I Need Some Sleep!

Hi M.
This seems to be such a common problem nowadays. I am convinced it's due to all the stimulation there is.
My 9 mth old granddaughter is also experiencing sleep problems and so I would be really glad if you would let me know how you discovered that cereal at night for babies can lead to night terrors and insulin spikes.... My daughter needs all the info she can get - and like you, some sleep!
My e-mail address is ____@____.com thanks Jewel

I recommend a book called Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. It goes through explaining all of the differnt phases children go through as they are growing and developing and offers solutions to sleep problems.

I feel your pain...my son was like this also...had some night terrors, but was a horrible sleeper anyways.

There was never a pattern and just when I would get a couple of nights sleep under my belt something new would show up.

I am wondering if he might be teething...does he have tons of drool and other signs of that? If so Hylands teething tablets at bedtime work wonders as does a dose of Tylenol.

Also, one thing I learned with my son (that I didn't do, but tried with my daughter and it worked she is a wonderful sleeper) is to let him/her cry 5 to 10 minutes at the first night waking so see if they will resettle themselves. I jumped as soon as my son made a peep...and he didn't sleep through the night until around 16 months when I did a total CIO marathon.

With my daughter I would watch the clock and not go in to see her until she had cried for 5 full minutes...then 7 minutes...then 10 minutes...usually she would settle down and go back to sleep without me intervening.

Good luck...no one told me this mothering thing was such a guessing game!! {{{{hugs}}}}

I honestly don't think it has much to do with weight, but his mental (and maybe physical) development. My 5 month old is starting to do the same thing and I've been doing a lot of reading on it (because I've been SO frustrated that whenever we seem to "get her on a program," it stops working!). Basically, he is probably going through a huge developmental period mentally...learning new things, etc...and this very much affects his sleep. Here is a link to an article - you can ignore all of the stuff about fussiness if it doesn't pertain to you, but just know that sleep regression issues are tied closely to these developmental milestones. Also, keep in mind that they start about 2-3 weeks BEFORE the milestone. You can also google "sleep regression" or "wonder weeks." Ask Moxie is also a good blog. Good luck...I know it is frustrating!

http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetails.aspx?p...

Wow, I know the sleep issue is near and dear to every mommy's heart and also a very emmotional issue to discuss so I will tell you what I do :) My little man started the 6 hour thing around two months but we have had our issues from time to time. For instance one time he started wanting to stay up an hour later even though you could tell he was exhausted. One night when he was crying I decided to go check him and the moment he saw me he just started wailing ten times harder. That's when I had my personal epiphany. He just wanted me to hold and rock him, which I did do that night because I was already in the room but now I don't. I know how much he needs to eat daily so if there is a day that eating doesn't go well for whatever reason, if he crys shortly after being put down I will definately go in and feed him and put him back to bed; otherwise I let him cry a few minutes and 9 times out of 10 he gets back to sleep shortly. Of course every mom is different and every child is unique, but for our little guy, giving him a chance to comfort himself and cool out works. Of course I have my time limit, I always check the clock when he starts to cry and decide when I am going in if he doesn't go back to sleep. I rarely ever have to go in and now he rarely ever cries. Anyway, I know there are many schools of thought out there and if mine doesn't fit you, no worries! ;) My little man is now 9 months and is a super exhuberant outgoing little boy. Good luck to you!!

Getting the little ones to sleep through the night is all about training him to go to sleep on his own! Unfortunately it involves letting them cry it out during the night, until they learn to soothe themselves. Don't worry this doesn't last long. You can absolutely help them get back to sleep at first by letting them know you are there, reassuring them, but also indicating that it is time to sleep. Little ones love their mommies so much, and if they know that everytime they cry they'll get mommy then why not?
I have four young children of my own and they all slept through the night at three months old. One of the most important factors is setting a night routine. My youngest just turned 6 months as well and one thing I do is put him to nap during the day without darkening the room (unless it's way to bright) just having the normal daylight light in the room. Then when it's nighttime, he gets a tubby, a last feeding, sleepers, extra love and attention, then he is put down in a dark room (doesn't have to be completely dark).
Most importantly, you know your baby best. If you don't like to hear him cry then by all means wake up with him. Some mommies really cherish the time spent with baby in the night. This advice is from a mommy who values her sleep. Good luck and God Bless!

