Our little guy has always been a bad sleeper and very hard to soothe. We started sleep training at about 4 months and decided to go cold turkey because it seemed that he got more upset when we went in to him. It seemed to work and then a couple of weeks later started crying again. And this has been a pattern up till now. At about 8 months he started sleeping from about 7:00 at night till 5:00 in the morning. I would feed him and he would sleep till 7:00. Beautiful! This lasted for about a month and a half. Two weeks ago he started waking up at other times in the night, acting fussier and really throwing a fit at bedtime. Turns out he had a cold and an ear infection, but now he's been taking his medicine for a week and seems to be mostly over his cold, but the sleep has not gotten better. I wonder if it's maybe separation anxiety, but when I come in to get him in the morning or after naps he doesn't act happy to see me. He cries! Also, since this whole change two weeks ago, he started taking 45 min. to an hour naps again, where he used to take naps an average of 1 1/2 hrs. I've really been diligent about trying to give him good sleep after reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. I put him down for a nap around 9:00 and another at 1:00, and then give him an early bedtime (6:30/7:00). So why isn't it working???
Hun I would not lay him down at 9 am just the 1pm nap... i did this with all three of my kids... but then again we are all up no later then 730 am here so my kids go down between noon and 1 pm and are in bed no later t hen 9 pm...
Your son sounds like a similar sleeper to my daughter. She was VERY difficult to soothe as a baby and we had to go cold turkey when we sleep-trained at 4 mos. old because if we went in there, but didn't actually put her back to sleep, she got even more mad. She's 2-1/2 now and, although things are much, much better, I don't think she'll ever be a great sleeper. Trust me, I've tried!!!!
I've really liked Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It seems to have been the right fit for my daughter's personality and sleep habits (or lack of sleep habits!). Using that along with a lot of trial and error for each sleep battle we've encountered (just when one is resolved, another pops up) has helped. Anything from varying levels of cry it out, tweaking the routine before bed or nap, playing around with nap times (but I think the book has wise recommendations on amount of sleep to shoot for), even changes in her room have helped (we added roller shades and blinds to her windows to block out all the light we can).
Just make sure you eliminate the possibility that he may still be sick. If you think he's well, he may be just more attached since being sick--almost every time my daughter's been sick, we've had to break some bad sleep habits afterwards again!
Good luck and if you do find a magic solution, let me know. I'd love to know about it myself!! :-)
You may want to talk to your dr. There are sleep disorders which can cause abnormal sleep problems and the children are often not happy when they wake because their sleep wasn't restful and sleeping is hard on them, so they cry alot. Maybe nothing, but worth looking into.
Could his medicine not be strong enough? My son had an ear infection and it seemed to get better after a short while, but then his sleep started getting messed up again. Come to find out, he still had a little bit of infection left, so he was put on a stronger medicine which completely got rid of it. Just a thought....
The ear infection might be clear but could there still be fluid in his ears? This is uncomfortable when lying flat. Also, molars can be painful to cut. They caused a lot of discomfort for all of my children. Check to see if those 1 year molars are coming in. The teeth could be putting pressure on the inner ear and if there is fluid in there it could hurt. (this was a problem for child #2) Good luck - my 18mo old (Child #3) was always a great sleeper and after this last illness/cold we have been having battles.
Maybe he is unhappy to see you because you ignored him all night! I know that sounds harsh, but it sounds like he really needs you at nighttime and daytime and is really frusterated and sad that you are not listening to him. Beware of sleep training! How can you know what your baby is trying to tell you if you ignore him?? I would HIGHLY recommend the Dr Sears books to you. He puts a lot of perspective on nighttime wakings...
I would take him back to the doctor to make sure that his ears truly are fine and that there isn't something else physiclally wrong. That's what is sounds like to me.
Good advice I think so far, and I will add that after illness both my kids were more "attached" than before. We'd have to work back to sleeping without all kinds of mommy love (it's exhausting, but what else can you do?). Another thought is that he could be teething. 10 mos is actually when both my girls started getting teeth and I didn't even consider teeth for a while with my first because we hadn't had any yet. I'd guess that the wake up crying has to do with poor sleep and will go when he gets some good rest.
I've found that a good test for "does he just want you, or is something else the problem" is to see if he settles down immediately when you're there. If he does, then it's probably not primarily hunger, thirst, diaper change or pain - he just wants you. If that's the case, then you can implement whatever "mommy presence weaning" technique you like. My youngest (18 mos) is not a great sleeper but does infinitely better if someone else puts her down to bed (I've just noticed this). Not practical for every night, and if I'm home I'm there for her "tuck in," but I have found that if Grandma or a babysitter puts her down, she sleeps through the night much more consistently. This tells me she thinks I'm soft (which, I promise you, I am not). Lately we've implemented something we did with my oldest, and that is that after the limit (we set it based on age, need, nursing issues or not, etc.) my husband goes in to settle her down again - not me. Sometimes that meant one tuck in with me and you're done, sometimes it meant after the first " check-up" it was over with mom, and sometimes it was whenever I figured out that my oldest was playing games (or my hubby was finally home from a late night of work) and that was it. No more mom. It seemed to help (especially after 2 yrs or so). With my 18 month old it seems to be helping a bit now. Something to try now or in the future. Good luck!
Hi N.,
There is a developmental Coach that could possibly give you some insight into how to handle this situation. She is Dr. Katharine Leslie
Her e-mail is ____@____.com
Another resource can be ODU development center and calling CHKD help line.
Good luck. D.
My 16 month old is doing this too. During the day, try moving to just one nap instead of two.
For the night time, my DDs routine is bath, bottle and calm down, bed. She's been waking 2 - 3 times a night. Wet diaper, hungry again, etc. The dr. said to give her the bottle BEFORE I went to her room - bottle, bath, bed. I've tried it for 5 days now and she's slept through the night each night.
Just a thought.
M.
To be honest, he may have just gotten back into the pattern of being up in the night again. However, if he's waking up unhappy, I'd take him back for a recheck a the pediatrician.
ya know some kids just dont need that much sleep.so try cutting out one of his naps and putting him to bed a little later like say 8:oopm and see what happens. my little guy who is now two wasnt sleeping realy good when i had him on two naps a day and early bed times. so i threw out the rule books and just started giving him one nap in the middle of the day and putting him to bed at 8pm and voala!! he sleeps perfectly through the night and doesnt wake up till 7am and he actually takes like a 2 hour nap in the day. so just try it. good luck
