To the WELL experienced parents- - PLEASE HELP! How can we get my baby to sleep through the night?

Question

My 11 month old wakes up in the middle of the night more times than he did when he was a newborn. He does not seem to be teething right now and we feed him pretty well before bed. We rarely put him in the bed with us, so he knows how to sleep alone, but for some reason, for the past couple of months, he wakes up at LEAST 3 to 4 times a night and isn't quiet about it either :-/ He doesn't have trouble falling asleep, just staying asleep. We even resorted to given him a nice warm bottle of milk formula and it puts him back to sleep, but only for a bit. If we can reduce him to waking up only ONCE, we will be grately. Please help

-Full time working parents... extremely exhausted!

Answer 1

how do you know he is not teething?  he could be.  or he could be having bad dreams.  unfortunately this is something that youll just have to work your way thru until he gets older.  sorry.

Answer 2

Humans wake up all through the night periodically and come to different levels of conscienceness and then roll over and go back to sleep.. Most times, we don't even realize we've done it. Before a baby has learned to soothe himself to sleep, he or she will cry everytime they wake up for someone to come along and put him back to sleep. You are doing it for him so he is not going to learn to do it himself as long as you keep doing it.

Now this is where you will get many different opinions on how to train your baby to learn to put himself back to sleep. I will tell you how I did it, not because I think It is the only "right" way, but because I know it worked for me and it has worked for MANY other people.

When I was certain that my baby was just waking up out of habit and not a real need like eating , then I would let them cry. The plan was that I wouldn't go in or let them see me at all. With two of my children this worked because they only cried for about 45 minutess at first (never screaming, only whining/cry), and then they fell asleep. But with one of my babies, he SCREAMED for like 30 minutesw and I couldn't stand it anymore. I went in and laid him on his belly and patted his back till he fell asleep (5 minutes) adn then left the room. ALl of them woke up again in a couple hours and I let them cry again. My "screamer" gave a stronger fight, but eventually stopped crying and went to sleep, though not as soon as the others did.

The point is they are all different and you can't really say exactly HOW to do it with each child. But one thing I did learn is that you shouldn't try it if you are just going to give in and keep going back to him everytime he wakes up. Why put him adn you through that stress if you aren't going to stick with it? Giving him all the "crutches" like pacifier, toys, patting, rocking, will just prolong the process of him doing it on his own.

Be prepared for some rough nights, but it only last for the first three or four times.

All five of my children are happy, healthy and secure children. I have close bonds with them all so this in no way effected our realationship.

One more thing, if you are doing it this way, do it at naptime too because it's all the same to him.

The idea is to "train" your child to get himself to sleep.  If a parent is willing to go on doing it for him there si nothgin wrong with that, but obviously you are ready for your child to learn to do it onhis own.  I hopw this helps!!

Answer 3

welcome to the wonderful world of parenting.

the only way he'll get back to sleeping is for the problem that's waking him up to be resolved.  nature doesn't really care if you're working parents or not and neither does he.

first thing, get him checked by the doctor:  my daughter had an ear infection for *months* before it was found by accident.  no symptoms, even though her ears were literally swollen shut - she should've been screaming in agony but the only hint was a very slightly elevated temperature and a slight drop in appetite.

physical causes ruled out, what's changed?  did you start back to work right around the time he started waking up?  

he could also be developing emotionally and/or mentally - his brain is cooking along at high speed and new thoughts and concepts could be frightening him.

feeding him right before bed is also a bad idea:  the food digests and then he gets hungry.  digestion also interferes with sleeping - the body can't go through the proper shutdown routine.  try feeding him about 45min before bedtime instead - he won't be hungry but his stomach won't be full either.

Answer 4

How long are his naps during the day?  Are they to long?  Could you make a nap shorter or make him more tired before bed maybe that can help.

Answer 5

he needs to work it out on his own, let him put himself back to sleep.  if you keep going to him (longer than to just make sure he is ok) then he`will learn it is a way to bring you to him.  my first did the same thing, it took one weekend, when he cried i went to check him and then left, saying nothing, turning on no lights, he would cry then go to sleep, every night got better until finally he was good.  but he could be teething they may not be thru the gums yet.  how many naps does he get a day? and do you let him get alot of energy out before bed??  good luck its a tiring process

Answer 6

I would suggest looking into the book baby wise I used it on my two boys and they slept through the night at 4 weeks on. My sister has a son who wasn't sleepign through the night at 2 years old, i loaned her my book and she had him sleeping through the night in about 2 weeks good luck.

Answer 7

I went to sleep clinic when my son had this problem uptil 2 years old, it was horrid and not getting sleep makes me so ratty etc, ask your gp or health visitor : )

Answer 8

My youngest daughter has been sleeping through the night since she was two weeks old she will be one next Sunday. I noticed that if my daughter would get something in her diet that she had not had before she would wake up in the middle of the night. I also noticed that if she would get cold or hot she would wake up I would make sure that you are dressing Him appr. Maybe he is teething and you need to go ahead and put something for teething on his teeth to help him sleep. My oldest daughter is four years old and she would sleep through the night up until she was 2 years old and she had not sleep through the night in a long time. In the last two months she is finally sleeping through the night at least three times a week.