Argh my baby doesnt like sleeping at night!!

Ettenna

Unfortunately it's tough luck for your partner. He is a parent as well. Why should you work and have to get up at all hours of the night, and him not?

The controlled crying does work. I used it on all 3 of mine when they were little. It is horrible when you are doing it but after the first few nights, and he is settling himself, you will wonder why you didn't do it before. You've got to be strong. Maybe put your MP3 player on for a few minutes so you can't hear baby crying, before you go back in to him.

albionsarah

I read some good advice on another forum - try putting something that smells of you in their cot. Apparently when little one wakes they will smell it straight away and be reassured by your smell and hopefully be able to settle themselves back to sleep.

Hope this helps

squashy

I used controlled crying to a degree with my first two and was a very stressed and got hardly any sleep. On the other hand I have practiced co-sleeping with my third whilst also holding down a full time job and I am the most relaxed, well rested person imaginable! If she does wake in the night I don't need to even open my eyes, I can flop an arm over at the first grizzle and she's back off to sleep in no time. Bliss!
She's a toddler now and getting naturally inquisitive about sleeping in big sisters room instead and I'm sure before long she'll make the transition to the big bed when she is ready. In the meantime we give the controlled crying lark a big thumbs down. Why would I want to stress my baby out on purpose?

pandora205

At 7 months your baby is developing a strong attachment and it is normal to cry when a parent goes out of the room (as the child's memory isn't developed yet) - He doesn't know you're coming back. This is why sleeping problems often start at around this age.

As someone who works with parents of young children who have sleeping problems (among other issues), I think basically you have two choices here. One is to go down the cuddling and comforting route, which means co-sleeping if you are to have a peaceful night yourself. We had our babies in bed and they never cried but did always need a cuddle/feed before dropping off. This makes for warm, close times and contented babies but can be limiting for parents as you need to be there. And at some stage they need to go into their own beds (mine were about three I think) so you could have a battle in the future.

The second, is to help the baby learn to sleep on his own. This means not feeding or cuddling until asleep but putting him in his cot awake. It also means not picking him up. The variants of stroking his back/face and gradual withdrawal work for some families but this approach will take time.

If you go down this route and have a partner who needs to be up early, choose a time when he is on holiday or a weekend before you begin. It can take a couple of weeks but for a baby under twelve months a few days is more common.

It is much easier to sort out sleeping issues at this stage as two and three year olds get out of bed and can create all sorts of havoc when they wake.

confusedroast

I would suspect that its a matter of habit - our dd did this when I tried putting her down for her naps during the day - she has two in the moening and one in the afternoon - I had to learn the hard way and let her cry it out - turns out in the begining when she did this I rushed in too quick and then she would never go down
Now she goes in her cot and plays for a bit with her toys, then she has a little whinge (last week she didnt whinge at all) and then she drops off

Try putting the dummy in and leaving the room and letting them cry for a bit - both you and your partner will have to face up to 3-4 nights of disruption but soon your baby will nearn to get themself back off, know that when they wake its not milk and cuddles

Good Luck

zartub

reading this really makes me realize how lucky we are my boy is 11wks old and goes down at 12am & sleeps right through until 8am without a peep ( he has been like that for 1 month now lucky or what ) . just hope he stays like it

confusedroast

Our dd was like that although she went down at 6.30pm til 6-7am (with a dream feed at 10pm)

Then she started teething!!!!! ARGHHHH!! Now we are back to normal again but I was walking around like a zombie for a week or so bless her! She woke up every half an hour or so at night and then every hour on the hour!

hermum

Hi, as long as he's definitely not hungry, try giving him water at night instead of milk, he maybe thirsty or it could be habit & also don't pick him up to cuddle him or talk to him.
I take it a dream feed is feeding him while he's asleep?
What on earth is co-sleeping? Good job my eggs are addled as I would need to learn a new language.

feelinggood_2

I'd urge you to listen to your instinct and not leave your baby to cry. He is still small, and his need for comfort is a valid one.

I've heard great things about the 'No cry sleep solution':
http://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Cry-Sleep-Solution-Through-Foreword/dp/0071381392
And Dr Sears has great info about sleep issues:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070100.asp

go_cat

When my son was around 7 months old, I realised I was actually disturbing his sleep by waking him for his dream feed, as soon as I stopped that he slept so much better, it worked out in a babys sleep pattern I was waking him just as he got into his deepest sleep and it made him restless for the rest of the night

Also like other posters have said never under estimate the power of teething

Good Luck x