Sleeping Through the Night - Cranston,RI

Good luck! My son is almost 2 1/2 and still wakes up. I have tried everything. I finally got fed up with the lack of sleep, and let him sleep in my bed. It works somewhat better. He only wakes up once a night now. I hope that you can find a solution. It is so hard running on such little sleep for so long.

My son is the same age. He is hit or miss on sleeping through the night. I have tried everything. When he does wake we give him a bottle and then he will go back to sleep until morning. I have not tried crying it out. THe bottle seems to work for me. My grandmother has told me to give him some water instead of a bottle. I know babies should be able to substain not eating through the night, but I feel he is hungry or he would not be finishing an entire 8oz bottle. I hope everything works out. Comfort is my best solution for Ryan.

Hi M.,

My daughter Maya, now 26 months, started sleeping through the night at about 10 months. Out of sheer exhaustion, we let her cry it out one night. It was the most diffcult thing my husband and I had to go through. She literally cried hysterically for 35 minutes until she finally exhausted her self to sleep. Ever since then she has slept through the night. She sleeps in her own room on her bed. She has not yet had an episode where she would get up at night.
We had tried numerous techniques before having her cry it out. We fed her cereal so she'd be full. We tried going in longer intervals when she would cry, but nothing worked. My husband and I decided that it was time to let her teach herself how to go to sleep on her own, and this was the only way left.
Your 7 month old still may be a little young...you have to decide. My son, who is now 2 months old, will hopefully learn to sleep through the night on his own. If not, my husband and I have decided that we will try the same thing as we did with Maya when he is about 7-8 months old. He gets into his crying fits as well, and what we have found to work is when turning on teh blow dryer or vacuum, he quites down right away. Your son might be a little old for that, but give it a shot.
Hope it works out well for you. Good luck.

R.

My son also took a little longer than 7 months to really sleep as long as I wanted at night. We were frustrated and tired which doesn't help. He also had the tendency to vomit after crying hard so letting him cry didn't really work. We learned to accept it for a while longer and tried to go to bed earlier ourselves so that we could maximize our straight sleep time. As we noticed he wasn't having the vomit reflex when crying anymore, we tried letting him go and he figured it out and went back to sleep. He may just need a little more time. I know some say once they sleep all night, things are good...and they are, but there will be more sleepless nights as he has skill bursts or is teething or that sort of thing. Mine have a terrible time sleeping for a few days up to a week when they are picking up on new skills - big language burst, new physical skill, etc. All they want to do is their new "trick" and just don't have time for sleep.

I think it's a misconception that babies should be sleeping through the night by your son's age. My daughter didn't start sleeping through the night until she was 10mo, and it's still not every night that she sleeps that soundly. My first bit of advice would be to not put undo pressure on yourself or your son to have him sleeping through the night. You're not doing anything wrong - it's natural for a baby to wake at night...sometimes until 2yo. I wonder if he has acid reflux that is waking him that also contributes to the vomiting? Doesn't sound fun for any of you - I feel for you! What have you tried? I would recommend the book Nighttime Parenting by Dr. Sears, but it depends on what parenting philosophy you subscribe to. I found his book to be very helpful and validating.

Hi M.,
I have read the other responses and would also suggest looking at Sleeplady.com AND Dr. Sears's book. I also have read them both. Also I have a 17 mo. old who still does not sleep through and is just now BEGINNING to sleep a little longer intervals. These sources have been of very great help and have helped me have peace of mind about sleeping issues and more as far as knowing what is typical for what age, etc. BUT I still have to just keep telling myself, "this is just the way its going to be for awhile (maybe another year or even 2 for me??). I don't know how long but I have accepted that she will sleep when she is ready and just prepare myself for that idea in case it does take that long. It seems once I "calmed down" by accepting this idea it made everything much easier to deal with. Every day though almost I have to remind myself "just get her through it". I just prepare myself for it now and do whatever I must. I hope this helps and I hope the best for turns out for you possible. Hang in there! Oh yes, if you are interested and live in a noisy area or anything like that I know where you can get a CD with prerecorded "white noise" like a dryer running,hair dryer, etc. to block out other noises. That also has worked great for me.As a matter of fact in case you do it is prerecords.com It is calming also.

