Out of ideas

Hi Plien,

That's really tough. Does she eat well during the day? If so, I'd stop giving bottles at night so it doesn't become a habit. My oldest only gets water if he wakes up at night. But I keep everything dark, give him a little pat... a kiss, and then go back to bed. Or if he's really upset, I stay with him a bit longer.

Another thing that helps is not showing any hesitation... be very firm.

But crying for 4 hours at night? That's a long time for such a little one? Did you do that for a long time?

She probably wants the bottle?

I gave mine a bottle and a clean diaper and let her drink the bottle alone without sitting with her. Then I just went back to bed. It gradually got better on its own. The youngest is almost three now and still wakes up occasionally, just like everyone else.

Hi Plien,
Maybe it won't help you at all, but I'll share our experience. When our son was going to sleep, we always stayed in his room for just a little while until he fell asleep (dom dom dom, I know now). As a result, when he woke up at night, we had to repeat that ritual. Unfortunately, around 14 months, he started waking up a lot during the night. So I ended up standing by his bed for half the night, waiting for him to fall asleep. Again, learned behavior, and super dumb of us. As you can imagine, I wanted to get rid of this. Night 1 was crying, crying, and more crying. Every time I went to him, stroked his head until he calmed down, and then I left. Just to show him I was still there. The intervals between my visits became longer and longer. This ritual went on all night. He only slept for very short periods before crying again. On night 2, we continued, but it went better. I think until the early morning. On night 3, he was only sad when falling asleep. Since then, we haven't had any more problems with falling asleep or waking up at night. For us, it was just a matter of sticking with it. Not easy, because your mother's heart breaks when that little one is so sad, and it's really exhausting.
I understand that the problems we had are different from yours. Anyway, I wish you lots of strength and hope things get better soon.
Love,

My colleague's baby did the same thing. Was over 1 year old and still had multiple night bottles that he drank empty as if he never got anything to drink.

That baby turned out to have a certain metabolic disorder (which wasn't picked up on at the newborn heel prick test).
But was also regularly unexplainedly sick (fever etc.).

Maybe pay a visit to the GP..

Hey everyone, thanks! She's been a poor sleeper since birth. Every night she wakes up 2-3 times for sure. And because I breastfed, she's also used to being held and drinking. We switched from breastfeeding to bottle feeding. And whenever she woke up again, she got a bottle. This is obviously learned behavior. She gets 100 ml per time, and she's happy with that. It's not about hunger or thirst for her, but about comfort. We tried giving her water instead of milk. But she gets upset. She doesn't buy it, I guess. And skipping the bottle didn't work either... She cries until she gets her bottle of milk. Now, it's not about that bottle of milk for me. But more about... Why does she sleep so lightly? Why does she suddenly startle awake? It's really getting to her. How can I help her sleep deeply?