baby not going back to sleep...

[detty]

Hello,

My wife and I have a darling little 10 month old girl. We're trying to ween her off the multiple breast feedings at night as we're told that once she's eating solids, she shouldn't have to wake up several times a night to feed. We've managed to do this somewhat successfully - she's sleeping through the night now - but she still gets up really early (between 4:00 and 5:00 in the morning). We figure that by this time, she probably is hungry, so we're OK with breast feeding her.

The real problem is that whereas she would wake up several times a night before, get breast fed, and then go right back to sleep, now she gets breast fed and doesn't go back to sleep. If we leave her in her crib, she cries to no end (intense crying). The only way to get her to stop is to bring her into bed with us (and even then she takes a while to calm down).

Is there anything we can do to stop this?

 

[Dadu2004]

Have you tried putting her to bed at a later hour? That is, change her schedule a bit... get to bed later, sleep later.

 

[detty]

We considered that, but I'm not sure how good it is to keep your child up way passed the time she gets cranky (around 8:00pm for us). She needs to sleep when she needs to sleep, no?

 

[Dadu2004]

We considered that, but I'm not sure how good it is to keep your child up way passed the time she gets cranky (around 8:00pm for us). She needs to sleep when she needs to sleep, no?

Yes, she needs to sleep when she needs to sleep. You don't have to make the change drastic. Just start by moving it like 10-15 minutes at a time. Make it 8:15pm tonight, then 8:30pm on Sunday, then 8:45pm on Wednesday, etc.

It may not work, just happened to be the first thought that came to my mind.

 

[fallon]

how many naps is taking during the day?

 

[detty]

Yes, she needs to sleep when she needs to sleep. You don't have to make the change drastic. Just start by moving it like 10-15 minutes at a time. Make it 8:15pm tonight, then 8:30pm on Sunday, then 8:45pm on Wednesday, etc.

It may not work, just happened to be the first thought that came to my mind.

Oh, I see what you mean. That could work. Thanks.

 

[detty]

how many naps is taking during the day?

Usually two. The first starting around mid-to-late morning, the second mid-to-late afternoon. They last anywhere between 1 and 2 hours (she's been known to sleep for 3 hours).

 

[Rosa]

Sounds like normal sleeping patterns to me, do you co-sleep or does she have to sleep on her own? Co-sleeping normally solves sleep issues.

 

[IADad]

since she is 10 months and sleeps on her own, I think I'd be hsitant to start co-sleeping, now, but then again, I've never done co-sleeping as a practice and I also have the bad habit of laying down with my kids until they fall asleep, so I'd say don't do what I do.

It seems like the nap may be the issue. can you try not napping her until say early afternoon and maybe even limiting her to an hour and a half. You may not want to make that transition all at once, or you will have one cranky baby come 8:00.

 

[fallon]

personally I wouldn't start co sleeping at this point...I agree with IAdad. I would cut her naps down to only 1 hour. Also, how close id the late afternoon nap to bedtime?

 

[detty]

personally I wouldn't start co sleeping at this point...I agree with IAdad. I would cut her naps down to only 1 hour. Also, how close id the late afternoon nap to bedtime?

It varies, but she's usually up by the time I'm home from work, which is any time between 5 and 6. I think she usually wakes up between 4 and 5, but my wife would know better than I.

What's co-sleeping?

 

[Rosa]

It varies, but she's usually up by the time I'm home from work, which is any time between 5 and 6. I think she usually wakes up between 4 and 5, but my wife would know better than I.

What's co-sleeping?

Bed sharing

 

[Trina]

She could be ready to transition from 2 naps (morning and afternoon) down to one afternoon nap starting shortly after lunch.

 

[fallon]

It varies, but she's usually up by the time I'm home from work, which is any time between 5 and 6. I think she usually wakes up between 4 and 5, but my wife would know better than I.

What's co-sleeping?

what time are you putting her down for the night?

 

[detty]

what time are you putting her down for the night?

Around 8:00 but it really depends on when she gets cranky - could be anywhere between 7:00 and 9:00.

