My son is NOT sleeping through the night. I know this is a common thing for parents and I desperatley need some advice. I thought I had it all figured out. I am doing the same routine every night: bath at 730, story time while I am breastfeeding and rocking him to sleep. Worked like a charm for a long time. Then he stated teething and that messed it all up. Now he's got all those teeth in and he's not falling asleep or staying asleep. He wakes up SCREEMING and it breaks my heart and frusterates me all at the same time!! I am NOT a believer in the cry-it-out method AT ALL... there has to be another way. I am new to all this and my hubby and I would love to get some sleep!!! Thank you for your advice!!!
Lots of good advice. I will just add, make sure afternoon nap is not too late (12 to 2-ish) - any later you are playing with fire! :0)
Blessings
Try this:
feed him a snack before bed of approximately 1 handful of dried sour cherries and about 4 oz of warm milk.
The cherries help boost melatonin, milk is soothing.
Also, make sure the room he sleeps in is very dark, at least once he is really asleep. Even a nightlight can throw off the natural melatonin in the sleep cycle of a child. They make tons of it normally, but only under the prime conditions.
We hold our daughter until she falls asleep, and we let her crawl into bed with us. Her little toddler bed is at the end of our bed, and we usually wake up with her between us. I think kids wake up every few hours anyway, sometimes they wake up all the way and get scared. We've avoided a lot of the wake/scream/sleep issues by just letting her sleep in her little bed in our room. If you can stand that, I'd recommend it until he is sleeping through the night again.
First of all, he should be eating some solids by now. Make sure he's getting three baby meals and 2 snacks every day. Nutritional requirments (directly related to sleep) having met...
Every child is different. I have one which I can set boundaries and just redirect the habits by letting her cry it out. The crying stops within 30 minutes...unless she's feeling hot/cold, teething, or is coming down with the flu.
My other child cries all night long. It turned out that she was in pain, but didn't know how to communicate it to me properly. I would try to find out what's bothering your child.
With my child, it was acid reflux. The doctor had to put her on Zantac, which only helped a little. After she was able to tell me, "My tummy hurts" after she drank milk from a cup, I was finally able to figure out that it was my nursing that caused the problem. I was eating/drinking a lot of dairy and it was passing through into the breastmilk before she was able to drink from a cup.
After that, I took her in to see an allergist. She now knows to avoid milk and orange juice as a result.
Again, every child is different and every situation is different.
Thank you for not letting your baby cry it out, I think that is the worst thing. Next I would push his routine back he may need a later bedtime. My daughter who is 5 months goes to bed at 9:30 and sleeps through the night. He may be hungry also. Are you feeding him rice cereal or baby food? What about his naps? He may be sleeping too much during the day and therefore is not tired by 7:30pm. If you think he is in pain with his teeth, give him some baby tylenol to stop the pain and see if that helps. Other than that he could be going through a phase where his sleep patterns are adjusting. My 2 1/2 year old went through this around the same age and grew out of it after a little while. Good luck and God bless.
I can't really give you advise to make him sleep. this is very common. My now 14 month old did not start sleeping through the night till he was 10 months. Hang in there. I personally thing the 1st year is the toughest.If you can get halp from hubby or family TAKE IT :)!!!!!
My son is now 15 mo and has all of his teeth which is pretty quick to have them all. He has basically been teething constantly since he was born so your son may have more teeth coming that you don't see yet.
We had the same problem when my son was teething. He is normally a great sleeper but when he was cutting a new tooth he would wake up for a few nights in the row. For me, I would change his diaper, nurse him and then he would go back to sleep without too much trouble. For us, he usually only woke up once a night which is hard (especially once you are out of the habit of waking up on the middle of the night) but manageable for a few days at a time. We also gave him motrin to ease the pain when this happened, for us the small risks of the medicine were outweighed by his obvious discomfort.
Another idea that might help is a crib toy if you don't already have one. We have the fisher price aquarium that plays music and has soft lights. My son loves it and by the time the music ends he is almost always asleep. This might help relax your son until he falls back asleep.