My daughter is younger than your son, but I had some thoughts that maybe will help. I share sleep with my daughter which has worked really well for us. Generally she wakes up for one feeding in the night (by the way, she's four months). Because I'm right there, even when she wakes for other reasons she goes back to sleep rather easily. My daughter requires alot of affection and closeness with me during the day, so it's ideal for her to be with me at night. Have you considered whether or not your son may be experiencing an insecurity at night that unsettles him so much? If you think it could be possible, some extra "close time" with you through the night may help. I hope you find a solution that works for you soon; I imagine you're just as upset seeing him so upset. Best wishes.

my first did not sleep thru until 15 months - so with my second, I tried what a friend and nurse had been doing with her children try reading "Healthy sleep habits, happy child" by Marc Weissbluth - it worked wonders and even helped me with my older children. nice book and helps you with different methods for different personalities. Sleep is soooo important!!! good luck!

The book HEALTHY SLEEP HAPPY CHILD by Dr. Weisbluth (A Chicago pediatrician who is a sleep expert) is excellen!!!!!! I used it as my sleep bible (even though I didn't follow everything he said) with both my kids who are excellent sleepers. He really spells out what to expect and how to get it at each stage. It is an EXCELLENT book.

Have you tryed to talk to the pediatrician about colicy babies,my niece would take the same fits just at different times,her pediatrican changed the formula and said to buy Kyro(not sure how it is spelled) its a syrup that settels the stomache. if that is not the case ,does he have a pacifier.
well I wish u well,and hope u can get some sleep through the night..

Sleeping through the night means sleeping 5 hours straight for an infant.Most infants do that.It's just that they go to bed so early,that when they wake in the middle of the night it wears parents down.My ds was the same way.My dd too but not as bad.However,the projectile vomitting that would occur with the slightest cry was due to reflux.Even on medication it happened but as they got older it stopped.I simply had to calm them down and then they would go back to sleep.It will get better.But you should ask your doc about the possibilities of reflux.All babies have it(hence the spitting up after meals)but some have it a little worse.I know it's hard and when a baby is vomitting as if they had been crying for hours when it was just 1 minete it's hard.I just had to keep them calm at all times and seriously,it did stop.Sometime after their 1st bdays.Don't look for your dc to sleep like you do until sometime around the age of 2.Thats what I've found to be the typical age when kids really begin sleeping through the night.I also don't advise cry it out.I know thats hat people typically advise,but in cases where a child vomits it can be dangerous as they can choke.I know exactly what you mean by the projectile vomitting when upset.Plus theres no way I would want my baby to cry it out,puke everywhere,and then sleep in it from exhaustion.It simply does not work in these cases.

My son didn't sleep through the night until he was 7 months old either. And we had to let him cry it out, but this is what I was planning on doing. Let's say he wakes up tonight at 11:30. Tomorrow night he has to sleep 15 minutes longer. If he sleeps until 12:30 then tommorrow night is 12:45. Don't go backwards only forwards. If that's a problem, go into his room, give him back his pacifer, and walk out. Keep trying the 15 mins later thing until he gets it. I know your exhausted but there are lots of babies that don't sleep through the night and their older then one, I know not what you want to hear.

My son was & still is an excellent sleeper. He slept through the night by the time he was 4 weeks old & he is now 12 yrs. old. We always played music for him when it was his nap time during the day or for sleeping at night. He loved listening to soft classical music. Theme songs from movies also seemed to work, like the song from the movie "Hook". I would rock him for a bit first, then put him down when he was close to dream land. Give it a try, it can't hurt. Good Luck!

Hi!

My daughter is 9 months, and some night we sleep all the way through the night and other we wake up 2-3 times.

We found if we don't do the whole lets get our P.J.s on right before we go to bed it works a little better. Eat dinner, Play, take a bath, get dressed, play some more, read a book, get a bottle and rock to sleep. If she has had a hard day or is cutting a new tooth I rock a little while longer after she has fallen asleep, then but into her crib with a cloth diaper that has my scent on it. There are some night, like the ones where she is cutting more than one tooth that she sleeps in the bed with me. When she sleeps in our bed she sleeps through the whole night.

My Mom had the expierence when she gave my younger sister Tyenol before bed to help with a fever, or teething pains that my sister would go into hysterics. we later found out when she was three that it made her see things that weren't there.

Good luck!
Cari

I have 3 little boys. The first slept through the night at 6 months after 3 nights of crying it out. I tried that with our 2nd boy and it never worked--he would cry for hours, get sick, etc. He started sleeping through the night at 2 y.o. Our 3rd boy is 17 months, and he just started sleeping through the night at 15 months. Not as bad as #2, but not easy either. What some people never tell you is that some kids are just not great sleepers. You can try crying it out (I'm all for it, if it works), but it is not for every baby. My last 2 both had acid reflux. Maybe that's what all the crying was about?? If you've tried letting him cry and it doesn't work, just comfort him when he wakes and know that one day he will eventually sleep all night. Good luck!

