Hello – my 7 month old has recently begun to wake crying in the middle of the night. We did cry it out around 5.5 months and he responded well – sleeping about 7:30pm until 6am (he's a lark). When he did wake up in the middle of the night, he was usually just chatting to himself and we left him until he went back to sleep…generally about 30-60mins (annoying, but not worth worrying). Recently, he's started waking up at random times (10pm, 3am on diff nights) crying. I thought it was teething, but it's been two weeks and his gums still look perfectly fine, then maybe a cold, but in both cases he was pretty happy during the day. Our nanny has also started part time in anticipation of my return to work, so he could be adjusting to that (I think his naps are a bit affected by that), but the waking started before she arrived. Any thoughts/help would be greatly appreciated! we are going to attempt an earlier bedtime this week and see if it helps (pushing towards 6:45/7pm).
I'd appreciate any feedback as well – we're struggling with a similar issue. My son (same gestational age) randomly wakes up and has cried for over 2 hours. Some nights he sleeps fantastic, waking up once or twice around 1am/4am to eat. Other times he goes to sleep at 6/7pm, wakes up at 9:30/10:00, or sometimes only an hour or two after his early am feeding, and just can't get himself to sleep. I've let him cry/fuss for up to 2 1/2 hours without his returning to sleep.
How long am I supposed to let him cry? And if I go to him after over 2 hours of crying (like last night) to feed him (we're breastfeeding) b/c it seems like a time he might normally be hungry, am I short-circuiting his ability to learn to go to sleep? He's never made it back to sleep by himself after any of these episodes…
And the strange thing is, he almost always goes to sleep for his naps/bedtime fine. Even when we put him down fairly awake.
I have been going through a similar phase with my almost 9 month old for about 3 weeks. Wasn't sure if it was because of teething because his gums didn't look any different. I took him to the doctor last week because I thought maybe he had an ear infection. Ped confirmed it wasn't an ear infection but could see that his gums did indicate that he would push some teeth out in the next 30 days or so (even after the ped showing me his gums, I still couldn't see what he saw). He told me to give him Motrin a half hour before bed with a bottle/nursing (we do both). Then when/if he wakes up after the Motrin wears off around midnight/1 am, to give him Motril again with a bottle/nursing. I would check with your child's doctor for how much Motrin to give if you plan to try this. He responded very well to this and has only had one bad night since then. However, he has stopped napping longer than 40-50 minutes and becomes extremely over tired by time evening comes. I'll post this issue seperatly. Hope this helps.
Likely culprits at this age is a growth spurt, teething or a developmental milestone like crawling. Over-tiredness at bedtime can also cause night-wakings, too, so hopefully the earlier bedtime did help. If your baby falls asleep at bedtime, on her own, then most likely she is trying to tell you something in the middle of the night, so I would not let her cry too long without checking on her and trying to figure out what's going on.
Babies go through a lot in the first couple of years, so if sleep goes downhill for a week or so, that is usually not a cause for concern. If sleep suffers for more than that, it's best to try tweaking his schedule and if teething is possible, try either Motrin or for something more natural, try Hyland's Teething Tablets.
hello! Just to update our situation for other moms out there: after some help from Nicole, and a last ditch 11pm feed that put my son right back to sleep for the night, we discovered that he was hungry, and that's why he was waking up at such odd hours. He is a lot more active now, so i can only imagine that once he starts crawling, we'll have to up his solids again. I have no clue where he stores all that food; however, it is working for now, so if you have this problem, it might be worth a try!
I'm a newbie :) at this forum and at parenting :) I'm a mother of a eight month old son and what is posted here sounds like my current situation with my son and I.
Like many of you (I'm sure), I feel like I'm almost at my wits ends with night wakings for what seems to be habbits or sleep associations to feeding (bottle now) and short naps. I know what I've got to do – gather up the mental strength to go through a week or so of sleep training…
But there is always that nagging feeling – the feeling I had when I nursed "what if he's hungry"; and I realize that at times it is an association, but honestly feel that at other times he definetly seems hungry. He's always been a child who would be hungry during the day after 2 hours (sometimes hour when nursing) to pretty consistently 3 hours now that he's on formula (and 3 meals a day). He's in bed between 6-7pm and up between 5:30-6:30am; and naps 30-45 minutes 3 times a day. He pretty consistenly wakes up between 2-4am for a feeding and at an earlier time (midnight) for a feeding, not always but often.
How should I tackel this? I appreciate any feedback.
I hope things are going better and your son sleeping better? Did you gather the mental strength and try some sleep training? By now your son is almost 10 months, and can most likely go through the night without eating, though some babies do need to eat once during a long night stretch. Again i hope you are all sleeping better!?
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