Help with 7 Month Old Not Sleeping Through the Night Still!

I don't have much advice for you, just wanted to let you know that you are not alone. :)
All babies are different and have different needs. My son has always been VERY active and at almost 15 months is STILL waking up to breast feed several times a night. I believe that if they are still eating when they wake up, they need it. They are babies and don't just eat out of habit like adults do. Also, they are learning so many things and growing so fast, that it's very normal for their sleep to be disrupted quite a bit for the first 2 years (sometimes more) of their lives.
I wish I had a real solution (for both of us!), but I think they just have to outgrow it.

My youngest will be eight months on the 14th. He too is still not sleeping through the night. Even with three solid meals a day and nursing right before bed. M middle son is two and still doesnt sleep through the night. He will wake up screaming about one to two times per night. only a handful of times will he make it all night and in his bed. My oldest does sleep through the night but he gets up and in with us. I realize I offer no help but support. You're not alone in this...there are alot of us moms walking around in the middle of the night with you!!! keep your chin up, things will get better.

heya, I'm afraid I agree with the other mommies--if the baby is using up a full tummy of food, he's using it up, and that's all there is to it ...

I want to offer a recasting of the 'problem,' though ... up until probably the late 20th c., sleeping "through the night" didn't exist, especially for families but also for people in general (I read an analysis of 18th c literature that suggested that there was expected to be a waking at about midnight and a waking at about 4 am, that these things were just assumed, and the assumption can be seen in the literature ... like in the Bible a lot of cultural stuff is assumed, the writers didn't feel the need to mention what people normally ate for lunch, that sort of thing).

For me, with the kids, once I accepted that 'sleeping through the night' was not a logical assumption of how things 'should' be (I decided that before I saw that article), but that multiple wakings must necessarily be survivable (because here we are as a species) ... it all got much easier. It's just something I _do_.

This of course doesn't work for everyone ... my ex never got over the all-night thing.

The other thing I read once was a guy who studied wolves (which are often active during the night) ... waking up every couple of hours when they made noise was killing him ... but then he decided to do as the wolves do, and get up and move around and do something each time he awoke ... this turned out to be key, because he could go right back to sleep, instead of being Vaguely Wakeful for long chunks of time ... I always wondered if this wasn't part of Ex's difficulty, since I was always getting up (and dropping back into exhausted sleep ;) ) and he was always grumbling under the covers at having been wakened ... and apparently never quite getting back to sleep, ouch.

Good Housekeeping recently (December?) ran a counter-cultural article (I always am shocked when a very mainstream mag does this) about how the "8-10 uninterrupted hours" thing is based on studies paid for by the drug companies and performed by the sleep doctors who have the most to gain if most people think they are sleeping "wrong" ... just a further thought.

I talked about that with Ex and he asserts (and I believe him) that he is one of the people the article said actually _do_ need 8-10 hours a night ... but anyhow, things to think about.

Hi B.,

Your second baby is following a more normal sleep pattern. It a rare thing to have a baby that can sleep through the night. Most need those nightly feedings. And I don't see that it is healthy to make them skip them. Especially at 7 months. Can you have your husband give him a feeding before he goes to bed at 11 or so? I have also read that trying to over feed them before bed actually works in reverse. Their digestive tracts are small, they are supposed to have small regular meals. Can you go to sleep earlier? As you are finding, there is nothing more important than sleep to both mother and baby. As soon as your youngest is down, can you go to sleep? Can your husband tuck in your 4 yo? I hear that you need a break and some real sleep. Letsee if you can get it AND have your baby's needs met.

Best of wishes,
K.

You are not alone--my 19 mo. old still does not sleep through the night. She is a light sleeper---that's just the way she is. It's also good to hear from the other Mom's that I'm not alone. Good luck!

I hate to tell you this, but I know it might help to know that someone else has gone through the same thing. My three year old STILL does not sleep through the night. What works to get him to bed one night, might not work more than two or three times in a row. He has nightmares and night terrors and sometimes just wakes up. At 7 months, my son was still waking up like a newborn. I didn't understand it and I went through all sorts of stages -- from bewilderment to guilt. I have grown used to it, but that doesn't mean I'm happy with it. I have grown to understand that this is just her personality. He will probably always have trouble sleeping (my husband always has) and sooner or later he won't have to come wake me up every time he wakes up. My daughter on the other hand, has slept through the night since she was 6 weeks old. She's just a different person than her brother. It will get easier to handle. I know it's frustrating, just know that it could be completely beyond your control. Good luck. =)

Hello B. O-
"Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" is a great book and one that helped us tremendously. One of the basic things is that if you reward the waking with attention, he will keep doing it.
Another point: putting you kid to bed with a full stomach might not be helping his sleep. We followed "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" and it worked well for us. That is...E.A.S.Y. Eat, activity, sleep, you. The eating before bed is not necessarily good for digestion. Do you eat and then go to bed? It disturbs my sleep AND makes me feel hungry in the middle of the night if I eat too close to bedtime.
I wonder, also, if you might need to change your concept of what "sleeping through the night" means. 5 hours of sleep from a 7-month old is pretty good. We were breastfeeding and had our 2-month old sleeping 12-13 hours at 2 months....yes, at 2 months. We followed the advice in that book. Well, my milk supply went way down (no 24-hour demand, so it went down...duh!!). So, we revised what we thought of "sleeping through the night," because continuing to breastfeed was super important to us. We started feeding her at 5 and putting her back to bed. If your child is in a good sleep pattern, he should be able to go back to sleep, and that is a good continuation of night sleep. Just try not to be too full of energy when you do spend that time with him. Give him the signal that it's still nighttime. Is the room dark? Very helpful if it is. I HIGHLY recommend the book. Good luck.

