9 Month Old Waking Every Two Hours at Night!

maybe he's teething? maybe he NEEDS comfort? maybe he misses mom and dad? maybe he doesn't like being alone in the dark? maybe he's waking often because he's been learning new things and is feeling active, or maybe he's hungry.... any number of things.

have you considered co-sleeping again so you don't have to keep getting up every time he wakes? you probably would get more sleep. just a thought.

When my daughter was about 5 months old we realized that she was very sensitive to cows milk. I was breast feeding her at the time, so I stopped eating dairy products myself. She slept much better after that! Just something to think about.

K.,

It sounds to me, in my limited experience, like he is teething. My daughter is teething right now and we are having a tough time getting her to go to bed, though her twin brother (whose teeth started coming in 3 months ago) is out like a light when we put him down. Up until the past couple weeks, she would be out like a light within 10 minutes of being put to bed - but now we are lucky to haev her out by 9 PM because of the teething. You can try a little baby Tylenol if he is teething and this may help the situation by reducing the gum pain so he can sleep.

It sounds as though your 7:15 bedtime is spot on. Read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Babies need 12 to 14 hours sleep. Right now, my twins take a morning nap from 9 to about 10:30 and an afternoon nap from 1:30 to about 3:00 and we put them to bed between 7 and 7:30 and they're up at 7 in the morning. 99% of the time, we have no sleep issues with our twins.

Best of luck getting your son's sleeping back to normal - I know it can be taxing.

It is so hard to deal with changes, especially if sleep wasn't an issue before. I agree with the moms who suggest it could be teething or a milestone approaching. If it is teething, try to use teething gel or Tylenol if it's really bad. Nothing but Infant's Tylenol worked for us and I only gave it to him at night before going to bed for a few days and then I'd brace myself for another wave four weeks later. Anyway, I also came to the conclusion that my son (at 9 months also) figured things out and knew I would check on him if he cried. He too would wake frequently every night and there I would be. A friend of mine suggested I read Dr. Marc Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. I did and have never regretted implementing the strategies he suggests. I know many are against children learning to self-soothe by his methods, but it is a skill. At 9 months, your baby knows how to work it so you will come in to comfort and will take longer to sleep through the night if you always respond. It took us three nights of minimal crying and we were done. He has slept through the night since and is now 18 months old. Your sleep schedule sounds fine, I wouldn't change that but I would highly recommend the book and helping your son to self-soothe. My son occasionally wakens when a milestone is approaching. Right now, he wakens and talks a little bit and goes back to sleep. His speech is getting clearer and clearer and maybe that is what is going on for him. Anyway, rest assured your son will be fine. One thing I've read from several moms on sleep issues, be consisitent. If you repeatedly go in and soothe, he will expect that so if you are willing to do this for the next few years more power to you. I have noticed that my son isn't necessarily fully awake if he whimpers or talks and when I went to check, he fully awoke and it made it much worse as I woke him up with my presence. One thing I want to emphasize is that the book I mentioned does not advocate just letting your child cry and cry.....you are the best judge of what type of cry you hear with your baby. If he builds up and it gets worse and worse, of course you want to go in to be sure he is okay. Whatever you do, be consistent because that is what your son is challenging. All the best and my hopes you will all get the consistent sleep you need soon.

Hello K.,
I can totally relate! I have a 1 yr old and 4 yr old, both boys, and they both had colic. The one yr old still does..But I have been where you are exactly.. my solution is I have a twin mattress in the infants room and I rock him a LITTLE before bed and if he doesnt fall fast asleep in about 10 minutes (or 6 minutes till night night songs on leap frog stuffed animal) I put him in his crib and go lie down on the bed in his room and tell him it is night night time and act like I am going to sleep. Alot of the time I do fall asleep. But he will fight going to sleep even though he is sooo tired. He will cry for about 1 minute, sometimes it is even a blood curdling scream, but I dont budge. Once he realizes I am not going to pick him up, no matter how long or how loud he crys, and that I am in the same room, he will mumble a little, a couple shouts come out, and then he will finally put his head down and self soothe himself to sleep. He has a blanket with the edges lined in satin material and loves that blanket and rubs the silky part on his cheek as he falls asleep. It is so cute. Also he loves to fall asleep with his binky.. I will soon be weening him off of that though. So with all that said, I recommend if you haven't already, stay in the room, make a bed on the floor and act like you are going to sleep, give him a blanket or stuffed animal that will make him feel secure, make sure he has a full belly, explain to him it is night night time and you are right there.
That is what has worked for me for both my boys. Sometimes it takes a little longer, but he will eventually stop crying and sooth himself to sleep as long as he knows your still in the same room.
Both my boys, a around 9 months, started getting very clingy to mommy, realizing who strangers are and wanting me all the time. So I know how hard it is to let your baby cry, but try it and maybe it will work for you.
Much luck to you my dear.
A. P

The only thing I can think of is that he may either need more to eat during the day. They say you know when an infant needs to up what he eats when he starts waking up at night. My baby was waking up all of a sudden so we started feeding him more and he started sleeping through the night again.

