Help my perfect 9 month old daughter who started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks now wakes 2-4 times a night!! She is teething and has cut 5+ teeth so the pain of that should be over right? I fear that she now wakes because she wants me. I will go into her room change her diaper and try to lay her back down but she scream/cries. As soon as I pick her up she lays her head on my should and she is fine and almost back to sleep. How do I "teach" her to self soothe and go back to sleep on her own? I feel letting her "cry it out" is mean and I am not sure if she will ever give up. I also don't want to let her come into bed with me out of fear that will never end (however on occasion she does) Please help I have figured most things out with her but this one is starting to wear on me... I guess I am looking for the perfect answer to get her back to her old self...
I just wanted to recommend "The No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. She is recommended by Dr Sears and has a very easy-to-read and useful book.
Also, I've had all three kids in my bed (one at a time) and it's much, much easier to train a 1-2 year old to sleep in their own bed then it is an infant. And sleeping together can be such a pleasure - if you're tempted, I say go for it, it can bring a lot of joy (and sleep).
Please google "sleep regressions." My belief is that babies have issues with sleep for innumerable (and unknown) reasons, and almost always they will go back to sleeping the way you want them to after a few weeks of bad nights. It is hard to deal with while it happens, but I believe it is important to be there when your daughter needs comfort (even if you can't understand why she should need comfort). It may very well be that she needs you when she wakes - you are her biggest source of stability right now.
I would suggest that you don't change her diaper in the middle of the night if she wakes up (they usually can go all night w/o a change unless it's a poop at this age). Don't turn on any lights and have as little interaction as possible. You are probably right that she is wanting you in there so make it as boring as possible. The other option is just not go in there at all and see what happens. Good luck.
I was just on here a few weeks ago with the exact same problem!!!! M 9 month old was sleeping through the night since 2 months old also, also has 5 teeth! So I went to his 9 month doc appt, and talked about what had been going on, I had tried the cry out method (for like 10-15 min) it is agony and was not working because he can pull himself up in his crib and then is awake-awake standing - and I am not going to let him cry it out until he is exhausted enough to lay back down. Any way - the doc said that I need to start laying him down before he falls asleep at night, dont rock him totally asleep. She said this will teach him how to sooth himself to sleep, thus when he wakes in the middle of the night he does not think that he needs me to fall back asleep.
YOu many already do this...but it has helped us so much!!
Good luck - I feel your pain!
My husband and I have a routine that we do with our sons every night. They are 2 1/2 and 7 months old. We change diapers, put on pjs, pray, and sing a song. Then we lay them in their beds while they are drowsy but awake, and they go to sleep.
They do fuss every now and again, but one theory I heard really helps me: we give them tummy time so they can learn to crawl; we don't expect them to just learn to crawl in one day. We give them baby food to get them used to food; we don't expect them to eat adult food right away. We need to give our kids time and opportunity to learn to self-soothe; it's not an automatic skill.
I like the "No Cry" book mentioned earlier, but the best book for me was "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". It talked about the family being well-rested, and how a child sleeping at night helps the family in the long-run be more resilient.
She is normal. Sleeping through the night at 8 weeks was a bonus, not typical. Changes in sleep patterns happen at various times, and every one is a stage that the child will pass through.
This wasn't your question, but there is nothing wrong with bringing her to your bed, if that's how everyone sleeps best. Some articles on co-sleeping:
http://www.naturalchild.org/articles/sleeping.html
My kids slept through the night pretty well from 2 months on but occasionally if they were teething or didn't feel well they would wake up so I would go to their room and rub their back or tummy while they were still in their crib until they fell back asleep. I have also jiggled the crib like a rocking motion and that worked too. I never had a problem with our kids climbing in bed with us as we always went to them if they had nighmares when they got older or they got sick or some other reason woke them up. I would sit by their bed or stand at the crib for a few minutes and get them calmed down then they would usually go right back to sleep. having a bottle or water or a sippy cup of water in their bed usually helped as I believe that sometimes their mouth was just dry and needed a drink so that would help most of the time if they woke up in the night, I would hear them drinking their water as we did have a baby monitor and usually just drank a few ounces and was back to sleep in a few minutes.
