Sleeping issues with my 7month old..

Tameka - posted on 11/13/2010

My heart goes out to you!!! I have a terrible sleeper too who is almost 11 months old (where has the time gone?!?!). I tried desperately to get my daughter to sleep in many different ways and pretty much all of them she hated. I also did heaps of research into infant sleep and picked the brains of many sleep experts and came up with this:

How you put your baby to sleep is entirely up to the parents. Some swear by CIO while others refuse to put such small babies through that torture. The dynamics of baby sleep is still being researched but this much is known. Babies have a sleep cycle of around 40 minutes. So after a baby has been asleep for 30 minutes they will start to transition from a deep sleep into a lighter sleep. This is when most parents say that their baby will only sleep for 30-50 minutes at a time because their baby has woken after only one sleep cycle. After approx. 50 minutes a baby will fall back into a deep sleep, if not woken beforehand, and start another sleep cycle. If you plan on letting your baby fall asleep in your arms the trick to get them in their cot/bed etc. is to wait until they are in a deep sleep. A deep sleep for a baby is when their breathing is in a set rhythm and is quiet, their limbs hang loose, and their eyelids no longer flutter. This can take 10-12 minutes to occur after a baby has fallen asleep. Now is your chance to gently pop your baby in your desired sleep location!

The hard part for parents is to get their little one to have two sleep cycles (approx 90mins) to ensure adequate sleep. Before I made the decision to nurse my daughter to sleep I would bounce her to sleep. If she woke up after only one sleep cycle I would quickly pick her up and hold her close and immediately start bouncing on one of those large exercise balls. Because she didn't get the chance to wake completely she would be back asleep in a minute or two. Once asleep I would wait the standard 10 minutes then ever so carefully put her back in her cot. To get her out of my arms and into the cot was a mission on its own!! I found that my daughter didn't like the constant stop/start of motion and could only handle it once maybe twice on a good day. I would keep the movement going until I finally placed her in her cot. However I had to ensure that my hands were positioned correctly before I even thought about putting her in her cot! One continuous fluid motion and she was in!! And if anyone spoke louder than a whisper while she was asleep then Nazi Mum would appear!!! lol.

Oh and between 7-9 months is whn babies have particularly bad sleep as they are going through major changes (teeth, learning to sit and crawl, starting solids etc). I hope this helps and I really hope that you are able to find a workable solution for your family!! :)

Geralyn - posted on 11/13/2010

Yikes. Kim, I haven't had that experience. My little one only tosses and turns when she is not quite tired enough and she wants to pacify on the breast. Then, after a while, she'll kinda knock out and I can get up and do things (during the day) or I can get some sleep (at night). I haven't had the situation intensify to what you are experiencing, although she is only 3 mos. What about doing motor activities and other activities so that she is more tired? I don't know what to say.... We also did a lot of shoulder time with my son til he was tired and in a deep sleep. He has always been a pretty good sleeper, as is my daughter so far.