Cant Get Our 10 Month Old to Sleep Through the Night

I second the "Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child" book recommendation. It is awesome. As far as getting her to quit waking up at night, you need to quit going to her. It will take 2 or 3 nights, but she'll stop night waking completely. She doesn't need to eat at those times anymore. It will be a hard couple of nights, but you'll get through. Also, since she is likely overly tired from not getting enough consolidated sleep at night, an earlier bedtime is probably a good ides. Good luck

I have had the same problem with my kids. I bought this book called "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" and it has lots of good ideas. It isn't an instant solution, teaching your kids to sleep takes time, but I have found it the most loving and effective method out there.

Wean her off of your midnight routine. Pick her up, but don't feed her. It sounds like she already knows how to fall asleep on her own (without a bottle or nursing) at bedtime, so now you just need to teach her to do that in the middle of the night. So you can pick her up and rock her, but then put her down and let her cry herself to sleep. After she's gotten good at that, you can try just rubbing her back instead of picking her up.
Good luck!

Of course she is crying you are going in and using food as a soother, it is fine to go in and rub her back, reassure her, but do not pick her up and do not feed her.
She has gotten into the habit and the best way to get out of the habit is to let her just cry and fall back to sleep herself. It will take a few days but you will get her to fall asleep on her own. Babies wake up several times a night, that part is normal, however it needs to be where she falls back to sleep by herself without needing food, which she shouldn't at her age. She is using you for a human pacifier and that will just lead to making it worse.
I would just give her 10 minutes to cry one night, then it will reduce itself to nothing in no time, just be patient and good luck.

I had the same problem. Our son was always tired, and we were both exhausted!

A book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child by Dr. Weisbluth (sp?) was extremely helpful. It helped me understand more about my baby's changing sleep needs and how I could help him develop better sleep habits.

I never had the stomach to do the extreme cry-it-out thing, but with ideas from the book we were able to make big improvements in night-waking and daytime napping, and we were all sleeping better and feeling better within days.

But there was no magic solution for us - we still have occasional relapses and our son is now 2! When we start to have problems again we just go back to the basics we learned from the book. I think some babies, just like some adults, have difficulty falling asleep and are light sleepers naturally, but that just means it's even more important to help them get the sleep they need.

I wish you every success and know that it can be HARD when you're so tired yourself! It will get better.

The first night or two: Just hold her and settle her. No food, no drink.

The next night or two: Just pat her, rub her back, etc to settle her back down. Do NOT pick her up. You are teaching her to fall back asleep by herself.

She may fuss, but it will be worth it! If she is crying, that is OK. If she is screaming, that is not OK and you need to pick her up and cuddle her. This works, but may take some patience! Basically, she's in a routine and you just have to break the habit. Think of it like when someone gets in the habit of waking up at 3am for a glass of water--it becomes habit and takes some time and determination to ignore the "I need a drink" urge and just go back to sleep.

Good Luck!!!!

I am not in favor of the CIO method, and I recommend you get the book "The No Cry Sleep Solution." My 14-month-old does not "sleep through the night" either, but she's my fourth, and I know that this doesn't last forever. My older three are all good sleepers, and we never had to let them CIO. There are alternatives. (Also, I've always gotten more sleep by cosleeping with my babies, but I know that is not for everyone.) Give the book a try. There are many, many parents who have had great success with it. Blessings to you and your baby!

I also just used lots of ideas from the book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy child! It worked and I loved it! It is hard to hear them cry, but I set my limit at an hour, and we survived. We were desparate because we have a newborn and our 16 month old was not sleeping. Now he is! He still sometimes cries in the middle of the night, but only for 2 minutes.

Hi C.! I was in the SAMEEEE situation a couple of months ago and I knew it my fault as well. Bella (almost a year now)would get up b/w 2-3 times in the mid of the night and it all started because she had a cold. Her cold went away, but she still kept getting up.

One night I accidentally (really, it was accidentally) turned the volume down on the monitor and fell back to sleep, but not long at all. I heard her crying in the monitor and was ready to go downstairs to do my mid of the night feeding as I had been for about two months at that time. However, this time I fell back to sleep. When I realized what I did, I made my way downstairs and she stopped crying when I reached the bottom of the stairs. I was shocked!!! So, I slept on the futon in her room and waited for the next wake up call about 230am. That came and I let her cry, but it was only for a a few mins or so. She cried and it wasn't like a hystercial cry or anything. To my surprise, she fell back asleep!!! I was in shock once again! This hasn't happened in months, so I was so happy! Did I really break her of the habit I thought?

Well, for the next five nights, Bella would cry a little mid morning and fall back asleep on her own. I would not go in to soothe her or anything. By the sixth day I believe, she was cured! No more mid of the night feedings and I have been getting sleep!

I was SOOO sleep deprived before this and it was getting to the point where I knew I had to do something. I'm not sure if I could have "let her cry it out" if I didn't accidentally turn the monitor down. I'm not sure what I would have done honestly.

One thing I will suggest, is that you try to soothe her back to sleep or rock/walk her instead of nursing her. If you decide to let her cry it out, go in every now and then and pat her on the back but don't pick her up unless she is livid. Next time you want to go in and soothe her, wait a few mins longer than last time and keep doing this until she falls asleep. My sister tried this and it worked, but it was a long process.

I do feel for you and hope that whatever you decide will work. It's worth your sleep to get her back on track =-)

-P.

I agree with Susie. At 10 months, your baby no longer needs to eat at night. Babies go through normal sleep transition cycles and it sounds like she is just having a tough time falling asleep again during the transitions. Unfortunately for many babies, sleeping is actually a "learned" behavior. So she needs to learn to fall asleep without being fed. I am not a fan of "crying it out," but there are variations of this, such as timed intervals of crying. Decide which feeding you want to eliminate first, and then when she wakes, give her 5 minutes to try and fall asleep, then go in and console her. The books all say to not pick up the baby, but I never could calm down my baby without picking him up. We would rock him until he would calm down, then lay him back down. If he cried again, we would allow him to do so for 10 minutes, then console again. I think the longest we ever let him cry was 15 minutes, but he eventually did learn how to fall asleep on his own and it only took a few nights to do so. I think you might have to do this until you can eventually get rid of each evening feeding. Also, if she is fed before naptime, she might associate daytime sleeping with being fed as well. So try to dissociate feeding from sleeping if you can. Good luck!

Is she getting enough to eat during the day? When my oldest did this, at about the same age, we asked the doctor, and he said to add another solid feeding during the day. We had just beed feeding her at morning and night, so we added lunch and she started sleeping better. She was just hingry.

first of all, THIS IS NOT YOUR FAULT!!!! You can't blame yourself! My son is 9 months old. He too has stopped sleeping through the night. And I can't blame him. If I had teeth coming in, I probably wouldn't sleep so well either. I have the same issue... When he finally falls back to sleep, and I put him down, he starts crying again!! When you pick up your daughter, grab her blankie too. Keep the blanket in between the two of you, so that when you put her into her crib, she doesn't feel the temperature difference. She is waking up for one reason or another, and it's so good you haven't just let her CIO. But I have used the blanket with my boy, and he stays asleep when I put him back to bed.
Good luck!!