Not sure where to start

You would never know I had twinfants at one point! They are now 27 months old, but their sister is seven months old. At six months old-BOTH boys were STTN. They went down at 7p and woke at 7a. Consistently minus the time changes. It took ONE night of CIO and that was it-for going to bed and for night wakings. They were consistenly waking at the same time, and not finishing their bottles which told me they didn't need it and it was habit. The boys had a schedule. They ate at the same time, they drank the same amounts of formula, they napped at the same time...

Fast forward to the princess. She's all over the place! Why can't I get it together?!!!?!?!?!! Is it because I don't want to be bound to the home because I have the boys? We have storyhour Wednesday from 10:30a-11:30a. Thursdays the boys have playgroup from 9a-11a. Other than that-we are pretty free to do whatever-mostly stay home....

Here's a rough estimate of yesterday's sleeping...

5:15am-Up and drinks 4oz. Back to sleep by 6ish
8am-up. Gave solids; bottle at some point(4oz?)
10am-down for a nap
12pm-up from nap
12:30pm-solids
1:00pm-bottle(4/6oz)
2pm-nap
5pm-up from nap

Then she went down for the night around 9ish. And she was up at 3:15am. Some days she gets up and chugs 4 oz, the most being 5oz. Others, it's one ounce, IF that. Today-she woke for the day at 7:30am. When did she go down for a nap? 1:30PM! Huh?!?!? She refused otherwise! She did get solids twice before that nap. And maybe two bottles...6/8oz. She slept until 4pm. And she actually went down at 7:30pm. However-she could be up at 11pm, she could be up at 5am. I just NEVER know!

I'm clueless, and it's sad. She's not scheduled in her sleep, and she's not scheduled in her eating. I'm not a huge stickler to a schedule, but I have to admit-it's nice knowing that at 2pm, she's due for a bottle. And she takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to drink the bottle-upwards of two hours. And she's not tiny-she's got rolls! She's bigger than the boys ever were! She was over 16lbs at her 6 month appt, and she has to be nearing 18lbs.

I've tried writing down a schedule of what she does-and it's just all over the place. Where do I begin? :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

Oh-and the whole CIO....like I said-I did it with the boys. I've been getting up with Annabella for the last seven months. I tend to not mind as much...I'm not sure if me not doing the whole CIO thing is because she's a girl, because she's the LAST baby, because I can use that time to cuddle with just her, or because I just have no idea if she really is hungry! Some days she seems to drink plenty, other days it's 5pm and she's had 12 oz! What gives???

And PLEASE don't tell me it's a girl thing! LOL!

 

LOL I have to say my girls have been the worst...sorry my one and only boy is soo much happier. I don't really have any advice except to try to establish a schedule especially for napping. My 19.5 month old has a schedule for lunch and nap time and she always goes down without much of a fuss and sleeps great and I think its because of the schedule. Good luck, CIO could be a good thing too, I know its hard but its worth it. Sometimes they surprise you and take to a new (or any) schedule very well. We are on night 4 of a new schedule with the twins and I'm loving it so far and surprised beyond words that they took to it pretty easily. Good luck!!

 

Thanks! And wouldn't you know... she slept ALL NIGHT LONG last night?!?! Ha! She went down at 7:30pm(tonight too actually), and woke at 7:15am. She did wake around midnight and I made a bottle...got ready to walk up the stairs and she was back asleep...

Here's to hoping we can make it two nights in a row...

 

In my opinion, I would cut out the night feedings completely. When she's not fed during the night, she'll eat better during the day. She should be getting at least 20-24 oz of formula a day, the recommendation is 24-32 oz of formula. The solids should be extra's still, not her main nutrition.

So you can either go cold turkey on the night feedings (which I would probably do since she STTN last night), or you can wean her, by adding more water and less formula to the bottles. I would do cold turkey, and CIO if necessary.

Once you get a better nighttime schedule established, the daytime schedule will go much smoother. You can start a scheduled "bedtime" then. Also, do you have a good bedtime routine? It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's your routine and it's done the same way every night. All my kids have been pretty flexible during the day as far as feedings/naps, but bedtime routine is pretty set around here. Also do you have a fan, white noise machine, or lullabies playing for her at nighttime?? I have a fan and lullabies in both my kids rooms, we started that at around 8 months with my oldest ds, and then from birth with my oldest dd and the twins. I love being able to go in, replace paci's, turn on lullabies, and walk out and most of the time the kids go right back to sleep.

 

I followed Weisbluth's rule about night feedings. He says some babies need to eat up until they are 9 months old at night. Both of my boys gave up the night feed on their own at 9-9.5 months. If she is still taking a bottle a fair amount of the time, I would keep feeding her. If the "ounce" thing is more in line, then I would give it up and work on delaying to get her and see if she will just go back to sleep on her own with minimal fussing. GL. I hope you have another night like last night tonight. :good: