My one year old daughter still will not sleep through the night, she wakes up like 3 times a night:(

Amy - posted on 10/18/2009

My twins are 14 months, about the same age as your baby. I don't know if my suggestion would help, but I can give you an insight of our daily schedule ... perhaps you can try it out. First of all, I think you gotta stick with the same routine everyday. Once that's established, it will be easy later on. Hmm, where do I start.. Every morning they wake up around 7-8ish, first thing I give them about 4-5 oz milk. Around 9am, I take them downstairs to have their breakfast (banana,baby yogurt,bread). Takes about half hour to finish then I let them play until 11AM, I take them to their cribs so that they'd take their naps until about 1PM. After waking up, it's their lunch time from 1:00-1:30pm. Playtime again until 4:30pm and send them to bed for their 2nd nap. They are usually pretty consistent. But there are days when they don't nap, then they'd fall asleep while having dinner. So no matter what, I would still try to make them nap again even if its a short nap. *I believe the key point to have them sleep through the night is that they must have a full dinner. I don't mean stuffing them, but just the right portion. For example: I mix up some rice,veggie,meat,shredded carrots. So they each consume about aprox. 20 bites (yes, i actually count how many spoonfuls i feed them so that i'd have an idea not to feed too much). Then I grind up some apple sauce as their dessert. Right after, I brush their teeth and have them drink some water. Playtime again until 9PM and I give them a bath. After they get dressed, I send them right to their cribs by 9:30PM. Sometimes they don't want to go to be yet. But I'd turn off all the lights so when it's all dark, there is nothing they can do but to go to bed. And usually they are pretty good and can sleep until morning all the way through.



BTW, you should nap while they nap during the day. One more thing, make sure naps does not exceed 3 hours, because if that happens...oh boy you are gonna have a hard time making your baby go to bed when it's TIME for bed later on that night!! Hope this helps! Good Luck to you~ =)

Natalie - posted on 10/16/2009

My kids didn't sleep through the night until they were 18mths!!!!
Unrotunately you might just have to wait it out. Sleep dep is awful, but if you try to sleep in the day when they do, you'll feel much better!

Lizzie - posted on 10/16/2009

I don't know if this will work, but it's just the advice my parents gave me. I've started to do this already with my 3 week old, with the hope that when she is able to sleep through the night, she will!! You may have already tried some of these! All the things you are doing sound really good!

- Cut down on daytime naps.
- Keep daytime REALLY busy, and stimulating, and get her out and about in the fresh air, this should encourage her to be tired at bedtime. There should be a peak of activity about 2 hours before bedtime (my brother and I used to have a 'mad hour' after dinner!) and then a definite winding down period leading up to getting ready for bed - talking quieter, moving slower, being more snuggly :)
- Equally important, make nightime BORING. Don't talk to her, don't play with her, don't sing to her, don't stimulate her in any way. It may mean leaving her to cry :-(
- If she's scared of the dark, try a small nightlight, or a landing light left on outside the bedroom with the door open a crack, but keep it quite dark - again with the boredom!
- Have a bedtime routine - a story, a cuddle, perhaps a song you sing before bed. Repeat it every day and after saying goodnight put her to bed awake. If she doesn't already she needs to learn to get herself to sleep by herself, so when she wakes up, she finds herself bored, and just drifts off again on her own, without any help from you.

I really hope some of this or the comments from other Mums helps, and you can get this sorted and get some sleep! Let us know how it goes.

Jill - posted on 10/16/2009

put her in bed with you....she'll go right back to sleep .. there is nothing like the security of a parent... i did it with my first 2 and still with my 13 month old... theyleave your bed eventually.... life is scary.... give em alittle security..... they grow up so fast.... FYI my mom slept with me too when i woke up at night....

Raeoni - posted on 10/16/2009

I'm in the same situation sorry. I had it soo easy with her right up until my daughter turned 1. We have a newborn and are also finding it hard to get our oldest to sleep through the night. We keep her up all day and hope that when she finally goes to sleep at night she will sleep right through, but it seems to me that she hasn't quite broken out of the 3hourly feeds. Only now her sleeps are about 4hours and is up for maybe 5hrs.

When we have finally had enough and we go to sleep she sleeps right through with us. But because we got so used to staying up with her trying to get her to sleep at night we got stuck in the same sleep pattern too. Up through the night and sleep through the morning and part of the afternoon. . I hope you get an answer coz I would definately like some help with that too. I need my mornings and afternoons back. My partner and I end up finding things to do during the night like watching movies or playing games with her. We try not to let her get too excited tho during the night as it just makes her even more excited and keeps her up longer.

