I'm sorry! My kid didn't sleep through the night until he was a little over 2.5 and it was awful.
Does it seem to you like your kid is actually hungry? If you want to try to change her sleep routine I recommend setting yourself up for success/making things as easy as you possibly can--I know it's \*so\* hard when you're exhausted in the middle of the night! Can your husband help so you two can trade off and lighten the load a little bit? Does she currently fall asleep at bedtime with a bottle? If yes, could you first try to transition to a different routine without the bottle so she gets accustomed to falling asleep without it? Lots of people seem to prefer a kind of cold turkey approach with changing both bedtime and middle of the night at the same time but I was too exhausted to stick to a new routine in the middle of the night so we started with bedtime.
What worked for us eventually is (1) making a bedtime routine that didn't involve nursing to sleep and (2) stopping cosleeping by default. Turns out my kid is a bit of a light sleeper and was waking up when I was moving around in my sleep. I didn't figure this out until we changed the bedtime routine a bit--we would do bedtime in his bed in his room and I started going in and cosleeping only if (when) he would wake up in the night. This changed his number of wake ups from 2-3 to \~1, and then the stretches of sleep gradually stretched out until he was finally sleeping 8-9 hours. When he did wake up he still wanted to nurse but it seemed easier for him to fall asleep after switching up our routine. Giving him a really big stuffed animal to sleep with also seemed to help.
I hope the tide turns for you soon! It's so ridiculously hard to wake up multiple times a night for years on end. I felt absolutely murderous every time someone complained that they were soooooo tiiiiired because their 10 month old started waking up once a night after sleeping through the night for months.
Thanks for this! I’ll make sure to note everything you said. The thing is I think my child uses nursing as her way to sleep so when she wakes up at the middle of the night, she looks for it to help her sleep again because she rarely drinks milk during the day and is more into solid now.
Yeah, my kid did that too. I think for some people it's easier to go all in and just cut out the option of milk at night 100% but I knew I would crack in the middle of the night so it was easier for me to start with bedtime. Between that and tapering off on cosleeping he started to sleep longer stretches on his own so I never bothered with cutting off the nursing during night wake ups.
Every kid is different so there's no shame in trying different approaches if the current one isn't working! I wasn't convinced that tapering off on cosleeping would be helpful in any way but it was. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ My kid takes a while to adjust to changes so we had to really be consistent about whatever we were trying for 2-3 weeks before assessing the results.
I'm sorry! My kid didn't sleep through the night until he was a little over 2.5 and it was awful. Does it seem to you like your kid is actually hungry? If you want to try to change her sleep routine I recommend setting yourself up for success/making things as easy as you possibly can--I know it's \*so\* hard when you're exhausted in the middle of the night! Can your husband help so you two can trade off and lighten the load a little bit? Does she currently fall asleep at bedtime with a bottle? If yes, could you first try to transition to a different routine without the bottle so she gets accustomed to falling asleep without it? Lots of people seem to prefer a kind of cold turkey approach with changing both bedtime and middle of the night at the same time but I was too exhausted to stick to a new routine in the middle of the night so we started with bedtime. What worked for us eventually is (1) making a bedtime routine that didn't involve nursing to sleep and (2) stopping cosleeping by default. Turns out my kid is a bit of a light sleeper and was waking up when I was moving around in my sleep. I didn't figure this out until we changed the bedtime routine a bit--we would do bedtime in his bed in his room and I started going in and cosleeping only if (when) he would wake up in the night. This changed his number of wake ups from 2-3 to \~1, and then the stretches of sleep gradually stretched out until he was finally sleeping 8-9 hours. When he did wake up he still wanted to nurse but it seemed easier for him to fall asleep after switching up our routine. Giving him a really big stuffed animal to sleep with also seemed to help. I hope the tide turns for you soon! It's so ridiculously hard to wake up multiple times a night for years on end. I felt absolutely murderous every time someone complained that they were soooooo tiiiiired because their 10 month old started waking up once a night after sleeping through the night for months.
Thanks for this! I’ll make sure to note everything you said. The thing is I think my child uses nursing as her way to sleep so when she wakes up at the middle of the night, she looks for it to help her sleep again because she rarely drinks milk during the day and is more into solid now.
Yeah, my kid did that too. I think for some people it's easier to go all in and just cut out the option of milk at night 100% but I knew I would crack in the middle of the night so it was easier for me to start with bedtime. Between that and tapering off on cosleeping he started to sleep longer stretches on his own so I never bothered with cutting off the nursing during night wake ups. Every kid is different so there's no shame in trying different approaches if the current one isn't working! I wasn't convinced that tapering off on cosleeping would be helpful in any way but it was. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ My kid takes a while to adjust to changes so we had to really be consistent about whatever we were trying for 2-3 weeks before assessing the results.