Could use some advice- Lilly (almost 9 months) keeps waking at night & I'm exhausted-HELP!

Lilly is almost 9 mos old (corected age 7 mos since she's a preemie). I have gotten her to STTN maybe 2 weeks out of her 9 months of life.
We put her down around 8:15-8:30pm.
She is constantly waking around 3 or 4 am, not screaming or crying, just wants to be awake. Last night she woke @ 2:15 & was up till 5ish-until I gave her the bottle. She will sleep till 8-9am (unless woken by her big sister).
She naps around 11am for an hour- hour and a half usually and again around 3ish for an hour or so.
I have tried my Baby Whisperer book, swaddling so she stops wiggling around so much & calms down, rocking, nothing helps. The only thing that seems to work is a bottle, but I don't want to give it to her that early b/c don't want her to get in the habit of waking up for it, you know? She is a CHUNKER, and eats what I think is PLENTY during the day, so I truly don't think she's hungry. I just think a warm bottle finally knocks her out.
I am BEYOND exhausted, haven't slept well in 9 months, and still have to be bright-eyed & bushy tailed for Alex, my 4 year old. Sorry if this has typos & sounds like rambling, but I am out of steam. Has anyone been here? Any advice????
TIA.

ETA bedtime.

Message edited 3/22/2010 8:11:12 AM.

Re: Could use some advice- Lilly (almost 9 months) keeps waking at night & I'm exhausted-HELP!

What time is she going to bed at night? you didn't say. Is it possible she is overtired? I would try putting her to bed earlier for the night. If she seems hungry in the night, I personally would just feed her. I'd be more concerned about her going back to bed and sleeping well than her nighttime feeding habits right now. hope it gets better soon.

Re: Could use some advice- Lilly (almost 9 months) keeps waking at night & I'm exhausted-HELP!

IMO, at this age, if you keep giving her the bottle at night, she will keep waking for it. If the doctor isn't concerned about her weight, I would feed her more during the day. My DS was always big for his age, in the 90th or higher percentile for height and weight. He was a good sleeper, but would start waking up again at 3-4 am when he needed to be eating more during the day.

At the 4 month visit, the ped told me to stop giving him the 3 am bottle. She said to start giving him a 4oz. bottle of water and if he truly was hungry, he would take it, but if he refused it, it meant he was just waking out of habit. I tried this - the first night he took a sip, the second night he refused it, third night he didn't wake me up.

I also had a CD player in his room and sometimes if he woke during the night, I would play classical music on a very low volume and put him back down in the crib. This often helped get him back to sleep too.

The other thing I wanted to add was that if he wasn't crying, I didn't go in. Even if he was in the crib for a few hours, if he was happy, babbling or moving around, as long as he was quiet, I stayed out of his room and I still do that.

I don't know if any of this helps, but thought maybe it might. Good luck!

Message edited 3/22/2010 9:42:36 AM.

Re: Could use some advice- Lilly (almost 9 months) keeps waking at night & I'm exhausted-HELP!

My Son is nearly 8 months and he wakes three times per night still - I feed him two of those times. I also have a four year old so feel your pain! I asked Ped #1 should I stop feeding him at night and she said yes then I asked Ped #2 the same question and he said if he is hungry feed him - no doubt about it - why would I deny him food when he is obviously hungry? So I feed him - he is EBF. He is also a chunker.

I honestly believe that DS is hungry at night and I think its a lot to do with how distracted he is during the day and sometimes he doesnt feed so well so naturally he would be hungry at night.

If I were you I would feed her at the 2.30 feeding and maybe she will last longer then.

Thats my two cents- I will do anything for sleep.

Re: Could use some advice- Lilly (almost 9 months) keeps waking at night & I'm exhausted-HELP!

I had issues around this time-- and I just had to bite the bullet.

I put Sasha down much earlier-- we start getting her ready at 6 and it's lights out at 6 30... Do you think Lily is ready for an earlier bedtime?

I would also try sleep training-- I couldn't d CIO extinction, but did Feber-- where I would go in every few mins. I would also fall back on the boob as that was the only way to get her back to sleep, but eventually that will stop working, as it did for me. But at that age-- they don't NEED to eat, so they just want some attention.

Do you also do anything at bedtime that really signifies night time? I read the same book every night, and she only gets to see it/ play with it at bedtime. I also put the mobile music on. For naps I use the soother, so it's different music. If I am really having a problem in the middle of the night, I will put the music on again-- so she knows-- it's still time to sleep!

Sasha sleeps 12 hours at night, and takes p!ss poor naps, but at night she's pretty good unless she is having an issue.