My son is 7 months old and he doesn't sleep through the night. He has on occassion, 3 maybe 4 times. We have tried letting him cry in the hopes he will cry himself back to sleep. That doesn't work. He sleeps in our room and I think he sees us so he just keep crying until we pick him up. He cries like he is hungry but when we try to feed him he sucks at the bottle for a little while but then just wants to cuddle. Lately he has been getting up 4 times a night. He usually takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap. We try to make sure his nap isn't too late in the afternoon. He hoes to sleep between 7:00 and 7:30. We have tried keeping him up later but he just gets SUPER crabby if we do that.
My boyfriend and I are going to try moving the baby into his brother's room over Christmas break as my older son will be at his dad's and we will be able to let the baby cry it out if it comes down to it. Thank you all for the advice.
I would try moving him out of your room-and it probably is going to be a process of letting him cry at first since he will be used to being in your room and will miss you. I would also move his bedtime UP..even by a half hour...babies that small still tend to want to go to sleep earlier as opposed to later. It may help make a difference as well.
My oldest didn't sleep through the night until we moved him out of our room at 6 months. It was like magic! We moved our second one into his own room after about a week and he was sleeping through the night at 3 months. Good luck!
Hi A.,
We have a 4 month old son and he has been sleeping through the night for almost 2 months now. There are a few things we had to do for this to happen. It is not a fun process but it definitely works. He needs to have his own room and sleep there at night and every nap possible. This will increase security and happiness because his sleep is much more uninterupted. At first we would only let him cry for an hour and go get him to feed him or change him and that did not work at all because he did not mind crying for an hour at a time. My mother is a daycare provider and we asked her what to do and she advised us and it was a miracle! This is the tough part, we put him to bed after feeding him, he cried for 2 hours non-stop, then we would get him, change him if needed, feed him and put him right back to bed and he would sleep 3-4 hours, when he woke we changed him and fed him and he cried for 2 hours straight again, as soon as 2 hours were up we got him out, changed him and fed him again and put him right back to bed, he fell asleep. The next time he got up, same process he only cried for 1 hr and 15 mins before falling asleep for 3-4 hours...and so on. After 2 days he has fallen asleep the first 5-10 mins after putting him to bed even if he's wide awake when we do so. He has slept 10-11 hours a night the last two months the only exception being a couple nights he coughed himself awake and all we had to do was feed him a little bit and put him back to bed and he fell right to sleep. Trust me, not an easy task, but put a movie in to help drown out the cries, don't try to be quiet at all this will help as well. He will get used to the noise and we can even vacuum while he's asleep without waking him. This may take longer due to his older age but you will find he will be much happier when he's awake and so will you! Hope this helps!! Dr. S. M. Kerby
ok.
the best advice i could ever give you is to go to www.askdrsears.com and look up advice on sleep.
believe it or not, some babies just can not sleep without their mothers! :D hes not sittin in his crib saying to himself "if i only keep crying i will get my way" hes trying to communicate a need, and needs should be cared for! :D
dont EVER EVER EVER feel guilty for doing something that your heart tells you to do. cosleeping, nursing at night, doing what you've got to do in order to sleep, whatever it is..... do what YOUR heart tells you to do! :D
i coslept with my son until between 15-17 months old, and it still wasnt every night, but it was ... :D
i lvoed every second. now i love that he wakes up at like 630 and we can snuggle in bed for a half hour before getting up :D !!!! around the same time that he started sleeping through the night (15-17 mos) he started to not nurse during the night either.
so just trust yourself. you know whats best for your baby! and trust me, you WONT regret the extra time spent snuggling, and loving, and responding to your baby.
crying it out... well, what is "it" and where is "out"? use extreme caution. good site: www.askdrsears.com :D
If you are not already doing so, try feeding him cereal before bed. This will help him stay full. Also, make sure the room is only about 70 degrees, any cooler or warmer and he may be getting uncomfortable. If you have the space to move him into his own room, try that as well. This way if you need to let him fuss for a while you can and he will not hear or see you.
If you are able, I would consider moving him to a different room to sleep. Until my son was 6 months old, he slept in our room because we only had a 1 bedroom apartment. If either of us coughed or sneezed or moved around too much, he would wake up. It was getting insane! Also, if you're OK with letting him cry it out, it's really not going to work with him just a few feet away.
If that's not an option, I would try playing with his schedule a little bit. Try an earlier bedtime. This sounds like crazy advice, but a well rested baby sleeps better. You could also try giving him a short, third nap, and then a later bedtime.
He may still not be ready to sleep completely through the night, but hopefully you can get him down to waking once or twice.
Good luck!
I don't have the magic answer to getting a baby to sleep through the night. The truth is, no one does. You have to do what you feel is best. If that means letting him cry it out, that's fine. (I could never do that.) If that means letting the baby sleep with you, that's fine. (We did a family bed with both of our kids until they were about a year old.) All you can do is create an environment that is conducive to sleep. Cooler temperature. Sometimes white noise or classical music played softly helps. Soft, comfortable jammies. Don't let him get too over-tired because that will cause him to have trouble getting into the deep REM sleep that he needs. But you can't force him to sleep if he doesn't want to, all you can control is your reaction.
So instead of a magic answer to getting a baby to sleep through the night, I just want you to know this:
No matter how bad it may get, he will reach a point where he sleeps through the night and so will you. My youngest was an awful sleeper. Never took more than one nap a day, even as an infant. Always slept really fitfull and was up multiple times during the night. However, he has been consistently sleeping through the night now for months. I am only up with him if he has a bad nightmare or if he is sick.
So hang in there, do what you think works for you and your son, and know that it won't be long before he is asking to borrow the car and you are up multiple times worrying about him and whether he's safe.
