how do i get her to sleep all night?

Question

my little girl is 5 months, had to start weaning cos she refuses her formula milk so she has baby food during the day, at around 9pm she has a farleys rusk to keep her going till morning but she has started to wake in the night and im having to put her in bed with me and my partner to make her go back to sleep after feeding her at 3am. i no im just making it worse but i also have a 18 month old so if i dont keep the little one quiet in the night she wakes her sister, what can i do? i dont want the baby to share a bed with us cos she will never get out of it. please help!!!!

Answer 1

Good luck. My daughter is nearly two and she still creeps in to sleep with us at night - she finds it comforting and if I'm being honest, so do I! If you really want your daughter to sleep in her cot you must put up with the crying - like Supernanny suggests. If she wakes your other daughter you must deal with her too. There's no simple answer apart from perseverence.

Answer 2

I have a little boy, he is now nearly seven months and is still being breastfed. He is the youngest of three. My other two are four and two. I had this problem too where he kept waking up to be fed. Could it be that she is cold? Maybe getting a sleeping bag (like my youngest has) would be a good idea. That way she stays warm no matter what. Is she actually hungry? It sounds silly but my son kept waking up took a very small feed and went back to sleep. (If she keeps doing it give her water - if she is actually hungry the water won't satisfy her. If she realises water is all she is getting she might just give up and sleep. Do not take her into bed with you.) My son has three feeds a day and a rusk at night. He has been sleeping through the night since he was four months. My other children used to wake up when he cried during the night but after being woken up by him for around a week they soon slept through him crying. Its hard but if all else fails just keep putting her back down to sleep after a feed and if she cries lift her, settle her, put her down and walk away. Even at this age they know how to get attention! I hope this helps. Good luck!

Answer 3

Hi here
we have a ten year old girl who still gets up in the night because we were not hard enough when she was a baby - you have to leave your baby to cry until she goes to sleep it may take a week and it is heartbreaking but it is the only way believe me , do not make the mistake we did by giving in as it will make your life a misery as she gets older . We did it once when she was 6 months and it worked but we did not follow it up we gave in and it was the worst mistake ever, not only is your child tired and cannot concentrate at school , the whole of the family is tired!! also whenever you want to go away it causes problems we have to share twin rooms with our little girl , she has just started to sleep through all night again but it never lasts , so be strong and bite the bullet for a week and it will pay massive dividends later on i promise you .If we could turn the clock back we would have one week of hell instead of 10 years on and off of disturbed nights . good luck

Answer 4

Have you tried giving her a different formula or maybe a soya one? Maybe she just doesn't like the taste. She should be having at least a pint of milk a day, she won't be getting enough calcium and nutrients. What is she being fed at 3am? If you let your baby cry after the 3 am feed, your 18 month old will eventually get used to it and sleep through it. It would be better to have a week of sleepless nights with the two of them than a baby sleeping in your bed for years!

Answer 5

I know what you are going through my husband and I had the same problem with our son. I would not however listen to that other person who said to move the other child to the over side of the house. What if something happens and you are too far away. I will be honest our son did not completely sleep through the night until he was 6-7 months old. What I did was I fed him right before bedtime (9p) and about 1-2a I went into his room, fed and changed his diaper. Since babies his age need to be fed every 4-6 hrs. this is ok to do. Make sure your baby is full and dry, otherwise they will wake during the night. Another thing to check is make sure you are using the right formula. We didn't know until our son was 2 mths that he was becoming gassy from regular formula therefore our doctor changed to Isomil, which is soy based. My last suggestion is move the baby's crib or even better bassinet into your bedroom near your bed. Being in the same room with you is as good as being next to you in bed. Your baby needs to know she is safe and she feels this next to you.

One last thing put on a clean shirt(100% cotton or something soft without buttons, a T-shirt would work great) ; don't put any fragrances, clean or work in the shirt. Wear it for maybe an hour. Place it on top of the baby's sheet inside she bed. When you put her to sleep, place her on top of the shirt, she will think that you are next to her since she will be smelling your scent. She may just be tricked into sleeping all night, with you, but without you.

Answer 6

Sorry you are going through this but I think you need to be firm and get your baby into a routine. Taking her into your bed, as you know, was a big mistake. Try not to let her sleep in the afternoon. Give her a feed at about 6 or 7 and put her down "for the night". I found babies like routine and you need to let her know who is boss - at the moment she is! I got the message across to my son that I was not impressed with night time activity by just doing the basics and not really talking to him as I would during the day. This seems to have got the message across that I wasn't impressed with night time waking. He has done this with his own daughter now and it worked from 2 months. Good luck. It will be hard but you need to persevere or she will be doing this for years, not months.

Answer 7

Hi! You certainly have your hands full there! I'm going with most of the other answers here. My tip is to not give too many snacks during the afternoon/evening, then a nice relaxing supper of something like porridge with a large drink of milk, after a nice warm bath. When she wakes during the night, comfort her if necessary at first, but make it clear straight away that she is not going in your bed,or having a drink during the night. It sounds tough, but after just a few days she'll get fed up and go back to sleep. if your other child wakes, just say "It's okay baby, go back to sleep" and don't make too much fuss. It won't take long I promise, and it's worth it.

Answer 8

I am a mother of two a 5yr old and a 2 yr old.
with both my children right from when they were born I used to do all the day feeds normally but then I would wake them up at midnight (keep it dark and as quiet as possible) and give them another feed, this kept them going till 6am. and you can gradually increase the time so make it 11.45pm then 11.30pm and so on over a matter of weeks. if they woke in the night, I would give them a dummie/pacifier and put my hand in the cot to stroke them back to sleep. buy the time they were 5 months they were sleeping 9pm till 6.30pm,and they were and still are perfectly healthy children.

Answer 9

When you feed her around 9pm with a rusk, try giving her a bottle 30mins after the rusk(if you have a routine give rusk 8.30pm), if shes refusing her milk have you considered changing brands as if she for example is still on gold, try white instead as its curd based and fills them for longer(apparently) also when she wakes at 3am and is fully burped, sit in her room settle her until she falls asleep then when shes about to nod off place her in her own bed but make sure she can see you whilst she falls asleep properly.

If that fails to work, try the controlled crying method and although you have another littleone I can understand your reluctancy, as its more work for you, but after a week or so you will know how much it paid off, as I tried everything with my littleone and it seemed to be one thing after the other and in the end the controlled crying worked for me! As the crying alone tires them out after about 15-30mins. Hope this helps and goodluck!

Answer 10

I think she is too young to be sleeping through the night yet. My son was 9 months when he did and that is quite early. Don't get hung up on her getting use to sleeping with you, if it means the whole family get some sleep then it's worth doing. She may need that comfort at the moment. When she refuses to go in her cot at all then you know you have a problem and need to stop her sleeping in your bed. If she goes down on her own you're half way there. Just go with the flow for now.

Answer 11

I woulod try and increase her food intake during the day, and still give her the rusks at night. I used to mix rusks with my kids formula with their last bottle at night just to give them a bit of substance. It worked. Good luck. Not a good idea to take kids into bed with you as they dont want to come out of the habit of that, could be that this is what she wants to tucked in beside you and your partner, I would persevere for a few nights and keep putting her in her cot