Our 9 month old has never been a good sleeper. I get him up and ready around 7am and he often sleeps on the way to our in home care provider, but is awake by 8:30. He takes a 45 minute nap around 11:00 (usually 1 hour). He often takes a 30 minute nap in the car around 2:30. Then he goes to bed at 9:00, usually after a bottle. That sounds good enough, except that he only sleeps for 45 minutes at a time in his crib. We've tried to bring him in our bed when we are desperate for sleep ourselves and it's not much different. He's restless and fitful. Our Doctor said this is a habit now and prescribed an antihistamine, basically Benadryl, to help him establish a new routine. We've tried it. It seemed like it was working at first, then back to the same thing. Several says a week he will sleep until 12:30 or 1:00am and then never gets back to a sound sleep, tosses and turns all night long.
He has two teeth on the bottom, and three half emerged on the top. This problem existed long before the teeth, so although it may be a factor, I don't think it's the source of the problem.
HELP! 9 months without sleep! How do we break the cycle?!?!?!
Thank you all in advance!
That does sound like a desparate situation. If the doctor can only think to offer making him drowsy with Benadryl, may I ask if you've tried a chiropractor? Sometimes a DC can help when an MD can't. Some are specially trained for infants. You can find a one at http://www.icpa4kids.org/locator/index.php
Also see http://www.icpa4kids.org/research/chiropractic/sleep.htm
Boy, I hope that helps!
he sounds like he may be over tired from his day. he may need to go to bed earlier. my son is 11 months old and is in bed by 6:30 every night and my daughter is 5 and she is in bed by 7:30. when babies are over tired, they sleep worse. i would try a bed time around 8 to start.
Sarah might be right about your baby being overly tired. My 10 month old goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up at 7am. He naps for two hours in the morning and two more hours in the afternoon.
When he wakes up in the night do you rush into his room right away or do you wait a while and give him a chance to go back to sleep on his own? I used to get up every time I heard my baby wake up until I read a lovely book called Baby Wise. Even though "Ingrid W" doesn't like this book and will probably trash talk me for recommending it to you, I still think it's a great book and it helped us out tremendously! Now if my baby wakes up in the night I look at the clock and wait 15 minutes. If he's still awake after that time, I go in and rub his back or sometimes I'll rock him until he gets sleepy again. The only time I don't wait the full 15 minutes is if he sounds really upset. Most of the time though, he's gone back to sleep within 5 minutes.
Hope that helps!
My baby was like that even in young infancy, except for her, 90 minutes was the longest. This was even if we held her, wore her on my body. Sometimes she would drift off for just 5 minutes at a time. Day and night. We were in a sleep deprived nightmarish haze.
What does your baby do during time with the sitter? My baby started at a sitter for a few hours at 8 months, but it was no better there even though the other babies slept for hours.
I don't have "The" solution for you, but I can suggest that you try a white noise device. One can be purchaced, or a fan or other device that makes a droning noise can be tried.
Over time, we found many problems our baby had. Allergies was major. Not only did she have environmental allergies, but food allergies which led to nutritional deficiencies. A sleep study gave us better understanding of what was wrong as well.
I wish you the best because the lack of sleep can lead to severe problems as it stresses both body and brain. If you cannot get this resolved with normal methods - I'd get allergy tests, sleep studies, nutritional supplements... and whatever it took.
Maybe I am over-reacting, but only because our pediatrician kept reassuring us that this was "normal"... even after I logged all her sleep time. It was NOT normal, and it was NOT "habit".
You are absolutely right to get on this sooner rather than later.
