15 months Old Daughter, Not Sleeping Through The Night

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15 months Old Daughter, Not Sleeping Through The Night

by Antje

I am a first time mom and my 15 month old girl is still looking for breastfeeding to fall asleep during the day as well as the night.

Daytime this works great, she has 1 to 2 naps a day and I know that she would have a lot more trouble to fall asleep without the breast feeding and then get a lot more cranky.

At night time, putting her to sleep with breast feeding is fine with me too. She still sleeps in bed with me and I have the impressing that this is doing good to both of us.

What I don't understand and start not being too happy about any more is that she is frequently waking up at night.

She goes to sleep anywhere between 7 and 9 PM depending on how late she slept during the day. Then often sleeps two hours and gets hungry for nursing.

She never really wakes up to the point of opening her eyes, but she starts moving and if I feed her right away she will go straight back to sleep.

Later during the night when I sleep next to her, it is the same thing, she will start moving a little or does a short complaint. I then put her on the breast right away and she will half sleep half nurse and not even open her eyes. That goes then on and off in up to hourly intervals throughout the second half of the night. I am sleeping often half through the nursing myself, but of course don't sleep as well.

I know that maybe a pacifier could help, but honestly, I have been able to raiser her without so far and would rather not get into that now.

I have tried to give her water at night, but as she is not used to drinking from a bottle but a sip cup only she needs to really wake up to be able to drink and that upsets her more than anything.

She is also usually anything but interested in drinking from the sip cup.

So here I am little by little getting desperate about an uninterrupted night of sleep and don't quite know how to get there without emotional crisis for the baby.

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15 months Old Daughter, Not Sleeping Through The Night

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Nov 30, 2008

Tiresome!
by: Baby Help Line

Hi Antje!

I completely understand your exhaustion!

Actaully, I had a very similar situation when our daugher was 10 months old - she woke up every hour to feed (breastfeed).

No mom (or dad) can endure that for an extended period. Time to change!

What your daughter does, is to almost wake up for her pacifier (which is your nipple). She is of course not the least interested in drinking water or anything else; most likely she is not even hungry. Just used to go back to sleep with her nice "pacifer".

To get rid of this you will have to teah her to fall asleep without it.

This can be done either slowly or cold turkey, depending on how desperate you are. Either way, your daughther will not have an emotional crisis, but she will protest.

If you want to go slowly, I suggest you read about the method of weaning the pacifier here. You'll also find a progress report form another mom there.

If you want to go faster, you should work together with your husband (or someone else who can help you at night for a couple of nights).

In such case, you decide that enough is enough and lets dad handle the bedtime and nighttime waling for a while.

Dad's mission will be to be as loving as is every possible towards your girl, holding her, patting her, etc, but not (of course ) giving her your nipple. You wear earplugs or get out of the house.

The first night is likely to be rough. But after two or three days, she will have learned a new way to fall asleep and is also muck less likely to need your nipple to go back to sleep at night.

After that, you can go back to helping each other at night if she wakes up.

There are also middle ways between these two, such as first taking away the nipple for falling asleep at daytime. Taking her out for stroller walk, for example may be a great way to teach her to fall asleep on her own.

You may also decide that she is only allowed to cry for xx minutes at night before she gets to feed. The logic behind this would be that if she really is hungry, she should be allowed to eat.

However, since she is 15 months old, I really doubt that this is about hunger.

I hope this gives you a few ideas.

I don't really think you will be able to solve this without taking away the feeding option at night. It is just how to do it that you need to decide upon.

I really wish you good luck!

Please let me know about your progress:-)

/Paula

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Nov 30, 2008
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Submitted by: Baby Help Line

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Comment
Hi Antje! I completely understand your exhaustion! Actaully, I had a very similar situation when our daugher was 10 months old - she woke up every hour to feed (breastfeed). No mom (or dad) can endure that for an extended period. Time to change! What your daughter does, is to almost wake up for her pacifier (which is your nipple). She is of course not the least interested in drinking water or anything else; most likely she is not even hungry. Just used to go back to sleep with her nice "pacifer". To get rid of this you will have to teah her to fall asleep without it. This can be done either slowly or cold turkey, depending on how desperate you are. Either way, your daughther will not have an emotional crisis, but she will protest. If you want to go slowly, I suggest you read about the method <a href="http://www.easybabylife.com/pacifier-dependence.html">of weaning the pacifier here.</a> You'll also find a progress report form another mom there. If you want to go faster, you should work together with your husband (or someone else who can help you at night for a couple of nights). In such case, you decide that enough is enough and lets dad handle the bedtime and nighttime waling for a while. Dad's mission will be to be as loving as is every possible towards your girl, holding her, patting her, etc, but not (of course ) giving her your nipple. You wear earplugs or get out of the house. The first night is likely to be rough. But after two or three days, she will have learned a new way to fall asleep and is also muck less likely to need your nipple to go back to sleep at night. After that, you can go back to helping each other at night if she wakes up. There are also middle ways between these two, such as first taking away the nipple for falling asleep at daytime. Taking her out for stroller walk, for example may be a great way to teach her to fall asleep on her own. You may also decide that she is only allowed to cry for xx minutes at night before she gets to feed. The logic behind this would be that if she really is hungry, she should be allowed to eat. However, since she is 15 months old, I really doubt that this is about hunger. I hope this gives you a few ideas. I don't really think you will be able to solve this without taking away the feeding option at night. It is just how to do it that you need to decide upon. I really wish you good luck! Please let me know about your progress:-) /Paula

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Dec 18, 2008

Hi
by: Anita

You really need to train her to a sipping cup.I have a 15 month old she do not sleep at night.She is awake about every two hour and it really drain me for the next morning.She want her sipping cup every time she wakes up.So try and give your baby a cup in the day and see would it help on your behalf.