I don't have a lot of advice, just experience with having recently pondered the same questions as you. My daugher night nursed and woke up A LOT during the night sooner or later she just grew out of it and start sleeping better and going through the night without food. She stopped night nursing right at one year, and started sleeping through the night around the same time, (although it helped that she began daycare). I tried not to worry too much about the "right" thing to do (by "right" I mean the techniques all the books give on making your baby sleep through the night), and just nursed her when she wanted to eat and came to her when she cried! I also would often bring her to my bed at night. Anyway, just do what you think he needs, he is still very little and despite what doctors or "expers" say, sometimes some babies just need to eat and be cuddled more often than others. He will most likely grow out of it sooner than later and start sleeping better.

Good luck and God Bless!

B.,

Every child is different, and there are so many reasons he may need to be comforted at night...teething pains, upset tummy, or, maybe he just wants Mom. 5 hours for the first stint at night is pretty typical for a baby his age - be thankful you get a 5 hour chunk of sleep! My oldest is three, and she didn't start "sleeping through the night" until she was almost two...then, I had another baby. ;-) She's now 8 months old, and wakes up every three hours or so to nurse. Hang in there...he's still little, and you'll both be sleeping more very soon! Someday, when he's bigger and sleeping through the night, you'll be longing for the days he was a little 7 month old baby... ;-)

Me personally, I just have personal experience My daughter just turned 7 months also. She sleeps through most of the night. I think the best thing is to have a good routine during the day. My daughter gets up between 730 and 9 am eats breakfast and has a bottle for her nap around 1030 or 11. Then she will sleep til about 1 or 2 get up have lunch and then go back down for another nap around 4 or 5 and sleep until 6 or 7 then has dinner and is usually in bed by 10 or 11. She knows when it's time to eat and nap. I had a lot of trouble with this routine starting out and she was up all night fussing. There have been nights where I can't get her to bed until 2 in the morning.

So my best advice is that you keep him on a constant good schedule. Hopefully that helps. Also if he plays alot during the day or maybe go for a walk and tire him out a little bit before bed you should have some good results. I also turn off all the lights in the house and keep the TV on about 30 mins before I put my daughter to bed and that helps her realize that it's ni-night time.

Hope things get better for you. Don't hesitate to ask questions.

S.

First off, some babies really do need to eat at night until at least 18 months. My son woke up for night nursings until he was 2. I am positive that he needed these feedings until at least 18 months. He would eat 1-2 full meals a night.

If your child is taking a whole bottle, then you should assume that he's really hungry and give it to him. 7 months is still very early to be sleeping through the night for many children. I would try to remove the bottle again after 12 months and see how that goes.

Good luck!

Our pediatrician said that even babies who had been sleeping through the night will often start waking hungry during the night at around 7-8 months. We did a dream feed with our baby starting around that age - either put him on the boob on gave him a bottle, trying not to fully wake him, and not waiting for him to cry first. We did that for several months, then gradually weaned him off it. Depending on when you go to sleep or do the dream feed, it might not completely solve your sleep problem, but it worked well for us. I think we usually did it around 11pm.

Good luck.

B.,
I have a 10 month old who just started really sleeping through for the last week or so. After also being desperate for a good night sleeps (Amen!), I followed the advice of the Ferber book "Solve your child's sleep problems". He suggests that you offer your child less formula or less time on the boob each night, and/or offer it less often. My son is formula fed, and was getting up regularly at 12 am and 3 am. I decided to cut the 12 am feeding first, and started giving him one less oz. each night, until he didn't get any at all, at which time I didn't offer him food, but I would go in and pat his back and then leave. Once he wasn't getting up for that feeding anymore, I did the same for the 3 am one. It probably took a good month or so for the whole process, but now he's sleeping solid from 7pm to 7am...it's WONDERFUL! I highly suggest that book. It was a lifesaver here. Good luck!

I hate to tell you this, but my son didn't sleep through the night until he was 16 months old. As it turned out, his sleeping through the night coincided with his molars finally coming in fully. We stopped giving him a bottle in the middle of the night and suffered through the consequences, etc., but it didn't matter. When he was ready, he slept through the night. Now he's two and getting his two-year-old molars and we're up about one night out of three with him. I suspect we'll all get some sleep when these teeth are in! Someone once said the two things you can't make a baby do are eat and sleep. Good luck!

You've gotten some great advice, and I mostly completely agree. At 7 mo, sleep got much worse for my daughter because she was growing, getting teeth, learning to crawl, learning to babble, getting fine motor control, etc. etc. There's so much going on growth and development wise they need food, they need to know their love of their life (you!) is right near by and that they are safe.
I highly recommend the Dr. Sears Sleep Book. It has such great information as to how babies sleep, how we sleep, and how to help them sleep better, not just as babies but for the rest of their lives.
Medically speaking "Sleeping Through The Night" is sleep for a 5-hour stretch, not 8-12 hours. It's rare that any of us sleep that long uninterrupted, we typically just don't remember waking up, rolling over, stretching, yawning, whatever.
I promise you it will get better, but maybe not for a while. Follow the lead of responding to the needs of your baby and you can't go wrong.
Good luck, A.

I can't offer any advice, but I thought I would let you know that my daughter will be 7 months next week and she goes to bed around 9-10 and still wakes up between 4-4:30am like clockwork (not always, sometimes it is 2:30). She will take a bottle, fall back asleep, and wake up for good around 7:30-8. Eating solids did not affect her sleep patter at all either.