Sleep advice

[nursejess]

My nine month old baby still wakes up every 2 hours during the night some nights. She ends up in our bed in the middle of the night, and stills wakes up just the same in our bed as she does in her crib. I don't want to just leave her to CIO, but I don't like waking up every two hours either.

 

[confused2007]

Try a sound machine. They sell them at Walmart. It has waterfall, running stream and other various sounds. It creates a constant "white noise" so to speak. It really soothes our little one and kind of drowns out other noises that may otherwise disturb her sleep.

You might also try giving her a bath at night prior to bedtime as this is relaxing for a lot of babies.

 

[Scottish Joy]

My boy does that when I jump to get him every time he cries. You could try first just waiting a couple minutes before you go to her- that way if she's not fully awake you won't wake her the rest of the way, and maybe she'll go back off on her own.

In the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", Dr. Marc Weissbluth advises parents to pick one or two times during the night when they'll go in to feed or change diapers, and not go at any other time. He says that an 8 month old child is physically capable of going all night without a feeding, and that they may wake up and cry because they haven't learned to soothe themselves back to sleep- or because they like your company and would rather play than sleep. Either way, they need to learn to go back to sleep when they wake up at night.

If you're not completely against CIO, this book would probably be very helpful. It's easily the one book I've found the most helpful since I became a Mom!

 

[jgonz]

Nearly all of my breastfed babies woke up every 2 or 3 hrs during the night to nurse until they were closer to 1 yr old. Since we were co-sleeping, it was a lot easier to just "plug" them in, and go back to sleep. It seems like they're NEVER going to sleep longer, but they always do... and it was surprising to me Every time when it did happen.

 

[_Shannon_]

See if you can find a copy of No Cry Sleep SOlution. That might offer some great insights for you.


Also babies notoriously become crappy sleepers the second half of their first year--there is so much lare motor development taking place, it's almost like their bodies are hard wired to be on te go. It also always seemed to me that just before and in the midst of learning new big skills (sitting, crawling, standing, cruising, walking, talking, major language jumps) that babies tend to pull back- wanting to be held more and nursed more and just be more connected with momma---as if they need to be sure of that closeness before rocketing ahead.

 

[Stan53]

Can't help much. Our daughter is 8 months old today. We co-sleep and hold her most of the time. She is what they call an in-arms baby. So different to our first child. Our eldest was a nightmare and we finished up doing CIO out of desperation. Man, I wish we had known then what we know now. Daughter Number 2 wakes a couple of times a night. Mrs rolls over, puts her on, goes back to sleep. Believe me you know you have arrived when you wake up to Mrs snoring and baby feeding!
Oh, and by the way, I am more convinced than ever that I know 4/5ths of nothing about this parenting thing.

 

[sparassidae]

We also cosleep, so feeding several times a night is normal and not usually a problem.

As Shannon said, they tend to go back to frequent waking when trying/practising a new skill. And as jgonz said, we also think they will never "sleep through" but they all do sooner or later (and no later than 18 months for us).

See, I agree with everyone

But if you are feeding each of those times but don't want to, I would try feeding each alternate time, then give to Daddy to walk around the other times. If baby is waking out of habit we have found that tends to sort it out and they go back to fewer wakings after 4-5 nights.

 

[super mom]

my now 17 month old would wake up to be fed sometimes 2 or 3 times a night and the sound machine kind of helped but not much, our doc told us that he needed to statr sleeping thru the night it was about a week of him cryin it out but it helped he doesn't wake up any more this was like two months ago.

 

[Meshavrischika]

Are you sure she's getting nice and full right before bed? I breast fed and supplemented AFTER she nursed before bed. She slept longer.

Also, we made a computer recording of the vacuum cleaner and looped it, and transfered it to a CD... 74 minutes of vacuum cleaner held her in her sleep well (not sure why, but she's always loved the vacuum)... it must be that white noise thing.

ummm... and make sure she's not too hot or too cold. that can keep them up or wake them up.