My baby keeps waking during the night

Welcome to the club! Mine are all growed up now, but neither of them slept well when they were alone, until I stayed with a friend who already had 4 kids. She told me to put a well wrapped hot water bottle into the cot by the baby - I put the bottle into the bed to take off the chill before I lay her down, and it did seem to help. After a couple of nights she didn't stir during the night for many months - or, until she (the eldest) worked out that she could get over the top of the cot and come and find me - this went on for months too, until my husband had a week off work and we did the supernanny regime of no conversation, no lights, just returned her to bed everytime she appeared. It was exhausting, but we only had to do it for 3 nights. Now she is 22 and when not working can manage to stay in her 'pit' until mid afternoon!!!! My Mum used to say that no baby is born with the ability to tell the time - I know what she means now!

I used to leave a tape or the radio running on a low volume, and also had a plug shaped night light which helped soothe my children to sleep.:)

HTH, my 3 are all young teenagers now where two do the same as Jabba the Hut's daughter 'pit' wise in the school holidays LOL 😀

warmest wishes- calla lily x

Hi

My daughter did not sleep through until 13 months, I was literally ready to throw her out the window. I spoke to my health visitor about it and she told me I should go to a sleep clinic. they basically teach you how to teach your baby to sleep. If your bubs is weaned, they should be sleeping through. My daughter was waking out of habit more than anything else, and with literally 4 days of perserverance she was sleeping through. I could have kicked myself for not doing it sooner. Speak to your health visitor, she should be able to help you out. A great book I read was the Baby Whisperer by Tracey Hogg.

Good luck

Hi

Nisha - I thought I was reading about my baby. I have a 9 month old and this is the same for me. We put her to bed at 7 she can either sleep to 11/12 or she can wake a few times but from 1.30 on the dot every night she wakes and for me its easier for her to go in my bed and she sleeps right until the morning. I cant deal with her waking every hour and a half I am exhausted and so tired I cant move!

I would rather her go in my bed.

:)I wonder if the baby could just simply be hungry....they are more active now, or even a tad cold, you can get baby gro sleeping bags that keep the feet warm if the baby is prone to kicking of its bedding at night

dont start putting the baby in your bed it will only cause more problems in the long run and you could roll over.

dont start putting the baby in your bed it will only cause more problems in the long run and you could roll over.

I had two great-aunts who were both 'old school' midwives, and both retired during the 60's and had delivered thousands of babies between them during their careers - only my eldest aunt had ever had to deal with the death of a very young baby who had been suffocated by the mother when sharing the same bed - she was drunk - the husband had found her in the morning after a night shift. They worked in the north-east, and many families were very large and generally most beds were 'multi-occupancy'!

My mother, as a baby, shared the bed with her mother and then, when about 6 months old, was put into a bigger bed which she shared with her two sisters. When I was born, I shared my mothers bed until I was about 4 months old, by which time she and my Dad had inherited a cot from another family member. Both my babies slept with me when my husband was at sea.

Hi

Sorry to hear about your problem. I know just how you re feeling

Im a maternity nurse and nanny and I can tell you for certain that at that age, babies who eat a proper balanced amount of food in the day, nap appropriately at lunch time but not too much and are not sleeping through the night (10 to 12 hours) have nothing but bad habits problems. proof is that she sleeps soundly in your bed! thats why she keeps waking, she wants to go back there!

the childs sleep cycle in about 45 min to one hour, in that cicle they go from a deep sleep to a light sleep and back. in the light phase of sleep they tend to wake up lightly occasionally. children who have bad habits like being cuddled to sleep, using a dummy, or sleeping in parents bed cannot put themselves back to sleep without those things they are reliant on thats when they cry their heads off.

make sure you get your daughter out of bed no later that 7 15 AM give her a well balanced breakfast with milk cereals and fruit, enough exercise during the day a balanced lunch (meat, carbs, fat) and a desert let her have a 1.5 to 2 hour nap at lunch time ( no longer than that or she will rob from the night hours) give her a light heathy snack when she wakes so she can go til dinner time like a few grapes or strawberries. dont stuff her or she wont have dinner! let her play and spend energy in the afternoon give her dinner at around 5 15 or 5 30. after that time its important that she winds down and beggins to relax for the night. if she is too excited or jumping around it might be hard to get her to switch into sleep mode later.