above all remember that this is a very short time. it will not last forever and within a few years you'll be wishing you had cherished those times in the wee hours a little more.
here's my 2 cents...
1. pray. pray for wisdom in knowing when he can cry and resettle himself (i've never been a fan of this myself)and when he needs comforting. and pray for rest for both of you.
2. he is probably teething which means he will wake every few hours. you can try some homeopathic remedies (we use hylands teething tablets, they dissolve super fast) or give a little tylenol or ibuprofen. if it's teething vs. hunger he won't wake with the tylenol, he will if it's hunger.
3. are you nursing? if so, take him off solids! babies do not need solids under 6 months of age. your pediatrician was wrong to recommend that. every child i have known on solids has developed allergies later in life. there is a direct correlation. if you decide to keep him on solids (since he is almost 6 months) then just do minimal solids right now. his system may not handle them well just yet which is making it hard to get into a pattern.
4. there are no such thing as patterns :) haha. just when you think you have it figured out, they pull the rug out. if you're a stay at home mom, just go with it. nap when he does throughout the day. wear him in a sling if possible. keep your day low key and predictable and that helps to get them into some type of routine. if you're on the go a lot that can wreak havoc on their sleep cycles as well.
good luck. it's not easy, but it really won't last forever. another idea is to cosleep. don't know your thoughts. i did that with my 2 and it helped to sleep. they'd wake in the middle of the night, i'd latch them on and we both drift off to sleep. still cosleeping with my son (he's 5 months).
blessings,
A.

My heart goes out to you. You will eventually get your nighttime back. Be patient.

My son was large at birth and was the hungriest baby I'd ever seen. I breast-fed for not quite a year, but had to supplement with a bottle and cereal earlier than I had with my daughter. My son woke up at night a lot more often than my daughter. I tried to console and comfort and hold him. Nothing worked except a feeding. I began a habit of late dinners for him, hoping that would be enough to keep him sleepy all night. When he woke up anyway, I gave him time to settle down on his own, but when he didn't I went in with a bottle and spoke Bible verses over him, prayed over him, rocked him, and then put him back to sleep.

Today, he's healthy, happy, and the tallest one in his classroom in school. But he doesn't eat all that much. His hunger calmed down after a few years.

A book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child helped me sooooo much with both of my children (still does...has help up to school age). Neither of my kids slept through the night on their own. My first was sleeping through the night by 6 months after using the help of this book. With my 2nd, I thought I knew all the right things to do, but he didnt consistently sleep through the night til he was 10 months old. He started walking at 10 months, then started sleeping. You never know what might be going on...teething maybe?? I think the key is a plan, consistency and patience. (very difficult things when you yourself are sleep deprived)

I don't have any advice per say as to how to help him sleep throught the night, but I do relate with you in that just when you think you've got a routine down, it changes on you. My baby began sleeping through the night when she was almost 4 months old....so I thought!!! Then we went back to waking up at least once a night. Then again, at about 8 months she slept through the night. She is now 10 1/2 mths old and this week alone, she's woken up at around 4 am twicwe (I get up at 5 am). Thank God though, last night she slept through the night again. Point is that I don't think there really is anything we can do but be there for them and hope for the best. Hang in there...it gets tougher (LOL!).

On another note, even when my baby does sleep through the night, I don't. I end up waking at least once, sometimes more, during the night to check one her. To make sure she's covered if it's cold or not sweating if it's hot, and most importantly, I have to hear her or see her breathing before I leave her side. Call me paranoid or whatever you want to call me, but I can't help it.

Good luck and I hope you get some good Zzzz's in soon!

I had similar problems with my little one at about 6 months. Doc. said he will wake periodically thru night because of the teething. I have given him a very small dose of tylenol prior to bed and it seems to help. Once the teeth cut through the gums, he slept great- Sometimes he just wakes because he wants his binkie, once he gets it he falls back asleep. Talk with your doctor about the tylenol thing for the pain, maybe this could be it???

