How Can I Get My 7-Month-old Daughter to Sleep for at Least Six Hours at Night?

The book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Weissbluth was a huge help to myself and several of my friends, including those with twins. It talks about several different approaches for helping kids stay asleep and healthy sleep patterns--so you aren't "stuck" with just one method--you can choose what works for you. And it's broken up by age group, so you don't have to read the whole thing before you get some ideas! Hope it helps.

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well, the good news and bad news is that this is NORMAL. dont expect any different. you are going to get a lot of advice here that says to just let her cry it out blah blah - but that is going to go against your insticts. you have to follow your heart and follow your instincts. your daughter needs you, and thats not manipulation, thats building trust. every time you respond to her, you are allowing her to have a need and you are letting her know that you are there for her even if its inconvenient for you.

www.askdrsears.com has lots of good info about sleep.
heres a suggestioin or 2. white noise white noise white noise. a fan, radio playing static, a cd, whatever it takes. most babies like classical music - it puts them right to sleep. in our house we got a cd called 'for crying out loud' and it has 8 tracks of white noise on it. we ended up making a cd of 8 tracks of the vacuum selection. we play it every night all night long. (our son is 23 months old) and since my husband is a light sleeper, he is as addicted to it as our son is.
also, a bit of routine might help. something that wont help ? feeding solids or formula in order to keep her full... that will disrupt sleep more because digestion will keep her awake. you want her to have eaten something light before bed, but nothing complex, nothing heavy, nothing too filling.

anyway, go with your heart. do what gets you all the most rest, and just respond in the way that best shows your child the love you have! never do anything that makes you cry ! LOL

My 7-month old was doing something similar. Even though he got enough milk and food during the day, he was in the habit of eating at night, so was hungry because he was used to eating then. So I started slowly reducing the amount of time I nursed him. I'd set a timer for 5 minutes, and after 5 minutes put him to bed. Then a few nights later, 4 minutes, and so on. After that, I let him cry and knew at least it was not because he was hungry. I was surprised to find he only cried about 10-15 minutes and then fell asleep on his own, a big relief after nearly 8 months of sleep deprivation.

At this point she should be getting enough foods during the day so that she doesn't "need" to eat at night. I would guess she is still waking out of habit and likes to nurse. Our 7 mth DD will now sleep from 7:30 pm to 6 am without waking. Sometimes she'll wake around 5/5:30 and I'll nurse her and put her back to bed for another couple of hours. She also has 2 naps during the day 1 hour in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. She's always had 2 naps ever since she started a regular nap schedule. It will be tough and will take some help from your hubby. But what I did to get her to regularly extend her sleep period is set "times" when I would go in there(appropriate to age) once whe was 4 months old. So first I would say I would only feed her after 3, then 4 then 5 etc. Everything before the "set" time my hubby had to comfort her/give back the pacifier. Also now she can find and re-insert the pacifier on her own!!! Yeah!!! Good luck!

K.,
You have alot of good responses that I would agree with. Try to keep her up a little later at night - make bedtime later than 7:30. When my daughter was younger, I used to let her take a 5:30ish nap and then would put her down at 9/10:00 and she'd sleep through the night.
My other suggestion is let her cry! She does not need to eat in the middle of the night at 7 months. She is doing this out of habit and you just need to break that habit, and it will be hard for a week or so until she can calm herself down and put herself back to sleep. But just put the pillow over your ears and let her cry. She'll soon learn that there is no association with crying and getting fed in the middle of the night.
You poor thing - I cannot imagine getting no sleep for 7 months! You have to be exhausted!!!
Good luck! It'll get hard before it gets easy, but trust me, nothing beats a full nights of good rest for your mind and your body!!

Hi K......sorry to hear about your zombie like state...although for today it works :) With my older 2 boys (5 and 3 now) we started having daddy go into them at night around 5 mos or so. I was nursing also, so when they sensed me they immediatly wanted to eat. I would ask your peditrician to be sure, but I would guess that your 7 month old can make it more then 4 1/2 hours between night time feedings. With my 3 year old, we discovered that he was wanting to eat way more then he was getting from me. So, I started pumping and giving him bottles of pumped milk just to see what would happen. I was pumping only 4 oz or so every 3 hours and he was eating close to 7 oz every 3 hours. Once he started getting what he really needed during the day, he slept so much better at night. Once we were sure they were getting what they needed at during the day and shouldn't really need to eat at night for nutitional reasons then Daddy would go in when they work up, either pick them up and snuggle for a few seconds, or just rub their tummy until they calmed down and would go back to sleep. Eventually (it took a couple of nights) but they would wake up, stir a little, and then get themselves back to sleep. We were lucky, because neither of the boys really cried hysterically at any point, I am not sure what I would have done then. Good luck and good sleeping :)

