My 10 month old hates to sleep; he fights naps and bedtime every night. If I hold him sometimes he will evenully fall asleep but this takes 1 to 2 hours to work. I have tried feeding him, rocking him, letting him cry it out, etc. nothing seems to work and I am at my wits end and so sleep depribed. My husband is in the Army so I am alone with all of this, any suggestions? I also give him a bath every night and try to put him down for bed at the same time everyday.
Maybe you're waiting until he's too tired to put him down? Could you be missing sleep cues? My 10 month olds got up at 8, took naps at 10 or 10:30 and 1 or 2 and went to bed at 7 or 7:30 for the night.
Try putting him in a sleep-sack.
If you do a search on Amazon... you can see what they look like.
Your baby probably likes to feel like being in a 'cocoon.'
Many babies, do.
Also, make sure you feed him before sleep/naps. And feed ON-demand all day.
Are you breastfeeding or Formula?
I say this because, for several of my friends who were nursing... their babies did not sleep well because, the Moms did not produce much milk, their baby was pretty much always hungry... and especially at nap/bedtime...the baby just would not sleep and cry and cry.
Once they increased their milk... and the baby got more intake... the baby was happier and slept better.
Or maybe he is teething....
Also make sure, before nap/bed... he is not over-stimulated. If over-stimulated... a baby can't "wind-down"... and it prevents sleep.
Just 4 ideas.
All the best,
Susan
Just like others said, read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Great book on sleep. He may be overtired which makes it difficult for anyone, especially babies, to fall asleep. You may have luck putting him down extra early, like 6:45. Also, if you can't just close the door and let him cry, you can do it a little more gradually. Put him down and let him cry 5 minutes, then go in and just pat him. Then increase it to 10 minutes, then 15. Don't pick him up, talk to him, or rock him. Just pat him. Although, if it seems to make his crying worse, you'll have to stop. Read the book and give the action plans a try - it'll be well worth it.
One thing I know is that we stopped giving our son a night-time bath when we realized that would make him more energetic - it did not relax him at all!
Now he is older, and an evening bath is nice for him - but at 10 months it really seemed to backfire on the 'calming him down' idea.
Have you tried a solid back ground sound that doesn't change in pitch or tone, etc. ie. a fan. I find that helps our son to fall asleep as well.
GOODLUCK. It's so hard when you are on your own! Hang in there Mom.
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Some kids are more determined and strong willed than others. The question I would ask is how long have you let him cry it out? It could take hours at first. When you put him in his bed you should Not go into his room AT ALL unless you think something is really wrong with him. He will eventually learn that his screams are not going to bring mom running. And it should get easier and easier as time goes on.
i dont really have much to offer as far as suggestions because my son is 4 months old and has picked up on fighting his sleep at the ridiculous 2 months of age. i do notice that on the days we do something out of the ordinary, and that's a even a little more strenuous than what he's used to he doesnt fight as much as normal. so we spent as many nice days the last 2 months being outside going for walks. even that seems to help. best of luck!!!
Babies need to learn to sleep. They have to be taught. I highly recommend Dr. Sears Baby Sleep Book and The Baby Whisperer. I didn't use one exclusively but pulled things from both to come up with a sleep routine that my kids could rely on. They learned what to expect and what was expected of them. With my son it took about 6 weeks of literally doing and saying the same things every single nap and bedtime. He was around 7 months old when he got it. My daughter was tougher and she still isn't the sleeper that my son is but all kids are different. She goes to sleep very easily for nap/night but she required more comforting during the night than my son. She's 28 months and will still call out for me some nights.
I found with my son that once I got the naps in place the night time fell into place. Sleep begets sleep. At this point he is so sleep deprived he doesn't know what to do either. Try to learn as much as you can about infant sleep and that will really help you formulate a sleep plan and help him learn to sleep. The 2 books I mentioned were life-savers for me.
he is 10 months old, so you could introduce a "lovey", something that will help him self sooth, we did blankets. I know it is hard to train sleep if it doesn't come naturally for your son, but you have to do it - sleep is so very important.
We used Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby by Dr. Weissbluth. His reasearch is stellar and we tailored the whole "training" part with our 2nd son who was very resistant to going down. "Sleep begets sleep", this is important to remember and contrary to what most of us think.
Keep trying to get him whatever sleep he can get. He should still be on two naps and then 10-12hours per night (ideally) - you will get there. This will be a difficult phase and then you will be so happy you did it. Especially because you are on your own.
