More Sleeping Issues!!! :(

Seriously, just let him cry it out. He will learn in no time. And it's good for them. You are teaching them "life skills!!!!

I am a mother of 4 ages 8,7,6,and 16months. Its very common for them to start doing this, the older they get they will require a little less sleep. Usually some water or a little milk will put them right back to sleep. He is mostlikely waking up and has a little empty spot he wants filled.

That's still not bad. Mine used to get up to eat around those times and JUST finally stopped at 12 mo. Now she's doing what yours is doing - I can just pat her and give her her pacifier back and she's good. Try not to feed him unless all else fails. Mine was doing well and one day just started regressing on eating/sleeping and I'm working on getting her back to where it was easier to get her to sleep again. I guess they go through phases. But you sound like everything's right on track :) Take care.

Hi, You don't mention how long the problem has been going on. We've had similar issues on and off with our son who is now 2 1/2. He slept through the night at 3 months and every now and then he'll start waking up in the middle of the night (at the same time) for a few days/weeks and needing a cuddle. It always seems to pass. We stick with the schedule and the routine (if anything get a little more dedicated to it) and eventually his sleeps through the night again. We never turn on the light, play, eat, talk a lot or do anything else interesting. We do cuddle and love. We've noticed it corresponds to colds, teething, growth spurts or the dreaded time change. With time change, we've found that moving his bed time EARLIER seems to solve the problem. (a more rested baby sleeps better?). Good Luck.

How long does he go between his last bottle and bed time? I would push it as late as possible - if you are feeding him solids at this time and feel like he needs some sort of bottle/sippy cup after his dinner, you could give him juice or water. Try giving him his last bottle just before bed time and add a little cereal to it to make it thicker. This will satisfy his hunger longer than regular milk. You can add up to one teaspoon of cereal per oz. If you are giving him a 6 oz. bottle - I would start with only 2 teaspoons and see what happens. As you add more cereal, you will need to cut holes in the nipple so that it easily passes through.

I have been dealing with sleeping issues for the last 3.5 years and most of it has been in the older years (my 4.5 year old) but I had to deal with it a lot when he was about 6 months old. It is agrivating, but don't worry - you all will get through it.

They will go through waking periods regardless of sleep training. Could be teething, seperation anxiety or just a new milestone/skill. My son never slept well when learning to crawl then again when he was learning to walk.
Once he reached that milestone his sleeping would go back to normal.

My son is 19 months. He will sleep fine thru the night for months. then the other night he woke up at 2am...these are called night terrors they happen. Just pat him on the back. in soothing tones say its still night, night time and sing a little and he will go back to sleep. It might last a week it might last a day. good luck

Hey M. - our little Jake is 10 1/2mo old and we went through the same types of issues. I am learning that all babies are different and I can only tell you what has been working for us (so far).

We were getting the same "fight" response from our son and learned that we were waiting too long to put him to bed. Changes we made: put him down 30min earlier, instituted a pre-nap "wind-down" time to signal his brain that it was time to switch gears and settle down. [Our little guy is very active (crawling, standing, now cruising) so we also swaddle him waist down to help his little legs calm down!]

We usually have two 1.5hr naps [9-10:30 and 2-3:30] and he goes to bed for the night around 7:30pm.

We had been feeding through the night until 7 or 8mos I don't remember now, but our Pedi told us that babies this age can go 11-12hrs without food so I would definitely forego nighttime feedings! Teething still interrupts our nighttime sleep at times and we also have to do some patting/shushing on occasion. I don't know if its "normal" or not, but that is what we are going through too.

If you want details on our schedule let me know and I'll be happy to send more info.

My daughter did the Same thing, and then I started to have a night lite, and a favorite toy, which she would wake up see that she was in her room and play with the toy a few mins and back to sleep she would go.
Good luck and God Bless
Sandy

It's quite possible it's teething... Check his mouth. He may be waking from the dull pain of incoming teeth. I agree with you, you definately don't want to start feeding him at night. Checking on him and letting him get back to sleep on his own is the best for him - and for you and the routine you are working so hard to establish. Keep up the great work mom. :-)

My son had a lot of sleep problems too after about 4 months. I tried something my mother recommened which was putting some rice cereal in his bottle before he went to bed. Let him drink some of that mixed with milk, juice or formula and burp him really good, rub his tummy and he will be full and happy for hours of rest. Also I am letting everyone on here know that I have these child safe kits that I am giving away to local mom's in the Tampa/St. Pete area. It's a card that holds a recent picture, info, and fingerprints of your son. If you are interested go ahead and contact me here or at ____@____.com and I can get you one. That way you are prepared in case something, god forbid, should happen and it gives you some piece of mind.

9 months is often growth spurt time, and many baby's switch it up when they start crawling or walking. Sleep schedules can be great, but you have to remember for most people, its only temporary fixes, because babies really do set their own schedules. And as things like teething, crawling, or even a cold come up, they will throw those schedules out the window.

I completely understand!! My son is 6 months now and sometimes still wakes up at 3am. He hasn't slept 9 hours for me yet. How did you get him to start that and how old was your baby? If he is hungry, perhaps more calories during the day will help, or he is having a "growth spurt".

Hi M.,

Our 19-month-old is almost always hungry by 4 or 5 AM, so I feed her. She sleeps 5-6 hours straight at the moment. Teething, growing pains, milestones etc make sleep more difficult. It's okay to attend to a little one at night... they may have a hurt they can't tell you about yet.

My daughter went thru the same thing. It will pass just like another faze of their little lives. A bit annoying for mommy I know, but my daughter was getting up a couple of times at that age. Some say growth spurt, some say teeth. She just wanted to be by mommy and to have me hold her. Maybe she was dreaming???? Who really knows??? I have learned to recognize cries and that helps a lot. The "I'm in pain" cry is so much different than "hungry", or "poopy" cry. I say if it makes them happy to snuggle them and they go back to sleep, ok in my book. If you start to get a little burnt out, let someone watch him for a couple of hours - get your whole house clean (So u can come home to a clean house) and go do something for you! Or take a nap. Remember those?
Good luck!

Hi M.,
Is it possible that your little guy is teething? I have twin 4 month old little boys so I'm not quite there yet...but I know my niece starting doing the same thing when se started teething....

My girls started doing the same thing when they first stated cutting molars. Sometimes it mimics hungary, but, you are right not to startfeeding him in the middle of the night. We did that with my oldest, and she still gets up sometimes in the middle of the night!!

My son is 3 now, and still just when you figure out their schedule it usually changes. We had lots of schedule changes over the years. Their are still times he wakes in the night and talks or is upset I give him a few minutes to fall back asleep on his own but if it seems like a nightmare or something I do go check on him. Try to allow him to fall back asleep on his own but comforting without a lot of stimulation is key. I find that as long as you don't start a habit you don't want to keep up or is hard to break your fine, you know you baby best and know what he needs!

yes, it is a phase. He will go through many of these and then go back to his schedule. Just do whatever he needs for those couple weeks and it will get better again. My son was almost 2 before he really stopped having these episdodes every now and then.