7.5 Month Old - Sleep Problems, Maybe Night Terrors?? Help!!!!

My son went through this as well. For him it was teething. Infant Motrin helped (infant ibuprophen since Motrin has been recalled) It could be that. The doctor explained that they will get an instant shooting pain that will wake them, I would let my son fuss for a bit and he finally learned to put himself back to sleep. Good luck

I agree with Rebecca, she is a little young for night terrors (usually between 2 and 3 years they happen) AND you cannot console a child with night terrors. Night terrors are more terrifying for the parent than the child because your child will be screaming, eyes wide open (often) and yet be completely unaware that you are there. It is some weird level of consciousness between wake and sleep and no matter what you do, you can't help your child calm down. So if your daughter is screaming when you don't come in --yet stops when you do come in and comfort her, I'd say she just knows she is awake and needs her mama to come in and help her get back to sleep. I can't give any good advice about how to get this to stop--one of my daughters will fuss herself back to sleep after a few minutes, the other would have screamed all night if I didn't go in and help her back to sleep--she eventually grew into more mature sleep patterns on her own and even though I went in and comforted her every time she needed it (even when it was 3-4 times a night)--it didn't spoil her or make her a terrible sleeper. She is now a great sleeper at 4.5 years. But just wanted to let you know that it doesn't sound a bit like night terrors. Just a regular high-needs nighttime baby. :)

Hi K.,

I do not think it's night terrors, your daughter is a little young, and night terrors are different, they ususally happen about 2 hours after bed time, she crys inconsolably and goes back to sleep after 15-45 minutes.

What I think is happening, is she wakes, but does not know how to lull herself back to sleep. She is use to you patting her to sleep.

I always recommend to the parents I coach who have children with sleep issues to use a music CD during the naps & night time. The music creates a soothing sound, and it tells your baby it's time to sleep. When they wake before morning, they are more likely to go back to sleep if the music is still on.

You may also want to have your husband/partner deal with night time back pats. If your daughter wants you, but realizes you won't come she may stop waking.

Lastly, if you do the night pats, do not talk or engage with her, again, teaching it's not play, but bed time.

Good Luck

R. Magby

Its not night terrors... My first 2 kids didnt sleep through the night until they were around 1 year old. Sometimes they still wake up at night and they are 5 and 3 (4 nxt month). Its normal. You have to do less naptime during the day, wake baby up earlier in the morning or go to bed later at night that way she is more tired. You have to change the routine and schedule to get her sleeping through the night

I've heard one of those little wedge pillows can be good for the congestion (and acid reflux too)... It keeps them at an incline.

We've had great luck with the Halo Sleep sack (like a zippered blanket that doesn't constrict them too much like a swaddler) and the Homedics Sound spa machine. We have ours set to waves. My husband and I call this the 'comatose machine.' Now we need it to sleep!

It was 20 bucks at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. You can plug it in, or it runs on batteries... it can run on a timer, or constantly... there's also different nature sounds if you don't like waves.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009Y2E42?tag=sailor-moon-cospl...

Good luck! I know how important sleep is!

My daughter did the same thing. The problem is that she got used to being picked up and rocked back to sleep because of it. My doctor told me that bad habits can form quickly, and they sure did. She got way too used to us doing that for her. She was never able to "cry it out" so now if she wakes up, we go in and soothe her by caressing her hair or rubbing her belly. It works wonderfully. We never pick her up anymore to put her back to sleep.
I don't know the reason your baby is waking up, but for us it was teething.

I highly recommend "Solve your child's sleep problems" by Dr. Ferber, just to make sure you are not reinforcing these issues (ie no picking her up, feeding, etc.) That having been said, my son is 2 1/2 and still wakes screaming several times a night. I'm a strict Ferberizer, and couldn't figure out what we were doing wrong. Our pediatrician trained under Dr. Ferber, and he feels like my son has some kind of sleep disturbance that he calls "mini- terrors." His advice is to go in and spend no more than 1 minute in the room, checking to make sure everything is ok, and then leave. (And then do the Ferber intervals as necessary, but they really usually aren't anymore). He feels like my son will grow out of this eventually (it has been getting better, some nights he will sleep through the night now). So if you really are doing everything "right" they still don't always sleep through the night.

The uninterrupted sleep thing is hard. For the first 2 years my husband and I traded off going to the guest room so one of us slept through the night. Recently, my son has been better-- there will be a good couple of days and a bad couple of days. Now a bad night is him waking up twice. A couple of things I've learned over this time: if they are waking up at the same time more than 3 nights in a row (like, 3:15, give or take 2-3 minutes) it's gotten to be a habit-- Ferberize her. Makes for a couple miserable nights, but breaks the habit. You have to go in and check at least the first time (or get a video monitor-- that is probably what I would do now). Give her a minute or two to go back down. My son will scream for 1-2 minutes and fall back asleep mid-scream. Get the white noise machine and a nightlight.

