7 Mos. Old Won't Sleep Through the Night!

Cut her nap out put her rto bed and don't answer her.Sheis training you to run when called, retrain

some tips:

establish a bed time routine that works with your family and do not deviate from the routine until she is sleeping better

do not take her out of her bed when she wakes in the middle of the night and feed her or rock her back to sleep-just gently touch her, put a blanket over her, wisper to her, say shhh, it's okay, sleep sweet baby, etc. going in with a "what is wrong" aire will make her anxious and not be able to sleep.

crying to sleep is okay at her age, but only if you address her crying with reasurances about every 5, then 10, then 15 minutes. this technic helps babies to learn to relax in thier beds and go into sleep on thier own. just be consistant.

remember that everyone wakes durning the night...so there is no such thing as sleeping through the night, just the ability to go back to sleep when you do wake up. you need to help her learn to do just that and when she learns she can do it herself, she won't wake you up to help her.

until then, take a nap when she does and eat a well balanced diet for better energy and you will feel better.

best wishes

P. - mother of 4 (everyone of them different - my youngest, 15 months, still cries out and needs assurance or help finding her pacifier, but it take less than 1 minute for her to be sound asleep again and I then go right back to sleep. So you are not alone...even us experienced moms don't have it perfected. Hang in there!)

I say this a lot with sleep questions but still feel it is important to share a non "sleep training" point of view. Each child reaches sleep maturity at different points. Some are able to calm themselves down and drift to sleep much earlier than others. We are attachment parents and let our babies (now 3 1/2 and 2) fall asleep in our arms. Once my oldest weaned at 14 months, she slept through the night but didn't learn to lay still to fall asleep on her own until we moved her into a big kid bed at 2. But to help me get sleep until she was ready, I put her down in her crib and the first time she woke up, I would bring her into my bed. We would nurse and she would sleep the rest of the night. My youngest was different. The first time she slept for 4 hrs in one stretch was when I put her down on a mattress on the floor instead of in her crib at 13 months. She was always a several times a night eater. With her, she slept in my bed more. That is where she is most comfortable and we sleep the best. She gets lonely at night. She is now almost 2 and will start in her bed but always comes into mine at night. The times when I let her start in my bed, she sleeps straight through the night. She is getting better and one day she will be at the stage her sister is right now. My advice to you is trust your instincts. Nothing says she has to sleep in a crib and through the night (which is only 5 hrs) at 7 months. You wouldn't force her to walk at 10 months just because that is when my girls started walking. There may be another reason. She may be teething, hungry, cold, lonely, hot. When she wakes up and stays up for an hour, are the house lights on or is it dark? If she see you are up then she might have the personality where she doesn't want to miss anything. Experiment with different things. Each new thing you try, repeat for at least 3 days before giving up on it. If you want books, check out Dr Sears The Sleep Book and No Cry Sleep Solution. Good luck and just remember, she will only by this small for a just short time and no one goes to college needing their mom to put them to sleep.

OMG please don't think you are a bad mom just because your baby doesn't sleep through the night! Don't be so hard on yourself! Teaching an infant to sleep on a regular schedule and self-soothe can be hard and trying, but very rewarding.

Babies need to learn everything including how to sleep and get themselves back to sleep once they wake in the middle of the night--we all wake at times and have learned to get ourselves back to sleep.
First thing for you to do is find a plan and routine you are comfortable with. The reason I say this is there are many out there, most of which work, but use different ideas and techniques. But they only work if you remain consistent with them. Consistency and routine is the key to any of them--babies and kids thrive on it.
Check out the following two books:
Good Night Sleep Tight
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Night-Sleep-Tight-Helping/dp/B...
The Baby Whispers Solves all your problems
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Whisperer-Solves-Your-Problems...

There is another baby whisperer book too, but this one is the second one and is much more helpful with older babies (vs infants)

Both these books are similar and give you great bedtime and nap routines that will help your baby set her clock and get on a regular sleep routine. They both also give you different techniques to try when she does wake so that you can teach her to get back to sleep on her own.

And keep in mind that even though they learn to sleep through the night, they will still wake and sometimes still need you when they are sick or teething or had a bad dream.

Good luck! And don't be so hard on yourself!

I think I've already tried everything, within reason. My son will be 3 in November and still wakes up during the night. I think there is no rhyme or reason why some kids sleep through and others don't. A child's sleep pattern is as different from another's as a child is. It doesn't mean that we are bad moms - It just means we have to endure the lack of sleep longer.

Do what you can, try what you can, but if your child is like mine just realize that it's ok. Your child not sleeping through the night is not a reflection on you as a parent.

I also think that some children crave that physical connection with a parent while others are more independent even at a young age. If my son is in our bed(which we've stopped unless he's sick) he sleeps straight through the night, but when he's in his bed he wakes up atleast twice a night. I think he just yearns for and needs that connection. So, even at 2am I love on him and sometimes lay down with him until he falls back to sleep.

I just posted one just like that. I totally understand. I feel like I am walking around in a daze becasue I do not get more than two hours of sleep at a time. I am so forgetful and know that if I could get more sleep I would be a better mom. I have no advice to give but I wish you luck!

It sounds like she knows when she cries, you are going to come & she gets to be held. Try letting her cry it out a bit.

