Help me make him sleep

[Desertress]

I am having alot of trouble with my 10 mnth old and sleeping. He used to sleep through from about 7-6 but that was a couple of months ago now. He got sick and was tetthing at the same time and hasnt slept the same since. At first he was just waking about 5 times a night but he would feed and go back to sleep... i hated this at the time but i would love for him to even do that again.

Now he will wake at about 10:30 and have a feed and go back to sleep and then he will wake again at around 2-3 and then try and stay awake for hours. This has happened everynight for the last week. He will start going back to sleep if i rock him a bit or sometimes even if im just holding him but if i put him in the cot he starts screaming. I have started to let him cry himself to sleep after 2 attempts to fedd and settle. Last night was the first night it worked and that took an hour. The night b4 he screamed for an hour and a half and i just couldnt leave him any longer so it took me another 2 hours to get him to sleep. He has just gone back to sleep now by the sounds ..... and it only took 25mins. That is alot better the last night but i still have having to leave him to cry to sleep. Nothing else works short og getting up for a few hours and i really want to get him out of that habbit.

I just want my little boy to sleep through again and i am at a loss to why he wont. He has a slight cold atm but he was still doing this before he got that so i dont know what it is. Im not getting enough sleep and its drving me crazy. I cant function properly and i fall asleep any time i sit down nearly. Any ideas?

I know i have already posted this in the sleep section last night but i have gotten only 1 response and would really like some ideas.... its bound to happen again tonight and i would like a few different things to try.

[Issey]

:hugs: sorry I don't have any advice but wanted to let you know that you aren't alone. My DS wakes several times a night, he is 7 months and usually feeds and back to sleep but lately he has been sick also and sometimes when I put him down crys. It is most frustrating and you get so tired. :sleeping:

I felt bad though as last night I put him down again around 1.45am and he cried, after trying to b/f and settle twice. I meant to go back and check on him in 10min but fell asleep :sleeping: and 4 hours later woke to silence. OMG!!! Result a sleeping bub upside down in the cot freezing (he was lightly clothed as had a temp on and off) and he somehow pulled off the light and sound show attachment in his cot which was firmly attached so I thouht! I felt like a very bad mummy.:crying:

I would be greatful for advice too. However starting to think I will just have to deal with getting up everynight.

[Blairsmummy]

Oh you poor things. That sound terrible. :hugs: to you both.

Just wondering how bub sleeps during the day? Is it possible that day and night has become confused and somehow switched?

[Desertress]

Chase has 2 1.5 hours sleeps if i am lucky. He has one midmorning about 9 and another one around 1 . Tho sometimes he eont sleep for long then either. I have been letting him cry back to sleep the last few night because it was suggested that he may need his "body clock" reset so that he sleeps again. Im not quite sure what that means but im giving it a go.

[NatLeah]

Oh poor thing, I no just how you feel!
My 9 month old went through a month of ear infections/teeth/cold/gastro the only way we could get him to sleep was to rock him or hold him then sneak him into his cot. BUT when he got better he expected the same treatment we had to go through nearlly a full week of controlled crying and resisting the urge to rock him to sleep (all though I did give in once or twice) Im sure the neighbours thought we were evil but it worked out the best in the end.

Maybe if he has a bit of a cold he has sore ears or his nose is annoying him. You could try propping one end of the cot up with a few books or something so he isnt laying flat.

:fingerscrossed: and :hugs:

[JE's Mum]

My son is 16 months now. We went through a similar horror stretch from around 8 months to 12 months. Once he turned one he seemed to start improving. While he's not perfect now (he still has the odd night every couple of weeks where he insists on staying awake for 2-3 hours!) he is so much better and will consistently do a 6 hour stretch at night (although lately he has been cutting 4 molars so he isn't at his best!!).

I really don't think it has anything to do with forgetting how to self-settle or mixing up day and night. From 8 months there are some really significant developmental stages and it is really common for babies to get disturbed by this and start waking again. One nurse said to me that she thought it was strange that there were babies who didn't go completely haywire during this time. Remember they are still little and they go thorugh stages of needing more reassurance.

We only survived this phase by letting him sleep with us through most of it. Just do what you can or need to to survive it. Remember, even though it feels like it now, it won't last forever.

[Desertress]

i would actually love if letting him sleep with us would work... but he is a very strange child and has NEVER liked to settle in bed with us. Ds1 used to do it all the time and when i got tireds of trying to settle him i took him into bed with us and he slept. But ds2 is just not interested... he dosnt often settle anywhere but in his bed.

It has been going on for about 2 months now so hopefully it is just a phase and he will get better soon.

