Suddenly Waking

I have a 10 month old who has gone through many stages of sleeping/waking during the night. Just when we think we have things figured out, he'll start waking up again! We've been told that this is totally normal--lots of things can make babies change their night routines, like teething, sickness, new developmental stage like crawling, etc. When our son learned to stand up in his crib, we went through a 3 week period of him waking up every 2 hours, even though he had been sleeping through the night before that! We tried all the techniques, including cry it out, but nothing worked. He just eventually learned to deal with the standing up thing on his own.
Our son falls asleep nursing at night too. People sometimes say you should wake them up before putting them down in the crib so he can learn to put himself to sleep, but I don't think that's necessary. For practice, I try to put him down when he is just barely falling asleep at nap time. He can put himself back to sleep at night when he wakes up and isn't hungry, so I don't think it's too much of an issue.
Good luck and hang in there--after our exhausting 3 week stretch of waking, our son is back to just waking up once to eat. Whew!

I think we have the same problem. My son is almost ten months and started sleeping through the night at about 2 months. But since he was three months he gone through periods where he would wake up and it seemed that us going in there would only make things worse, but he would not always fall back asleep if we left him. I thought maybe he was sick, but the doctor said it is probably teething. He still does not have a tooth!! Well it started again a couple of weeks ago and I ended bringing him in just in case he was sick but he is not. He does sleep better when we give him pain medicine but I was worried about giving it to him every night. The doctor said that the problem is when they are giving more than the dose they should be getting and that we could probably give him something everynight and it would not harm him. So he suggested giving it to him a little while longer and then try it with out a night to see if this phase has passed. So lately I have been giving him tylenol for his afternoon nap if I think he may need or, and infant ibuprofen at night and it has been helping. He also said some babies will teeth for 12 months and his just may be taking their time. Anyways, I guess each time we just try and work through it. I also nurse him at night, and I guess I don't intentionly nurse him to sleep but he normally falls asleep. But for his naps I lay him down awake. A lot of the time he wakes up a little when we lay him down at night though. I don't know if any of that helps, but I hope the sleeping gets better for you!

A.,
I think you are doing a great job! I think it is hard to get back into the bedtime routine after baby has been sick or teething, we struggle with that here. My daughter is 10 months old. I am not breastfeeding her anymore, but when I was, we eventually started having dad give her a bottle of breastmilk before bedtime and then he or I rocked her until she was almost asleep or just fell asleep and then put her down. Now she takes a bottle about 20-30 minutes before bedtime and then we read and rock her a bit and them put her down still almost asleep or just fallen asleep. So far that has worked for her. Whatever we tried, I just tried to make sure I did it slowly. That is my best advice if you do ever want to make a bedtime routine change, just do it slowly! Thanks for sharing

I nursed my daughter to sleep as well. I loved it! But perhaps your dd is waking up now and realizing you're not there and getting scared. You were there when she fell asleep. Maybe burp her then put her to bed somewhat awake? It also could be she still is teething but not showing yet. Or maybe she's just waking up hungry? Maybe feed her some cereal before breastfeeding her to sleep. You are not doing anything wrong! Being a mom is a learning experience! :) You'll figure it out!

Your being a wonderful loving mother but your setting yourself up for another habit to break. When you stop breastfeeding down the road it will be very hard and your child will have to figure out a new bedtime ritual.

Supposedly your suppose to put them in their cribs when they're very very tired but slightly awake so they can learn to fall asleep on their own.

I did the cry it out method and that's the only thing that worked for me. It's so hard on us the parents but after a few days everything is fine.

My kids get that way when they're sick and get a little spoiled for a bit and then tend to fall into the trap of making it a habit. I would just let her cry it out again and get back into a better sleeping pattern again. If you rock or nurse them to sleep, their last memory is of you holding them and when they wake up in a different place it can be a surprise to them and they want you to hold them again. I now put my kids to sleep at 7:30 pm awake and they go right to sleep on their own but my first born was SO spoiled and we learned the hard way because she still isn't a good sleeper at the age of 4! The others sleep great.
Best wishes,
J.

I think you are doing great, but it will be hard to get your baby to fall asleep once you stop nursing. I gave my baby a bottle before bed and then rocked her to sleep every night, but now I give her a bottle then put her in bed awake. She goes to sleep just fine. I will eventually take away the bedtime bottle too, but I'm doing things one step at a time. I would recommend nursing until she is drowsy then cuddling a little and laying her down. It is easier on baby if you do it a little at a time. It takes a little work to make the transition, but if you do it now, it will be better in the long run (for you and for baby).

Good luck with whatever you decide to try. I am going to have to have my daughter read all this great advice. She just had our first granddaughter a month and a half ago. Both of their sleep habits are way off track. She could benefit from this advice. Good luck and God bless. L.

I nursed my baby to sleep and then got tired of that. The advice that worked for me came out of the book by Kim West, "Good Night, Sleep Tight." It was a miraculous change for my daughter.