9 Month Old Sleeping

Isn't she eating baby food? it sounds like she is waking up due to the fact that she is hungry or she is getting teeth or both.My son is almost nine months old. sometimes if he is cranky, i give him a nice warm bath and he usually sleeps well. if she is running a fever then give her some baby tylenol before she goes to sleep. if she has not gotten teeth she soon will.last night he fell asleep around 10pm,woke up once and was back asleep in 5 minutes then slept until this morning around 8:30am. sometimes also i will feed him some baby cereal shortly before he goes to bed if he seems hungry.

I remember the walking zombie days. Mine are now 6 & 8 and I use to joke that I hadn't slept in 5 yrs. It does end but with the 3rd in sight it will not end for a long time. You need help. If your husband is not able; can you have a mom,friend,mother-in-law stay with you for a couple of nights? Just to catch up and become a functioning person again. Sometimes our feelings of independence keep us from asking for help.

Two things: does your husband go in and see her when he comes home? If so, she's going to keep waking up then to see him, since she misses him during the days. Second, while crying it out can work, even Dr. Ferber doesn't suggest doing it without having separately stopped night feedings. Maybe work on the night eating and the rest will follow? My 8 month old son went through a rough patch where he night weaned himself and then shortly after (and after a week or two with even crummier sleep) started sleeping through the night. He did have to cry it out, though (but it was his idea--he wouldn't be comforted by anything we did, so we had to let him cry. He wanted to sleep, he didn't want to eat, cuddle, be patted, so he had to figure it out on his own.) It took 2 nights of crying, an hour and a half the first night, half an hour the next, and he's slept through since. Does she need that second catnap or should she just be going to bed then? That little nap might be perking her up enough to not be super tired at night so that she keeps waking up. Some babies need super early bedtimes (like 6 or 6:30). Then at least you could get some of the housework done after she's in bed and before you go to bed yourself.

Do make sure she's not also teething, though, and I agree with the posters who recommend having your son sleep somewhere else while you work out the sleep thing.

Hi R.! Sorry to hear you're having sleep problems. We have a 5 month old who suddenly went on a sleep strike and refused to nap (fun!) and started waking every 3 hours to feed (she used to only wake once a night ). A friend lent me a book called The Sleepeasy Solution by Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivack and we've been "sleep training" for 3 days now and have seen significant improvement. This book deals with every conceivable problem including weaning night feeds, separation anxiety etc... and breaks it all down into age groups. The program is extremely easy to follow. I made a sleep plan for my child on Monday afternoon- 2 hours after I got the book! You have to be consistent and follow your plan very carefully. Also you have to be willing to put a few days into it and not have too much going on so that she has plenty of time to practice. My husband worked at home for 3 days so I would have some support because sleep training is not easy. It is worth the effort though. My girl is sleeping 12 hours a night and her naps have gone from 20 minutes to 45 or 1 hr long in just a few days.
The book is worth investing in as it deals with problems up to 5 years old.
I hope this will help. Hang in there and don't be afraid to ask hubby for help! You need support too.

Sounds like your daughter is counting on you coming in every time she screams. Every time you go into the room to check on her, you are reinforcing the idea that if she screams loud enough, you will come running. At 9 months, she should be sleeping through the night and doesn't really need to eat during those times that she is waking up.

Here is my suggestion for you. If possible, place your oldest in another room, temporarily. Then let your daughter cry it out. DO NOT go into the room to check on her. The more you go in to check on her, the longer it will take to get through this. She will be fine. The only time you should consider going in to check on her is if she sounds like she is choking. This process will not be easy but worth it. After she is sleeping through the night, then you can move your oldest back in the room with her.

I can't even imagine being worried about keeping up with housework if I were you! My husband and I had a third child very unexpectedly (only 10 1/2 months after the birth of my second) so sleeping arrangements were an issue as we only had three bedrooms. Now, while the baby was sleeping through the night by 9 months, we had her in a pack and play in our room until she was almost a year. If you were able to keep her in your room, that might help with your son being able to sleep through more regularly and if she knows you're in the room may not fuss too much. Do you give her cereal with a bottle before bed? She might still hungery. Aside from that and to let her cry it out (which I know is hard when there are other children involved) that's all I can think of. Though since your son is still at home with you, you might want to let her cry it out for a few nights because it will be worth a cranky son for a few days for full nights sleep in the long run...maybe :)

Can a nine month old sleep all night? Yes they can, but some do not. Can a nine month old go all night without eating, yes, but some do not. All children are different.

Is this a regular pattern, or has it just started recently? If it is not regular, then you should try to find out if there are any new stress issues or health related issues. Teething is what would first come to mind. Or a digestive problem. Did she check out okay at her last doctor's visit?

My oldest dd had night terrors. She would wake up crying, and nothing I could do would help her except hold her until she went back to sleep. She did sleep all night most nights, except when she had these bad dreams. She was also a sleep walker when she was a young child.

I am not generally a fan of the "crying it out" method, but sometimes it has to be used if the sanity and health of the mother is at stake.

First I would suggest that you try cutting back on day time sleeping, try to have a regular bed time and wake up time each day. Make sure she is eating and drinking enough during the day. Don't give heavy snacks right before bed time. Avoid stimulating play also. Try to find time to cuddle and reassure your daughter a lot during the day.

If all else fails, then letting her cry it out may work. However, I don't believe you should never go and check on her. Something could really be wrong. My dd got out of her crib when she was that age and was lying on the floor. I don't know what would have happened if I had ignored her.