Jeanetta - posted on 10/16/2009

my daughter will be 1 next week, she still wakes up during the night at least once, but she has a nap around 11am-noon, plays the rest of the day, we give her a nice warm bath with that johnson and johnson night time soap, i change her diaper before i go to bed and now most of the time she will wake up enough that she whines a minute stretches, and rolls over and goes back to sleep....but i don't turn any bright lights on or take her out of her crib to change her, or even talk....so some of it does work...but some times maybe one every few weeks she ends up in bed with me, but she is cutting a tooth then also.

Teena - posted on 10/15/2009

Lisa...I just wanted to say that I disagree with the statement that children don't put themselves, gently, willingly, etc. back to sleep. My oldest and youngest both do. If I hear them during the night, I wait for about 5 minutes before getting up, because all but 3 times they went back to sleep on their own. My middle child does go back to sleep on her own after she hears my voice. I just say your ok baby and she goes right back to sleep. My oldest atarted sleeping through the night at 5 weeks old and my youngest slept through the night at 9 weeks old. I guess we had it luck with them.

Teena - posted on 10/15/2009

Monica..I hope you get to sleep through the night soon. With my oldest and my youngest they slept through the night really early. My middle child on the other hand didn't sleep through the night in her own bed until she was 5 1/2 years old. I hope that isn't discouraging. What we did was make a little bed on the floor next to our bed so she could just come in our room and go right back to sleep woth out waking us up.

Krystal - posted on 10/15/2009

my son was doing the same thing and a friend of the family told me how she got her son to sleep through the night. try and let him take 1 nap during the day around like 12-1..(my son will take a 2hour nap). but after that dont let him nap.. he might get a lil cranky for the first few days. but then lay him down around 7-8. and when he wakes up in the night (gonna be hard) but if you know he is ok then dont go in there, if you have to dont talk to him. check his diaper do whatever and walk out of the room and never pick him up out of the crib. i did this and my son sleeps through the night. goes to bed by 8 and wakes up around 8-9am. im so glad i did this. it was hard to hear him cry but i had to do it.

Crystal - posted on 10/15/2009

I had the same problem with my son and I was at about my witt's end when someone had suggested to me that I needed to keep him busy, active, alert and awake from about noonish until bed time. Mine had gotten into a habit of taking very good naps(which were great) but then he would not sleep through the whole night. So I started keeping him busy for about 1 - 1 1/2 weeks none stop go go go keeping him busy and active so then at night he was super tired and along with that every time he came out of his room we put him right back in his room. It took alot of patience and persistence on our part, but it payed off. I have had alot of people compliment me on how nice and easy my kids go to bed at night. I hope this helps and I hope it works as well for you as it did for me.

Debora - posted on 10/15/2009

I AGREE WITH DEB MARSOLAIS NO CHILD SHOULD BE BRAUGHT INTO THE BED WITH PARENT. TRY TALKING TO HER DR MAYBE SHE HAS SOMETHING MEDICALLY WRONG SINCE EAR INFECTIONS ARE VERY PAINFULL.TRY TO REMAIN CALM SINCE SHE WILL PICK UP MOMMYS STRESS.

Julie - posted on 10/15/2009

don't worry my daughter is 22 months old and still wakes once or twice in the night. Try to relax because they sense your stress and anxiety. its hard i know but it helps.

Erica - posted on 10/14/2009

Just remember, it won't last forever (it can't, right?!) You'll get through this. My only suggestion is, if you can, take a nap! Have hubby/friend/mother watch baby and get some sleep! Good luck :)

Debbie - posted on 10/14/2009

I know that bringing your child into your bed is easy and convenient but just a little warning. I did this with my daughter and it took til she was ten for me to convince her she had to sleep in her own bed. Not good for the marriage relationship.

Debbie - posted on 10/14/2009

I know this might be pretty tuff to try with a 1 year old but it worked for my son when he was a baby. He would not sleep through his nights so I cut out nap time. After a few days with no afternoon nap. He slept started sleeping right through the night. Another suggestion a good friend had given me prior to cutting out the nap was to put him down for a nap but not to let him sleep more than an hour. It didn't work for my son but all children are different.

Hope this helps.

Jennifer - posted on 10/14/2009

I had this same problem. What I started doing was limiting my daughters nap time during the day. Then about two to four hours before bed time we started playing really hard to wear her out. Then we set up a strict bedtime routine. Bath, then a gentle massage with lotion. Then a couple of books then some kisses and off to bed. Today she is almost three and we still have a little struggle getting her down but she sleeps through the night.

I don't care what anyone says, you do have to show your children who is boss and let them know that sleeping through the night is the right thing to do for many reason.

