atquick

Hi all, I'm recently new to forums, but not new to forums all together.

Just a couple of questions about my 11 month old. She constantly wants to be held, but when you pick her up, she will squirm in your arms and then want down again. She will do her little fake cry until she is picked up. I'm just wondering if there is anything that I can do to help break her of this. She has PLENTY of toys to play and ALOT of distractions in the home to keep her busy. But, she always wants someone to pick her up and then but her back down.

Secondly, when its time for bed, we(me and the wife) will give her a bottle and then start winding things down, quiet time and so forth. We will put her in her crib, she will cry and scream for a few minutes and quickly fall asleep. A couple of hours later she will wake up, screaming and crying until someone picks her up, which is normal I know. But, I'm just wondering how we can get her to sleep throughout the night.

We have been told to put water in her bottle after she falls asleep and if we keep doing that whenever she wakes up to drink a bottle, she will no longer wake up in the middle of the night to drink her formula. We have put water in her bottle, but she still continues to wake up. We put the bottle in a place where she will find it when she awakes.

Any ideas or suggestions would be wonderful! I do appreciate anything.

SageMother

Hello!

I would stop picking her up when she wakes and I wouldn't put a botlle in the bed with her. She needs to learn to comfort herself until her system gets set for a good sleep cycle.

atquick

Unfortunately, at the moment, the baby sleeps in the same bed room as we do. In about a month, we will be putting her in own room. Until then, what else should we do? We have to work at 7am and its hard to sleep through a crying baby.

Sillygurl2l8

My first advice...Go ahead and put the baby in his/her OWN room. Sometimes, the very reason alone for the baby waking up through the night is because of noise. Do you or your wife snore, toss and turn, anything of that sort? It is hard to tell exactly what you are doing while you are sleeping. Sounds like this all night DOES wake a baby up!! And of course, once they are in their own room..you have to expect a time of adjustment! The first few nights might be bad, but they will get better. If your baby wakes up in the middle of the night, let him/her cry. Watch the clock. If they go back to sleep within 1-10 minutes, then you know that they are learning. If they cry over 10 minutes you will need to go into the room, hold for a moment to make the baby feel better, give a bottle or drink of water if that is what they are wanting.. let the baby feel conforted and they lay them back down. Follow this process and it does work. It is frustrating at first, but once they realize that you aren't going to come get them every time they cry, they will stop doing it. My youngest daughter just turned 1 year old yesterday (4th of july baby!!) and she sleeps about 12 hours straight in her own room by herself.

Good luck!

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Kaytee

Well I am one that believes that when an infant cries they need something. Whether that is a drink, they are sick or they just need to be held. Then agai nI don't have a child that sleeps through the night. To me its kind of like, hey I will hold you all day long but for these specific 12 hours, you're on your own kid. Again just me, not saying that letting your child cry it out is evil, or abuse or whatever, just ot something I am willing to do. Actually I take that back I have done it a handful of times. The first time she was around 10 months old and I was just exhausted from gettin gup every 2-3 hours every night with her. So I let her cry for about 10 min. when the screaming did not end I went back in and she basically had a panic attack and threw up all over herself and was convulsing from the sobbing. It was so miserable. The second time I did her leg was stuck in the crib and ended up with a huge bruise on her thigh. I will never do that again nor would I would any other child.
My opinion is, if my toddler wants me to hold her for 10 min. in the middle of the night for whatever reason, then why not? I know I don't like to sleep alone in my bed, why would an infant.

About her wanting up and down all night, thats a tough one, it depends on why she is doing it. Is she uncomfortable with somehting like teething or a belly ache and needs to be comforted but when she is picked up it doesn't help so she wants down. Or maybe she thinks its a game. Not sure on that one. I would personally try to entertain her, like when she wants up, try sitting on the floor with her between your legs and read a book, or play with a puzzle.

oh yay with the bottle at night thing, I have no clue either, Nichole has never had a bottle, but.. she nursed once a night until just recently. Now I just don't offer it and she just takes a few extra min. to calm down and she goes back to sleep. And she has been in her own room since she was 9 weeks old.

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atquick

Thank you all for your suggestions!

I will try some of these techniques and I will let you all know of the results. Thank you again. I appreciate it.

Kaytee

no problem!

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