My 9 Month Old Wont Fall Asleep on His Own

Both of my kids were like this J. - I wound up bringing them to bed with me during the night so that we could all get some sleep. Then I gave up on the daytime napping almost entirely - thanking GOD each time they actually would take a nap alone. The frustration of expecting them to sleep was greater than the effort it took to keep an eye on them.

Some kids are just too busy to sleep during the day. I have two of them - both have turned out to be top-of-their-class smart and interesting people to talk to. I am, however, glad that they are no longer toddlers. Boy was I tired!

My kids wanted me constantly when they were teething. I found if I gave them half a dose of Tylenol just before bed time that it would help them sleep (might want to ask your pediatrician if it is ok... I didn't have any problems with it - but HALF dose was the key, that way they weren't getting to much). I don't recommend this if they are NOT teething as giving them to much tylenol can make them immune to it later. Also, a cold wash cloth for him to chew on during the day (when you can watch him) can help too. My kids didn't like the teething rings, but they liked to chew on their blankets... so I swapped the blankets for cold rags and that worked for us.

Also, lay him in his crib and rub his tummy (or back depending on which one he sleeps on) and sing him a song. Your touch and your voice soothes them, and might help relax him to get him to sleep.

M.

It seems like a lot of these sleep problems happen right after a vacation because of the way sleep rituals change while on vacation. I think Marc Weissbluth talks about this in his book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. He uses a type of "extinction" method (as he calls it) where the parents have to gradually let the kid cry it out for a bit longer each night. Surprisingly, he's not really an advocate of just letting the child cry it out all the way. It would make more sense to read the book yourself. It's a long one and to be honest, I didn't finish it. However, he's one of the experts and the book was highly recommended to me, so it may be worth a shot for you to read it and maybe just brush up on the "post vacation" parts of it.

teething is probably the culprit. i would highly discourage making him cry it out or anything like that... just try to be accomodating to your son's feelings. kids grow in a pattern of "two steps forward, one step back" and its the way we react to the one step back thats determines how they take the next 2 steps forward.
sleep is a hard one.
www.askdrsears.com has good advice and loving advice! check it out!

stop laying with him now, for your own good. If you need to let him cry himself to sleep for a couple of nights then you might have to do that. I couldn't stand to let my first child cry in her crib so I used to lay with her until she was well asleep and she would do the same thing of waking up throughout the night when she realized I wasn't there anymore. Long story short... I finally broke her of the habit when she was 5 years old. I learned my lesson with her and when our 2nd child came we just let her cry for a night or 2 and then she was fine. I've never had to sleep with her and she still sleeps better than her older sister.

If he's still in the infant car seat one thing that we found that worked great was to put ours in their car seat, put it on the dryer, start the dryer, and w/i 5 min. they would be out. Then we would lean the carseat against the humidifier in our room, and they would stay asleep all night long. After they outgrew the car seat the swing worked wonderful to get them to fall asleep, and then we would move them to their cribs.

I agree that vacation could have thrown off your routine. It happens to us with our 9 month old. Then he starts waking in the middle of the night. My question for you is..How much is he eating in the middle of the night? If it is a lot, he could be legitimately hungry. In this case you might want to try and feed him more during the day. As for getting him to sleep, I know a lot of people prefer the "Ferber method." We use a bedtime routine of reading books, singing songs and rocking. I always lay him down when he is awake (that is what my pediatrician tells me to do). If he is teething, you might want to try a little baby Motrin as well (ask you pediatrician). We find it works better for our son than Tylenol.