Hi I have a 9 month old who has been sleeping through the night since she was 6 weeks old. Now she cries when we try to put her down for the night and she wakes up 2 or 3 times a night and will literally cry all night until we come and rock her to sleep. She has also started crawling and pulling herself up, could any of this be related?
Well, thank you for all the wonderful advice and ideas! I was so relieved to know this is a normal thing for some children. Bella is doing better-my husband rocks her to sleep (this seems to work better than just putting her in her crib at bedtime-she sleeps better over all) and like clock work-she wakes up an hour and half later so I give her a bottle and she goes back to sleep for the rest of the night. She wakes up about 6 am though. I know I probably shouldn't give her a bottle in her crib but there is nothing else that soothes her and perhaps she is hungry again?
Do you leave a small light on if not try it. Sometimes music will help they feel alone and want some comfort this might help plus it will relax her. She might be cutting teeth and that might be bothering her. If this is the case it will get better when the teeth come in. Good luck sleep is nice to have.
It could also be her teeth bothering her? I wouldn't worry over it too much.
If she's not going through a growth spurt - then she is just going through a phase. Which is what it sounds like since she is crying when you put her down. You have to be firm with her if you want her to develop good habits.
Totally related! Anytime my first daughter learned a new skill her sleeping went out the window! Hang in there mom. I let my daughter cry and I would go in a reassure her at increasing intervals. NEVER pick her up though! She will get to where she depends on you rocking her. I am in the process of letting my 6 month old cry it out.....6 months is long enough for sleep deprivation! Good luck!
I have a 10 month old too....
I was told by my doctor on the last visit at 9 months they have stranger anxiety.
I noticed that my little one was more awake at night when we had seen lots of people during the day. When we stayed home and only saw familiar faces, he slept better.
Maybe it is all related. He sleeps regular again now.
Good luck....If you need it, I have a sleep plan from a sleep specialist. It is a routine you can follow for several days to get them used to sleeping in their bed. He is my son's pulmonologist ( my little one was also 6 weeks early), he is also a sleep doctor.
They go through phases. G. is correct about new skills causing a change in schedule for your child.
When she wakes up at night, give her a few minutes to calm herself. If you decide to check on her, do not pick her up, do not turn on any lights, just check to make sure she is ok. Use very low tones, hand her her "lovey" and Binky if she uses one. She will cry, but she will need to learn to put herself back to sleep. Hang in there mom.
Just an idea: I wonder if her appetite has increased, and she's just hungry? My daughter has a 10-month-old boy, and that happened to him recently. She put him to bed, and he woke up crying about 30 minutes later. She patted him and put him back down, all the while the thought in her head, wondering if he was hungry. He went back to sleep, but again woke up 30 minutes later. So, she fed him, and he gobbled it down! So she determined to feed him more the next day. I think that has helped.
Hope you get your sleep soon!
She may be having a growth spurt and be hungry more often or have some growing pains, have ear infections that hurt her after being in reclined position and having drainage for awhile, she may be teething and that causes her pain after awhile, or any number of reasons. I hope she starts sleeping again soon! Good luck.
S.
My daughter did that when she started crawling and pulling up as well. Its just a phase and she will get over it. I would just try to be consistent and do the same bedtime routine and she will adjust. I definitely think its related to the crawling and pulling up.
K.
my son had bad ear infections. we got tubes this week and he has sleept threw the night. he would sleep threw before but he would wake up and fuss for a min or so then fall back asleep. i saw on cnn morning show how to get your baby to sleep threw the night....use black out shades over the window, white noise, only enough light to see to walk in the room with, they also said to keep the tempature pretty cool 68-72 ( who can afford that one? ) espically for south texas but we dont do that. we tried all the other things and he started sleeping threw the night. best of luck to you.
Both of my daughters who were great sleepers went through a period around 9 months of waking up numerous times during the night. Our pediatrician said it's normal around the time that they get more active and are able to get around on their own better. And when babies first start pulling up, they don't always know how to get back down without falling, so they cry for help! Rest assured it's a phase and your baby will soon be sleeping through the night again.
My motto was 'hungry children will not sleep'. When my daughter was an infant, if she woke up multiple times, in 2-3 hour increments, I would give her a bottle. Might be going through a growth spurt, using more calories and needs a bit more food to last 8 hours.
Of course, I'm a FT working mom... I needed her to sleep. (And no, she never developed any sleep issues because of nighttime feeding under the age of 14 months. She was able to comfort herself to sleep as necessary, without needing a bottle to do so. Key is that you evaluate the situation each time... You don't want giving her a bottle to become a nightly habitual routine. But you don't want to lose your job either...)
Our 14month old 3rd daughter did (is doing) the same thing. She started about 10 months. I an nursing her, and she would wake up and feed 2-3 times a night. I tried to stop nursing, and just rock her down. She would have nothing of it. I was not comfortable with letting her cry for hours, which she would if we did not pick her up. I read alot about letting children learn to self sooth, and fall asleep on their own. It sounds great, but when it is your child screaming, it doesn't seem right. Since then we do the nightly dance, knowing that this was a phase that would pass. Recently I was able to stop nursing her, and just hold her, and she would go back to sleep. The episodes are shorter, and she is quicker to go back down. We always returned her to her bed. This past week, we were able to just pat her back down without getting her out of the crib, so it appears that she is getting into a groove. We try to have a bedtime routine, feed, bath, pj's, hold, bottle. It works to get her down, it's the staying down that we had to work on. It will pass, but some nights, it felt like she would never sleep.
By the way, our other two kids slept perfectly, so we were like, what is this all about?
good luck.