I agree with "let her cry." Some will say this is harsh, but I disagree! Helping her get adjusted to a healthy sleep pattern is good parenting. And necessary for your health too!! My kids slept through the night using the Baby Wise book/system. When they were a few months old and past the stage where they needed to eat at night, we got them off that night time wakeup by letting them cry. I hated it but it worked. The first night, I read a magazine and listened to my daughter scream in the middle of the night for over an hour. The next night it was 20 minutes, the third night 10 minutes, and then that was it. From then on, she slept through without waking. Same with her brother. What bliss for the 2 of us to get a full night's sleep! And good for them too. :)

K. -

Some of the professionals out there will disagree with me strongly but what I suggest will pull at your heart strings and may take a week or so to work but...When she wakes up at midnight or whatever time let her cry, she may need to just learn how to comfort herself in order to sleep through the night. Even though she is eating at night when you feed her it may just be more of a comfort than for nutrition. Also, make sure there is not more than 4 hours between bottles during the day, that way she will get her calories she needs when you are awake and will sleep more when you need to. Another suggestion is to make sure she is not sleeping too much during the day, at 7 months she can still get her days and nights wacked up a bit.

I will just tell what worked for both of my girls who are 2 and 6 now. I kept them awake by talking to them and playing with them from about 4-6pm then fed them, gave them a warm bath and cuddled them to sleep, slowly layed them down and wrapped them snug in a blanket. they slept for about 7-9hours.

This is obviously something your baby needs. She is probably not hungry at night- it's more about reconnecting with mommy who is away from her for more time than she would like during the day. Did you know that babies get depressed if they are away from their mommies for more hours than 1/2 their age? For example, at 7 months your daughter should be away from you for no more than 3.5 hours at a time. So what if she gets up during the night to have some special uninterrupted bonding time with you? You have the rest of your life to sleep for longer stretches, but your daughter is only this age once. You can choose to let her cry it out in a cold bed in another room- but what you are doing is training yourself not to respond to her needs. Dr. Sears has a great nighttime parenting book. Good luck!

I had some of the same issues (and still deal with them at times) but some things that worked for us were:

1. Put her in a "halo" sleeping bag, this way she can not get uncovered by her blankets.
2. Have a light on in the room, very dim, but enough so that when they do wake up in the middle of the night they know where they are. They say that they may be able to get themselves back to sleep better.
3. Do not nurse her to sleep at the beginning of the night, make sure she is somewhat awake when you put her down. This has helped us with her not waking up within the first couple of hours. (like she thinks she is taking a nap)
4. Regular schedule at night. 6:30 eat, 7:00 bath and then play a little (my hubby comes home late, so our schedule is a little different) then I nurse her for a little bit and put her in her bed, awake. She might cry for a a few seconds (pretty much until I shut her bedroom door) but then she falls asleep.
5. I stopped feeding her before 3am. If she cries before than my husband will go in there and pat her to sleep. I can not console her in that way... she just wants to nurse if I go in.
6. We also put a fan in her room to drown out random noise. They say this also helps with SIDS.
You never know... each baby is obviously so different. I have done A LOT of research though (our daughter was waking every two hours until about a month ago). This is the combo we found to work. I hope you find a solution, sleepless nights are not fun!

Hi K.,

You may or may not want to do this, but if you want to sleep through the night, you might want to give it a try. Don't run into her room every time she cries...she knows you are going to do this, and it has become a habit. You are going to have to break this habit because most babies will keep it up unless you change it. If you make the decision to try this be consistent and follow through every time because if you go in once you will have to start all over. You will be surprised how quickly she will learn to just fall back to sleep on her own, and you will wonder why you didn't do this sooner. She will be happier, and so will Mom and Dad.

C.

Since it's been about 2 hours since she's ate her solids. I would personally give her a cracker. There is one called arrowroot I can only find it in the Toddler Graduate packaging now, but if you break it up into small enough pieces she can handle it b/c it melts in the mouth easy. If you're just adding formula to the milk before bed sometimes, I personally don't think that's as fullfilling as a grain. (Try a cracker or two before you nurse her the last time before bed).

