Giving a Bottle of Water at Night?

Rosy Posy · 29-03-2012 10:04AM #1

My son is seven months and was exclusively breastfed until he started solids, two months ago. He now eats a fair bit, drinks water and juice from a cup and I intend to breastfeed him until between nine months and a year, as I did with my other children. He has never taken a bottle of anything.

Now he is waking a lot in the night and tbh I am exhausted by it. I remember a friend of mine used to give her (breast and bottle fed) baby a bottle of water in the night rather than milk, her reasoning was that he wouldn't bother waking up for water. Has anyone tried this? I'm feeling a bit ambivalent about it as its not really my 'style'- I've been very attachment parenting with all of them but between the baby and the other two I'm knackered and I need a solution.

Any ideas?

cbyrd · 29-03-2012 10:49AM

Does he go back to sleep if he's fed? Is he teething?? I've just been going through the same thing with my 5 month old, used to be a great little sleeper until we started solids 5 weeks ago, last night was the first full night in this time.

He's my 4th so we went through the mill too. Checking if it was teeth, too warm, too cold, hungry, too full, propped up the top of the cot .. everything. Last night i gave him a bath with his brother. he fell asleep about 15 mins after and i lifted him at 11.30 he drank a 7oz bottle and didn't wake til this morn at 8. I was getting to the end of my rope too. But i can guarantee that if i do the same tonight he'll wake up.
Try the water, if it doesn't work you'll at least know;) but remember too that when they're learning a new skill it interferes with sleep.. it does get to the stage where you'd try anything, including adoption

pwurple · 30-03-2012 07:42AM

Does your son have a dummy, or some kind of blanket they use for a bit of comfort when they wake up in the night? He is probably not hungry at that age, possibly using mammy as soothing device to go back to sleep.

How Strange · 30-03-2012 07:59AM

Rosy Posy are you cosleeping? I went back to work when my son was 7 months and at 6 months we moved his cot to his own room. This definitely reduced the night wakings and he'd wake 2-3 times. I also found once he was away from me he'd wake, chat to himself, maybe whinge for a minute or two and fall back asleep. I knew when he wanted to feed by his cry and then I'd bring him into bed. Sometimes we woke up hours later in bed other times I'd wake up and out him back in his cot.

You could consider night weaning. I did it at 11 months over the Christmas break and it was quite easy and stress free. His dad was on night duty to soothe him if he woke and I was close by if he really insisted on a feed.

I don't think water in a bottle will distract him if he wants his mammy as they're far too clever to be fooled like that.

Little My · 30-03-2012 03:04PM

How Strange wrote: »

... at 6 months we moved his cot to his own room. This definitely reduced the night wakings...

Moving our boy into his own room worked wonders for us too.

He was having his last feed at 11ish, and would usually wake at around 3am. I very rarely fed him at this time, he would settle again but some nights it took a lot longer to settle him than others.

When he was 7 months we moved him into his own room and immediately started sleeping from 11 until 6ish. I thought he'd be really upset in his own room but I don't think he even really noticed, and he has certainly slept better since.

Rosy Posy · 01-04-2012 02:54AM

Thanks for the replies.

Last night was one of the worst...he was up three times for over an hour each time and for over two hours the last time...am having a pj day today!!

He is in his cot beside our bed but I take him into bed to feed him and depending on how wrecked I am and if I fall asleep he will sleep in his cot or in the bed with us. If I put him down and he's not fully asleep he roars. Since day one he's been very quick to get angry if things aren't exactly the way he wants them right now (the midwife called it a 'type a personality'). As soon as he wakes up he wants his feed and once he's had it, all going well he might go back to sleep but recently he's just started gristling and crying and I have to rock him or walk around with him...sometimes he goes back to sleep, sometimes he takes another feed, sometimes he just roars.

I've thought it might be the teething thing as he has one tooth and with my others they came in pairs. No sign of it though and he's not chewing and dribbling as much as the others did when they were teething.

I've never used a dummy before, I'm a bit hesitant to start. I did try to get him attached to a toy or a blankie but he's not having any of it.

@cbyrd...he has just started crawling and sitting himself so maybe that's it...or at least I can tell myself that so that an end would be in sight!!

I would love to move him into his own room, however at the moment our options are having him share with his 5yo brother (not fair on the big lad if his baby brother is still waking in the night imho) or building on another room so that's not going to happen in the near future.

@ How Strange....night weaning would be ideal here. I'd be interested to know how you did it. With the others from 9 months I cut down the day feeds one at a time til they were just getting a feed before bedtime and the night weaning followed naturally by about 10/11months. Would love to know how to intentionally wean at night while keeping up the breastfeeding during the day. I'd rather have him go straight from breast to drinking from a cup.

