What Is the Best Way to Handle Baby Waking up in the Middle of Night.

I am going to be in the minority...I never let my baby cry alone. You CANNOT love or hold a baby too much. My "baby" is three now....been sleeping through the night at about 13 months. I would never and could never let her lie and cry. Baby's dont know how to manipulate. Forcing schedules at a young age is....well....wrong. Its good to try and have some routine...but a dead set schedule?
She now has a routine of brushing teeth, "picking" teeth (this is what we call flossing) bed stories...then nighty night. She is the sweetest little girl in the world...the idea of letting that sweet angel lay and cry makes me cringe.
My child always knows that Momma will ALWAYS be there to comfort her.
I guess it worked...I honestly can say the only time she has awaken in the last year and a half is during a horrible thunderstorm and the electricity went out. Even then, her "whineys" were not unnoticed by Momma. She went right back to sleep....comforted.
M:)

Dear E.,

I just about wrote a novel in response to you other question. I'm going to try to be be brief here.

So many people represent the cry-it-out dilemma as a black-or-white, all-or-nothing, issue. I really don't think it is. In my world anyway, there's "cry it out," and then there's "fuss it out."

Cry it out means sitting or standing up in the crib with tears streaming, desperately piteously begging/screaming for mommy. A fully awake, miserable, terrified kid. I didn't allow this, and I never would.

Fuss it out, though, means lying down, eyes closed or maybe partway open, grumbling, whining, maybe muttering "mama," but in an unfocused, not really communicating way. This is a normal part of self-soothing, adults do it too, and I do think it's an essential part of learning to sleep through the night.

So, rather than think of it as a great big political CIO vs. anti-CIO question, try listening closely to what's going in there and gauging where your son is emotionally. This -- eventually -- worked for us. I would've done it sooner if I'd thought of it.

Okay, sorry, that was long too :}

Mira

I might be off here, because I don't know how old your baby is. With my oldest girl (bottle feed) when I was breaking her of waking up at night to eat, I gave her a bottle of water. She only woke up about two nights and realized it wasn't worth it for just water. However it is slightly different if your baby is only breastfeeding b/c it is so hard to tell if the baby got enough to eat.
I agre to let him cry for a few minutes to see if he goes back to sleep. Plus you probably know his cries...sick, hungry, tired, annoyed, etc. I think the most important thing is to be consistant. Personally I wouldn't play or sing or any of that b/c he might think 'oh yeah play time'. If you are consistant in what you do when he wakes up the waking up in the night will pass. Maybe play a night toy that sings...I really like the Ocean Wonders Aquarium b/c my little one could hit the button herself. And try sleeping without a baby monitor on so that you don't wake with every fuss he makes.
Hang in there....once this phase is long gone it will be missed LOL

At first let him cry for a few minutes and see if he falls back to sleep on his own..

If not and he becomes really upset, you can go into his room.

Keep the lights off.

Do not speak.

Do not show any emothion..

Lay him right down and pat his back or rub his back and say Shh, shh..

If you feel he needs his diaper changed. Change it in the dark, no speaking, no expression and put him right down..

You can do this over and over again.. Many times, they go to sleep on their own. IT is hard to hear the cries, but they are tired and usually will just go back to sleep.

Stay strong. I think if he wakes up and does not get nursed he will get the
message. I would think one or two nights of crying and he would give
up. He did it at bedtime so he can do it during the night. Good luck.

I went from nursing her to just rocking her-a few days later, just walking with her, a few days later just standing with her by her crib, then patting her back (yes she was a tummy sleeper) finally she didnt need it anymore and learned to soothe herself back to sleep by about 15 mos.

I have a 10 month old and we just started doing the bottle of water at night with Daddy. She has been exclusively breafed as well. Its working. She had been getting up twice a night sort of consistently and dropped the first wake up after one night of Daddy offering water and rocked her back to sleep. Then we did it for the next one and after 3 nights, she slept through the night! She got up the next night but then slept through the night again the following day. We also wait with her cries-let her cry 10 minutes, then 15 the next night. Use your discretion with that. You can tell how upset your baby is-mommy knows! I hate (and I mean HATE) listening to her cry but I believe she needs to do it to learn how to self sooth. Good luck-we all need a little more sleep, dont we?