My 11 Month Old Has a Hard Time Falling to sleep...pls. Help!

Hi there - maybe try moving Michael's bedtime up by an hour or half hour. He could be so tired by the time you're putting him to bed he's too tired to cry. AT around 11 months my son's sleep habits started to change, whereas we had been putting him to bed by 10:30, then it became ten p.m. Now at 16 months old, he's in bed anywhere between 8 and 9. I imagine it just gets earlier and earlier as they grow up becuase they take less naps during the day.

talk to the doctor about the hernia and crying, etc...

then there are a lot of sleep books you can read :-)
http://www.thebabywearer.com/cgi-bin/bookshop.pl?locale=u...

I don't know if your son had his surgery yet or not, but rest assured, these docs have been doing hernia surgeries on babies a long time... my husband had one 43 years ago! I hope you're all doing well, and getting much more rest.

You're doing the right thing by putting him down and letting him cry. He needs to know he can get to sleep on his own. I was a little crazed about not having my kids "play" in bed at bedtime... I had a stepson who at nine loved to bring those hard plastic little "men" to bed. I wanted him to get to sleep right away because I knew he needed at least 10 hours a night, so I'd take away his toys. Probably cost him sleep! So give your son a toy (preferably one that won't poke his eye out! I worried about that, too!) and pretty soon he'll figure out that he can go to sleep on his own, without crying at all! When my son was born, I was a lot more relaxed- and believe it or not, at 11 months, he slept with books! Talk about poking your eye out. :-)

My philosophy with raising my daugher has been to follow my instincts.
That said, my advice would be to rock him to sleep until the medical issue is resolved. Babies are resilient and quick learners. Once it is ok for him to cry it out, he will learn to sleep on his own.

My son had a hernia as well as a baby, luckily it closed on its own, but I recall the doctor telling me that excessive crying does aggrevate the hernia. I am not a fan of letting them cry it out as it just seems wrong to me deep down and as the other mom mentioned you have to trust your instincts.

My suggestion would be to try setting a bed time routine- bathtime (lavender to calm), storytime, you can play soothing music in his room (meditation cds, etc), and offer to lay down with him until he falls "asleep".

Also make sure to cut any sweets and artificial foods out of his diet (ie candy, chips, fast food, juices that are not 100% juice- read the label) These foods effect some children more than others and can get the kids so wired up metabolically that their body can not slow down to rest, no matter how tired they are.

I would not suggest to start rocking him again as it did not sound like it was working anyway as you had to do it for hours and you do not want to go down that path again!

Good luck its sounds pretty frustrating!

A.

Hi,

We are going through something similar with our 10 month old son. He was sleeping so good for a while and then all of a sudden about a month or so ago he doesn't want to go to sleep and when he finally does go to sleep he wakes up 2 or 3 times a night and doesn't want to go back to sleep. He is teething at the moment (getting his 8th and 9th tooth in) and sometimes I think he might be in pain and I give him some ambesol for his gums and it seems to help, but I too am simply exhausted..LOL

I don't like for my son to cry for long periods of time either because he will start to wheeze and then I have to give him a nebulizer treatment and it just sounds so horrible, they sound like they are in pain or just really need you.

I don't really have much adive, only to tell you that we are experiencing the same thing, so maybe it's a phase they go through at this time.

Good Luck.