8 Month Old Not Sleeping Through the Night - Panama City,FL

9 pm is way too late for a baby... try puting her down earlier instead... just remember... the more they sleep the more they sleep
Good luck

A few things I tried when my kids were babies was to put them to bed later (in your case maybe 11 instead of 9), playing soothing music - something with the ocean sound or even a sound machine which has rain, ocean, heartbeat sounds. Not sure if you feed her when she wakes up but if you do, don't - she's old enough she doesn't "need" anything throughout the night. Her body will think it does if she's been eating but start to stall, don't feed her right away, wait an extra 1/2 hr then a little longer and longer night after night until she won't expect anything to eat anymore throughout the night. Pray and trust in God to get you through this frustrating time. I'll be praying for you.

We had the same problem with our little girl - up every two hours to eat! I was going insane. Our pediatrician told me she was old enough to make it through the night except for one feeding and that we needed to establish a routine. He suggested she eat her dinner and have her bottle with dinner. Then have her bath and books and then bed. He said she shouldn't have her bottle before bed because then she'd associated food with sleep. It worked after 3 days. It was amazing and till this day we haven't had any problems. Once she was 1 she started sleeping throughout the entire night without needing that one extra feeding about midnight. He did suggest putting a sippy cup of water in there so she could have that if she did wake up (wish we can hear her gulping in the middle of the night now). We started her routine on a Friday night and by Monday night we were golden. This really worked for us. He said if she cried we could go in an console her but not to get her out and to say, time to go night night. After her book we'd go around the house to the family and give goodnight kisses and hugs, get her the blankie and binki and just lay her down with her music. She got used to her routine and it has worked great for us. The routine is the key - she will get into it and then you can get your much needed sleep! Good luck.

Please read "On Becoming Babywise"... it was a lifesaver for us! And remember, sleep gets more sleep, not the other way around. My little one, even though breastfed, slept through at 10 weeks and has been a champion sleeper (not without testing issues, naturally) periodically. At 28 months, She still sleeps 11-12 hours a night, takes between a 1-3 hr nap each day and rarely wakes up before 6:30am, even with time changes. I am convinced that the schedule in the book and adhering to that is what made the difference. She and I are both creatures that thrive on habit and I believe all children are. At this age, she still goes to bed at 7:30-8pm, even with potty training stuff. And she sleeps like a rock.

Good luck, let me know how it goes or just ask more questions!
K.

Every baby is different, but after reading every book out there on how to get baby to sleep through the night, a few things that have worked for moms in my friend group.

1. try a humidifier or sound machine on the highest, noisest setting. the white noise seems to help them.
2. a safe stuffed animal which would be her comfort item.
3. when she does wake, no talking or lights, just pats on the back. do 5 minutes, then increase to 10, then 15 etc.
4. low night light. some babies need to see their surroundings when they wake themselves to feel safe. we dont use one but you never know.
5. follow the exact same routine every night to a tee. lower lights and noise around bedtime, if you always do bath, then change, then feed, the book, etc. do in the exact same order for a week, cannot stray at all. the routine should signal bedtime for good.
6. and I agree 9pm is pretty late. suprisingly, the earlier you put them to bed, sometimes,the better and later they sleep. my 8 month old goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes around 7.

Not saying any of these will work for you, but thought i would pass along in case it can help. the humidifier is what worked for us.

best of luck.

I finally learned by baby #3 (and by reading The Baby Whisperer) that the way you put them down to sleep at night is key to them putting themselves back to sleep when they wake up in the middle of the night. If you rock a baby until they fall asleep, or if you feed them just before bed, that is what they will be looking for to fall back to sleep in the middle of the night. EVERYONE wakes several times during the night-- but usually we just roll over and fall back to sleep. Please read Babywise or Secrets of the Baby Whisperer to learn an effective technique for getting her to sleep and stay asleep

Hey friends of mine recommend this book to another friend of ours and her little girl wouldn't sleep so this might help you...

On Becoming Babywise
By Gary Ezzo

Do the girls sleep in the same room that might be an issue with why she isn't sleeping?
Just a thought... hope the book helps...

She just isn't ready. Each child reaches sleep maturity at different points. Be patient. Try co-sleeping. She could be lonely instead of hungry or she really may be hungry. I have a 21 month old who at 13 months for the first time slept for 4 hours straight after I moved her out of the crib and onto a matress on the floor. Now, she will wake up once if she starts in her own bed and not at all if she just sleeps in my bed. I feel the most important thing isn't how long they sleep at night but their state when they go to sleep. If they are crying themselves to sleep then sleep is something they will fear. If you comfort them and help them relax then they learn to enjoy and look forward to sleep. I also have a 3 yr old. This method works. By 2, she would happily fall asleep on her own after reading books. We could say good night and turn off the lights. Bedtime is easy now. The girls go to their room happy to get in pjs and go to sleep. Best of luck, take a deep breath and trust your gut and listen to what your child is telling you.

My son didn't sleep through the night till he was 14 months, so I feel your pain. Theres nothing you can do but tought it out.
P.

