Getting the Baby to Bed

Have you talked to the doctor about it? If he is alright, the only thing that I can think of is just keep putting him to bed and let him cry for 15-20 minutes and if he is still up then, go in and tell him that you love him and that it is time for bed and start the process all over again. That is what my pediatrician told me to do with my youngest. It is very hard to do but, continually doing it, he will get the idea. I am not saying that it will happen over night or anything, it might take a while but, he will understand. I hope that this helps.

He's only 7 months old and as babies go through growth spurts, sometimes they need more to eat. Also as they grow and start doing more things, they tend to be so focused on that new skill that instead of sleeping they would rather focus on that skill. They also thrive on routine, as it makes their world predictable and comfortable. You might chose to set a bedtime routine to let the him know when it's bedtime. Something like a warm bath, a bottle and a story in dim light. Then put him to bed, shut off the light and just let him be. If you choose to let him keep a bottle in bed, then I would say make it straight up water. If he cries when you leave the room, shut the door so you don't have to hear it as loudly and let him cry it out for about 15 minutes. If he's still crying, go in to check on him but try not to turn the light on...use a night light or something so the bright light won't stimulate him more. Also try to limit his naps. A late morning nap or an early afternoon nap (and I mean early like give him lunch at 11:00 and put him down by noon and get him up by 1:00). Wake him up at the same time every morning and put him to nap and to bed at the same time every day. If he needs to have a bottle of formula or breast milk in the night, feed him in dim light with as little attention or stimulation as possible. During the day try to keep him propperly stimulated and active. It may take a couple weeks or so, but he'll adjust. By the time my kids could sleep through the night, I had them getting up at 7am everymorning and to bed by 7pm everynight like clock work. Be patient, this won't go on forever, and good luck.

I had the same problem with my son. I would just try not to let him nap alot during the day. I know at that age its hard not too, and thats when you get your alone time. But try to keep him up, maybe one nap and try not to let it be so close to the time you want him to go to sleep. And whatever you do, dont put him in bed with you...BIG MISTAKE I MADE...Oh my, thought i was never going to get him to sleep in his own bed again...I wish you all the luck with it.

try limiting his sleep during the day im not saying dont let him take naps but if he does take them have it earlier in the day my daughter is 3 years old and still if i dont watch her naps and other things she is up till 3 oclock on the morningif she hasent fallen asleep by 2pm it doesnt happpen sometimes it has to do with are sleeping habits babys and children get on are scheduland its hard to get out of that my husband works 2nd shift and i work 1st so i would let her stay up so he could sleep in i hated just letting her cry her self to sleep i thought it was so mean so i had to do my best to wear her out i have two daughters and they are both diffrent so not every thing works for every kid it is just a proscess of ilimnation

This will sound terrible...ignore him.
My son went through the same thing. We did not get him to start sleeping in his crib until about 6 months. When he was finally good with sleeping in his crib and we thought everything was good, all the sudden he just started waked up and crying, crying, crying. We did everything all over again. All of the things we had gone through to get him to start sleeping in his crib we were having to do like 4 or 5 times again through out the night. Finally we were just too tired and said, let him cry, I'll get up in 10 minutes, 10 minutes came to 10 more minutes, then he put himself to sleep. So the next time we did the 10 minutes thing and he put himself to sleep. This continues, with us ignoring it, for about a week and for the last 3 months he has slept peacefully through the night.
When talking to a nurse who runs a moms group, she said she belives at that age they are learning so much and it's hard to sleep, like if you had a big meeting the next day and were all geared up about what you would have to be ready for, it's just hard to sleep through the night and that is probably what he is going through. Good Luck.

Read "Healthy Sleep Habbits, Happy Child". I disagreed with some of what he had to say, but over all it was helpful and changed my baby from a 20-30 minutes cat napper who was cranky whenever awake to a 1.5-2.5 hour napper to a 1.5-2.5 hour napper who is happy and playful when awake!
Also, could be teething, get som Hyland's Teething Tablets from any drug or whole foods store, they work wonders very quickly.
Good Luck.

I know thats no fun our son did the same thing but he slept alittle longer. Sometimes I would be so tried that I would just put him in bed with us, not a good idea. Our doctor told us that around that age they develop sepration anxieties. It is hard just to let him cry but you have to. This is what our doctor told us to do. Let him cry for about 15 mins and if he doesn't cry go in there and say it is okay and touch him. If you can lay him down without picking him up thats great because the key is not to. Keep a cup 1/2 full of water since he will be crying alot his thoart will get dry. If that doesn't just keep going in there and telling him it is time to go night night and keep putting him down. This took us about 2 weeks to do and our son started sleeping through the night about a year old. I know thats no fun but we as mothers hardly get good sleep or get to sleep in. Good luck!

B.

I've been having the same problems w/my 7 month old son. I've tried the crying thing and he just doesn't stop crying so I gave that up. He also sleeps in my bed because it's the only way that I get any sleep at all. The only thing that works for me sometimes is not letting him take a nap all afternoon. Maybe an early one after lunch but none after that. I'd heard that letting them get too tired can cause them to not sleep as well at night, but it's the only way I can get mine to sleep more than a few hours at a time at night. Good luck!

Have you tried making sure he eats something solid before bedtime? Like alittle cereal? He maybe getting ready to go thru a growth spurt. All of mine did fine at night after eating. Only when they were teething did they do the up every three hours at night. Goodluck.