If she is crying for a long time, you could go and check that she is all right. Don't pick her up. Just check, reassure her and then leave. It's up to you how often you check. If she gets used to the idea that you aren't going to pick her up to cuddle or feed her, then she should stop.

You are right that your husband needs his sleep. But so do you. Talk with him about it, ask his advice, and help. If there is no way he will help, can you get someone to come during the day to watch your kids while you nap?

Don't worry about the housework. It will keep. Your kids won't, they are growing up fast.

I think crying it out can be really cruel, especially because a baby who cannot talk can ONLY communicate by crying. A crying child has some kind of NEED, even if it is only to see you. Yes,a 9 month old SHOULD be able to sleep through the night, but there are probably other issues in play. For one thing, your child is very likely OVERtired. 8 to 6 is only 10 hours of overnight sleep with only 2.5 during the day. She probably needs her naps broken up differently (so that they are closer to 1.5 hours each, one morning, one afternoon), and she may even need an earlier bedtime (or a later wake up time). At 9 months, she is probably waking out of habit, but if she's drinking so much, you're going to have to see if you can get her to consume more during the day - and cut back what you offer her at night. I highly suggest reading The Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect and Communicate with your Baby. I know you feel like you don't have the time or energy, but it's worth it. She provides excellent tips for getting your baby to sleep on her own without letting her cry it out. And she touches on subjects like midnight feedings for older infants. I *really* think it's worth it. It worked for us, anyway (and we started at 2 months with a baby who refused to sleep anywhere but on my chest and who was ALWAYS overtired from refusing to nap during the day). Good luck to you!

Hi R.,

off the top of my head the first thing I thought of is why don't you try putting her crib in your room. Then if she wakes up in the middle of the night you will be there and she will see you.... hopefully this is a short phase...

good luck and God Bless,
S.

Hello R.:
They were on a routine every night after a few months, by 8 pm they would receive a full bottle and then given there bath and would sleep all night, and would wake up by 5 am or 5:30 am. However, both knew all they would receive is water should they wake up in the middle of the night. Drinking milk and going to bed at night can have serious affects on the child teeth and have trash mouth (milk build up in the mouth.) Therefore, I only had to clear there mouth once a day. When it was time for then to start brushing their teeth, I had no problems. Best wishes.

At 9 months, your child should be able to go all night without a feeding. We did the cry it out method (I know, I know...sounds barbaric) but it worked! For our younger son we let our older son sleep at grandmas for 2 nights while we let our younger son cry it out. 45 minutes the first night, 10 minutes the second, about 1 minute the third. The trick is to NOT go in while their crying or it will just start all over and prolong the crying. There are soooo many people who don't believe in this but to tell you the truth....your health WILL suffer from sleep deprivation and if you are not healthy for your kids, then you aren't going to be the best mom that you can be. It is a sacrifice for 3 evenings in order to get peace for EVERY night! I did this for both of my sons from advice that I got from a friend who is a child psychologist and who's husband is a pediatrician so I was VERY apt to believe that it would not harm my child to do this.

Hi R.,
I agree with the suggestion to le her cry it out.If you can arrange for your son to sleep elsewhere (maybe even another room in the house if a grandmother, aunt, etc isn't an option) it will be a few hard nights but then it should be OVER. We did this with my son and I believe it was around that age because I remember that he was no longer falling asleep with a bottle and it seemed like his "free will" kicked in! He would stand in his crib and scream! Try to make the room as cozy as possible (soft light, soft music, all of her lovies nearby). I used to go in every 10 minutes, then 15, etc. but do NOT pick her up. Rub her back & soothe but not too much verbal communication. It will be a loooooong 2 or 3 nights but it should work. Maybe cut out the catnap and put her down a bit earlier to get this started. Make sure she goes to bed with a full tummy. Good luck! Brace yourself, ou will hate this, but it really will pay off. She will be learning the important lesson of calming and comforting herself and putting herself back to sleep.
When your third O. on the way, you may be tempted to vacate the crib in September for the new baby but I would leave her in the crib as LONG as you can if she's not climbing out becasue this will probably have to be repeated when she goes to a toddler/big bed.

Ok- she is way to old to be waking for nighttime feedings. Having said that I don't know your feeding schedule. If you feed her on a regular schedule- like every 4 hours then my suggestion is to try to add in one or two more feedings during the day or give her more ounces in her bottle (I assume she is bottle fed since you know how many ounces she takes). If she is breastfed, than you will increase her feedings until you begin to produce more milk to keep up with her supply, then you can take it back down to four and know you are producing the amount of milk she needs to be satisfied. Waking at night after that will be because she has formed a nighttime waking habit. If you know she isn't hungry, you can then ignore her and eventually she will sleep through the night.

how much is she eating and when during the day. try feeding her more at night

How is her weight? if under she needs the extra nutrition if over maybe switch bottle to just water.

I also have a nine month old daughter. She is not the greatest sleeper in the world but we have gone through some of the stuff you are describing. I would move her crib out of the shared bedroom and put it in the living room or in your bedroom to start. I let my daughter scream it out. It was clearly a habit she (and I) had fallen into. The first 2 nights she screamed for over an hour and then it got less and less over the next couple of nights. By the end of the week she was sleeping from 8:00-6:00 faithfully. This doesn't fly with everyone but I get sleep now which was better than before. Good luck!