9 1/2 Month Old Waking up Many Times During the Night

I would not start taking him to your bed, regardless of the reason, hubby will just have to be tired for a few days. If you start this, he will come to expect it, and it will be a hard transition back. Also, at this stage I hope you are not putting him back to sleep with milk, it is very bad for their new teeth. I would try to ween off night feedings. My doctor told me after I had my first that babies do not need to feed at night after the first 10 days of life, that they do it because we train them to. Following that advice both of my boys have been sleeping through the night from 1 month old.

9 months is a growth-spurt time... increased hunger and intake needs.

his motor-skills are fledgling... it is a phase... it will pass.
Any time motor-skills changes/increases/new one's pop up, it affects sleep. It will pass.
it means he is developing... once they get more able, it will pass.

I'd go in there every now and then and tell him it's time to lay down and go to sleep. Lay him down and pat his back. Then go in and lay him down without saying anything. Make your times going in there less often until he is trained to sleep. My husband needs his sleep too so when my baby was fussy, I'd sleep in his room. Not sure if that's an option or if it would be wise with your baby's age (mine was newborn) but I thought I'd mention it. Good luck!

First of all, I don't think that you have to rock him to get him to lay back down. If your son wants to crawl around his crib, let him crawl around it. The worst thing that happens is he gets a foot or hand "stuck". If the crib is lowered (like it should be), then he can't fall out (unless he is insanely tall for 9 months old), plus babies are much more resilient than we give them credit for. My suggestion is once you put him down, let him be. If he is upset and crying, check on him, otherwise, he will crawl for a bit and then fall asleep when he is ready.

As for your second question. If you are not against the cry it out method, I suggest that. At 9 1/2 months there is no nutritional need for him to be up once during the night let alone 2-3 times. By 4 1/2 months old my son was sleeping through the night. It took all of 3 nights of him crying to realize that nighttime feedings were done. It worked wonders for us (he is still an amazingly good sleeper), and if you aren't opposed to it, I think it would help you too! If he wakes up in the middle of the night and is content, let him be, and unless you want to be co-sleeping (which is fine, I just don't know your thoughts on that), I would NOT let him in bed with you. It will become a habit that he will look for and will be VERY hard to break. Good luck!

My friend had her 18 mos. old niece over for a few days. The first night
she didn't sleep much because the baby kept waking up and moved
all over the bed she remembered she had DRUG FREE silent night
patches so the following night she placed one on her forehead. She
slept through the whole night! If your interested in something like this
log on www.mynanopatches.com there's great videos, clinical studies,
product info., FDA Class 1 approved.

Good luck and God bless!

Hi,
my baby is 9.5 mos too, and he's crawling like crazy, starting to stand, etc. When we put him down at night, he plays with a couple sleep-safe stuffed animals for about 1/2 hour, crawls around, etc. till he falls asleep on his own. We have a very solid routine so he "knows" it's bedtime, it just takes him time to fall asleep. He doesn't hurt himself by romping around the crib so maybe just get a video monitor the first few nights or so to keep an eye on him while he settles down?

As far as waking up, if he's not crying, can you just let him play for awhile till he falls asleep again? After awhile he'll get used to it and start sleeping through the night or just going back to sleep by himself. Maybe just change his diaper and let him go back down on his own. Otherwise, if he wakes up crying, if you are okay with it, you might want to try letting him cry it out (where you still go and check on him frequently but not pick him up and rock him - the few times I've had to do this with my LO when he went through a sleep regression at 4 months, it worked better than rocking him - rocking him just prolonged the crying...each baby is different...)

good luck!

I ran into this problem at 8 months. I'll tell you how I dealt with it, but its against current text book wisdom so I'm not necessarily recommending it. I put her down with a bottle. She fell asleep drinking and I did the same in the night. It soothed her back to sleep. If rocking her to sleep worked, I may have tried that, but my daughter has not been a snuggler. Of course here we are at age 2.5 still putting her down with a bottle and getting ready to go to war on that bad habit. She ended up getting too much milk so we had to let her CIO in the night after a time. Of course this action comes with the increased risk of dental problems, but mind you all our moms used to put us down with bottles until we were 3 or 4 and most of us didn't loose our teeth over it.

I have twin 17 month olds and have been through all of this. let's take things one at at time. First and most important you must stop feeding at night. Go by the rule "feed time, play time, sleep time." What this means is you feed him right when he wakes and then approx. every 3-4 hours. (here is how I do it..they wake at 7. They have their bottles then breakfast at 8...play till 10, nap till 12. wake and eat lunch, then play and bottle at 3, then play till 5, dinner, then bath, books, etc. quiet activities, bottle at 7, bed at 8. ) These are approx. times. My twins stopped having a bottle at 3 months on this schedule and they were premies!
As for the moving around the crib, I understand your concern...but truthfully he will not really get hurt if he bumps his head on the crib. Eventually he will learn the boundries of his bed. You were right to put him down and teach him to fall asleep on his own and you need to go back to this if you mentally can handle it. May I suggest a loud fan in your room so you don't hear every wimper??? Then if you do hear him, wait a couple of min. go in lay him down, pat his back and leave and keep doing this every 5 min. eventually he will learn. They say it takes 3 days to learn a bad habit and 7 to unlearn it. Good luck

First of all at 9 months old he should not be getting feedings at night. he should be on a cup with 3 meals a day plus baby snacks. You mentioned rocking him to sleep as something negative, rocking my baby;s to sleep for naps and bed times are some of my best memories and mom and baby connection times, I rock and sand to all 3 of mine putting them to bed a sleep never having any sleep issues with them. I never believe 26 years ago when I had my first baby to this day that a baby should have to fall asleep on their own, that may be why so many your parents today don't have baby's who sleep through the night, mine were sleeping through the night from 6 weeks on. I don't know how the new cribs work, but as soon as mine could stand up in the crib, I put the side where the railing goes down against the wall. J.

This is normal when they learn something new, they'll even 'practice' in their sleep. He's probably not hungry, his brain is going over what he's learned. He'll probably just sink down in his crib (shouldn't get hurt) when he's tired. This won't last long so hang in there! As long as he's not crying, just sitting in his crib or whatever (standing, cruising, etc.) you shouldn't even need to go in to him. Or just reassure him, rub his back until he falls asleep (not even rock him unless he's really going).