I have an 8 month old little girl and we are having problems getting her to sleep through the night. She started sleeping through the night around 9 weeks. In the last month, she has learned to go from a laying position to a sitting position, and she is now standing up in her crib at night when she cries for us. She wakes up usually between 2 and 4am most nights and thinks that it is time to play. I usually just try to lay her back down in the crib, or rock her, and some nights I feed her a bottle, but that usually doesn't put her back to sleep either. She is up for about 2 hours at a time when this happens. I have tried letting her cry it out, but nothing seems to work. Any suggestions????
Thank you all so much for your suggestions and support! Nothing is harder than being a parent at times and it's so nice to know that we are not the only ones going through something like this. Most everyone said to let her cry it out, so after discussing it with my husband, that is what we did! We checked on her once every time she got up in the middle of the night and cried to make sure she was ok, gave her a hug and kiss while she was still standing in her crib, and then layed her back down with the pacifier in her mouth, and left the room.(She got up twice by the way). She cried for about 5-10 minutes, and eventually layed herself back down and went back to sleep. She woke up in a better mood and better rested then she had in about a week. So did my husband and I! This was only the first night we have done this, but it looks like it might just work. Thank you all for all your support and good wishes!
I read somewhere that babies at this age are learning to calm themselves and the suggestion was to give baby a passifier; we tried this w/my daughter - giving her a passifier when she wakes up and it seems to be working; that, and giving her a heavier meal later in the day for dinner (cereal w/fruit or veggie baby food) has helped.
We went through the same thing with my first son and it lasted for about 6 weeks. We tried everything, but putting a few safe toys in his bed seemed to work. He had something to play with until he went back to sleep.
I too have an 8 month old and he's slept through the night since we brought him home from the hospital and now all of a sudden is waking at night as well. We've tried just letting him cry it out but the only thing that will get him back to sleep is putting him in the bed with us, which we hate to do because we don't want him getting used to it. I don't have an answer to help you but thought i'd let you know you're not the only one out there. hehehe.
My baby was in the healthy but low weight percentile and woke up at least once per night until 11 months. How much does your baby weigh? That might be a factor. Also, the following books are great. I highly recommend them.
Secrets of the Baby Whisperer
Baby Wise
Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child
This is very normal--at different stages of development babies and older children wake up in the night and cannot go back to sleep. Obviously adults also wake up at certain times through the night but we have the cognitive abilites to know that we just need to go back to sleep. My 7 month old started waking up around 3 am a few weeks ago and at first we thought he was hungry and we would get up and do the whole feeding thing. But now we wait it out. We hear him gurgle, laugh, whine, and cry fro an hour or more. Sometimes he stops for a while and then starts again. The same thing happened to my now 7 year-old.
Whatever you do, DO NOT bring baby in bed with you! You are opening up a huge can of worms that you will not be able to close. After waiting it out for 20-30 minutes (hell, I know), go in and lay her back down. Keep everything dark and quiet. Wind up her mobile to play music or a stuffed animal that plays music. Or, have a CD player in the room and buy some soothing music (they sell baby-soothing music but you can use yoga-type relaxation or meditation music too. My baby also likes Enya!). You might not want to start the whole feeding thing because that is another thing she will get attached to--plus her system will get used to being fed at that time and then she will start waking up just for that feeding-another can of worms you don't want. I hope this helps, and good luck!
Hello R.,
Yes, sleeping though the night is a must in my house :-) I suggest you get the book "On Becoming Baby Wise". I love this book and have suggested this book to many many friends and they all have loved it as well. He teaches tips and techniques that will definatley help you. After 3 days of taking his advice I had my 3 1/2 month old sleeping throught the night and my 2nd and 3rd child slept throught the night right away. Good luck!
God Bless you and your family. K.
Check out www.babywhisperer.com I know many mothers who have been successful and very happy with that approach.
My son is now 19 months old and we had this same problem, more than likely what is happening is she is waking up by rolling over or what not and then sitting up, and then doesn't know how to lay herself back down. When this was going on with us we would of course get up, make a small bottle of milk, like 4 oz, then turn off all the lights in the living room and then get him give him his milk, he had 30 minutes, so once the 30 minutes were up I would tell him that it was still night- night time and show him Daddy and the animals sleeping, he would go back to bed and sometimes he would fuss for 10 minutes or so but would always fall back to sleep. It went like this on and off for a couple of weeks but he grew out of it. I don't know if this will help your little girl, but isn't anything worth a try!! Good Luck
Make sure that she is fed well at dinner. she may be hungry. Possibly having a headache or tummy ache. Try to find out.
Maybe putting her to bed a little later. You didn't say when she went to bed, so possibally keeping her up a little later, she'll sleep longer. I was going to suggest just giving her a bottle, but you said you did that.
When my little one wakes up in the middle of the night I don't pick her up. Instead, I hug her as she stands there and say a few loving things to her and then tell her it is night-night time. If I picked my daughter up, she'd be up for a party too - and up for hours on end. However, this isn't good for her or for you. I know it is hard.
