is gonna mean some crying. Than again you could just breakdown and do CIO. I know at that point I was dangerously tired. I nearly nodded off while driving, and I had to do something. Even though the night waking started again, there was a huge difference between waking 2-3 times each, and 1 time each. With only one waking I was much better rest. I went 8 months without sleeping more than 4 hours straight(maybe I got 5 hours a couple times). I know people tell you a bunch of stuff about food, etc.