Hi M.,

We had a similar problem with our daughter when she was 5 or 6 months old (she is 9 months old now). All I can sayis you have to find what works best for your baby. My sister in law let her two kids cry themselves to sleep. They are both kids who scream at the top of their lungs for up to 5 minutes and then fall alseep. My kids never could do that. They would cry forever! With our daughter, we worked through the pick up & put down method from the Baby Whisperer. Basically I would go through her bed time routine once and then put her into her crib. She would scream and I would pick her up, calm her down, and then put her back into her crib. It sounds easy, but don't expect it to be. It was two really hard weeks for us. She would go in, scream, and out then again for around two hours at first. Gradually the time between when we first put her into bed and when she went to sleep shortened. Now typically after her bed time routine I an leave her room, shut her door, and she will put herself to sleep. I guess the trick is having them fall asleep on their own, laying down in the crib. I know that some people say that they have "good sleepers" naturally. We had to work for both of ours. Although some nights I definately cried along with them, it was worth it because they are now both easy to put to bed, and they tend to stay there.

Good luck,
E.

Hi M.,
My first daughter had trouble sleeping through the night as well. It turned out she had acid reflux. It only affected her once she was lying flat at night because she would have a build up of gas throughout the day. By the time we put her to bed, she was totally uncomfortable! It took us almost 6 months to talk with our Dr. about the issue but once we explained the symptoms and got her some medication she was sleeping much better. Now, she sleeps through the night (most nights) except for bad dreams (she is almost 18 months now). It might be something you would like to discuss with your Dr. Projectile vomit is VERY common with acid reflux and it doesn't have to occur all day long. Good Luck!

I have 4 children, none of which slept through the night until they were at least one. My youngest did not sleep through the night until almost 2. Is the baby on a bottle or breastfeeding? If breastfeeding, he may still need nourishment at night. At 7 months old, 5 hours at a time is considered sleeping through the night. Very rarely does a baby actually sleep through the night at that age, they are just quiet until they fall back asleep and do not disturb anyone else's sleep. I do not agree with letting them cry until they vomit. That does not reninforce trust. At 7 months old they need to know that you are going to respond when they need you. They still do not have the concept that you exist when they can't see you fully developed. Not responding to their cries actually tends to make for a fussier baby. I tried to let my oldest cry it out and he was nore clingy longer than any of my other 3, who never had to cry for long periods of time unanswered.
I still rock my almost 2 1/2 year old to sleep and love it. When she wakes at night, I lay next to her bed until she falls back to sleep. Also, especially if you are breastfeeding, try co-sleeping. It really saved us when my children were little babies. (Yes it is safe! and they do eventually go to their own bed.)

Hi- my daughters didn't sleep all the way through the night at 7 months. I know it's hard now- but it does get easier- and I promise that he will eventually sleep all night. Hang in there.
I found that just developing a smooth and easy bedtime routine worked well- bath, jammies, and rock to sleep. Eventually the rocking became shorter and now my 20 month old will sometimes go to bed without any rocking at all.
At seven months he may really still need help to get to sleep and then to get back to sleep when he wakes up again during the night. Just relax and go with it. When he's ready to sleep all night he will.
-S.

Does he have an ear infection? That sometimes will make a baby do what you are saying. If there is no ear infection then is there a good night time routine? This is what helped our daughter. Plus I read the book from sleeplady.com and it explained how to work through the sleep issues.

My first born was the same way. He still doesn't sleep through the night all the time and he is 2. He also learned the art of projectile vomitting when he gets upset at an early age. Just be patient with him. If possible, lay with him until he goes to sleep. Make sure he eats a little later at night so that his stomach stays full. What happened with my son was that his metabolism was so high, he was hungry in the middle of the night so now we make sure he eats some protein before bed and it lasts a little longer. For your 7-month old - just give him some meat before dinner and he should be alright.

I had the same problem with my daughter and nothing I did helped until I tried my sister's tecnique that her pediatrician suggested to her (my niece had night terrors). It took me a few days, but I figured out an average time that my daughter would wake up in the middle of the night. Once I knew this, I would wake her up an hour before she was due to wake up on her own. I would keep her up for the hour and put her back down. Every other night, after I woke her up, I would put her down a few minutes earlier (about 5mins). I took me almost 2 weeks of doing this, but it worked and she has slept through the night since she was 6 months old. Good luck to you.