Also, she may not have figured out how to get back down from standing yet. So, try laying her back down and telling her it is night-night time. My son did that at about this time. He was standing in his crib, but hadn't figured out how to lay back down yet and would cry until I laid him down again.
Hang in there!
I had the same issue! It turns out, he was getting ready to walk, and just couldn't settle his little body down. Whatever you do, don't start playtime. Keep everything dark and quiet. Rock and sing if you have to. We just waited it out, and once he started to walk (at 9 months) he was fine. (We're not big fans of the "cry it out" theory for kids under age 1.)It was restless energy. He just wanted to practice his new skills all the time! It was exhausting, but like all phases and behaviors, this too shall pass.
My babies new teeth coming in caused her to wake up at night. Maybe a little pain killer for her (under doctors orders of course)before bed will help her out.
L.
Hi R.,
I can't offer really any advice yet. I am having the exact same issue. Tonight, I will be starting the cry it out method and my heart breaks to think of it. We tried last week and got through 4 days and he was doing better, then he developed a fever and I had to stop. I don't believe it is right to do that to them when they are sick. I guess I am just writing to let you know I feel for you and I am right there with you. Everyone keeps telling me to just hang in there and it will eventually happen. I hope so. Sorry I can't be more helpful, just know I am in the same situation and I'll be sending you good wishes...
A lot of times when kids first learn to stand up they are not yet as adept at sitting themselves gently back down - so they wind up standing there stuck standing and crying! I think you are doing the right thing by laying him back down, tryi to soothe him, keep the lights out, jeep it a sleepy time situation. He is probably little surprised at the new night time waking situation too, but you can help him learn to put himself back to sleep. It make take a little while and some frustration - it's kind of like when you first helped him learn to go to sleep on his own instead of being rocked or fed to sleep. We hit this retraining phase again when my son figured out how to climb down from his big boy bed (my boys went to a big bed at 13 months and 16 months, befor they could climb out of bed well) and then again when they learned they could open the door to their room and escape! Each time we had to sort of relearn a bed time routine - it was all part of growing through the stages. But we would up with healthy sleepers who know how to put themselves back to bed.
Our daughter, who is almost 8 months old, started something very similar last month. Our pediatrician told us three things:
1. Could be that she's trying out her new moves during her sleep. Almost like sleep walking, they "practice" new things they've learned (rolling over, sitting up) in their sleep.
2. Could be that she needs more calories through the night because she's hit a growing spurt. She advised us to add some cereal to her veggies at night to "bulk up" in fiber, which will last longer through the night. (This actually worked for us.)
3. Could be teething. They told us to give her a little Tylenol before bed to see if that helped. It did - although I think it was the addition of more cereal to the last meal that helped.
I totally agree with Amy C's response. My son was waking up like this at 6 months, and our pedi said that if we continued to allow it, we were robbing him and ourselves of sleep. Letting him cry was the only thing that worked, because being with us was really keeping him awake. If you decide to cry it out, stick to you - if you don't and you go in after an hour, you've just let your baby cry for an hour for nothing.
A pacifier also worked wonders for our son - we now keep a stash in the corner of his crib for when he wakes up at night. He also has a blankie that comforts him - when I hear him awake and turn on our video monitor during the night, I can often see him stroking the silky edge of the blankie, which I think is adorable!
Good luck to you! It was so hard for me to let my son cry, but my pedi's advice and knowing that it was better in the long run for everyone to have a full night's sleep helped me stick to it.
I would just wait it out. Try not to talk or stimulate the baby further. Is there a nighttime toy thing that you could try? Like a new mobile that projects on the ceiling? Or a new sleeping CD? That might help.
We don't let our kids CIO without us holding them or sitting in their sight. I think it's mean. They're just babies, afterall. So I've had to just fall asleep on the floor next to the crib several times with all of my kids. They're not abandoned but you're not encouraging them to chat and giggle and shoot those smiles at you at 2am when you just want to sleep!
Good luck. It happens to most of us. And we all get through it.....eventually. They'll be away at college soon! Keep focusing on that! =)
The only thing that worked for us (and I didn't try it until after her 1st bday last month- wish I'd done it sooner!) was to let her cry. I tried EVERYTHING else because I hated hearing that sweet baby cry, but I couldn't rock 4 or 5 hours a ight anymore I was pooped. Instead of getting better with age she was getting worse- much worse.
We did our wind down routine, laid her down 9of course she got back up, but we didn't come back right away) and left the room. Every 10 minutes we went in and told her night night, I love you- then laid her down and left again. It took us almost an hour (which is really not a long time by most people's standards so brace yourself) but since that night she has slept 10 to 12 hours at a time and she no longer cries at all when we put her down. One small time of misery equals NIGHTS of peace! My daughter is so much happier now that she's getting rest and so is her mommy!
Let me add- I thought I had tried letting her cry, but I hadn't really because after an amount of time I was picking her up and rocking (really making the situation worse). You CAN"T pick her up if you decide to do this. You can offer her a sip of water (in her crib) or change her diaper quickly- no cuddling- and set her back down immediatly- but that's it!
Oh and we have our daughter attached to using her blanky for comfort too and she uses a pacifier- both help her sleep without me there.
