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Re: 8 month old sleeping pattern-help

Posted by MandyM on October 19, 2001 at 19:32:04:

In Reply to: 8 month old sleeping pattern-help posted by Michelle (Alexus's mom) on October 13, 2001 at 22:45:03:

I have a 7-month old daughter who slept TERRIBLY until now. She was still waking after 10 minutes, somtimes right when I put her down, or every 30 minutes or 1-2 hours ALL night, and pretty much EVERY night. Not only would she wake up about 5-10 times a night; but it would take sometimes an hour or more to put her back to sleep. She didn't always cry; sometimes she just wanted to "talk", play, etc.

I tried co-sleeping; that didn't work well. I used to do it all the time when she was very little; she still woke extremely often; it was just easier for me that way. But as she got older, she seemed distracted by my presence, woke even more often, and wouldn't go back to sleep.

I never wanted to leave her cry; but finally, after 7 months of exhaustion, I couldn't do it anymore. I still didn't leave her to cry, exactly; at first I kept rocking her to sleep, but she would always go into her crib. Then I started cutting back on night feedings until there weren't any. Then I started putting her in her crib awake after rocking until she was relaxed; and I'd pat her bum, sing, anything except pick her up. I wouldn't leave the room. After a few nights of that, things weren't improving much (but she WAS sleeping for one chunk of 4-5 hours!); so I didn't pat her bum until she fell asleep; I just sang to her, and sat right next to her crib until she fell asleep. The second night of that, she slept from 8pm - 5am (9 hours!!);then from about 5:30am-8am (2 1/2 hours!!). She hardly cried; just a bit of complaining.

This is my thought - if I left the room and left her alone to cry herself to sleep suddenly one night; that, to me, isn't right. She would be crying because she was alone, scared, lonely, etc. and didn't know where I was, why I wasn't coming to her. But since I did it more gradually she got used to it; and if she cried, she was crying because she wanted to be picked up; she was probably a bit lonely and scared and confused; but I was right there, I came as soon as she cried, and comforted her verbally, etc; just didn't pick her up.

It's so nice to see her sleep better now! It was bad when she wasn't even satisfied with me rocking her; she would move around a lot, like you said your daughter does. It just seemed like she kind of WANTED or NEEDED to sleep alone; but then she was upset because she wasn't used to it, didn't "know" how to fall asleep by herself, etc. She gets more rest (if she was up every 1-2 hours, even for just 15 minutes at a time (often it was longer), that's a few hours of lost sleep every day! I'll feel much better leaving her with someone else, knowing she can fall asleep on her own and is used to that, and that she won't be up as soon as I leave the house. She is very happy during the day; I rock her to sleep for naps; I wasn't sure if that would affect her night sleep, but it doesn't seem to. She usually only sleeps for 30 minutes at a time (has for a long time); sometimes she'll have a longer nap. Since she's been falling asleep on her own at night, she's much less upset/restless when I rock her to sleep for naps. And I just rock her until her eyes have been closed for a minute or so; then when I put her down, she usually rolls over to get comfortable; but even though she wakes, I pat her bum a couple of times, and she falls asleep, since she's used to that and she isn't terrified about being alone!

And I would never have let her cry before about 6 months. I was exhausted, I took her to bed with me, etc; but from what the experts say, babies aren't old enough under 6 months for it; and with my experience, I didn't feel comfortable with it until now.

It's so nice to be able to sleep at night! Although I still have problems sleeping; I guess my body was so used to only getting 3-5 hours of broken sleep every night, knowing my baby would probably wake as soon as I got to sleep, etc. I'm slowly getting used to fairly regular sleep!

That said, your baby could be waking more often because of a change in routine (ex: babysitter). She might need extra comforting. She could also be teething, or something like that.


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Archived Infant Sleep Forum4 viewing only. To post a new topic go to the Infant Forum Homepage.
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