It Is a Good Thing Babies Are Cute! How Do I Get Her to Sleep More?

It sounds like she is having separation anxiety, which starts at around 9 months and usually goes to 18 months or so. Have you tried having dad go to her instead of you? You already have some other good suggestions.

Have you tried offering her only water when she gets up at 11, 1, 3, and 5? I have seen many moms suggest that, and say they have done that, and the kids decide it isn't worth getting up for. So they sleep through.

You said she is getting adequate nourishment during the day, so she doesn't "need" the 2 oz here and there all night long.

Also, even though she eats a good solid meal at dinner at 6:00, do you feed her a bottle just before you put her down for the night? If not, try that.

We all wake up several times a night. We turn over, get more comfortable and go back to sleep. Your daughter needs to learn to do this on her own. You've used the Ferber method to put her to bed, now use it to keep her in bed. Don't go to her the moment she starts fussing, give her time and see if she'll settle herself down.

M

When she wakes, is she screaming or crying?
Or just awake and babbling?
If she is just awake/babbling and not screaming/crying... then let her be.
You don't have to go in and wake her, further.
You don't have to pick her up.
Just let her be, and she may very well go back to sleep herself.
My son was like that as a baby.
I knew... his sounds.
I knew, if I needed to go to him and nurse him, or not... by his sounds.
If he was crying/screaming, I went to him.
If he was simply awake and babbling but otherwise fine and content... I let him be and he'd go back to sleep on his own eventually.

Also, along with all the other developmental changes in a baby at this age... they also may be teething. This wakes them too.

But, my kids as babies, woke a lot.
I nursed them.
They had huge appetites.
But I knew, how my kids were as babies and I went according to their cues.

Keep in mind, that sleep is NEVER static or the same, in babies.
It changes, all the time and per age juncture.
This is all, normal.
No person, still sleeps the same way they did as a baby.
It, changes.
Per age and development.

Getting lack of sleep for the adults, are just how it is.
And sometimes, it is the parents noise that wakes a baby too.
ie: their snoring, or them waking to go to the bathroom and the toilet flushing etc. Things like that, woke my daughter when she was a baby. She had, "bionic" ears and hearing.

Good grief! You have to get ahold of this! She does it because you let her do it, mom. You'll end up in the loony bin if you don't get some sleep!

She's not hungry. She doesn't need to be fed. What she wants is your attention and you're giving it to her.

Time to make her understand that day is day and night is night and at night she has to be without you. The only way you're going to make her understand is to require it of her.

No more night feedings. Fill her tummy up before bedtime (a little cereal helps too) and then no more feeding. If you simply cannot bear a cry-it-out approach, then after 10 minutes of her crying, go in her room and sit on the floor and touch her leg - nothing else. If you are touching her leg, she will lay down in the crib to be closer to you. She WILL cry because she is used to what you have been doing and she will not like the change. Let her cry. Do NOT pick her up. Do not talk to her. Do not look at her. Do not turn on the light. She will finally go to sleep.

If you continue to do this, she will wake less frequently and go to sleep quicker. And you will be teaching her to do what every baby needs to learn - to self-soothe.

If you aren't 100% consistent, you will just be teaching her to cry harder, louder and longer. It's REALLY important that you do the same thing with no deviating so that she realizes that you will not cave in.

I hope you will do this. You need your sleep in order to stay healthy to be a good mom to her.

Try increasing the amount to 4 oz with a pause to burp after 2 oz. She should be taking more than 2 oz at a time.

Is she teething? If so, give her Tylenol or Mortin at bedtime for a few nights.
Or waking out if habit? Try letting her go for a bit and see if she goes back to sleep on her own. Or if you have to get up, feed her only one of the times.
Either way, it's only a phase and it will get better.

This definately sounds like a night waking habit. She is 9 months and healthy and eating solid foods, and she no longer NEEDS to be fed at night, she WANTS to be fed at night (or even more so, she wants your company and for you to help her settle back to sleep). The poster below is absolutely correct. It is normal to wake at night. Now she needs to learn how to get back to sleep on her own. Give her dinner at 6, and a bottle right before bed, then when she wakes at 11 - either do not go to her at all and let her CIO, or do ferber method. (the whole process will go much faster if you do CIO). In fact, once she gets the idea at that 11pm time, she might not even wake up for the other times. She needs to get out of the habit of getting up, and the only real way to do that is to give no incentive for waking up. The every 2 hour deal is exhausting, and IMO, only necessary for newborns and small babies. No reason why a healthy 9 month old needs any night time feedings. I know its not easy to hear your baby cry, but think of it this way: you are protecting her ability to get all the sleep she needs to grow and be healthy and happy, and you are protecting your ability be rested enough to be the best mom you can be. It is not healthy for either of you to continue this kind of sleep depravation. Also, I found the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child" by Marc Weissbluth to be very helpful in understanding and following through with sleep training.

I agree with the suggestions of the below poster, but also wanted to add: Try putting her to sleep on her tummy. She's old enough.