Hi moms. I have a 9 month old son who STOPPED sleeping through the night one month ago! At that time he had croup & 2 new teeth coming in. Our bedtime routine is 1-2 jars of baby food mixed with oatmeal around 6:15. Bath. Lights dimmed while we dress in jammies. Story. 6 oz bottle around 7:00. We put him to bed drowsy but awake.
The problem - he cries out during the night. We sleep with a baby monitor because our bedroom is on the other side of the house so we can't hear him if he's screaming (nice someday). My husband is the one who gets up with him but when he gets in the room, our baby has his eyes closed & is crying. Sometimes it's only for seconds & sometimes it's over 20 minutes of crying.
Any ideas why this happens or what I can do about it?
Humm? Could it be night terrors? My daughter was about your son's age when she started having them. She didn't grow out of it until she was about 2 1/2
They appear to be awake but stare out into the distance. Scream/cry out- they can even get violent by slappng or pushing. I'm sure you can find info on the net about this.
Good luck to you-H.
My little girl did the same thing when she was even younger! I can't remember exactly how long of a time period it was, but it started around 4 months and maybe lasted 2-3 months. I was so perplexed about it at first. She would cry and cry and I finally realized that she was asleep, eyes closed, all of it. She did move around some during it. At the 6 month check the doctor said maybe it was dreams...really not sure. But IT DID GO AWAY! She's four now and sleeps like a champ and has for a long time!
If he isn't awake when he is crying it could be night terrors all of my kids have had them at one point in thier childhood, don't let the name scare you, really they are nothing more then a child waking up crying for no reason at night and still being asleep, each one of my kids had to be handeled differently, the younger they were I found just soothing thier backs w/out picking them up was best, they have no recollection of them in the morning, it is a phase and will go away on thier own, each of mine kids lasted for different time frames from a couple of weeks to 6 months, the older they were the less involvement I had cause it just seemed to make it worse, my know 15 year old boy had them the longest and the only way to get him to stop was to go in his room and tell him to knock it off and go to sleep, but in the morning he would have no memory of it, my 16 year old got them at about the same age as your daughter and I found that if I just left her alone, no touching, or talking to that w/in 20 minutes or so she would be back asleep, and with my know 6 year old I would have to just go in and gently rub his back, and making a shushing type noise, actually it's a native american sound it was more of an ah ah sound and that would soothe him back to sleep in about 5 minutes,
Don't forget that sometimes it takes baby a while to get back into a sleeping pattern after teething or colds,it's like starting all over again, also turn your monitor down, so that you aren't hearing so much of the sounds he's making, have your husband go in the room and "cry" at a level that isn't to loud and keep it at that setting so that anything above a loud moan is all you hear. I don't know if I was any help but good luck, I know the feeling of no sleep and it sucks.
T.,
My guess might be gas pains. Try some gas drops in his formula and see if it helps. You can get them over the counter at Walmart and they are safe. Talk to the pharmacist if you have questions about them or need help finding them.
My two cents,
TRUDI
When I asked my dr. about them, she said to wake the child up 1/2 hour after he fell asleep and put him down again. This breaks the sleep cycle and the night terrors will stop.
Good Luck!
deb
I asked our dr. about this my son was doing this a little. From what he told me this is what they call night terrors. He said not to pick him up as waking him may scare him. Just let him cry it out.
My baby (now 11 months) did this, too. I asked the doctor about it at his 9 month appointment, and he said that it's very common for babies to have nightmares at that age. He said it's usually caused by separation anxiety. My baby didn't seem to have any other signs of separation anxiety, so I don't know if that was causing it, but it only lasted for about three weeks.
There were times when he'd go right back to sleep and other times when he'd cry for really long periods of time, but the good news is it went away, and hopefully your baby will grow out of it quickly, too.
(Unfortunately my baby didn't sleep any better afterwards, but at least the screaming stopped)
I never had this when my kids were younger but they do this now once and awhile. I just gently wake them up enough to bring them out of the dream and rub their back until they go back to sleep. In the morning they say something about a monster getting them or getting lost or something.
Hey Tam,
Do night terrors start this young? That's what is sounds like...when you can't wake them but they are still crying. I've heard that if you try to intervene, it makes things worse. Look into night terrors, and see if that's what it is.
Good luck
Tam