He is waking up because he probably is starting to teeth - his first tooth should be coming soon. Feeding cereal just a pinch in the bottle before bed will help with him sleeping longer, but if he trully is teething then he will wake up at least twice a night until the tooth comes. He will also possibly have a higher temp slightly like 99. He will also exhibit liking to bite things or chew a lot more.

Try some chamomile tea. just a little bit of sugar to make it taste good. Good for mommy and baby..

Let me first sympathize with your struggle and tell you that I have only recently seen the light at the end of the tunnel. I have twin boys (12 mos) that just started sleeping all through the night. The key to our success was in the book "Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth... I had gotten to a point of delirium and borderline depression because of the lack of sleep and nightly strain, so I was desperate when my husband brought this book home to me. As I read it, I realized that I was the problem, not my kids... So many things I was doing all wrong that were helping to create these bad habits. I will say, there are some critics to his methods as being to harsh (crying it out, etc) but if you are willing to do it and really commit, it works... About a week in, the boys got the drill and knew what to expect from me. You are right, it's all about getting a solid nap routine down during the day as well as a good bedtime routine at night, and you HAVE to be firm and consistent throughout or it won't work. Sometimes it was so hard listening to them cry, but I knew it was the best thing for them... I was teaching them to be able to put themselves back to sleep instead of enabling them and doing it for them everytime. I still use it as a reference, and it has a lot of good info. Good luck... I mean it

S.
Katy, TX

Hi M. -

Tell me about it. I have a high need baby/toddler - he is going to be 2 years in May and the most he sleeps at night is 1-2 hours at-a-time. This is indicative of a "high-need" baby. You may have one. They do not sleep through the night until they are around 3 years old. I still nurse him and we co-sleep because NOTHING worked on getting him to sleep longer so we make things as easy on "us" as possible - this is easy for us this way.

This all started for us when he was four months old and started sleeping 3-4 hours at night. (I have big babies too.)We thought we were heading for restful nights. But that lasted three days and that's how these kids are - they do something for just a few days in-a-row and you think they are getting on a schedule only to change everything and this goes on and on. You can count on this with these kids - unpredictable and no schedule.

You are very fortunate if your son is happy - ours had all kinds of issues and I'm still b/feeding him due to food sensitivities/allergies and intestinal issues, reflux, etc... and he demanded to be held constantly for the first year.

If your baby continues this sleep then you can go to www.askdrsears.com - this site saved us because he knows all about these special little babies and you can read on sleep issues and lots else - very good information and advice backed on his 30+ years of research on all types of children/babies.

Many people do not get that these babies just don't sleep - you can also go to yahoo's www.fussybabies.com (I think that's it) and get support there from lots of mom's that know what it is like to have a high-need baby. Some are mildly high need and some are intensely - like my son - high need. If your son is like this, he sounds very mild to me - that is a blessing. At any rate, you just live for the moment and parent them with a lot of love and understanding. And, you soon come to accept that you will eventually get sleep - until then you keep your life low-maint. and low-stress as possible - it teaches you to slow down and keep things simple which is a lesson all of us can learn.

GOOD LUCK!!!
Alli

M. I think that the little guy has you all on a pattern.He knows that if he wakes up that many times a nite then you will also.When he wakes up go in make sure that his diaper is clean and that he has a full tummy,when all that is done go back to bed.Babies are just like men they will do what ever you let them do(lol).Once he realizes that you are not going to cater to him getting up that many times of nite,he will soon go back on his sleeping pattern,thinking that mom has gone crazy for not checking on me 2 or 3 times like I want her to and he will just go back to sleep.Remember a little crying will not hurt the lungs it only make them stronger.Always try to ditinguish a hurt cry,pain cry and a spoil cry that will help you so much.Good Luck!!!B. F.