He could also miss your presence next to him when he wakes up. It could just be a matter of time for him to adjust. Hope this helps.

Hi there. I hope this doesn't seem like a cliche answer, but it could be teething. Our daughter, who is 9 1/2 months, got a bunch of teeth at 8 1/2 months, and went from sleeping through the night to waking every few hours. It lasted for about 2 weeks. There is this gel you can get at the health food store that is homeopathic. I do not know why it works, but it does. If you find he is teething, try it. Another thing is the mattress-check that it's not too soft or hard-we put a mattress pad under the sheet to make it a little softer but still safe. Take heart. It will change.

The same thing happened to me with my 11 month old. Basically it started because she was teething and I would go in to soothe her every time she cried. And because she kept crying I would end up going back in her room for the 4th time a giving her a bottle just so I could get some sleep.
Little did I know I was helping create a habit. This went on for months to the point of exhausttion.
Now when she cries I will go in once to make sure she is okay, meaning no dirty diaper and I put her back to sleep and let her cry it out.
And the first couple of times it will seem like they are crying for hours, but they will learn how to soothe themselves and fall back to sleep.
So in short you will need to let him cry it out as hard as it is, but your sleep is important too.

P. S.

My daughter just turned 9mos this week and I noticed that she has not been sleeping as well as she normally does at night. When I brought that up to the ped at her 9month checkup, she said that can happen shortly before a milestone is approaching, such as crawling, standing, walking, etc... So maybe your son is on his way to one of these milestones very soon!! Hope this helps!!

My 9 month old does the same thing. I am at a loss. He is very unpredictable- some nights he is great and other nights he is awful. I can only guess that when babies are about to hit a mile stone, such as walking, or new tooth, they tend to regress. Also, they could have so much going on mentally and physically, that sleeping becomes very erratic. I just keep reminding myself that nothing lasts. Everything always changes...I should add--on nights that we can stomach it, we turn monitor off (even though we still can hear him screaming)and give him some time to self sooth. Sometimes it works, other times it just gets worse and harder to put him back to sleep. I am 7 months pregnant and getting really worried that I will be up and down with two kids very soon....

My 7 month old goes through the same thing right around the same time as a major milestone or transition. For example, right afer he started daycare his night sleep was messed up for about a week. Same thing when he started crawling, teething, and, most recently, when he started being able to pull himself up. We have found some success with waiting 10-15 minutes after he starts crying to see what kind of cry it is before going in to soothe him. Usually after 10 minutes he falls right back asleep. If not, we'll go in and either rock him for a bit before putting him down (and then he'll cry again for a few minutes in protest) or I'll feed him per his pre-messed up schedule (around midnight and 4 AM). It all usually works itself out within a week to 10 days.

Oh, and as concerns bedtime, our son also goes to bed around 7ish and it has never been an issue; in fact he's much happier and sleeps better than when put to bed later.

Good luck and know that it will pass soon!

Boy oh boy, he has got you figured out! He cries and you pick him up. So just stop picking him up. he will cry and I know that it is harder on the parent than the child but he will eventually go back to sleep.

Don't go in, don't rub his back, don't pick him up. Children learn what we teach them and you have taught him that if he cries, he gets his way. This is not a good sign for the future. Think about it!

Blessings,
B.

K.,
I would recommend keeping him up a bit longer in the evening. I think bed at 7:15 might be a bit too early. Maybe for him it's like a nap. So I would give his early nap earlier and make sure he is not sleeping too long during the day. Then I would hold his bed off by 1-1.5 hours later.
Good luck,
Trish

I don't have much to suggest except that your son could be going through a major physical or cognitive shift. Just hang in there! If he's been a good sleeper before, hopefully he'll return. My daughter's sleep always gets affected when something major developmentally is happening with her.

L.

We went through this with our little girl around the same time- and realized she was having some serious teething pain- not sure if this is your situation, but baby ibuprofen is great- it lasts longer than tylenol- good luck!

K.,
My son started sleeping better when I put a radio in his room on a country music station. The noise was comforting to him and he would sleep longer during the night.
Good Luck
H.

