[dlrust1]

Blaine turns 7 months tomorrow and he has never slept through the night. I have tried just about everything. He use to sleep in bed with me but, we have slowly been getting that under control. He will go down in his pack n play but, not his crib. His pack n play is in our bedroom.
I know that he is growing fast and is a big boy. About 20lbs and over 28 inches long. So, maybe he just needs more calories because of how fast he is growing. I would really like to get him to sleep all night though.
CIO isn't an option for us. DH and I just don't have it in us. We tried one night and Blaine screamed for two hours non-stop. He was hysterical and vomitting at the end of it.
Any other ideas. He has a chewy that he gnaws on but, it doesn't seem to soothe him when he wakes. He only wants me and the bottle.

[colleen]

I know my DD is a bit younger than your son and so I don't really expect her to sleep through the night at this point.... but I feel for you! She is still sleeping in our room in a co-sleeper (essentially a pack n play that's attached to our bed) and wakes up usually 2-3 times a night (sometimes more). We've occasionally tried putting her back to sleep without feeding her but have had no luck so far. We are not even close to being comfortable moving her to her own room at this point and are definitely not into the CIO method.

One thing I think we are going to get soon is a little bear with a sort of projector in it that projects lights onto the ceiling in stars and moons shapes. She loves looking at lights and so we're going to try that to see if that might soothe her back to sleep.

Does your son nap well? I know that babies who don't nap well often have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. My DD is not a good napper at all and I sometimes wonder if that keeps her up at night.

I would recommend reading "The no-cry sleep solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. My DD is a little too young to try many of her suggestions but I plan to once she gets a little older if she's still not sleeping through the night. She is very against CIO but gives many many tips for helping a co-sleeping and breastfeeding baby sleep through the night without tears. I thought it was very accessible and had lots of useful tips. For example she recommends against nursing a baby to sleep every night (something I'm totally guilty of!) since they don't learn how to soothe themselves back to sleep when they wake up. She gives a detailed step by step method of gently breaking babies of this habit without just letting them cry. I've tried a modified version of this routine to get our bedtimes from 2 hours a night to an average of 45 minutes in just a week or so... which is an improvement enough for me!

Good luck! Hope you get some sleep soon!

[sarahelaine57]

Deanna-Jackson is 13 months and still is sleeping with us for the majority of the night...he sleeps better in his pack n play too, and after trying CIO he is now TERRIFIED of his crib....don't really have any ideas for you, but wanted to let you know I feel for ya! HAve you talked to his doctor about it? Maybe they have some suggestions....have you tried giving him cereal/food before going to bed, it might hold him over a little longer...

[dlrust1]

Colleen I will look into that book. Maybe it will have some helpful tips. I hope you have a good sleeper in a few months. It is hard when they just don't seem to settle. He does nap okay. I'm not sure what the problem really is.

Sarah- I did talk to the PED and they were the ones that told us to try CIO. My son was terrified after that. He will play in his crib. He just won't nap or sleep at night there. I have feed him before bedtime and it didn't seem to make much of a difference. I think I will try it again though. He usually goes to bed around 9 so, maybe around 7 I will try some cereal.
I'm glad I'm not alone with this. Sometimes, I feel like I am the only one who's child won't sleep all night.

[jencat215]

You are not alone... mine is 9 months and doesn't sleep thru the night. He has a few times ( maybe 5 or 6). He CAN go 10 hours w/o nursing, but he chooses not to. We start him in his crib (generally I nurse him down. then Dh takes him up, asleep, and puts him in the crib). He usually wakes 4.5 hours later and is in bed w/ us the rest of the night. I am going pretty much nuts due to lack of sleep. We have tried CIO and do a mild method. We will let him cry a little, but we have a screamer and if he gets to that point (which he can very quickly) we get him. We took a seminar on a Loving sleep solution. When baby wakes, you pick him up and rock/nurse back to sleep. It is best for the non-nursing partner to get him back to sleep so he isn't snacking all night (so my DH has done this and it does work, but as soon as someone gets sick it is starting back at the beginning...). It took 3 nights last time and Wyatt went 10 hours in the crib w/o being picked up (he did wake 2x, once for 30 seconds and once for a whimper for about 5 minutes, but put himself back to sleep each time).

It is so hard. If you find a good method, let me know.

[amybeth]

Girls, I wish you all the best of luck with getting your little ones into a longer sleep schedule! Colleen mentioned a bear that projects light. We have a Twilight Turtle which does basically the same thing. It has 3 different colors which project three different constellation patterns on the ceiling/wall. It's great. It has a timer on it so it shuts itself off after a certain amount of time (I think it's 45 minutes or so). Billy loves to look up at things, like the ceiling fan, his mobile, and the lights from the Twilight Turtle. So it's funny, but I just looked at Amazon to find a link to this and the bundled suggestion is the Twilight Turtle, the Sleep Sheep, and Sophie the Giraffe, all of which we have and Billy loves! The turtle and sheep are in his bedroom and sophie hangs wherever he is when he's awake!

Amazon.com: Cloud b Twilight Turtle - Constellation Night Light: Baby

One other thing I found that seems to work for Billy when he doesn't want to nap is to turn on the radio. Ever since he was little he slept better with white noise or music. It's funny, but DH is the same way.

Good luck girls! I hope you find your solutions soon!

[dizzyb]

It took DS until 8 months, and our ped said that was fine. I know it is hard, but now at 16 months he sleeps 12 hours (well except his screaming fit last night) and has a 2-3 hour nap. It gets better.