I would say that it sounds like normal behavior for a baby this age. When my children were this age, I began to let them put themselves back to sleep. I wouldn't let them cry for hours on end, but they would typically fuss for 10-15 minutes and then fall back to sleep. I have four kids, and I got different responses from all of them- after doing it for a week, 2 of them just stopped waking altogether. The other two, it would go in spurts and when we would travel or get out of a routine, then they would start waking again at night. My youngest is now two, and if she gets over tired from a busy day, she will not sleep well. My 7 year old, until this past year, would get night terrors when overly exhausted. Some kids are just prone to sleeping better than others- the others we need to kind of help them along, because they are now establishing sleep patterns for the rest of their life. Good luck and don't stress about it too much. Especially with our first children, we moms have expectations about how things "should be". To me- it sounds perfectly normal. How awesome for him to have such an attentive mommy!

According to Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, in his groundbreaking Touchpoints, the Essential Reference for 0-3, at 4-6 months it is common for a baby to begin to stretch out nighttime sleep for about 6 hours, "come up to REM sleep, scrabble around in bed, cry out, and find his pattern to get back down (to sleep). On days when there are new people or activities, which can be overstimulating, these self-comforting & getting himself back to sleep routines will be very important. Also important over the next 2 months" (as new developmental milestones are often over-stimulating for babies and sleep can be disturbed). In the night, if after awhile your baby has not found his way back to sleep on his own, go in, pat his tummy without looking at or engaging him. He will see you mean business and this isn't a game or play time. He may need several nights of this to re-discover his sleep pattern.

By 7 months the sleep time may stretch to 8-12 hours, and the new activities of creeping, crawling, fine motor skills, and sitting may again disrupt the sleep pattern as your baby "re-visits" these accomplishments in bed at night or during the 2 still-important nap times during the day. Re-establishing the nighttime "pat-down" routine or giving him a loved object to comfort him will be useful. He will quickly remember what to do to get hmself back to sleep.

Do you sleep with him?
If not , you may want to try it. It worked for us.

1st of all, you should know that the latest research (and actually research for the last several years) shows that babies SHOULD NOT take any solids including cereal until 6 months of age. Their bodies are not ready for solids at 4 months, and introducing solids early can lead to an increase in food allergies. I'm a nurse, so I see the pediatricians continue to give the 4 month mark for solids regardless of the research. My pedi told us the same thing with our little guy, but I chose to ignore her on that point. Another thing I will tell you is at this point in his life he's not going to keep the same schedule for very long because his body is changing so quickly. One thing you may think about is the amount of stimulation he gets throughout the day. Soemtimes overstimulation can actually lead to sleep disturbances. And, some kids just don't sleep well when their little. Keep trying, you sound like a great, well informed mother.

As long as the little guy is fed/clean, let him wail. You might check his diaper then go back to bed.... then let him wail.

I have four kiddos and al of them started waking at around 6 months. I let them fuss a bit and they usually went back to sleep and would wake again around 4 am to eat. He may also be going through a growth spurt which can affect sleep as well (wanting to eat more frequently ect.)

20 lbs- wow! My 12 month old is my biggest yet and she weighs 21 lbs. haha

Well, I have 3 babies and I gave them cereal before bed, but I had no problems with Insulin spikes or night terrors. Another thing I did was gave them pacifiers. A lot of people told me not to. They said they would become addictive or it would trigger thumb sucking or finger sucking. Well, when they turned one and lost their pacifier, I did not buy another one and they do not suck their fingers or thumbs. My boys are 11 (twins) and my daughter is 7. I only gave them the pacifier if they had trouble sleeping or would cry while I was fixing their food.

Hi M.,
My son slept all through the night from day one - literally! My daughter on the other hand didn't sleep all through the night until she was almost 6 months old. I thought I was going to lose my mind. In a desperate and exhausted attempt to find some sort of solution I put my nursing bra in her crib. She rubbed her little face in it, took a deep breath and slept. All through the night. From then on I would wear one bra and put the other in her crib. If you're not nursing, you might try putting the blouse you wore that day in his crib. I've given this suggestion to other mothers and it worked for them, too. Good luck and sweet dreams! L. T

All 3 of mine were big and all 3 of mine started waking up at around the same age as yours is. I believe it is developmentally normal. They are starting to teeth and do more physically so that keeps them up a little more. They still need you. I chose to just co-sleep. That way we all got our rest and everyone is happy. I have also learned that "this too shall pass." They change stages so very quickly. Try to just get through it with as little stress as you can and soon everything will be back to normal.
HUGS
T.
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