Discovery Home & Health

I had a baby girl last September. She slept through from about 3 months, which was fantastic. Lately however I have found that she has been waking in the night again, I find I HAVE to feed her, as I cant just leave her as I have 3 other kids. When she screams for a feed I have to be aware that she will wake the others up. Also I am finding (although I didn't realise until I watched baby whisperer) that I nearly always 'feed her to sleep' now I didnt even realise that was bad lol. I know I already have 3 kids, but I never had this problem with the others (they are all boys, she was my first girl), and I don't think that the baby whisperer is going to knock on my door to rescue me lol. Any one out there got any advice????

Your probably know from your other kids already that once they become mobile they are more hungry. Maybe at this point its worth trying a bottle at night before bed? (its sounds from youe email like you are still breastfeeding- good for you)
Even with formula for extra hungry babies? Or give a bit of yogurt before bed. Being German I actually thicken the bottle with baby oats. This is common practice in Germany and has been very sucessful for us.

But I think you need to establish is she really hungry or is unable to settle herself back to sleep without you. How about a dummy?
Or maybe the kids need to visit Grandma for a couple of days so you can focus on the problem and establish a routine. Both Tracy Hogg and Gina Ford are very useful. Also by the way I found an add recently in familiesmagazine online ( I think) - they were still looking for volunteers for Tracy's show so maybe you could get her to help you after all.

She does have a feed just before she goes to bed, She is bottle fed though not breast (I did try but ended up bleeding from both nipples)

Her routine is this. She has a bath around 7.30pm-8pm, she gets dried, and has a bottle (fed in her room to keep her relaxed) She falls asleep during this bottle and then goes to bed. This is usually around 9pm. She has now started to wake up at 5am. I cant leave her to cry because of the other kids! Not sure what to do now! She only has one nap during the day, after her dinner, she only has about an hour or so. Sometimes she goes straight back to sleep after the feed at 5am which means I can go back to sleep, other times she stays up for the rest of the day, which is exhausting! Does anyone have any ideas? I am not in a position to send the others to grandmas as my mum is disabled, I also have a mentally and physically handicapped son myself.

I do feel for you. It sounds like a really difficult situation. Our little boy did exactly the same thing until we introduced extra solids. So he has breakfast (and bottle) lunch then a yogurt or snack at about 4:00 pm, dinner about 6:00 and then a bottle of creamed oats at 7:00-7:30pm. It seems though by moving his dinner to a time nearer bedtime and adding the afternoon snack (which could be as big as a sandwhich) he has now settled back into a good nights sleep, which he had not done since he started walking a few weeks ago.