[crescendo97]

I know everyone might not agree with this but my babies started sleeping thru the night when I flipped them over and them sleep on thier stomach. They were 3 months and I was going nuts one morning at 1:30am. I was so flipped them over and they slept until 8:00am. They have been sleeping thru the night ever since and now they sleep from 7:00pm-7:00am

[Daney]

Im right there with all of you and parker is almost a year old and I hate to say it but has never slept thru the night...he used to sleep better about 6 hrs at a time but then he got sick and we moved and all hell broke loose!!! he goes down fine and sleeps from 730 till about 12-1 and after that hes up all hrs of the night!! he always seems thirsty so i try tp give him water but sometimes only a bottle will work he is also a big boy always has been and very active hes about 28lbs and 34 1/2 inches...cio seems to give him anxiety and then I feel horrible so im at a loss as well

[AdaRuts]

<----- Right with everyone else. Thankfully we are only 4 months in, but still.... ugghhhh. I sometimes call Austin my domestic terrorist since he is so well schooled in sleep deprivation torchure.

Austin normally sleeps in his crib now, but due to exhaustion, last night I brought him into bed. He woke up about 12 times, but each time was soothed by a pacifer and fell back to sleep. This was the first night that he didn't require at least one bottle. He normally doesn't fall asleep for the night until 10 - 10:30, and we are up to go to daycare at 6:30, so I am hoping that he will start sleeping a little better.

Good luck to everyone!!!

Oh, btw SUPER JEALOUS of all those mommies who are getting sleep... and not ashamed to admit it!

[~Rae~]

Add me to the list. Macie will NOT sleep through the night.

[Mama2Caden]

I'm right there too. Caylee will be 10 months old on the 14th and still gets up. Needless to say I'm guilty of the nursing down and nursing when she awakes. It worked with my son and eventually he came out of it. Since it's just me at night, my husband works nights, I do what I can. I co-sleep so I nurse lying down and it's pretty much automatic anymore, she wakes I feed we both go back to sleep. I can't say I'm lacking sleep but sometimes the interrupted sleep is not good. Lately she has taken to getting up around 2 or 3 and things it's conversation time. I'm persistant in laying her back down and telling her it's night, night. Eventually she goes back to sleep but it may take an hour sometimes. I may re-read my no cry, sleep solution book again. I'm just not up for a battle yet. Good luck all.

[dlrust1]

I'm glad there is quite a few of us in the same boat. The PED acted like I was the only one. And that I really needed to make some changes because this is the time they develop habits. I love my PEDs office. They are a great group of women doctors but, this is one area that I might just have to disagree with them. They wanted me to do CIO method and we just can't do that.
I think I will look into a few books and see what comes up.
Thanx ladies for letting me know that there is a lot of us in the same boat.

[Wannafamily]

Isabella turned 8 months last week and she was a great sleeper from about 3 months to 6 months and then it all fell apart. She started sleeping in her crib, in her own room at 3 months. At about 6 months she would wake up several times a night screaming and then as soon as we picked her up and rocked her she would fall back asleep but not want to go into her crib. We either ended up sitting with her for a long time or just giving up and bringing her in with us. It was gettting to the point where no one was sleeping because we were up so many times. She was not hungry and didn't want to play, she just didn't want to be by herself. I even took her to the doctor because I was convinced it was her ears - but I was wrong.

I know that CIO is not for everyone, but on the advice of some other mom's on this forum and others, we gave it a try. The first night was horrendous and I cried right along with her. We would go down and let her know we were still there, give her the binky and then walk out. She cried on and off for over an hour the first night. The second day she would no go into her crib for anything and I dreaded bed time. Well, we did the same thing and she and I cried again for over an hour. The third night it was down to 20 minutes and the next night down to 10. Last night it was 3 minutes (and that was at 9:15) and then she slept until 6:15 this morning. We always go to her when she first cries out so that she knows we will respond but once we know everything is fine, we leave.

We put her down between 6:30 and 7:30 pm and she will sleep until between 6 and 8 the next morning. I read early on that putting them down early helps encourage sleep even though instinctively we think that keeping them up later will make them sleep later. Their little bodies don't work like ours.

I also read that around 6 months babies start to remember things, so they remember that play time is much more fun than sleeping. They also remember that you are somewhere in the house and want to be near you. They are also going through a lot of developmental changes which they tend to practice at night. We have a video monitor and those first nights when she was on and off screaming, she would sit up in the crib and practice her clapping or moving her arms up and down. It was very funny, but then all of a sudden she remembered she was pissed and would start screaming again.

I know every situation is different and there is really no right or wrong way. I just wanted to share what did eventually work for us! I read a book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and it had great tips and it is not an advocate either way on CIO - says there is more than one to form good sleep habits. I hope everyone gets some sleep very soon!

[Cali]

My DD is 9 mo 2 weeks and used to STTN but ever since she learned to roll over she has been up several times a night. And I'm another guilty one for nursing her back down. I will let her wimper and she will sometimes put herself back to sleep but if she gets worked up & starts screaming, I go in.

She did cut a tooth and in hindsight her stoppign STTN I think is linked to her newfound mobility AND teething pain. Two nights ago we were up 7 times before I got her up for the day at 5:30am, that day I went out & bought Hyland's teething tabs & last night was heaven. She woke once, 45 min into bedtime, then afterwards I heard her wimper 3x but I didnt' have to get up, so it may be teething pain. W'll see how tonight goes.

But, no, you're not alone. And I can't do the CIO. I think eventually she'll outgrow all this & I won't have to rock a 5 year old back to sleep.