Thanks!

annamcmahon · 01-04-2012 10:58AM

Rosy Posy, have you read the No Cry Sleep Solution? It is full of suggestions about how to night wean. It's written by a woman who had 4 children and wanted to find a method to help her youngest sleep for longer that didn't involve either crying or just putting up with him waking. I just finished it and thought it was really good. It has different techniques depending on your circumstances and is honest that it might take 10 days or more to achieve and different babies need different techniques. A lot of the other books I've looked at are a bit of one size fits all model.
I plan to use her techniques when I need to night wean the baby due in the next few weeks.
On the teddy or blanket, I started to put a small teddy in my daughter's cot when she was about 5months but she didn't really show much interest in it until maybe 8months. Now at 14months it's her night time comforter, if she wakes during the night and can't find it just giving it back to her is enough for her to roll over and go back to sleep. I think they need time to associate it with sleeping.

Rosy Posy · 01-04-2012 11:13AM

annamcmahon wrote: »

Rosy Posy, have you read the No Cry Sleep Solution? It is full of suggestions about how to night wean. It's written by a woman who had 4 children and wanted to find a method to help her youngest sleep for longer that didn't involve either crying or just putting up with him waking. I just finished it and thought it was really good. It has different techniques depending on your circumstances and is honest that it might take 10 days or more to achieve and different babies need different techniques. A lot of the other books I've looked at are a bit of one size fits all model.
I plan to use her techniques when I need to night wean the baby due in the next few weeks.

We used the No Cry Sleep Solution with our other kids and I found it really good but I found that it relies on you having a fall back method to get your child back to sleep. Where as with this baby we have no real idea why he's getting upset, just have to try one thing after another til he finally drops off. I do think I should give it another look. I think I fall into the category of 'too tired to make the change'. I'd love if I had someone else to do the night wakings and if he's really bad my husband will step in and walk around with him for a bit but he needs to be alert for work (although I'm not exactly sitting around buffing my nails all day!!) and we have no family support... I suppose there's no magic solution, just keep myself going with the mantra 'this too will pass, this too will pass'....

How Strange · 01-04-2012 08:45PM

Rosy Posy we decided that I wouldn't feed him between midnight and 7am and his dad would comfort him if he woke up. In fairness he was 11 months and down to feeding mornings and evenings at that stage so it wasn't too hard a transition. I went back to work at 7.5 months so he wasn't getting breast milk during the day.

It only took a couple of nights and he just stopped waking. I think I was quite lucky really :S

I know what you mean about being too tired. That's exactly why we left it until Christmas when we both had a few days off.

pwurple · 02-04-2012 11:19AM

Oh my gosh RosyPosy, that must be exhausting!

Staying awake for that long between wakes is very tiring for you as well. I remember our small one went through a phase of climbing up on the cot when she started to learn to stand up. She would stand there crying because she didn't know how to sit down again... it was weeks of us going in every hour or so and resettling her before that phase ended. I had to take time off work I was such a zombie from it. Nearly crashed the car I was so shattered.

Is the baby tired during the day after that? What are his naps like during the day, are they very long? I wonder has he got into a sleep pattern where the day and night got a bit mixed up...

Rosy Posy · 02-04-2012 10:21PM

pwurple wrote: »

Oh my gosh RosyPosy, that must be exhausting!

Staying awake for that long between wakes is very tiring for you as well. I remember our small one went through a phase of climbing up on the cot when she started to learn to stand up. She would stand there crying because she didn't know how to sit down again... it was weeks of us going in every hour or so and resettling her before that phase ended. I had to take time off work I was such a zombie from it. Nearly crashed the car I was so shattered.

Is the baby tired during the day after that? What are his naps like during the day, are they very long? I wonder has he got into a sleep pattern where the day and night got a bit mixed up...

Yes, I'm absolutely knackered!! Luckily OH gives me plenty of space at the weekends to catch up and tbh I've been going to sleep at the same time as the baby for the last little while...which means no me-time but we're in a state of emergency atm...

He has just changed his nap routine from a short and a longer one in the morning and one in the afternoon to one longish (1-2hrs) in the morning and in in the afternoon. He's definitely not oversleeping in the day, I'd say this is just enough for his age at this time.

When I say he was up in the night, a more accurate description would be that I'm up. As far as I can see he just latches on and goes back to sleep, drinking in his sleep but when I try to take him off or put him back in his cot he wakes up, and after a couple of times gets crabby. Have tried Elizabeth Pantly's trick of taking him off over and over but this just makes him angry, as does the picking up and putting down thing...he's a bit of an angry baby tbh...

