I think it's time I finally address my 10.5 month olds sleep..

[Ashley1021]

Owen has always been a terrible sleeper, and I blame myself for starting bad sleeping habits. We rock, pat and shush to sleep. We also bottle feed him to sleep. Which I know is terrible. But his sleep seems to be getting worse. He is still up at least 3 times, most of the time to eat. He's in bed between 6:30-7, as he only takes 1-2 half hour naps at daycare. I don't even know where to begin. I don't want him on the bottle much past one, but it's the only way we can put him to sleep... Help?!

 

[Ashley1021]

After I put him to bed, he tends to fuss for a couple hours after randomly. 50% of the time he can get back to sleep but the other fifty percent I need to go in and butt pat. I'm so exhausted and can't do this anymore. The doctor is also concerned as he is drinking about 36 oz of formula a day. I don't even know where to start. I know he will scream and cry, and it will be terrible. I think I'm too sleep deprived to handle it!

 

[MKHewson]

So I have a few suggestions for you. First of all don't worry about how bad it might get you will be surprised how well and how fast your child will adapt to change. I'm not sure what your nighttime routine is for him what I started doing for my daughter was at a specific point in the night say 7 o'clockI would turn down the lights no more TV or electronics and she would have her back we would do a massage and story at that point she was having some milk. If you find your's child is hungry in the evening perhaps offer him some sort of cereal or nighttime snack rather than just milk. I phone doing the same thing every night the same way she became adjusted to the schedule when he wakes up going offer him comfort I think it's fine but you should do the same thing everyevery night to put them back to bed. I find with them at this age you just have to repeat it repeat repeat and eventually they get it if you're already experiencing sleepless nights now was having if you can improve you're sleeping. Good luck

 

[Ashley1021]

He eats a full meal for dinner! He's no longer on baby food so he gets breakfast lunch snack and dinner. Along with milk in between. I keep everything the same. We do a bath, get some lotion and pajamas on, and then a bottle and bed.

 

[Button#]

You're in the middle of a tricky time for sleep anyway so I would just do what you've got to do to get through it. Don't worry about 'bad' habits, you can wean him off those a bit later. I found from 8 months to just past a year to be horrendous for sleep but it started improving from around 13/14 months and at 16 months my DS dropped his night feed of his own accord and started sttn a couple of times a week. Your LO will be going through some major development right now, not to mention teething.

 

[Ashley1021]

Last night was an improvement! He only woke up once at 11:30. He went to bed at 6:30, and then woke up for the day at 6.