Help 8 Mon Old Still Wakes 1-2 Times a Nite

It is VERY hard to do this, but pick a night that you can handle being up a long time and let him cry. You can go in and settle him once nicely, then make it very business like each other time. I would try waiting longer and longer each time. If you can stand it, just don't go in. If you know the diaper is dry, and the baby is safe,the child should be ok. You could try peeking in only if he can't see you. You might even see/hear him stop and be fine, then try again. My husband did this with my second one. It only took two nights, but I was up tyring to stay busy so I wouldn't go in there! Good luck!!

My 2nd baby did not sleep through the night until she was 11 months old...same thing. hang in there. She is the best sleeper now! I would try to comfort him with a paci or give him another bottle. IT will work itself out!!

Mothers for generations and generations have let their kids cry themselves back to sleep. Let the baby search for his own blinky. You could try keeping him up an hour later in the evening so that he may sleep longer in the morning. One day he'll be 3-5 years old and he may not want to go to bed then either. What will you do? Let him stay up? Let him sleep with you? It only takes a few nights of letting them cry and then they stop and they sleep. And they will still love you when they wake up in the morning. It will not have any long term effect. I let all my kids cry at some time or another and they are all grown and love me to death and tell me so everytime they see me. I have 2 granddaughters and when they spend the night, they will cry a little at bedtime because they don't want to go to bed, I hug and kiss them, and then let them cry. They wake up and love me in the morning. My point: it does not hurt them to cry. They are only trying to get their own way when they do. IF something is really really wrong, the cry will sound different. Check on him if it makes you feel better, but then close the door and let him cry. One of my boys it took 4 nights of crying and he finally stopped. Full, restful nights of sleep were had by all - INCLUDING the baby!!

Hi, R.,

Lots of sleep questions appeared on this day's post!

I love the Ask Moxie blog for most parenting questions. She's not an expert, but a Mom with a ton of knowledge and also her readers can write in their suggestions. Go check out her post on the 4-month sleep regression (also do a search on "sleep regression" to read some other posts). She talks extensively about how sleep changes when kids hit their physical milestones.
http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2007/10/4-month-olds.html

Hope this helps! And thinking of you!
N.

The hardest thing to do is to let them cry it out and learn to self soothe but typically in life the hard decisions are also the right decisions! You are not negelcting him, he gets your love and attention all day long, but he has learned if he behaves in a certain way he gets a specific response. Ignore the crying fits for a few nights and when baby realizes you are not coming to get him he will change his behaviour. This will create a more pleasant home life for everyone allowing you and your husband to be better parents and spouses! Buy some great ear plugs!

Babies waking up at night is very common for many different reasons. The best thing you can do for all of you is try and find out why your son wakes up and how to best help him get back to sleep. You can find many great answers to different baby quesyions at www.askdrsears.com such as this one of many about sleep.
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070300.asp

Another resource is the book "The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night" By Elizabeth Pantley

if he is not on food feed him hungry babies do not sleep well regardless of what pedi says, crying is not the answer all kids are different put a rocker in his room and use it babies are not about convience for moms never have been, they are about you taking care of them , love and comfort at that age i believe it affects them greatly in later life, everyone needs that comfort and food feed them people pedis are wack to think they can go that long on formula none of our family ever followed those rules all had happy healthy babies, god bless

I did the following technique with my daughter when she was 7 months old and still waking up to eat. It is definitely more habit than hunger at this age. For the first couple of nights give your son 1 oz less than you have been feeding him, for the next couple of nights 2 oz less, then so on until you are down to nothing. If you get to this point and he is still waking give him water only and only a couple of ounces. I never did get to that point. By the time I had weened her down to 2 oz of milk she started sleeping through the night. Make sure you are interacting as little as possible with him and keeping the lights down low or off so he knows it's not playtime. Good luck and I hope it helps.

See if he is dry, cold or hot with covers, feed him cereal in his last bottle of the night, just try and comfort him, and after a few nights he may go right back to sleep with his binky. He could be cutting teeth. I had four and all were different, so don't expect the same thing out of them.

When you first put him down, is he already asleep? Older babies may go to sleep well, but once they wake up, they don't know how to soothe themselves back to sleep, and they may be suprised to find themselves in a different area (like if he fell asleep in your arms in the living room, it can startle him to find he's in a different place when he wakes). So, instead of putting him down to bed after he is asleep, do it when he is sleepy, but not totally asleep, so he will become aware of his surroundings.

