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sleep recommendations

Meghan - posted on 02/26/2011 ( 17 moms have responded )

My son has this weird cycle. For a week or two he will sleep pretty much all night from about 7:45ish to somewhere between 6-8 am. Then all of a sudden he will start waking in the middle of the night and he will keep me up for 2-3 hours at least. He wakes up crying but as soon as I go in and pick him up and rock him, he is calm. He will lay content in my arms while I rock him, but he just refuses to go to sleep. I usually get frustrated after an hour sometimes close to 2 of rocking. Then I bring him down and turn on the tv and we stay up for a little....sometimes 1/2 hour upto 1 hour...then I take him back up.....most of the time he falls asleep after 15 min of rocking sometimes it takes more.

I just get so frustrated that he won't go back to sleep because I don't know the reason. He isn't crying or fussing but he doesn't really want to play either. He just won't go back to sleep. It is really hard to stay patient with him because I need the sleep. During the day he is does not really have a dependable nap time....but its mostly 1 nap in the late morn or early afternoon for anywhere from 1-3 hours. He is really good mostly during the day....cranky late in the day but that is not unusual.

I was just wondering if anybody has any suggestions because during these times I get sooo tired and I find it hard to concentrate during the day (and I need to concentrate because I do online courses during the day at home). We have tried a bit of cry it out and that hasn't worked....besides I can't let him cry in the middle of the night because my husband has to get up early for work. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks

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Vera - posted on 03/09/2011

I love this. We are great Mums, Rachael and bless God for the opportunity of taking care of our young ones

Faith - posted on 03/08/2011

I have a similar problem with my 16 month old daughter. Although she doesnt stay awake at night she is still waking up atleast 3 to 4 times a night for a drink. Ive tried putting the cup of water in her bed but she still has her binky and she always seems to lose it in her sleep. And of course the binky is what she wants when shes finished her drink. Which means I have to wake up everytime she does to find her binky for her n give it to her so shell fall back asleep. Any suggestions??

Rachel - posted on 03/08/2011

I have two amazing little girls I guess. Both of my girls, ages 3 years and 16 months, have both slept through the night since they were 6-7 weeks old. They go to bed at 7 or 8 and sleep until 7 or 8. My 3 year old does not nap, but my 16 month old takes a 1 hour am nap and a 1 and a half hour afternoon nap. I have very happy active kids. I did have some issues with waking while my youngest was teething. Check for molars. Those are the tough ones!

Vera - posted on 03/08/2011

Gold is a unique baby. I suffered sleeplessness nights a few months back but now thank God I now enjoy every night. My baby girl sleeps at about 7.00 p.m every day and wakes up from 6.30 a.m. every morning. Once I feed her in the evening, she does not eat until the next morning. No more stress taking care of my angel baby. During the day she goes around the whole house, carryng one thing or the other especially playing with water. she sleeps once a day about 10.00 a.m. every morning her break fast for about an hour. And she eats well now. Even her teething problems are drastically reduced.
I love my baby so much because when she sleeps in the night, her wake uo time is the next morning.

Vera - posted on 03/08/2011

Melissa - posted on 03/07/2011

My baby gets like that when she's getting a tooth...Then sure enough I'll see the tooth break through and she's back to sleeping all night. The joys of teething.

Casey - posted on 03/06/2011

My son is a great sleeper.. 7:30 pm to 7 am. Recently he started waking up crying around midnight to 1am and for a couple nights I really struggled at trying to figure it out. When he woke up the last time I gave him some milk to drink and he went right back to sleep when he was done. My guess is that he was getting hungry at night so since we eat early in my family, I started to give him a snack when we all have dinner, just something to hold him over an hour or so, and then give him his dinner later when its a little closer to bedtime. For my son it was hunger. Maybe yours is getting hungry at night? I also do the bedtime bath and massage him with lotion....all things that let him know it's time to go down for the night.

Brianna - posted on 03/05/2011

1,906

sometimes that happens with my daughter she starts waking up because of teething or being sick but onces shes over it shes used to getting up and being rocked/cuddled so i end up getting fustrated eventually and ill let her cry it out once and then shes back to routine

Chrissy - posted on 03/05/2011

My little girl does something similar but I don't usually have to go in and hold her. She will just wake up and groan to herself for like 2 hours usually between 4 and 6 am. It happens every few weeks after sleeping through the night. I think it's related to teething. Those molars are tough coming in. It seems the worst right before they break through the skin and the 1st few days after. Also sometimes I think it could also be from nightmares or gas. Until they can talk I guess we can't know for sure. My daughter sleeps about 11 - 12 hours just like your son. I saw someone said that was too long for babies to sleep and to keep him up later but I strongly suggest against that. I've read several books on babies sleeping habits and 1 thing I've learned is that the more you sleep the more you want to sleep. As for suggestions it seems like sometimes doing something like offering water and some teething tablets sometimes helps. Have you offered any pain reliever just to rule that out as a cause.