L.,
I have a daughter that's 3 1/2 and a son that is 16 months. My daughter has never been a good sleeper. My son has slept great from the day he came home from the hospital. I did nothing different with him than what I did with my daughter. I believe there are some children that simply don't understand the word schedule. My daughter didn't sleep through the night until after she was 1 yrs. old. There are still occasions (like last night) that she still gets up. Last night she was crying at 3:00 a.m. and when I went into her room she had got ahold of some chap stick and had it all over her hands and night gown. She insisted that I change her clothes because she was all wet. She had also made her way to the bathroom and played in the sink. This is all in the middle of the night! My husband travels for his job and had to leave at 4:00 a.m. to catch his flight. He noticed that my daughter had also been in the kitchen and helped herself to some snacks.
All I can say is don't feed your daughter during the night. Try to make as little eye contact as possible when putting her back to bed.
My husband and I joke about how when our daughter is a teenager we will be sure to get her up bright and early every day and remind her of how she never let us sleep!
I know it's tough but I promise this will pass in time and you will soon have your sanity back!
Good luck!

Personally, I feel that she's going to be too late. I have a 5 month old breastfed baby and he sleeps 7-7 (he's been doing this for about 3 weeks now). He was up constantly (every two hours) until he started going to bed earlier. Try moving her bedtime up a half hour, then an hour and so forth. An 8 o'clock bedtime works great for a lot of my friends and the 7 o'clock bedtime works awesome for several more of them. Try it...it can't hurt!

Hi,

None of my three slept through the night the first year, unless it was a fluke. There's a good sleep program by Dana Obleman (www.sleepsense.net) that helped a lot with my third. It's common sense stuff but not easy -- takes some discipline, but does it in a gentle, loving way that even I -- extreme attachment style mom -- could do. Mainly it's about routines but also understanding how sleep cycles work and that tired babies will not go to sleep as easily as those who are well rested and properly conditioned.

Good Luck and Sweet Dreams.

L. D., mom of three

Hi L.,
I feel your pain. I was in the same boat with my son. I have posted this before, but here it goes again. I hope it helps:

My suggestion is what our pediatrician recommened for my son. We used a version of the Ferber method as recommended by our doctor.

Basically, it boils down to checking her when she crys at night, but not picking her up or soothing her back to sleep (you can pat her to let her know everything is okay) and then leave the room. You wait five minutes, and then check her agian, wait ten minutes, then check her again, and so on, increasing the amount of time between each check by five minutes until she goes back to sleep. The program stresses the importance of allowing your baby to return to sleep on her own. You can also give her a comfort object to help her soothe herself, but do not feed her or give her water/juice/ bottle when she wakes.

"Ususally" it takes about a week to work. With my son it took MUCH longer. Our doctor suggested it beginning at four months, but I tried and it didn't work. Turns out I just didn't stick with it long enough. When my son was still waking every TWO hours by his six month appointment, the doctor pretty much insisted we try again because a good night's sleep is so important for thier development at that age. It took almost two months before my son finally slept a 12 hour shift, but I did see improvement within a few weeks (longer periods between wakings and falling back to sleep quicker).

My son is now 15 months old, and for almost eight months now, has slept for 12 straight hours every night!

There are other variations on this method, so you may want to research your options, and choose a method that you are comfortable with (I have also heard of "Sleep Easy" but am not familiar with it.)

Also, my son had problems with congestion at night. I felt that was what was causing him so much sleep difficulty. Our pediaterician said it was just a matter of learning to sleep through it. Well, he did! He has been sick and had congestion during the last eight months, but never once did it disturb his sleep now that he has "learned" how to sleep.

You will probably get a lot of different advice on this subject and ultimately will have to do what you are comfortable with. And, every baby is different, so you may have to try a couple things before finding what works for you. Glad I could share what worked for me.

That sounds normal. Is the baby breastfed? If so don't expect her to sleep through the night for a LONG while unless you co-sleep. Babies sleep differently than adults. It's nature's way of keeping them alive and fed.

Tammi F and Kimberly L sounded on track to me. It has been awhile since mine went through this (they are 6 and 9 now), but we did the "On Becoming Babywise" book and mine both were sleeping through the night pretty quickly (7 hours straight for my son by about 3 months, 7 hours straight for my daughter by 7 WEEKS). Once that was established, they slowly pushed back that "middle of the wee-hours" feeding... the 4 or 5 am one...until they were sleeping all night and just were early risers by 6 or 7 months (going to bed at 7:30 or 8:00 pm and getting up around 6:30 or 7:00 am). Babywise helped a lot early on, learning the technique and ORDER of feeding and naps. But the idea (and Ferber) of putting them to sleep still awake makes a huge difference in their ability to self-soothe when they do wake up at night. And 'll be honest, we NEVER went through middle of the night crying sessions. I am a SAHM and my husband works rotating shift-work and absolutely could not afford to be disturbed when he was sleeping (he's an air traffic controller -- and disturbed/disrupted or NO sleep makes for crashed planes...). I was the one who got up the second I heard the baby monitor (then turned it all the way off until I came back to bed). But I did not always get them UP. Sometimes I just turned the monitor off and went and stood in the hallway outside the nursery to see if they were really awake, or if they would go back to sleep on their own. We rarely had any sort of racket at night...
Keep the lights low, little or NO talking or even whispering (except to say..."it's sleep time" or "go back to sleep" or something along those lines). Even in the days when they were wet and dirty in the middle of the nursing session at 3:00 am, I never turned the lights on (I pulled their door partway closed and used the hallway light ... it was very muted that way, with no direct light bulbs shining into the room... (made it easier for me to drop right back to sleep too)...
Keep to a good routine and put your baby in bed awake. Once she learns to go to sleep on her own then, then it will be easier for her to do the same thing during the night.
Hang in there!

Each kid is different. Both of my woke about those same times until around 16 months. They are now 3.5 yrs and 22 months and still wake during the night at least once. I know it's not what you wanted to hear. Just know that you are not alone.