[Sonja]

This is strangely very reassuring for me. Lucy has been waking every night between two and three times between 7 pm and 7 am and will only b / f back to sleep. She's 11 months old and by the end of each week I am so tired I almost feel ill. It also doesn't help that most days she will not sleep in the afternoon no matter how tired she gets. It is causing immense strain on my marriage as neither of us will let her cry (been down that path before) and we're both so tired. It's been happening since I went back to work in May.

I too think it is milestone related and am hoping after she's one things will get better :fingerscrossed: .

[Desertress]

Well here i am again..... i am sooooooo tired and bub is just refusing to go back to sleep. I have gotten to the stage that i try to settle him twice and if that dosnt work i let him cry of ra while int he hopws that he will go back to sleep on his own. has been 15mins and i think he might be starting to get tired bnut the he starts screaming again. minght leave it a little longer and go back in again.

I just wish he would sleep because i just cant handle the broken sleep anymore..... im going crazy... not functioning and i just want to go to bed. :gloomy:

[Sonja]

Have you contacted any of the mother and baby units at one of your local hospitals? Alternatively give one of the services like Karitane a call. However it sounds as if you could do well with a stay at a sleep school. I understand only too well how awful it is to be sleep deprived. Most sleep schools give you the first night off so you can get rest and then work with you after you've caught up a little to try and solve the sleeping issues. This can be wonderful when you really need the support. Some are private but many are public.

[jessgray]

my ds did this and it developed to the point he would refuse to sleep anywhere but our bed. then for hsi birthday his uncle and aunty (my siblings) got him a fold out sofa that has a sleeping bag built in to it and ds will now only sleep in that or our bed.

we tried everything to get him to settle when he wouldnt sleep, massage,a bottle,limiting the distractions,a cuddle..but some nights it would work some nights he would be bouncing around at midnight wanting to play.

thankfully now he has started to put himself to bed when he is tired and only needs a cuddle from mummy to sleep. i think teething set it off for our ds coz it started around the time he cut his first tooth and just got worse.

[DIANNEKB]

Oh I feel your pain cause my bubs is doing the same thing at the moment... nothing I do helps apart from putting him in my bed with one arm around him cuddling... he will go to sleep straight away... so I tend to give into this instead of staying up all night long...

[mama hen]

My dd has started doing this as well over the last couple of weeks .... ever since she got her first cold and began teething in the same week. She will go down over a feed and then wake again 40 mins later (which we are just about up to) and take a couple of hours to re-settle. If I'm lucky she will be asleep again for the night before 11pm.

DD has only been re-settling the last couple of nights in our bed ... but don't want to get her into that habit.

Here we go again ... I can hear her waking up :( Hopefully she will go back to sleep quickly :fingerscrossed:

[Desertress]

Well he seems to have gotten over the want to stay up and play in the middle of the night but he has regressed back to waking 4 or 5 times a night..... i really dont know which one i hate more. I just wish he would sleep through.... its so frustrating when he was always sucha good sleeper before he got his cold and ever since he has been totally shocking.

[lovebeingamum!]

Sounds like someone really needs to give us poor ol' mums a break and let us in on the little secret... why are these children waking up at night!!??
I had just posted my own thread (see below), and then came across this one. I know that I'm not going to help anyone with this reply, but it's reassuring to know I'm not alone... I'm going to call Rivertons today and see what they say, so I'll keep you posted. Good luck to all... :hugs:

DS is 6mo and is a great sleeper during the day, but wakes up once (at the moment) during the night (usually 2am). I'm at a loss how to handle this... do I/should you/can you use CC only once a day, in the middle of the night, or will that confuse him? :confused:

At the moment he's bottlefed to sleep during the day and has 2x hour and a half sleeps, sometimes another nap thrown in, depends on what we've done during the day.

It's just the night thats killing me... it started when his two bottom teeth came through, and now it seems like he's rolling over to sleep on his tummy and waking himself up. (Is it cause he's nearly crawling?? he's getting around comando-style at the moment... just learnt that too:D. Do I stick it out until he's crawling and see if it sorts itself out?) Even I'm not able to help him back to sleep 'cause he seems frustrated that he can't get comfy on his tummy... he usually crys for 45min, has some more bottle, then goes to sleep.

Since he's so good during the day, I'm not at 'that place' where I can leave my little boy to cry and get so upset just to do something he's doing ok 99% of the time. :crying:

[Desertress]

Well since Chase has stopped wanting to play when he wakes up at his 2am waking he has gone back to frequent wakings at night...... last night i think the tally got up to 6 times.... everytime except 1 he just had a small feed and went back to sleep.... once he didnt want to so i let him cry and he was asleep in 10 mins.

my question is now... do i (a) stop feeding him when he wakes up
(b0 keep feeding him as long as he settles straight after
(c) deal with it and be happy that he sleeps at all :rolleyes:

He is having 2 good solid feeds a day but mainly picks at his dinner... that is why i am a little reluctant to not feed him when he wakes at night because he may be hungry.