Teena - posted on 03/02/2011

My son does the same thing, and with a 4 year old in the room next to him I can't let him cry it out. Around the same time I tries a couple different things to help my situation. It seemed to me that he was waking up more out of thirst then hunger or anything else. I started keeping a sippy cup of water in his room. Also at 13 months I had to change his crib into a toddler bed because he can climb out of everything...but I now I had him a sippy cup of water and lay next to him, he takes a couple drinks and falls right back out, but I have also bought him a Scentsy buddy and put a lavender scent pack in it and it seems to calm him, he sleeps better and when he does wake it is easier to get him back to sleep. He also sleeps from between 7:30 and 8:00 until 7:00 and 8:00. My dr says 12 hours of sleep in a healthy time frame for all children, my 4 year old is on a similar schedule that starts an hour later. That way her and I have an hour alone at night and my son and i have a hour alone in the morning. I hope I was some help.

If you don't know what a Scentsy buddy is...it is a stuffed animal made by the wickless candle company Scentsy, it has a zipper pocket in the pack and you can chose 30 different scents to put in it, I use lavender or Newborn nursery (baby powder) for my sons. If interested here is my website.
https://teenas.scentsy.us

Samantha - posted on 03/01/2011

My little one does that sometimes. I can tell from her cry, whimper, though if it's a "GET ME UP NOW" or "I'm just up and not sure why," sound. I'm sure you know the difference in yours. If it's not a serious sound then I will wait before I jump up and run in her room. (I used to jump up and run in and rock her...she would just lay there and enjoy it eventually go back to sleep but as soon as I put her back in her crib, she would start again) well now I wait a little bit....and here lately she goes back to sleep in about 5 minutes or so. And mine goes to bed about 7 - 730 and sleeps until around 530 - 630 (that's just how early we have to get up to get ready for the day, so that's our routine) I understand the frustration I'm a single mom and I get tired! I have faith you will find something that works for you and yours.

Chidinma - posted on 03/01/2011

My son used to do same. I moved his bedtime to around 9pm (i live in Nigeria), and I also give him a warm bath. He now understands that its more like a sleep time ritual. So we play around a little and i ask him to lie down and close his eyes and thats it. Its been working for some time now.

Holly - posted on 02/28/2011

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Can you keep him up later at night? That is a long time to be sleeping.. Perhaps move the nap a little later in the day, then up later at night and you might get him to sleep all night... ??

Brittany - posted on 02/28/2011

2,843

I started to monitor my daughter's waking time at night without going in her room. I would watch the monitor with the sound off (so my husband wouldn't wake up). I found that she would be awake for up to 5 minutes then fall back asleep on her own (a lot of that time wasn't actual crying). If she cried for more than 7-8 minutes I'd get up and stand by her door. Depending on the type of cry I would either go in and comfort her or leave.

Right now my daughter is sick and will whine and wimper in her sleep. She'll make noise for up to 15 minutes but when I've gone in to check on her she's actually asleep.

I found that my daughter sleeps better with a stuffed animal and her blankets. If she doesn't have her ducky, two bunnies, and her two blankets; she doesn't sleep well. I don't know what I'll do this summer as her blankets are pretty heavy.

Tessa - posted on 02/27/2011

No i dont know why he would wake up. He still does it 2 or 3 times a week.

Meghan - posted on 02/27/2011

we have brought him to be a few times...but unfortunately I already have trouble with back pain at night...when he slept with us I woke up in agony. I wish I could do that occasionally but it kinda of defeats the purpose of getting a good night of sleep haha. Thanks for the suggestion. Did you know of the specific reason he was awake or are you like me and have no clue why??

Tessa - posted on 02/27/2011

We went through this not so long ago. When this happends i just put my lil man in bed with us and go back to sleep normally he just lays down until his ready to go back to sleep. A lot of mums dont like this way of dealing with it but i was just so exhausted it was the only way to get a good night sleep.