You will get there, it's hard when you are sleep deprived but the fact that you are asking how to get past it shows how much you care about your child!

Good luck!

Tiffany - posted on 10/14/2009

My son didn't sleep the night untill he was like 21/2. We put a fan in his room near his bed. The noise helped. He has a little radio now. He seems to like noise. Maybe it might help.Hope you can get some sleep soon.

Alexis - posted on 10/13/2009

I was gonna suggest what Sherryjust did. My daughter still sleeps in my bed, but I found out that she only does this because my room is quieter. My daughter's roomis directly above the house entrance (3-family house) and faces the front of the house (traffic noise). The door slamming and traffic noise would scare her and waking up scared to see shadows zooming up the wall (from passing cars) is frightening. I think it's a matter of comfort and reassurance. Putting yourself in their shoes always helps. Good luck.

Sherry - posted on 10/13/2009

My daughter didn't sleep through the night until she was 2 1/2. I watched the Nanny 911 show a while ago and she explained you should sleep in the room with them (on the floor or cot) so each time they wake they will see you're still there. Eventually after several nights of it, the child will not wake up to see if you're there anymore.

Best of luck ☼

Jessica - posted on 10/13/2009

It took me 2 full nights to get my son sleeping through the night. I put him to bed without his bottle, and explained to him that he didn't need it. Of course he started crying, but I left him for a full minute. Then I went back in and told him what was happening again. This time i let him cry for 2 minutes... we got up to 5 mins before he fell asleep, and only woke up once in the night... the same routine followed. He figured it out and now we are both much happierwith a full nights sleep! Good luck.

Autumn - posted on 10/13/2009

i had the same proble with my son first thing was that at would jump to his every wimper or wine (i stoped that immidiatly) second thing was alot of kids burn callories quicker then others and need more food (especially if u want them to sleep without wakeing up ) so we feed him @ a half hour b4 bed time then at bed time we give a cereal bottle with milk and cereal as well as making a routine one nap during the day (for a limited time and not so close to bed time) and same bed time everyday followed by same wake up time. since we have started this routine ( about 4 months ago ) we havnt had ne problems since. the key thing to keep in mind is nothing happens instantly u have to be presistant about the routine for it to work. i wish u the best of luck let us know how things r going in the future!!

Debora - posted on 10/13/2009

could it be as simple as needing one more blanket since its cooler now at night ,of course i do not know where you are but if they get cold they will wake up.if they are napping for more than 1-11/2 nap is not more than they should need so set a alarm to go off to let you know its time to wake her.at 18 months you can start potty thing.try checking her to see if she`s wet before you go to bed this may also help.trying placing a music box in her room with music she can fall alseep to .you could give her some sleepy time or breathe ease tea these are natural sleep aids if its from say allergies or a cold then breath ease with help her just make it very weak .

Ashley - posted on 10/13/2009

I am having the same problem, even when he is up all day long without a nap he still doesnt sleep the whole night but he does sleep alot longer then he usually would! I put him in his crib when its bed time but when he wakes up during the night I put him in bed with me since he tends to wake up a few times just whining and once I cuddle him and rock him he knows hes next to me and will go right back to sleep. I know some people frown on co-sleeping but if it works best for you then thats what you can do to help get your sleep [:

Lisa - posted on 10/13/2009

i have a house full of kids right now 3 r mine 5 rnt. they range in age from 6 mos to 9 yrs. the best thing i can tell u is try to keep ur son wake more during the day. let him take naps and all just not as long or not as many. wake him up earlier in the morning. u have to get his schedule set. its not easy to do, believe me i know. but once he gets it down ull be sleeping much better. good luck!

Minnie - posted on 10/13/2009

Or...you could re-asses your expectations of infant/toddler sleep needs and accept that right now she's not ready to go the entire night without needing you.



My own 12 month old nurses at least three times a night.



Children don't typically begin to willingly, gently, and consistently put themselves back to sleep during the night until about three to four years of age.



I suggest bedsharing. It'll be much less effort on your part if she's right next to you to cuddle back to sleep when she wakes.

Michele - posted on 10/13/2009

The only thing i could think of is not letting her sleep during the day and let her play hard and maybe she will crash out at night and may sleep for you. Good luck and hope it get's better for ya. Michele

Ashley - posted on 10/13/2009

my son didnt start sleeping through the night until he was two years old, and he always wanted to be in our room so i put his mattress in our room on the floor for one week and then moved it away a lil bit at a time until he was back in his room and ever since then he has slept in his room through the night. It was major seperation thing for him. Hope this helps.