Our 9 Month Old Slept Only 7 Hours Last Night

ANY method you use is going to take about a week for your baby to get used to - one night isn't enough. The biggest thing is consistancy - your child is old enough to know that if she just keeps crying you will . . . . So wait until you are ready, gear yourself up to do without sleep for a couple of nights, and stick out whatever method you choose. Early morning wakings were common for us at that age. I don't remember there being much to do about it except to put them back to sleep - in fact for a long time 5:30 was the first morning feeding, but followed immediately by being put back to sleep (blackout drapes helped). I would venture to say that 7:30 might not be too early - instead it may be too late. Her wake up pattern sounds like overtired to me - so tired she can't put herself back to sleep. I'm pretty sure my twins were going to bed at 6:00 or 6:30 at that age and sleeping until 5:30 then napping until 8. I tried moving the bedtime later at that age to see if I could get them to sleep past 5:30 and my kids started getting up in the middle of the night again.

R..
No offense, but you have posted about a million sleep questions. Some kids are sleepers, and some are not. It seems like yours is not, so you need to just accept it and her for who she is.

Have her checked for an ear infection. If she is fine and no teething then you just need to decide if you are doing sleep training or not. If you are, then you need to accept that it takes at least a week - although you might see progress in 3-4 days. Sometimes it takes longer than a week. You gave the crying out method one day and it will not result in any sleep training.

If you decide you don't want to do sleep training, then you need to accept your situation. My son is 4 now and he goes down about 8:30pm and sleeps through the night but is up at 6am. So I need to adjust my schedule so that I'm in bed by 10 or I'm tired and cranky with him in the morning. Neither my husband nor I are morning people, but we were blessed with a son who is a lovely morning person. At least he is happy!

Good luck!

My one thought is that she might be teething or becoming sick. My sympathies!

It's tough! I know! My kids are not good sleepers...at all! My oldest is 3 and she's much better now, but she still occasionally wakes during the night. She was 10 months old before she slept longer than 5 hours at a stretch. My baby is 9 months and she still wakes at least once during the night. I pull her into bed with me, nurse her, snuggle her and we're both back asleep in no time. Personally, I prefer to wake up and feed her and be back to sleep in minutes as opposed to laying in bed listening to her cry and scream for hours on end. It's just too hard on me and my husband. There are days when I'm so exhausted I feel like I can't function. When those days come, I lay down with my girls and we all take a nap together. She'll eventually sleep through the night, it just takes some kids longer than others. I know it's not much comfort now. I'm sorry I don't have a backfire free solution for you :( My best advice is to go with your gut.

Personally, my boys have never slept longer than 7 or 8 hours in one go. We have always had to do late bedtimes and early mornings for them - with little to no naps in between. When they began walking and playing harder, exerting more energy - they slept a little better... but not by a whole lot..

Does anyone in your family do something similar? I ask because my grandmother was just one of those people who could run on a tiny bit of rest.
My father was the same way, and I have a few of those traits as well, just not quite as strongly. It might be genetic. Perhaps she is just sleeping very soundly, and doesn't need to sleep as long. I know several people like that.

Best of luck!

(EDIT) I forgot to mention how hungry my boys are... I don't know much about girls but my guys eat like termites, and it has always been mandatory that there is a snack about 20-30 minutes before bed. I've read that this isn't necessarily the best time to eat or anything but there is no other option and I refuse to send my kids to bed hungry unless they've refused dinner. Which never happens.

Maybe feed her something very substantial before you put her down? With my oldest son, (who was by far the worst sleeper) ..I would feed him a bowl of cereal and applesauce + a 4 oz. bottle and he would sleep much better for me. He'd still wake up at about 6:15 am or so but that was WAY better than 4:30!! But, as a side note, they were all very, very large guys at birth (9+) so I don't know if that will work for your daughter.

If she's not hungry, and not dirty or wet, and you know for sure she's tired, then she might just be refusing to sleep because she doesn't want to be alone...

Look, I am not a fan of letting them cry it out. It has NEVER IN MY LIFE been effective and I find it cruel when they are less than 2 years old. They don't understand. There is no possible way to explain to an 11 month old - or whatever age - that they are going to go to bed now and you'll see them in the morning and everything is okay - all they see is you leaving them by themselves, in the dark, and not coming back. They have no concept of time, so 30 minutes can feel like forever - so of course they are going to get hysterical!

My MIL tried to let my 17 month old "cry it out" but he cried so hard he threw up all over the place from being so upset and freaked out. Case in point.

Feed her plenty, give her a hot bath and some teething tablets (Hyland's) and rock her for a while. Thats what I've done from day 1 and its done well for us - I hope you find something that works for you!!

Could she be teething? I know that my daughter, who is a great sleeper, has a very hard time sleeping when she's teething. Also, have her checked for an ear infection...they hurt more when the child is laying down so maybe that's why she keeps standing up and crying. I'm sorry that you're going through this, I know how difficult it is to be exhausted. Good Luck