In your case, I would also check with the ped. about the congestion. If you woke up because you couldn't breath, it would freak you out too. If she is having asthma, that could really affect her sleep. Also, if she has a sinus infection (my son has had 8), it could be affecting her sleep too.

Good luck. You will survive this!

It's not night terrors, it's a normal 7.5 month old baby! Don't worry, it is nothing that you or she is doing wrong. People will lead you to believe that all babies are sleeping though the night by this age, but it's simply not true. Also, many parents experience more frequent night wakings when their babies are 8-9 mos old b/c that is prime time for separation anxiety. Keep doing what you are doing and hang in there, she will sleep eventually! Also, check out "The No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley, if you really want to try to speed up the process of her sleeping through the night. Good luck!

sounds a lot like my daughter did. turned out she had acid reflux. i had to ask her doctor for an antacid. prevacid worked amazingly. It is worth a try.

She is young for night terrors. Have you tried some sort of "white noise" in her room? I know that my little boy likes to have the radio on. And the fan. If they aren't on he doesn't sleep well.
Personally, and this is just me, I would just let her sleep with me. Until you can figure out what is waking her.

the issue here seems to be that your daughter has not learned how to self soothe. she NEEDS you to get back to sleep. so you need to break this pattern. This happened with my daughter as well. What worked for us was using the Ferber method. When she wakes up, go in and make sure she is okay (not sick) and then what you should do is tell her it is time to sleep, and leave. do not pick her up!! if you want to rub her back for a few seconds that is okay, but what you need to make sure of is that your presence is not rewarding. Then leave the room.

if she cries, wait 3 minutes to go back in. repeat the process, again don't pick her up. leave the room.

if she cries wait 5 min. repeat process

if she cries again, wait 7 minutes to go into her room, repeat process.

the rest of the night wait 7 minutes to go back in.

the idea with increasing the time is that she will realize it will be longer for Mommy to return, and typically, she will fall asleep without your help as the time increases.

the next night, start with 5 minutes, then 7, then 10 and stay at 10 min the rest of the night.

each night start with the next longest time increment.

this worked in 2 nights with my daughter who then slept through the night ever since unless she was teething/sick.

best of luck! oh the book this is from is called "Solve your child's sleep problems" by Dr. Ferber

Hi K.,

While your baby is older then what I typically would recommend when starting to use the Magic Sleepsuit, it sounds like it may help. Its designed to provide cozy comfort so that you can out your baby down and it also muffles the Moro (startle) reflex. Please go to my web site and have a look to see if you think the Magic Sleepsuit would help - www.magicsleepsuit.com. Hang in there and I hope you and your baby get the sleep you need soon

I too have been sleep deprived for 5 years now. My daughter woke frequently during the night, I tried everything. Nothing worked. None of the sleep training books helped and I tried them for months. I was so desperate, I finally took her into my bed and nursed her at every waking, because she woke up every hour, sometimes every 45 mins. When she was 2.5 years old, I was due with my son and decided I didn't want to nurse two all night, so I weaned her and she started sleeping through the night almost immediately. At first I thought it was because of my nursing her that she woke til then, but after having my son, I found out different. With him, I limited his nursing, and night weaned him early thinking I would finally get some sleep. He did not sleep. He had no trouble falling asleep on his own and self soothed easily for most things, but when he woke up at night, he would cry. I tried everything again except nursing him, because I thought that was the cause of my daughter waking so much. For years I went without sleep again. He is now almost 2.5 years old and he just started sleeping through the night(He has done it twice). Now I realized for whatever reason my kids were not developmentally ready to sleep through until almost 2.5 years. Now my daughter did have reflux, but my son had no medical problems except constipation. Could that have caused his waking? Maybe, he would wake frequently with gas pains from the constipation. Maybe it just takes until they around 2 years old, in order to be able to cope with pain alone. Through all of my struggles I finally realize now, at the end, that nothing I did mattered and I spent a lot of time the last 5 years trying to change something I could not in the end change. Looking back, now I wish I had found ways of taking better care of myself instead of trying desperately to change something that couldn't be changed. I wasted a lot of time and put both my kids, especially my daughter through a lot trying to get them to sleep. I highly doubt it is night terrors, but it could very likely be pain, from constipation, teething, allergies or whatever. I wish I had spent more time comforting my kids at night and not torturing both of us trying to get sleep. But we do desperate things out of sheer exhaustion. You could try some pain meds. I did notice that helped my son, but didn't like to do it often since I was never sure what I was medicating. Though it did sometimes help with his constipation believe it or not! For whatever reason your baby is waking, know it is nothing you are doing wrong! Some babies just do this. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to sleep six hours straight after 5 years of frequent wakings. It has only happened twice now, but i am looking forward to many more nights of 6 hours straight without waking in the near future. My best advice is to find a way o get more sleep yourself. A nap during the day, going to bed early when she goes to bed. But know that this will end, it may just take longer than you originally thought.