Hello Ladies,
I NEED help!!
My 8-month old baby boy hasn't been sleeping through the night for the past 3 nights. He goes to bed at about 6:00 pm, by then he is SO ready for bed!! And we get up early :) Well starting about midnight he gets up every hour on the hour! He IS teething. I have given him baby oragel, baby tylonol/motrin, rocking him. singing, teething rings, formula, bath, juice....Basically, my husband and I have tried everything!!! I just don't know what to do. He wakes up screaming and about after 20-40 minutes of very stressful crying and trying everything, he falls asleep! We have tried to let him cry it out.....But he just screams and screams until he a gasping for air trying to catch his breath. Help, what do I do!? What would you do?!!?
Thank you!!
He eats A LOT during the day...So I don't know if we should feed him more?? He also takes two really good naps during the day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. He goes to bed at 6 because it is literally impossible to get him to go to bed any later, last night we put him to bed at 7 and that didn't make a difference. At 6, it is baby melt down. Trust me, my husband and I have TRIED to get him to go to bed later. We went to the ear specialist last month for his ears and we go again on the 13th. I took him to the doctor late last week bc I thought he did have an ear infection, and he doesn't.....Thanks for the advice ladies!
FYI Gamma G.: it is not cruel to ley your child cry, it is called self soothing.
It sounds to me like he is in pain, with his teeth most likely, or maybe he has a little bug. What you're going to need to do is give him pain meds before the pain gets too much for his little body to bear. So at about 11.30 wake him and give him a dose of tylenol and a feed, then he should last the night. Once he wakes himself up with pain, then he doesn't know how to handle it
I'm sorry you are going through this...he's getting older and sorry - 6PM is waaaaayyyy too early for bed time for an 8 month old. I would put my 8 month old down between 9 and 10 PM.
He should be able to eat oatmeal, rice cereal or something like that. that will help him feel full when he sleeps as well.
He might have an ear infection due to the teething...that would cause many babies to cry like that. Call your on-call service and ask them what they want you to do...bring him in and have his ears checked out or what....
Teething is a hard thing....the more things you try with him the more confused he is going to be. His schedule is messed up right now - since he's older he needs to go to bed later and eat more in the evening...try ONE thing...for a few days....he's also picking up your stress - lack of sleep will affect you too!!!
Time to change his sleep times. Going to bed at 6:00 is still in the day, and he needs to go to bed later! Plus, he needs to eat more during the day.
Start putting him down later for naptime. Move his bedtime forward at the same time. Do it in 1/2 hour increments over a week or so. Feed him before he goes to bed. Cereal as well as formula will help hold him longer. The teething will get better. Don't pick him up and rock or sing. That's not going to teach him to self-soothe back to sleep. After you give him the Motrin (during the teething phase), just pat him on the back. Then walk out. Wait 5 minutes, and then come back in and pat him on the back. Walk out and wait 10 minutes. Increase the time 5 minutes each time. Don't talk to him either. He will cry and that's okay. You aren't ignoring him or leaving him alone (although there is nothing wrong with that, and letting them cry it out will fix this problem a lot faster.)
The thing is, you have to be 100% consistent. If you are wishy-washy, go into him at other times, pick him up, all of that, he will NOT get better through this. If he knows that you will bail him out, he will cry all the more. Your goal is for him to learn to put himself back to sleep without you doing it for him. He cries the way he cries, and it isn't going to hurt him. However, you will all get more sleep, and by moving up his bedtime, you'll be sleeping more like regular families do - closer to the same hours.
Dawn
Take him to the doctor and have his ears checked. This kind of waking behavior can be because of an ear infection.
How is he napping during the day? If he's super tired at night, perhaps something new with the napping might help. Don't know if your Pedi has any ideas.
Is he pulling on his ears at all? I'm thinking ear infection. When my kids were teething, they would sometimes get an ear infection too. Double the pain.
Hope he feels better soon so you can all get some sleep.
He needs to eat more ALL DAY LONG (not just right before bed) every day for 3 straight days, and you'll see he will sleep through again. Constantly offer feedings and thicken bottles etc. He's hungry. Totally normal. Growth spurt.
It could be what any of the others have answered, but he could be having some reflux. That really hurts little ones. Especially if he ate and laid down right away. All that is still in his stomach and therefore moves upward when laying flat. If that is what it is, it is recommended to raise that end of the mattress a little so he is laying a little more upright. I would actually contact at least the nurse in your pediatrician's office to get her take on things. Good luck, hope it resolves quickly.
His bedtime is fine...moving it later will not help you and is not the problem, s please don't worry about that. My son had many different phases where we put him down at 6pm and if he's taking naps consistently during the day then keeping him up later will just cause him to be overtired and struggle more with night time sleep. 6pm is an appropriate time for his age to be going to bed and even now my 19 month old son cannot stay up past 7 (and if he does, we pay for it because he sleeps poorly and wakes up early!)
My suggestion is to let him cry - as hard as it is. You said he wakes up screaming and after 20-40 mins of stressful crying will fall back asleep. I think you should give this a try for a week or so and if the problem does not go away - there may be something else going on to consider. My son was always the type that if we went to him "trying things" it would really just makes things worse and harder for him to sleep. If complete ignoring is too hard for you - my secondary suggestion would be to go to him ONE TIME when he wakes to maybe give tylenol and a sip of water, comfort him briefly and tuck him back into bed. This might make you feel better that you checked his needs and then proceed to ignore. Because after that point, you know there is nothing further can do anyway. I would do this only once and would keep it very brief. Do NOT not not try to rock him to sleep as you would just be making your problem much worse.
Good luck!!
just let him cry. I know how hard it is. My oldest would scream like someone was hacking him into little bits. It took a few days and then he was fine. they go through these sleep pattern changes every so often.
We can all pretend to have the answer for you, but I suspect he is just going through a sleep regression. Google 'sleep regression' and you will find some comfort in the fact that his behavior is normal. (And that you probably can't do much about it.). And that things will get better within a few weeks.
20-40 minutes of crying is cruel. You need to be in there trying to take care of the need. It does not solve anything to let a baby cry that long. He has a need and if he is not getting that need resolved he will stop trusting you to provide his needs and it can cause all kinds of issues later on.
I would say let him take a late nap then wake up for a while. Then later in the evening put him down for the night. If he is getting all the rest he needs so early in the evening he is ready to get up and be awake in the middle of the night.
He is going to bed for the whole night way too early, adjust his routine to accommodate a later nap and then going down to bed later. As children get older they need less sleep. He may not need so much. Even if you are getting up at 5am he can sleep a bit longer.
