My 8-month old son has slept through the night for a few months now. Last week, he started waking at 11:30pm (pretty conistently) and there seems to be nothing my husband or I can do to calm him. He is obviously tired but doesn't want to sleep. Even rocking him doesn't always help. He has no fever, he's not wet or dirty (diaper), he isn't off routine (we put him down about 8pm each night with no problems - he always goes right to sleep. We're tired, frustrated and clueless...any ideas?
If we pick him up and hold him or let him sit up, he quiets down and will get in a good mood again, smiling, etc. So - we think it isn't pain but we have no idea!
Thank you in advance!
I am so thankful for all of you who are sharing your thoughts and experiences. We had a peaceful night last night but we're starting to understand this is somewhat normal. We are going to try some of the many suggestions here. For the record, we would only go in and give him his "binky" when he started to cry, then we would leave. If he kept crying, we'd go in and rub his back and say we love him. It was only after 5-10 or so minutes of heavy crying that we gave in (it's SO hard not to).
It's so good to know we're not alone in our experiences and we so appreciate your care and suggestions!
Wishing you all restful nights =)
Hi E.,
It could be several things. Is he teething? It could be that the laying down is bugging his ears. He could have a belly ache and again the laying down is bothering him. You could try some milycon gas relief drops.
M.
He could be teething, in which case you could try HOlland teething tablets, Motrin or Tylenol or HUrricane Gel (need to be ordered from pharmacy but is not a perscription). Or he could be ahving night terrors, even though it seems a little young for them. However, if it is night terrors all you can do is ride it out, hold him and be there for him. If it is night terrors he should outgrow them. Oh, and for teething some doctors sya to try oragel but I personally don't like it an dit did not work for my girls. I would definaltey go woht Holland teethign tablets nad/or Hurricane gel-theya re both awesome!
Our daughter is 22 months now , but 6 months ago we had the same problems. Her schedule wasn't off, she was eating, no fever, would go to sleep easily but was waking up and could only be comforted when she was held. She had a terrible ear infection. She never showed one sign of being sick. She never even pulled at her ears. I was told that sometimes they will start to feel bad before the infection is bad enough to see and that some children do not show the "traditional" signs of having one. Hope this was helpful.
E.,
Don't worry I am going through the same exact thing right now with my 8 month old. She is my fourth and I can tell you all of mine go through this from time to time even my oldest still does. You might find soon that he will flip and eat and sleep a lot.
E.
Hi E. I also have an 8 month old son and we just went thru the same thing. I believe my little man's problem was he wasnt getting enough sleep during the day so he was so exhausted at nite time that it was a real restless sleep. He now is napping around 2-3 times a day from 1-3 hours. There little bodies are going thru growth spurts and the teething. They really need there rest. Hope this helps.
Hi, I had this same problem when my son was about 8 months. Several of my friends also had the exact same thing. It is just something that happens around this age. Our pediatrician said that it's normal and by us picking him up and cuddling him, we were actually reinforcing the problem. At this point he said, your son is waking up and thinking, hey mom and dad are pretty cool, I think I want their attention. The pediatrician suggested going in, making sure he isn't wet/dirty then laying him back down and let him cry/play/talk some. A friend of mine had really good luck with the ferber (sp?) method. Let the baby cry for about 2 minutes, go in and check and say I'm here, I love you, but you have to go to sleep now, and leave the room. If the baby continues to cry, let him/her cry for 4 minutes and repeat. If the crying continues, try increasing the time 1 minute each time. This worked for my friend after a couple of nights. Good luck!
This may sound crazy but my guy (now a 14 year old!) did the same thing. He slept well and then didn't. My mother in law said give him a mush bottle before bed. Sure enough, he slept straight through the night. We mixed formula with some baby cereal to a runny consistency, widened the hole in the nipple of the bottle just slightly and "oila" all better.
I don't know if you have thought of this, but my son started getting his teeth in around then. My daughter (6) didn't have as much trouble when a new tooth would break through after her first 4 came in 2 at a time. My son (15 mo), however, seems to have a really hard time. He will wake up & cry out. We usually try to wait him out for a few minutes to see if he has truly woken up. If he has, we try to go in the room & be all business about diaper changing, medicine for his teething, etc. We comfort him a little but then lay him back down.
I don't know if that's the problem because you said he smiles & responds to your comfort in a way that makes you think he's not in pain, but I'd try some Orajel anyway to rule it out. If this is your first child, let me just say that parenting is mostly trial & error (& what works for the first child probably won't for the second). Of course, talk to his doctor if it really is consistent.
My only other thought is be aware of what happens at that time at night in your home & neighborhood. Is there a neighbor who routinely arrives home at that of night or something like that?
E.,
Is your little one teething? My 15 month old wakes a few times a night crying when she is teething.
Hi E.,
My guess is that the behavior has been reinforced more than once with a repsonse and the little guy has taken to frequent same time wakings cause of this. I say this cause it's at the same time every night. If it was differnet times, my thought would be more towards all the other obvious possibilities (hunger, pain, etc). I have an 8 month old boy, also a first time Mom, and here's what I think you should do. I think you need to let him cry it out since you've ruled out reasons for concern. He's big enough that I would think that he could handle the actual crying. I'm not sure that going in sounds like it's working. And, as I've seen with my son they become very purposeful and intentional at this age. He's come to expect that you or your husband will come in, so he's enjoying that. I know the crying is hard, but besides that I'm not sure that active consoling and handling of him is working. Maybe give it a try for 2-3 nights. I bet that's all it will take! Good luck :)
This happens. You get into a groove and then...your baby changes. Not sure what's going on, but it sounds normal. Try to slowly over many nights, take less and less time to "comfort" him at the time he gets up. Hopefully that will start to do the trick and he will go back to sleep on his own and stay asleep during the night. If not, he's old enough to you to let him cry a little if you feel comfortable with that. When I was trying to extinguish a feeding at night, I decided that any amount of crying under 5 minutes I would not respond to. Over that, and she was obviously hungry. I say this because you say that there is no problem and that he's fine other than just waking up. He may just want you attention, he may be scared and need a little help to get back into his pattern. I'm sure you'll get it together soon, and then something else will come up ;)
Good luck
A.