At some point as our daughter got older, she started to test us by trying to stay up or wake up a lot. If I were you, I would give him a dose of infant Tylenol(whatever dosage for his weight) just to make sure that it's not the teeth, and then let him cry it out. He will go to bed eventually, I promise. I know it's hard to do, but it can help to go in the room every 5-10 minutes just to tell him it's okay, that you love him, and that it's time to go to bed. Just don't pick him up whatever you do. It can help to reassure both of you as through this. I hope this helps.

J.

If you can rule out teething, then it may be a growth spurt or that he is hitting a developmental milestone. I am VERY much against CIO. I highly recommend the book "The No-Cry Sleep Solution". It is great!

Since you're getting advice to NEVER let him go to bed with you, and that you MUST let him cry it out...let me just say that neither of these things are true. Co-sleeping is much more common worldwide than many people here (in the US) think.

My son woke up as much as yours during the night for many months. Had I tried to put him in a crib, it would have been much more often. I would have gone crazy. I let him sleep next to me from nearly the beginning, and we're still going strong at two years old. He's finally learning to go back to sleep on his own sometimes when he wakes up, but prior to that, he always nursed back to sleep. I won't say that this hasn't been hard, but it was very simple for me to just hook him up and go back to sleep. ;)

If you absolutely can't stand the thought of him sleeping with you, try the ideas in the No Cry Sleep Solution. But they will take a while to implement. It just comes down to your level of patience and compassion.

HI B.,
You got a lot of good responses. I am certanly no expert. I am actually right with you. My baby girl will be 7 months this week and we're still struggling with what works best.
I couldn't do the "letting her cry" routine. I have been critizesed by some family members cos they say I will pay my dues later but my daughter is extremely sensitive and if I let her cry too much she gets so upset. Bedtime was becoming so dreadful for all of us, her, my and daddy. I was beggining to feel almost scared of what would happen at night and she sensed it, she became aggitated and would fight off sleep more.

I gave up on forcing her, she'll have the rest of her life to learn to put herself to sleep. My mom (based on her mother's advice) let me cry it out when I was ONE MONTH OLD! I know they were different times but I had a really hard time trusting her as a child, I had separation anxiety so bad that I would panic in stores and look for a trustworthy face everwhere I went. It was extreme, I would be teased by my sibblings, they would hide just to see my petrifies face.
My point... All children are diff and approaches could harm a child. I understand my behavior NOW, didn't know why then.

I don't let her nap after 5. I feed her nightly at 630, bathe her at 8pm. bottle at 8:30 while rocking her. We're both more relaxed now so even if she's not "out" she doesn't cry when I lay her down. She does wake up through the night and I go in, touch her head, rub her back, give her the paci and she goes back to sleep. Sometimes she awakens more times than others. Sometimes I wait to see if she cries, if she just whines and moves around I do not go in.
That's all I can do, we'll see what happens. I woudl let her sleep with me but she'd wake up with noise and we stay up longer than her. We also need our privacy so I prefer not to. She's been in her room since she was 3 months cos we woke up her constantly if we sneezed, coughed etc.

Let me know how it goes!
Amy

That was also my question. Any chance he's teething? My daughter is 8 months and she's been sleeping through the night for 4 months. How? Well, we let her cry it out. And I mean really... cry it out. She cried for an hour each night for about 3-4 nights straight. Then she finally figured out how to self-soothe and put herself back to sleep. I recommend the book "Healthy Sleep Habits: Happy Child" by Marc Weiss. He also has other methods you can use, but I used the "extinction" method where you absolutely DON'T go in the room. Broke my heart, but man, it was SOOOOO worth it. She sleeps so well during the day and at night. Good luck.

I have to disagree with Anna on the naps. Getting him up by 1 is not going to ensure that he go to sleep when you put him down at night. The better they sleep during the day, the better they sleep at night. My daughter wakes at 6 every morning, goes back down at 9, wakes around 11, goes back down at 1:30 and gets up around 3:30/4. Then she's ready for bed at 7:30. Whatever you do, don't wake him up from a nap, let him sleep... if he's sleeping it's b/c he NEEDS it. Sorry, just had to put my two cents in about napping.

Is he getting too much daytime sleep? Some babies get their nights and days turned around. A 7 month old still needs at least 1 nap though, maybe not so late or long???

I wish I had a magical answer that worked for all babies. I think it would make me a millionare LOL

My son is 14 months and still has problems sleeping through the night. We cosleeped until he was 10 months, just so we could get some rest. He is better. I found that a strict routine is essential to get them ready for bed. We have a bath, read books, and then when we put him down we say "night night" "we love you". The hard part is when they wake up in the middle of night do not take them out of their crib (unless you know he is sick or has a full diaper etc..) we go in and rub his back or sing and then walk out and repeat what I said earlier. I did get the book "The no cry sleep solution" and it did have some good strategies. You just have to find what works for your baby. We also have a mobile in his crib that he usually turns on when we leave the room.

hope this hopeful,
good luck

When my son was that age and we started having him sleep in his own room instead of ours, We had some problems too. We tried several things, but my suggestion to you is maybe he doesn't like the sheets or maybe the transition from warm arms to cold sheets is a shock. That was our sons problem. We tried a heating pad in the crib for about 15 min on low until we went to put him down then removed it so the mattress was warm. Also we changed to flannel sheets, they are softer and don't feel quite as cold to skin. It worked for us, hope this helps.