Sleeping Through The Night When 8 Months Old

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Sleeping Through The Night When 8 Months Old

by Cynthia
(Springfield, VA)

My baby girl is 8 months old, 17lbs, and she does not sleep on her own. She wants to be held before going to bed with a bottle.

She wakes up in the middle of the night wanting a bottle and crying until I pick her up and give her one. I was wondering, if there is a way to put her down at night and for her to sleep through the night without waking up and wanting a bottle?

If you could help that would be great.
Thanks,
Cindy

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Sleeping Through The Night When 8 Months Old

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Dec 06, 2008

Your Baby Will Sleep if You Let Her
by: Cindy

There are thousands of books and other resources available to help parents whose children are having sleep issues. One of the most popular books among my friends is, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Weissbluth. He's tough, but accurate, and his advice really works!

The bottom line is, your child is 100% capable of sleeping through the night and has been for several months. Once a baby weighs more than 12+ pounds, it does not NEED feedings in the middle of the night.

The problem is actually YOU! You probably can't bear to listen to your child cry - who can? - but the reality is that you need to let your baby soothe herself by (a) learning to go to sleep on her own and (b) comforting herself if she wakes up in the middle of the night.

If you follow the advice in the book - and I mean really follow it - your baby should be sleeping through the night within 4-6 days. (As an aside, we did this when our daughter was 14 weeks and she has been sleeping through the night since!)

Dec 07, 2008

Another method...
by: Baby Help Line

Hi Cynthia!

I understand that you are tired and slightly desperate. Studies show that only around 50% of all babies sleep through the night when 1 year old.

For anyone who doesn't just feel like waiting and hoping, there are certainly different methods to use to speed up the process.

The book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child as suggested by another visitor, is very appreciated by many parents, but is not that helpful unless you are willing to let your baby "cry it out". Pesonally, I have never liked that method, it simply doesn't work for me. Not that I judge those who use it in any way, but every parent needs to make up his or her mind regarding such a method.

If you want to help your baby sleep better without the crying, I'd suggest you both read our tips on helping babies to a better sleep routine and that you also check out the book The No-Cry Sleep Solution, which helped me tremendously when I had problems gettin gone of our kids to sleep.

You can also read my review of the No-Cry Sleep Solution here.

And for some sleep tips for YOU in the mean time, click here.

I hope this will get you started. Good luck!

/Paula

Dec 02, 2011

Taking away the night feeding at 8 months NEW
by: Paula (Easy Baby Life

At around 8-10 months, most babies are capable of sleeping through the night without feeding. They may wake up for a cuddle or their pacifier, but that is far less exhausting that feeding.

The pacifier wakeup can be solved by placing many dummies in the crib.

The cuddle, well, if you keep the crib close to your bed, even just your hand may be enough. I personally like the cuddleing and let my kids come to our bed if they want.

Feeding can be taken away without crying. One way is to gradually reduce the amount of formula (if formula fed). For breastfed babies, the quickest option is to let dad take care of the baby when waking up at night. You might be surprised ow quickly the baby gets used to not eating, if he/she is instead offered a cuddle by someone but breastfeeding mom. With my daughter it took 3 days when she was 10 months for her to stop waking up to breastfeed, when dad was the one to take her up at night instead of me. (And she woke up every hour befor we tried this method.)

You can read more about how to stop your baby's night feeding in this thread.

Hope this helps,

Paula

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