My 12 month old woke last night, for the first time in a long time, and cried for 2 hours before going back to sleep. For months now this has only happened if he was sick -- but last night there was no fever and no other signs of illness.
After about 15 minutes I tried to get him to lay with me on the pull out couch, but he never does that well. It seems he knew it was bedtime and he'd lay for a minute, but then he'd want to play. He was not crying at all during this time. We did not want to encourage playing in the middle of the night, so we put him back in his crib -- he proceeded to cry/scream (on & off) for about another hour.
This is very unusual for him and when I spoke with my husband this morning (he is a stay at home dad 3 days a week) he said that our son was very cranky this morning and cried for about 30 minutes (after being o.k. for 15 mins) when he was layed down for his nap.
I've read that babies can often go through sleeping issues around those milestone times (3mo., 6mo., 9mo., ect.) -- our son has seemed to do this -- has anyone else experienced this? Also, he has really start getting around more by walking in the last 2 weeks -- we think maybe he is just too excited to sleep. Or it could be teeth.
I guess, I'm just looking for suggestions from other moms about how to handle this set back. We don't want to encourage him getting up at night, but it is hard to go back to letting him cry for long periods of time -- and previously he never cried much longer than 20 mins. I recognize last night could have been a hiccup, but I'd like to be as prepared for this evening as possible.
Obviously we are advocates of the cry-it-out method (but this is emotionally difficult) and our son does not co-sleep well. So any suggestions would be helpful.
Well, our son has still been crying when we first lay him down -- but it only lasts 5-15 minutes and he has not had further problems in the middle of the night. He did have a tooth that pushed through and he has 2 more trying to come in. We seem to have the most trouble with his afternoon nap -- he just doesn't want to stop playing to sleep, but once he does he sleeps for 1-2 hours. We are also going to try moving his nighttime bedtime back a 1/2 hour -- I just don't think he is tired enough at bedtime. We see this as the beginning of moving to one nap a day -- he isn't ready yet, but we think he will be in the next few months.
Thank you all for the advice. It made me feel better, when we let him CIO again, knowing that other parents were going through the same thing.
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M.H.
answers from
La Crosse
on
That happened to my 9 month old son a couple of weeks ago. He just wasn't sleeping through the night. He didn't have a fever and he wasn't acting sick. He didn't display any signs of being sick at all. I called his pediatrician anyway and ahe said to bring him in that morning that he may have an ear infection. She said that sometimes children have no other symptoms than not sleeping well at night. So long story short Ethan left his doctors office that day with a double ear infection.
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C.J.
answers from
Appleton
on
I can see why you're frustrated. My daugther who will be 2 in early November does this once in a while where she wakes up crying and all she wants is to be held for a minute and then put back down in her crib. She was doing this quite a bit and seems to do this in streaks. The only thing I can think of is if he's too warm or too cold. That's all we could think of for our daughter. Also, if I got up with her she would milk it longer, but if my husband gets up with her it's like a 2 minute thing. I know for us it's not an ear infection because she would scream and not calm down - so it's something else that's irritating her. That's what it sounds like with your son. Maybe there's just too much going on in his little head with all the changes and growing that he just doesn't know how to handle it. Otherwise I just think it's something you have to stick out. Sorry this probably doesn't help much.
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J.H.
answers from
Appleton
on
my daughter is also 12 mo old and has been going through this for about a week. i was thinking it was teething, but nothing has come through. so what we have been doing so that she wont get used to us getting up with her in the middle of the night and letting her play is i get up let her have some milk because it could be that they are hungry from going through a growth spurt. then i put her back in bed with her binki. i will also throw a couple of books in her crib for her to look at quietly, and turn on her lullaby cd and it has helped she normally just goes back to sleep. hope you get some relief soon.
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N.A.
answers from
Milwaukee
on
Hi,
I had a lot of the same concerns. My daughter went thru this just around 12 months when she first started walking. We just stuck with the regular sleep routine and go thru it. Also, she has had troubles with every tooth that came thru. Same thing with that, stick as much with the usual routine as possible. :) If I suspected teeth, I'd usually give her tylenol and that would help things within a half-hour or so.
Best wishes!
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M.M.
answers from
Milwaukee
on
Just recently went through the same thing. Our little girl just turned 1 and started to walk a few weeks ago. She too would wake up in the middle of the night when otherwise she was a really good sleeper. I'm sorry to say that we didnt really do anything to make it better. Just dealt with it. It went pretty much back to normal after a few days to a week. If he wakes up and is just really rowdy maybe he just needs to get up and walk around and try that out until he just passes out again. We too do the whole cry it out method but it seemed with our girl that she just wasn't going to do it and we know that she would if she was really tired. We got up let her run around while we just kinda took it easy on the couch eventually we noticed that she got tired put her back to bed. Like i said it took just a few days but it's a rough few days. Things will go back to normal. As the person before me said you can try to give some tyenol or something like that in case it's the teeth or any other ailment he may be having.. Good luck I hope it works out for you soon.
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A.Z.
answers from
Green Bay
on
We're going through something similar with our nearly 16 month old boy. He is not a co-sleeper either, and this week he has started crying when we put him down at night. He had been sleeping like an angel for months prior to this so it really worried us at first. We just kept his routine exactly the same and each night it has gotten better...Monday night he cried for close to an hour on and off, the next night less, and last night he actually rolled over and went to sleep like he used to do....so hang in there! Your instinct is to try to solve it, but I think it will solve itself if you just keep up your normal routine. If he's gnawing on his fingers, try some motrin at night if you haven't already. And you're right about the milestones affecting sleep...this happened to us shortly after he started walking as well and this time we think it's because he is starting to talk and his little mind has so many new synapses firing! I'll be thinking of you tonight...just lovingly and confidently put him to bed just as you have been and he will learn (again!) how to go to sleep :) Hope it's short lived...