I would also look at her schedule, maybe her last nap & her bed time are too close together. Try putting a little more time between them. A little later bed time might be the key also. My eldest girl was a night owl, if I put her to bed to early she fought it (even to this day) a little later made a world of difference.

Good luck & God Bless

My daughter is 5 months old, and we're having the same problem. I'm reading Secrets of the Baby Whisperer right now (which I saw that someone had suggested below) so I'm hoping to get some helpful tips. We have an established bedtime routine, and I put her down awake, but she's still waking at midnight, 2am, and 5am before she's up for the day at 7:30am. Every time we put her down, either for a nap or bedtime, she's fusses. I guess I shouldn't be taking her out of her crib and nursing her when she wakes at night (I usually only feed her at the 2am waking, but I get her out of the crib and rock her back to sleep each time).

Everyone's feedback for M. was very helpful! Thanks so much!

My baby is 6 1/2 mos. The majority of the time he sleeps through the night, although after a vacation to my family in NJ in which he was back in the same room with me he started giving me a hard time putting him back in his room. I eventually gave in, and for a day he slept in the pack n play in our room. But then he went back in his crib the next day. After about a week he started back into his normal routine. But in the meantime I had to adapt some new behaviors. I Would put him in the crib, and no matter how sleepy he was he would start screaming. So I started rubbing his back, and his head a little, and he would calm down. I tried ocean sounds, and a fan, but neither really worked. But a lullaby cd did. I also realized he gave me a harder time when I didnt give him his bath. So I have to give him one every night, even if he technically doesnt need one. And the johnsons bedtime bath is very soothing. He also wakes up when his diaper is very soggy so I started putting him in a size larger, and using diaper doublers which keep him dry and comfortable longer.For me its been basic research and experimenting to see what works for him.

At her age it is reasonable to expect that she sleeps through the night. The key thing to remember is that however she drifts off to sleep at night is what she will do when she wakes at night in order to fall back to sleep. Everyone (including adults) wakes several times during the night-- most of us just roll over and fall back to sleep. If you rock her until she falls asleep or lay with her or anything else to assist her to fall asleep, she will have a difficult time falling back to sleep on her own and will "need" that rocking or you by her side or whatever she has gotten used to. Read Secrets of the Baby Whisperer and skip to the back on the chapter on accidental parenting to find out about what you can do to fix things. NO need to make her cry it out-- this book has a much saner and more humane method-- you just have to be willing to stick it out for a few nights until it works-- and if you stick with it, it will work. It basically teaches you how to be with her and calm her until she is sleepy, then put her down awake-- and it tells you the steps to take when she gets upset that you are putting her down. One more thing-- it teaches you how to figure out WHEN you need to put her down for the night-- too early and she won't be ready to fall asleep, but wait too long and an over tired baby has a really hard time settling down, too

Ditto to everything Mandy said. Sleep training. We also used our own variation on the Ferber method. It has been awhile so I can't remember exactly how old our daughter was when we did it (she just turned 7 yrs), but it worked. The biggest thing I remember from it was the importance of putting them in bed awake so that they are falling asleep on their own (if you are using a good bedtime routine, she'll be sleepy and ready for it, just not "there" yet)...

The only other thing I would add, would be to make sure you have a routine you go through each night at bedtime. Whether it is a bath first, then songs and into the crib, or just kisses from all the family, pj's, a short story in the rocking chair, then lights out and prayers... whatever. Just don't get too elaborate with it. About 15-20 minutes is a good amount of time. After she adjusts to the routine, you can make small adjustments to it as she grows (when she is 4 yrs, she'll want longer stories, and she'll be brushing her teeth first, etc). If you are already using one, that's great! Just be careful not to let it drag out too long (which is REALLY easy to do.. lol)...

When we did it with ours, the story came first, then the light went out, then a prayer, then rocked while I sang a short lullaby to her, then into the crib and "night night, sweet dreams".
But the "routine" itself should be an obvious signal to her that it's time to sleep all night. Be consistent with it, put her in bed awake, give her a chance to learn to sleep on her own, and soon she will be sleeping all night long every night. Hang in there.

Sounds like she is in need of some "sleep training."

My suggestion is what our pediatrician recommened for my son. We used a version of the Ferber method as our doctor recommended, which he gave us a lot of information on.

When my son was still waking every TWO hours by his six month appointment, the doctor pretty much insisted we try it because a good night's sleep is so important for thier development at that age (and for mom, too). My son is now 17 months old, and for almost 10 months now, has slept for 12 straight hours every night!

Basically, it boils down to checking her when she crys at night, but not picking her up or soothing her back to sleep (you can pat her to let her know everything is okay) and then leave the room. You wait five minutes, and then check her agian, wait ten minutes, then check her again, and so on, increasing the amount of time between each check by five minutes until she goes back to sleep. The program stresses the importance of allowing your baby to return to sleep on her own. You can also give her a comfort object (blankie, stuffed animal) to help her soothe herself, but do not feed her or give her a bottle when she wakes.

You do the same when you put her down for the night. Put her down awake, and if she cries, use the same method of checking her, with longer periods between check until she is asleep.

There are other variations on this method, so you may want to research your options, and choose a method that you are comfortable with (I have also heard of "Sleep Easy" but am not familiar with it.)

You will probably get a lot of different advice on this subject and ultimately will have to do what you are comfortable with. The key is consistency. Glad I could share what worked for me.