Hi K. - My son did the same exact thing at the same time (he is now 10 months). Has your son hit a major milestone recently? My son learned how to walk around 9.5 months. Their minds become so much more active as they learn new things - and it keeps them up at night. My son, at the same time, started teething. His two top teeth came in at the same time. It was a rough 2 weeks, and now he is back to sleeping again. For teething - we gave him Humphrey's teething tablets before he goes to bed and it seems to work. Also, we bought a little finger toothbrush and we massage his gums before he goes to bed. Hang in there, it will pass soon :)

You are so lucky to have had a great sleeper. This could be a rough phase if he has teeth pushing through. Also make sure that as temperatures are cooling that he's not getting cold at night. Or, as others have said, you may need to increase the amount you're feeding. If he's pulling up then he's getting more active and will be quickly burning off his meals. A bowl of warm oatmeal before bed helped my daughter sleep longer.

If it's just a new habit he's developed then I went through he same thing. As soon as my daughter woke up she would imeadiately pull herself up and stand there crying, I'd lay her down, she'd pop right back up, ultimately I'd cave in and pick her up and rock her back to sleep. I let this go on for months thinking it was simply the cost of putting my daughter to bed without leaving her to cry it out.

Finally one night I went in exhausted and just sat down on the floor with my head down by her mattress. I didn't make eye contact with her standing over me and it didn't take long before she layed herself down to be able to see me. This was an "AH-HA" moment for me, of course she's always going to jump up since she wants me and I had always loomed above her.

From that point on, when she woke I'd just go sit on the floor next to her crib and after a couple of nights she stopped standing up, instead would only sit up, and by a week she was putting herself back to sleep staying down completely. Within two weeks we had gone from waking six times a night to only one. Hope this helps, good luck!

They way we sis it was by having the kids cry it out. This was hard for me because I HATED hearing my kids cry. My doctor assured me, though, that they are ok and and should be sleeping through the night by 4 months old. For us, it was hard for the first few days but they do stop. I think thta going in and trying to calm them down, just makes it worse. They are going to expect you to pick them up and when you don't they will cry more. Plus, when you do cave in and pick them up, they will expect it everytime you go in.
I would try to let him cry it out. He, more than likely, isn't hurt and doesn't need to eat. He is probably use to having mommy or daddy come in and pick him up.

Good luck and I hope this helped.

I have mentioned this before to others who had sleeping issues, but I can't say it enough GOOD NIGHT SLEEP TIGHT--The sleep ladies guide--Kim West adn Joanne Kenen. it is very popular book written by a pediatrician. No harsh mentods. Easy!

This book saved my life. I had only 2 hours sleep for 2 years and was going isane. This was my 4th child and no real issues before then. If your busy read this--you only need to read the 1st 3 chapter's and then you skip to your child's exact age. It would'nt take you more than 2 hours total to do this. My stubborn child was sleeping in 2 days!!

About me, Mother of 4 21 years through 2.5 years. 2 girls and 2 boys. Teacher/instructional managerial training and development.

7:15pm seems so early to go to bed, especially if he is napping during the day. I would push back his bedtime til 9pm. My daughter who is 6 months goes to bed at 9:30pm and gets up at 7am. She naps 2x's during the day, 1 around 10am and the other around 2pm. Sometimes she will nap for an hour around 7pm and still goes to bed at 9:30pm. I think your son is just getting too much sleep so he is fussy because he wants to be up. You need to adjust his sleeping habits/routines as he gets older. What worked at 4 months won't work at 9 months. A majority of my girlfriends have babies and they put them down between 9-10pm because of the naps. Once the naps start to go down you can, if you want put him to bed earlier. Try it, you will be surprised how well he sleeps and how much less he fusses. Please don't let him cry it out like one of the mother's suggested. The reason they stop crying is they give up. Just because you are picking your baby up does not mean you are causing sleep issues. Good luck

Hi K.,
I HIGHLY recommend reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth for info on biological sleep rhythms and age appropriate sleep schedules/needs. Check in his mouth, if you see blanching on the ridges he could be teething and a little Tylenol will help. It may be time to move his bedtime earlier. At 9 months old my daughter was waking at 6:30-7am, napping at 9am and 1pm for at least one hour, and asleep at night by 6-6:30pm. She rarely woke at night, even while teething or sick. Dr. Weissbluth says the biggest reason for night waking is too late a bedtime. If you are interested in his methods, email me. It brings me joy to help other parents with sleep issues. A well rested family is a happy one!!
Sincerely,
L.