I have a wonderful 8 month old daughter who is rarely fussy. However, she is not a great sleeper! She goes to sleep around 6 and she sleeps soundly until about 9:30 sometimes longer. Then after that it is like she is restless and cannot get comfortable. She is up about ever 2 hours generally and sometimes every hour. Also she usually ends up in my bed because I am ridicoulsly tired by 2 am. Also, I am a new mom and I am having a hard time letting her "cry it out". Any suggestions or words of advise would be greatly appreciated.
How about putting her down a little later. Maybe at 8 or so. 6 sounds like she would never get thru the night. By the time she wakes up at 10 after going to bed at 6 she has already gotten almost half her nights sleep.
A.
You can adjust her schedule you know. Why do you want her down at 6 pm? Keep her up later and she will sleep longer on the other end. You aren't a bad parent for not letting her cry it out, it just seems you don't have a reasonable amount of sleep in mind. At 8 months she is very trainable and you obviously are taking great care of her if she isn't fussy in the daytime. My kids all learned to go down by 9 pm and they would sleep until I was ready to get up at 5 or 6 am. One in the middle has presented autism and now we have utter chaos in the middle of the night. All you can do is keep working on it! God Bless!!
Dear A.,
Some one mentioned not having her sleep at 6. I so agree with that. I have 4 kids, my youngest kids, twins, are 4...but as I remember we let them take a short later nap then tried to push their bed time and final feeding for the day back a bit. (the older they got and the longer they slept at night the earlier their bed time became). Her 6 to 9:30 "nap" seems to be her best night time sleep. You need to push that later so you can take advantage of sleeping at the same time. It's okay to wake her up until you establish a sleeping routine that works for you too! You didn't mention her other nap times...maybe a later afternoon nap to get her through the evening better? I hope this makes sense to you.
One other thing that worked great for us was to have a fan in their room, not blowing on them, but just for white noise and the circulation of air keeps the room more comfortable.
Good luck,
B.
How's her diet? Is she eating solid food? Are you breastfeeding and therefore she eats what you eat? Many times food intolerances disrupt sleep. The body just cannot process the food and it manifests with restless sleep in many, but sometimes that's the only symptom in infants. Biggest culprits are corn and dairy.
Honey, I would LOVE to read what answers you receive. My daughter is FOUR and I still don't sleep through the night with her, between bad dreams, missing me due to my working hours and coming to cuddle at four am, or being hot, restless, etc. I have just given up and figure I'll get a full 40 winks when they go to college.
I know EXACTLY what you are going through. I have a 10 month old. His sleep cycle was so short before he was an independent sleeper that I would rub his back for 20 minutes just to have his sleep cycle start over again 50 minutes later. We were both very tired. It is so important that babies learn to sleep independently, like adults. When we wake up, even if barely, and readjust ourselves and go back to sleep, we do that because we have practice. Babies can't do that until they practice. They don't know how to get themselves comfortable because they haven't tried much, if dependent still. Buy Dr. Ferber's "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" revised in 2006 and original out for over 20 years. He does not recommend "crying it out," where you just leave them. His approach constantly reassures them that you haven't forgotten about them, by going in every few minutes, but that they need to learn how to get comfortable themselves, as strongly recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The better sleep they get, the better their brain will function during the day, and so will yours. It is so important for both of your health and well being. Just think, one day when she screams in the store because she wants the candy bar, will you always give it to her? What if she wants to play with knives? Obviously not. Your road to better sleep is so short, and one of the many we must cross as parents, yet the results last years. Good luck to you, you can do it. Happy rested baby equals happy rested Mommy!
I'm right there with ya!!! I'm a mom of three and my 8 month old is up every two hours all night also. I know I need to get tough on him and let him cry it out, but it's not easy even for a seasoned mom of three. When you are ready to let her cry it out it helps to pick a long weekend or a time when you can dedicate to the task. Also if the babbies daddy can help it's good to have support. I've found by day 2 or 3 they figure that your bed is no longer an option. Good luck and remember it will get better........
Congrats on being a mommy!
I think putting her to bed for the night at 6 p.m. is very much too early. I would recommend letting her take a short nap later in the afternoon (30-45 mins.) if she is very sleepy and then keep her awake until 8ish. At that point give her the last bottle of the night. That is what me and my sisters have both done with ours. They all pretty much would sleep from 8-9 p.m until about 2 (maybe) and get a bottle if they didn't sleep through-out the night. Otherwise, they all slept until about 6-7 a.m. after the 8-9 p.m. down time. We all hated the "cry it out" stuff and didn't do it either.
Babies are notoriously restless sleepers as they cycle in and out of deep and not-so-deep sleep. As I am sure you've noticed, they start out at one end of the crib and end up on the other - all the while grunting, tossing and periodically crying in their sleep. I'm sure you already do this, but I would just make sure that she is actually awake (and not just doing any of the things listed above) before picking her up. Also, making sure that her naps during the day don't exceed 4 hours may help.