How Strange · 02-04-2012 10:39PM

RosyPosy don't laugh (too much!) but would you consider an amber teething necklace? What you said about your son being angry in general resonated with me as that's how I would've described my son. I got an amber necklace at 7 months and while he still has his moments there was a noticeable change in his temperament and his sleeping improved too.

Rosy Posy · 02-04-2012 10:46PM

How Strange wrote: »

RosyPosy don't laugh (too much!) but would you consider an amber teething necklace? What you said about your son being angry in general resonated with me as that's how I would've described my son. I got an amber necklace at 7 months and while he still has his moments there was a noticeable change in his temperament and his sleeping improved too.

He has one! Was given as a gift and I put it on him as soon as he showed the first signs of drooling and chewing everything. I'm not laughing, tbh if someone told me that doing a rain dance in the garden in my pelt would help the situation I'd be out there now... (thank goodness this isn't AH:D)

implausible · 02-04-2012 11:15PM

Is he actually hungry when he's waking do you think? My wee man dis this for a short while waking for a feed, I'd take him into the bed and within 2 minutes he'd be sound asleep! The solution I found was one I swore I wouldn't use - a dummy. Turns out all he wanted was to suck/comfort - he slept through the night from then on.

Rosy Posy · 02-04-2012 11:22PM

implausible wrote: »

Is he actually hungry when he's waking do you think? My wee man dis this for a short while waking for a feed, I'd take him into the bed and within 2 minutes he'd be sound asleep! The solution I found was one I swore I wouldn't use - a dummy. Turns out all he wanted was to suck/comfort - he slept through the night from then on.

I was thinking of this alright, although I too swore I'd never use one. I would worry about getting it off him later on but I'm desperate... Also he's a fine big lad and eats like a horse (more than his 3yo sister sometimes!!) so I wouldn't be worried about him not getting enough nutrition. will pick one up tomorrow and let you know how it goes...

How Strange · 03-04-2012 07:33AM

I gave my son a soother at a week old. My phn suggested it and she was totally pro breastfeeding. He just wanted to be attached to me all the time and I don't think I'd have continued breastfeeding if he hadn't had his soother to pacify him in those early days as it was a very intense situation.

And I'd have to say that it definitely helps him sleep at night or go back to sleep when he wakes up.

annamcmahon · 03-04-2012 09:31AM

If he's reluctant to take it try latching him on to you and unlatch and put the soother in his mouth in one swift movement. We had to do that with my daughter although she was only a month old at the time. I know what you mean about not liking soothers but sometimes they are necessary. I know I'll give one to this baby if I have to even though I hate them.

Rosy Posy · 07-04-2012 04:47AM

So tried him with the soother- he put it in his mouth for a second, then opened his eyes and gave me a look then took it out of his mouth and started playing with it...then went searching for a boobie...tried to familiarise him with it during the day too but nothing doing...he accepts no substitutes, apparently...I'd say we left it too late.

On the upside his second tooth came through yesterday and last night was much better so its obviously just that he has a very protracted teething process. Can't get over how different every child is, you think I'd have it nailed by number three!!

How Strange · 07-04-2012 10:02AM

RosyPosy hopefully it's a phase and it'll get better for you now. Incidentally my friend had her third last summer and she said he's the worst sleeper of them all. She had the other two in a good bedtime routine very early but he refuses to things her way! So it seems you're not alone

cbyrd · 08-04-2012 03:47PM

I'm on my 4th and i still dont' have it nailed

since he started solids he's waking dome nights twice others he can wake every hour... last night he got infacol at 7.30pm and nurofen at 8 2ozs of a bottle at 9pm and he woke at 2.25am for about 4seconds and didn't wake again til 8am.. that was a great night.. i thinks it's a combination of teething and wind.. but not always in that order

... soon... i will sleep;)

Rosy Posy · 10-04-2012 10:49AM

a novel approach....
...went to bed for a 'nap' at 3pm on Easter Monday...did not get up til 6am on Tuesday morning, fifteen hours in the scratcher and managed to get something close to a decent night's sleep!!

ladeen · 16-04-2012 08:50PM

hello there just having awful sleepless nights with baby teething bought an amber teething necklace hoping for results has any body had good sucess with it ??

cbyrd · 17-04-2012 09:39AM

GAVISGON INFANT :eek: i bought some out of desperation (and he was getting hoarse for no reason) and we have had 2 nights of no waking up . . can't believe it took me this long to figure it out... bad mammy

Giving a Bottle of Water at Night?

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