 

[fallon]

personally I would do my best to cut her down to one nap sometime in the early afternoon and make sure she's up by 4 at the lastest. If one nap doesn't work I would do 2 small naps, about an hour a piece. And I would do my best to keep her up until 8 starting a bedtime routine around 7

 

[Xero]

It was around this age that I actually cut Eli down to one nap. Some people don't do it so early, but I could tell Eli was ready and he had a much better night's sleep after we got it down. At first it was a little hard to get through the long stretch between the end of nap time and bed time, but he adjusted really quick and it evened out. BUT he did take a longer nap all together, rather than two 1hr or so naps, he took one 3hr nap and he LOVED it. But every kid is different.

That is pretty early. One thing I would suggest would be to put thick curtains over her windows, so the sun doesn't wake her up at the crack of dawn. Another thing would be to eliminate any noise that could wake her up in the morning, maybe you could even use some type of white noise if you want to (I use an air purifier and used to use a humidifier for my son) that blocks the rest out pretty well.

Other than that, honestly just because doctors and books tell you that a child "can" or "should" be sleeping through the night at her age, doesn't mean every single child is going to work this way. It sounds like convenient advice, but in my opinion these types of situations always end looking a little bit cruel (lots of crying and boot-camp type training just to sleep properly). My son still woke up twice a night to eat at that age and he was bottle fed by then (I heard breast fed babies wake up more often). He was eating solids too but he still woke up hungry at night. Its nothing I can control, if he's hungry and his stomach is telling him so, then he is hungry. He can't help that. I could have ignored him and made him deal with an empty stomach, but I didn't and just before turning a year he went down all on his own to once a night and he started sleeping through the night just a couple months after that. He was a little over a year I believe. A lot of people are in a big hurry to get their kids to sleep through the night because its easier and more convenient - and let me tell ya, having kids is never going to be convenient.

Co-sleeping - Its when your baby sleeps in bed with you instead of alone in a crib. It makes waking up and breastfeeding a million times easier. My son has slept both ways, and I always go back to co-sleeping because it is so much easier and more comfortable for the both of us. When I was breast feeding, I couldn't imagine NOT co-sleeping lol. That would drive me crazy getting out of bed all the time. Anyway, its nice to co-sleep because when he wakes up, he's right next to me and I know exactly what's wrong and exactly what to do and I can comfort him at any time without having to get up and go in his room and all that. Not trying to convince you to do that, she's already 10 months old without doing that, just wanted to explain it to you.

Anyway, yeah doctors and books all say that babies don't NEED to wake up and eat at night because technically in the long run they don't need the extra nutrition to keep their bodies healthy, and a lot of people confuse this advice with something along the lines of they wont be hungry at night, but that's not true. Some kids are still hungry at night, whether or not they need that feeding to "survive" or not.

As for her not going back to sleep, I would say unless you want to be up at 4am, just take her to bed with you for the last few hours of the night. What's the big deal? She doesn't have cooties.

But I know I'm a softie. Good luck with her.

 

[SheeveRhimi]

Hi EveryoneAppologies if this is off topic but Can anybody tell me a good way to display this website in other languages?Many Thanks, SheeveRhimi

[/url]

 

[detty]

Thanks Zero, that's great advice.

We have a new theory why she's crying so much. She's teething and we figure she's probably hurting somewhat. We haven't tried giving her medicine yet, but we will next time it happens.

 

[IADad]

Well, teething sure could be part of the issue. I think I'd try to implement the sleeping stuff too, it seems and I think most of your respnses are kind of hinting at the same thing, that this kid is doing a lot of day sleeping so you may want to be shifting her to a little more night.

We never had much success using any kind of medicine for teething. Our first dealt with his teething pretty easily, the second horribly. But neither one liked or got much relief from the medicine (it tastes pretty yucky too) we got the best success from cold teething toys (that you keep in the fridge) or one easy simple ands afe one is to use washclothes, get them wet and keep them in the freezer. I know a lot of daycares that take infants use that method.