HELP! My 9Mo Stopped Sleeping Through the Night and ONLY Breastfeeds!

Our son was strictly breastfed till 9 months. Then we had him on baby food for 1 week and straight to TABLE FOOD. Try giving him what you are eating. He may take to that better than baby food...... Although there were still days till he was 1 that he would chose ONLY nursing. So we just nursed a lot those days. Breastmilk has everything he needs. God made mamma milk perfect. As tiring as it gets, it's good to know that you are doing the best you can for him!

And for nursing at night.... Well, our son got up MULTIPLE times a night till he was 18 months and we weaned..... So, I'm not much help there. All I can say is enjoy it now because once he's done nursing you will miss it.

im sure you have gotten lots of information that other moms have tried and worked out with their kids.

what i would say is that even if it has been a long long time and hes still not "back to normal" then i would say that this IS the new normal. babies are anything BUT predictable. sleep is never constant, eating is never constant. one thing you can rely on is that they will eat when they are hungry, and babies can go for hours without eating, and it wont hurt anything. its likely he is just waiting for you to get home, and he would rather take it from the source, and that means now that he wants to do it all night long. put it this way; after being away from you he would much rather just wait for you and have that bonding time back again than to have to go to sleep without you again.

one thing i did that i KNOW works, is i bedshared with my son until he was between 15-17 months and stopped nursing at night. i literally didnt have to "wake up" i could just get him latched on and go back to sleep. it was beautiful. and NO it did NOT spoil my son or make him rely on me to have to sleep, aroudn 15-17 months he slept all night on his own in his own bed, and i didnt have to make him cry it out or anything. he just did it because he knew instinctivly that if he did need me, i would be accepting to that.

i think when it comes to sleep, and nursing (congrats on nursing !! :)) the more you just adjust YOUR life to what your baby needs right now, the better your baby will advance to the next stage in life. the more you can make your baby confident that you are in tune to his needs and will fulfill them, the more confident he is in you as his mother, and the more safe he is gonna feel just in general. never making my son cry it out lead to a boy who has never thrown a tantrum at bedtime, always just trusts us enough to know when its time, and that works both ways. not only does our son trust us, but we trust him too. we never automatically assume that hes being bad if hes really tired, or that hes being annoying when hes just wanting some attention, and a connection. the more you listen, the more the bond grows, and you CAN literally have a 2 year old that is not 'terrible' because you know underneath what the issue really is. its been amazing to watch my son and just know what he needs without a huge fight.

anyway just do what you gotta do. people are gonna tell you that you are wrong no matter which way you do things, so its always best to just do whats in your heart, even if it seems like it goes against everything you have been told or everything you did the first time around. you know inside what your baby needs, dont be ashamed to do it. only you have to answer for how you are as a parent, no one else, so own that and make the choice based on what you know you need to do. thats what i did, and i couldnt be happier as a mom! :)

He won't let himself starve. babies don't have that kind of thinking. once they get hungry enough they'll eat whether its what they want or not. Also, with the teething, try giving him infant tylenol. It worked with our daughter when she did the same thing. And baby orajel too. at that age, he shouldn't need to feed in the middle of the night anymore, and when our daughter did the same thing, we told our doctor about it and he said we had to just let her cry herself back to sleep. so the next night when she woke up, we checked her diaper and put her back in her crib. it took a few weeks of intense crying at night, but she finally went back to sleeping through the night. it's not fun or easy to let them cry it out, but that was our doctor's only advice since she was at an age where she shouldn't need a bottle at night.

good luck!

My two were BOTH horrible sleepers. Took them until 5 yrs old to sleep all the way through the night. Not encouraging hey -- BUT, 5 hours is actually considered sleeping through the night. I totally understand though - how exhausted you are. Plus - I always still had to drag my butt to work every day too. Anyway - here's my 2 cents - it helped with my first one. They need to learn how to calm themselves down w/out Mommy. I half to say though - I don't think I started doing this until he was like 15 months, after the nursing was done. I would go into his room and say "it's time for sleep" and I'd rub his back (or feet in my daughter's case) and hum a lullaby. I'd close my eyes - don't make eye contact, don't talk - it's sleep time. He'd try and get up, I'd lay him back down. Gradually I make my way out of his room - first sitting on the floor w/ my back to him. Eventually, I could sit outside his room and he'd learned to put himself to sleep. Then, when they started popping out of bed to see what I was doing, I'd just put them back. Sounds tedious, but it wasn't so bad - and the two of them did learn that bed time is sleep time. They still like me to rub backs and feet occasionally but that's ok - I enjoy every cuddle. Not sure if this helps - good luck. This too shall pass.

J.,
My daughter NEVER took a bottle. I feel for you. We tried everything. One thing that worked for her, was sippy cups with straws. It has to be a straw that isn't to difficult to suck through (some are really hard and he wont' figure that out). She was just facinated with the straw. She actually started it around 7 months, so you son is old enough. If that isn't your thing, we also had really good luck with the NUBY cups. Those aren't leakproof if dropped, but they are very easy for babies to have success with. So at this point, skip the bottle. Go for some sort of do-it-himself cup that he will think is fun. Start with juice, since it's sweet and will get him into trying it out. After he has the hang of it, switch it over to milk. Good luck!

My older son started waking up more at night when he started crawling and pulling himself up. Probably your baby is more mobile now than he was at 7 months, and that could be part of the issue. Whenever babies are on the verge of a big developmental milestone or motor skills achievement, they can start waking up a lot.

Have you tried offering him finger food, like cheerios or peas? Sometimes when a baby starts refusing mashed-up solid food he is ready for finger food.

My kids were pretty late to get into solids--around 8 or 9 months of age they were still only eating a few spoonfuls a day. They picked up their intake around 10 months of age.

I'm not sure what to tell you about the expo.. is there anyone else other than your husband like a grandparent that he will more readily take a bottle from? Maybe if there is, that person could help. Maybe he doesn't like the bottle because it flows too fast? I don't really know because I've either pumped or formula fed, son wouldn't ever latch. If you feel like trying it, pick up a breastflow bottle (by first years I think) its made to immitate more closely the sucking motion they'd have to make at the breast. They claim it helps improve latch etc for children that have problems so maybe it will help your little one accept the bottle more readily because the flow will be similar. Just an idea!

For the sleeping issues: have you tried teething tablets? I'm usually weary of giving Tylenol/Motrin all the time (like you we've been having the teething fun for months now) and I feel a little better about the tablets because they're homeopathic. You can find a few different brands out there, I've only tried Hylands and I found them at babies r us, but I've also seen them at wal-mart.

Teething isn't the only thing that will wake them up around this time. I've been told by SEVERAL ladies that around 6-9 months it can be like having a newborn again because of the teething and developmental milestones. Its very normal for babies to wake up several times at night (though they don't always alert us that they need something) and sometimes they feel the need to get a practice session in. Maybe the nursing is comfort nursing if he hasn't changed eating habits during the day (ie- growth spurt). Maybe you can try a teething ring or something like that raz paci that really isn't a paci but has textures all over it for teething.

Hope some of that helps!

i know you're wearing thin, but hang in there. i just got through this about a month ago and it felt like eternity. my son always was a good eater and sleeper and like a lightswitch it had just stopped. we're finally back to the normal routine. i did nurse him much more often, especially through the night. but we also used the teething tablets and some tylenol/motrin. he still got up but at least i knew the pain was better. i promise you it will pass...my son cut 6 teeth before it happened...i already dread the next handful. nurse often and just keep at the foods. good luck!