I have an 11 month old son that used to sleep all night from 7pm-4am wake and eat and sleep until 7-8 am. Now he falls asleep fine but is waking several times during the night for no reason. He's not teething, hungary, messy, or cold. I think that it has something to do with seperation anxiety because I cant leave his sight during the day without him freaking out. Any suggestions on how to get him to stay asleep would be great. Thanks!
I want to thank everyone for their responses. It turns out that even has milk and soy allergies that was giving tummy trouble and waking him.
I talked about this with my brother once and we wondered if they started dreaming at this age. Imagine even if it was a good dream, one minute your playing with your dad and then you wake up and your in a dark room by yourself? I don't know that this is what is happening, but that would be scarey for them don't you think?
Another season that he WILL go through. Just go with it and he will enter another season of teething soon!! Can he sleep with you for awhile or in the same room to give him the security he is obviously needing right now. This too shall pass!
hi i had a son hue did the same thing . he would go to school and 30 minutes later i had to go pick him up . he always wanted me to be with him. and after a long time taking him toa doctor and counseling . this tooka bouta jear . and you no what it turnet out to be . he saw something on tv that realy scared him and it tooka long time for him to let go of me . i hope this will help you . it might be he saw something and its stuck behind his mind ty
B. mello
hi rachel, how long do you let him cry for when he wakes up? Is it one of those killer cries or just a cranky one? I have 4 kids, my youngest is 18 months and he did the same thing. You said he;s not teething but to my surprise my little was. When I was expecting his eye teeth to come in next, to my surprise his 2 year molars were trying to come through. If he is not crying to bad see how long it takes to calm down by himself. Of course that's easier said then done, mother instinct kicks in. Hang in there, it gets better.-
Rachel, my son is eight years old and still needs me to stay with him until he is asleep, and gets up durring the night to have sit with him agian until he falls asleep. I really think that if I had nipped this in the bud when he was alot younger, I would be getitng more sleep! We live in an apartment right now, so I am nervous about cutting if off and telling him to go to bed without me becasue he will cry and carry on for a bit. If your child isn't having any issues that you can tell, you might want to let him cry himself back to sleep. In books I have read and in watching Super Nanny, I love her, the baby needs to leardn to soothe himself. It could be a phase. I really wish I had let my son cry it out and soothe himself!
Rachel,
We just went through the same thing with our 10.5 month old daughter. For months she was going to sleep at 7, waking around 4 to nurse, and then going back to sleep until 7. Then in January she started waking up at 11, 1, 3 and 5. She would stand up in her crib, shake the side rail, and cry like the world was coming to an end. I was going to her each time, and I almost always ended up nursing her back to sleep. I was completely exhausted. Finally, about 2 weeks ago, we decided that it had to change. Our pediatrician recommended just not going to her and letting her cry it out, but we did not feel comfortable with that. We decided that we'd try a more gradual method of getting her back on a desirable schedule.
That night when she woke up at 11pm my husband went to her. She cried and pointed towards our bedroom (where she knew I was) but he held her, rocked her, and gently told her that it was not time to nurse. It was time to sleep. After about a half an hour he got her back to sleep. He did the same thing at 1 and at 3. When she woke up at 4:30 I nursed her back to sleep and then she slept until 7.
The next night she also woke up 4 times. My husband soothed her by rubbing her back and encouraging her to go back to sleep but he did not take her out of her crib. I nursed her around 5am again.
The next night she woke up 3 or 4 times and my husband went into her room and sang to her but did not rub her back.
The fourth night she slept straight through to 4:30 am, nursed, and went back to sleep until 7. She has now done that 9 nights in a row! My husband had a rough few nights there (though no rougher than it was for me when I was nursing her every two hours), but we are both feeling so much better now! I can't believe we waited as long as we did.
Many of our friends swear by the cry it out method described in the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. That method is more of a "cold turkey" approach -- it may work for you.
Good luck, Rachel. I feel your pain!
S.
Oh boy I so feel your pain! Ive read every sleep book there is and they all mention that separation anxiety peeks at certain ages/developmental stages and 11 months is one of them. It certainly was for us. For my daughter her separation anxiety was really pretty bad from 10 until about 13 months when it finally got back to normal. I dont have a lot of practical advice as to what to do to ease it, other than try to wait it out, it does pass. at just shy of 11 months for us it was the worst and it seemed like nothing we could do helped. My husband and I took turns every night going into her until it passed, the worst of it lasted about 2 weeks. I really took my time during the day to explain to her what i was doing if I was out of her sight and to include her in just about everything I could. If it was cooking I had her help me as much as was safe, laundry whatever. This helped so much during the day and she got much better during waking hours, which I feel did help a lot at night. I hope it passes quickly for your son!
You did not mention you had a husband. My suggestion be sure you both get off to the side and spend some quality time alone just talking. Let the child know this is mommy and daddy's time don't allow him to interrupt.
Sometimes it can be an insecurity issue. This advice when given to me help tremendously.
Second suggestion is he allow to watch television. You may need to monitor that carefully even children's shows.
My son and I used to belong to an organized playgroup (through our school district). I seem to remember the child development expert that ran the group saying that sometimes just before a major milestone, a baby may have trouble sleeping... perhaps he's on the verge of walking or something like that?! If it goes on for more than a week, I think I'd call my son's doctor.
Maybe you could stand in the doorway and let him know youre still there until he goes back to sleep. my daughter had major seperation anxiety i had to sleep next to her bed then slowly every couple of nights move away a few feet until you're out of the room. i hope it helps.