8 months is a better age to start to let them cry it out, I wouldn't if he was any younger. Also, instead of the binky, try to to introduce his finger or thumb to him through out the day. That way, he will learn to soothe himself with his finger and not be as reliable on the pacifier. Of course, if he is hungry, feed him, but that shouldn't really happen more than once in the night.

I would not make him cry it out....this is not recommended by Dr. Sears until at least 2 years of age. Neither of mine slept through the night until they were 12 months..now they sleep all night. It is a tough time, but hang in there...it DOES get better.

"The No Cry Sleep Solution" may give you some ideas to progress him to not waking....more gently than crying it out.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Cry-Sleep-Solution-Gentle-Throug...

Either way, go with your instincts...God gave them to you (not daddy so much) so listen to your gut.

My daughter was like that. She was still waking up to nurse. The pediatrician said at her age, she wasn't hungry it was just a habit. So, we picked a weekend where it didn't matter if we were sleep deprived to work on this problem. When she woke up crying, my husband would go in and pat her, tell her, "Go back to sleep. You're ok." She kept fussing/crying. We waited 5 minutes, he went in did the same thing, then waited 7 mins, 10, 15, 20, 20 ,20 until she went to sleep. We hated to make her cry it out, but that was the only way. But my husband went in everytime so she wouldn't think we left her. We only had to do it 2 nights and she slept through the nite.

My son did this too, but I knew he was not hungry. I let him cry. It takes time, but it works.

My 9 month old does the same thing. I haven't nursed him in the middle of the night since he was about 6 months, b/c I didn't want him to get used to it. I also will not pick up up for the same reason. I stand by his bed and pat his chest and give him his pacifier for about 10 minutes. If he won't go back to sleep (which he usually does), then I just let him cry. This was SOOOO hard the first couple of times I did this, but it worked. I checked on him every 10 minutes or so, and he finally fell asleep. He cries less and less each time this happens. I play a lullaby cd throughout the night to help calm him. I also sleep him in a baby papason chair, b/c he's been congested due to ear infections, which keeps him a little upright. If your baby is congested, maybe try sleeping him upright (like in a car seat), which my dr. recommended. I'm right there with you on the sleeplessness, and I wish you luck!

There is another post about a 10 month old not sleeping, you may want to read the responses there too...my 1st child didnt' sleep through the night until she was about a year old. We would put 10 binkies in her bed so she could find them herself! This finally worked, but it took a while. As for night feedings, I think my peditrician told me that by about 6 months they shouldn't NEED a nighttime feeding - that doesn't mean they dont' WANT it. So, once I realzied she didn't NEED that feeding, I quit nursing her back to sleep. I dont' think she was really hungry, just wanted that comfort and was used to it, like a bad habit. So, check with the peditrician, make sure it's ok to stop nighttime feedings, then just try to be patient. I am a fan of crying it out althought it's VERY hard for me. The way I did it was to give them some time to settle themselves, then I'd go in after 5 minutes, calm them down (without picking them up) and then leave again. this time I'd wait 10 min. before I'd go back in. No eye contact, just patting and laying them back down in bed. Then I'd go out and wait 15 minutes. It takes a while at first, but after a few nights of this routine, they get the picture and learn to deal with things on their own. Another thing that helped me TREMENDOUSLY with my 2nd child was a video monitor. That way when he fussed, I was able to actually look in his room and see if he was fussing with his eyes closed and laying down, or if he was standing up and eyes open, etc. To me, it made a difference b/c it always seemed like when I'd fianlly say "ok, he's been crying for a while now, I'm going to go see if I can calm him down..." then I'd check the video monitor and he was sitting, or laying down and you could tell he was about to go back to sleep on his own.

Good luck!

I hate to break it to you, but that's normal. :( I've noticed that a couple other moms have posted today about the same thing, and their's are a couple months older than your's. My son woke a lot, and my daughter didn't. You'll be exhausted for a while, but it'll get better. I promise. ;)

My son, (now 16 years old) woke up every 3 hours during the night for a bottle until he was 11 months old. Needless to say, it wore me out! We went to a Mavericks game one night and asked my sister-in-law to keep him, so he spent the night. He slept all night! I was completely shocked, but relieved. The problem was I had a small night light in his room, so when he woke up he thought it was time to be awake!! I took it out, he slept in the dark, woke up a couple of nights, but learned to fall back asleep on his own because we didn't get up. It worked. I don't know what is in his room, but don't have a light on and see if that works. Ironically, my son likes to sleep with his t.v. on at night! Maybe he misses that night light! haha.