You never know, it could just be her personality! My second daughter didn't need as much sleep and would always wake up 4:30-5:30 until she was about 1 1/2 years old. Now she sleeps in sometimes until 7. My first daughter she'd sleep in until at least 9. She started sleeping through the night about 3 months. One only needs about 7-8 hours and the other needs 12 hours.

S.

K.,
I have a 7-month-old son who did/does the same thing. I actually had a similar post on here not too long ago. After many recommendations, I read Dr. Weissbluth's book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and for the most part I was satisfied. Things have gotten better. I was completely opposed to the cry it out method, but after other things were not working, we tried it. Not sure how your daughter does falling asleep on her own, but my son was not very good at it. That is until we tried the cry it out. I was convinced he'd cry for an hour or more, but the longest was only 25 minutes and got less and less each day. As for nightwakings, he is still nursing 1-2times/night. But, I am realizing that he doesn't nurse for very long at the first feeding, so I am too trying to wean him from that (which will likely take some more crying it out). In my experience you have to ready to try something new, like the crying it out. Once I made that decision it was easier to deal with. If you decide to read Dr. Weissbluth's book, you'll see that he actually recommends an earlier bedtime. We have moved my son's up to 630p. it's not the most convenient for us, but it seems to help with his sleep. Also, despite some of the other posts, he talks about the importance of good naps and how this can help nighttime sleep. he also says that weaning from nighttime feedings happens between 6-9 months of age, despite what many people say. Lastly, everyone has told me how importance consistency on the part of the parent is, so I guess I would say try to be consistent. I know much easier said than done because I am working on the same thing myself.
Hope this helps. Feel free to email me because I can completely relate!

Hi K.,
I ran into this same problem with my second child...my first slept through the night at 8 weeks, but my daughter was waking up through the age of 1 year. It was the same situation, she would wake up about 5 hours after she went to sleep. I started going into her room, and laying on the floor next to her crib and holding her hand until she fell back to sleep. It was comforting enough for her that I was there in the room with her, it took about 3 nights and it was great, she now sleeps through the night with the occasional exception. I tried the "let her cry" theory, and my heart couldn't take it, but this worked great! Good luck!

Every child is different, but how I helped my daughter shift her sleep schedule a bit was by limiting her nap time during the day. My daughter would nap twice a day for 2 hours each and would wake up in the middle of night. I limited her naps to 45 min-1 hour and would gently wake her to play or find a way to keep her up and interested. Gradually as she got older her sleep at night got longer and now she sleeps through the night. I agree, try not to feed her and let her learn to soothe herself to sleep with some help from you of course. Good luck!

You don't mention how much she's napping, but I would shorten her naps and see how that works. Maybe even eliminate the last nap of the day.

You are going to get all kinds of advice about whether or not to feed her when she wakes, and only you can make that decision, but I would say try comforting her, but don't feed her.

I have this same problem with my now 11 month old daughter. I have read several books, spoken to our pediatrician for suggestions and gone to a presentation by an MD at Children's Hospital on sleep. ...We still have the problem. I finally resorted to the "just let her cry it out" that so many people are in a hurry to suggest. I tried this for several nights...she cried for four straight hours each time. Not right on any level or healthy in my book. So I never recommend the cry it out method. My pediatrician finally told me that she tried all sorts of things with her son and he did not sleep through the night until two. I do know that for kids in our kids age group they need about 9 - 9 1/2 hours of sleep at night and about an hour and 15 minutes two times a day. This is the next thing I am going to try...shortening her naps up. I am sorry I am not much help but sometimes it is nice to hear from someone that is going through the same thing. Oh! We did limit her calories for about a month (gave her water with a tiny bit of formula for flavor) and feeding her more calories during the day....that had no effect on her sleep pattern. So try some of what people have told you in other posts...but keep in mind that every child is different as well.

If you're not a fan of the crying-it-out- method, check out at the library:

"Good Night Sleep Tight: The Sleep Lady's Gentle Guide to Helping Your Child Go To Sleep, Stay Asleep, and Wake Up Happy" by Kim West (http://www.sleeplady.com/)

It discusses sleeping habits and patterns of newborns to five year-olds. It also includes things like medical problems, twins and siblings, co-sleeping and the family bed, if any and/or all of those things are issues involved.

Good luck and good sleep!