CIO/Hunger Question

I am new to LIF and just read the CIO post. I have a quick question and was hoping someone could help.

DD is 11.5 months. She was sleeping well until about 6 or 7 months. She started crying in the middle of the night and DH went into soothe her, she did stop crying. I asked how he did it and he told me he gave her a bottle. Well, needleless to say, she was up every night at different times looking for a bottle that she would take 2 sips of and go back to sleep.

Finally, we tried CIO, which worked pretty well. DD started sleeping from 8pm - 5am when we would give her a bottle, then she would go back to sleep until about 8, 8:30am. That is where we are at now.

Sometimes she will cry around 2am or 3 am, but I will just let her CIO until she falls back to sleep or until at least 4 am when I break down and give her a bottle. But I try to wait until 5am.

My question is do you think I should be giving her that 5 am bottle? Shouldn’t she be able to sleep 12 hours without a feeding?

She gets three meals a day (usually for breakfast - Gerber stage 3 fruit & cereal, fruit for lunch, table food ie. chicken, peas, carrots basically whatever we are eating and a jar of baby food for dinner, 2 snacks and four 6 oz bottles.
I would really appreciate any feedback.

TIA

Re: CIO/Hunger Question

DS just turned a year last week, and never sleeps 12 hours, but he goes from 8PM-6 or 6:30AM. I'm actually jealous of your 12 hour stretch, even if it involves a bottle. That said, DS does still wake up STARVING for a bottle, even when he eats a large plate of pasta, a banana, and a roll, as he did tonight.

You could try weaning off the bottle, giving an ounce less each time, but it might just be that she can't sleep that long. My DH has a middle of the night snack every night (like wakes at 3AM for yogurt or a banana).

Message edited 7/1/2010 9:01:18 PM.

Re: CIO/Hunger Question

I would give her more at bedtime and let her CIO....if after a couple of a days the crying is less and she sleeps, then good, otherwise I guess she's an early riser. Even when she gets up then, can you let her play for like an hour or something, have some milk and then go back to sleep, like a morning nap?