Night wakings (12m): Cold turkey CIO?

Amy's been getting a bottle between 2 and 4 a.m. for her entire life. She usually drinks it and goes right back to sleep. I keep hoping she'll spontaneously stop demanding it, but not so far.

At 9 months we tried for a week to do CIO (not going in at all), but she cried for at least an hour every time. And now that they are older and understand more, I feel just awful at the thought of not going to her at all -- like she will think we moved away or something. But if I try to soothe her without giving her a bottle, I worry that it will just make things worse and then I'll end up caving in. WWYD?

 

Amy's been getting a bottle between 2 and 4 a.m. for her entire life. She usually drinks it and goes right back to sleep. I keep hoping she'll spontaneously stop demanding it, but not so far.

At 9 months we tried for a week to do CIO (not going in at all), but she cried for at least an hour every time. And now that they are older and understand more, I feel just awful at the thought of not going to her at all -- like she will think we moved away or something. But if I try to soothe her without giving her a bottle, I worry that it will just make things worse and then I'll end up caving in. WWYD?

 

Can you gradually lessen the amount of milk in the bottle at these times, until there isn't any? Good Luck!

 

I've heard of people either gradually watering down the milk/formula in the bottle until it's all water, or just going in with water instead of milk. Then the baby sees all she is getting is water and decides it's not worth waking up for. That might be worth a shot. I don't know if it's coincidence or what, but when Bea woke at night and would not settle back down, (sporadically, maybe 2-3 times a month), I used to give her a bottle and she would go back to sleep. Then once we were off bottles, I didn't know what to do so I brought her a sippy of water. This happened a couple times, and since then she rarely cries for real at night. She does do the crying for a few minutes and back to sleep, but that's about it.

Now with Ainsley, she did the waking to get in my bed thing, and for that I did cold turkey CIO at 9-10 months. It took about a week.

Good luck whatever you decide to do! I don't know about you, but when mine wake, and even if they settle quickly, I am up for an hour and can't get back to sleep.

 

My babies are still waking throughout the night and taking feddings. They are off bottles throughout the day, but I don't know what to do at night. I am going to try the water and sippy idea. Thanks for the suggestion. Tara

 

I'll try the sippy too. I had been wondering what we were going to do when we were off bottles! When they were 8-9 months, I did try reducing the amount (that was my first strategy, before I tried CIO). She was OK down to about 3 oz but when it got below that, it seemed to make her mad. I think she is really hungry (even if it is habit), and getting fed just a little is almost worse than getting nothing. But with a sippy, she can have as much as she wants, it just won't be as easy for her, and hopefully she'll decide it isn't worth it.

Kelly, yeah, it takes me forever to go back to sleep. Plus, since she always wakes up but the time is not consistent, I can't sleep soundly after about 2 a.m.

Now I just have to wait till they're not sick (if that blessed day ever comes).

 

I second the idea of shrinking the amount of milk to about 2-3 oz. Then either try to water it down or just go to water and see what happens. We did that around 9 or 10 months and while it didn't get great sleepers for us, they didn't need the milk.
Now at age 2 mine still get a sippy of water put in the corner of their bed in case they wake up. It used to be while they slept, but now the sippy has become part of the bedtime routine. It really helped us with the morning routine as they became more independent.
I think that we finally did CIO around 13 or 14 months because I just couldn't stand the night wakings anymore. The first night we had a lot of crying off and on, the second night hardly any and I think that the 3rd night was pretty great. I was just at a point that I thought I'd go crazy after an entire year of not getting a good night sleep and feeling like I never would.

 

Luckily Zach just gave up night nursing on his own around a year or so and has slept through ever since.

But alas poor Josh is a bigtime booby boy By 18 months we decided enough is enough. He does NOT need to nurse at night. So we did CIO (with Zach in the room too!). First we went to him to soothe him. Then we ultimately just talked to him through the door to soothe him. THinking of he does not see us maybe he wont cry harder. After a tough few weeks, he now just wimpers a little and put himself back to sleep.

So I using nursing as your bottle thing if that makes sense! Oh and even going away for a few days did NOT mess up their night sleeping at this age for the most part

 

If Kaylee wakes at night I only give her 1/2 or under 1/2 cup of milk in her sippy. I use to put a bottle of water in her crib when she went to bed, and for some reason I forgot about that until this post. I think I will try to just put a sippy of water in there tonight and see what happens.