Creating a nice bedtime routine helps a lot to get her to associate her room and bed with something positive. take her for a bath at around 6 30 let her have a while about 20 min there playing with some toys and bath books. the warm water is brilliant to relax! than take her to HER bedroom,dim the lights dress her and sit with her in the dim light or just a lamp to read a couple of bedtime books and give her her milk. I know she is still little but babies lOOOve figures and colours and you d be surprised how much they can assimilate at that age like names of animals like bear, duck.. and things like night night or wakey wakey that come up in many stories. that turn off the lights (or if you have a very very mild night light it might be good in the beggining so she can see around) say goodnight (it might help also to put a little teddy with her) sokiss the teddy and put it to sleep in her cot and then her. make sure it s not later that 730 ish or she might get overtired.
make sure you re not rushing or aprehensive through it all cuz they really pick up on your feelings. show that you re relaxed and enjoying that moment with her.

since she is used to sleeping with you she might not go down without a fight in the beggining. if she cries go to her every 10 min or so reasure her you re still there (try not to pick her up it will only create the expectation to go to your bed and get her to scream even more when you put her back in the cot) lay her down again say night night and leave the room. It might hurt a bit to hear her cry but you know that the only prob is that she want to go to your bed. if you have a monitor with a talk button you can after a couple of times you ve been to her room just say calmly " mom is downstairs (whereever) go to sleep". the whole point is to create a routine so she knows what comes next and after bath she will know it s soon bed time and to create a good happy and relaxing atmosphere in her room so she enjoys staying there!

hope it helps! Now wish me luck I have a 2 week old tonight!

Co-sleeping is only a problem if you have been drinking or are on medication which can make you drowsy (or narcotics). The extremely rare cases of infant death caused by co-sleeping are highly publicised and cause an outcry every time they appear. They are tragic, but they are not common. Indeed, in cultures where co-sleeping is the norm, cot death is extremely rare because parents are far more in tune with their babies.

Our younger son co-slept with us until he stopped breastfeeding at 14 months. He fed three times a night in all that time, although since breastfeeding causes you to produce a "sleepy hormone" it wasn't that bad, especially once he worked out how to sort out his feed arrangements without waking me up 🙂 But the day we moved him into his own bed he slept straight through without a problem. Of course he only did it the once, but it proved to us that there was no problem moving from co-sleeping to sleeping solo. However (and this is a big one) in our son's case, it turned out that he had an autistic spectrum disorder. No amount of good sleep hygiene (as the psychiatrists call it) made a blind bit of difference to how he slept. Since he was our second child, we knew there was a problem. Had he been our first, we probably would have put it down to "that's just the way he is". It turned out that in his case, as in the cases of most ASD kids, he was lacking in the hormone which regulates sleep patterns: Melatonin. So it's not always about bad habits. In his case, he didn't sleep through consistently until he was about 8 years old!

But even so, at 10 months I'd say you'd be lucky if she slept right through. At that age my ds1 could defintely be said to sleep through the night since he did 8 solid hours. But that was 8pm to 4am! hey ho! Keep to your routines, make sure your daughter is happy with them and understands them. But above all, look at what "through the night" means. Are you looking for number of hours or time of day? And possibly have a look at cranial osteopathy for her. It often makes all the difference in the world.

Hope that helps

Hi Nisha,

I am a Bach Flower Practitioner. These flower remedies are natural and are in liquid form. They can be bought from any health food store or boots. There is a remedy called Chicory. Take 2 drops from the bottle and add to a glass of water. Give 4 drops from this glass of water every one hour.

A fairly large piece of rose quartz in a childs room is also very soothing to them and can help with sleep.

No sleep blues!!

Hi everyone!

I am another of the no sleep brigade!

My youngest son is 16 months old and has been in our bed from about 3 months. He didn't sleep in a moses basket or cot or other bed for more than 30 minutes at a time so due to lack of sleep he has been in with us ever since. Thing is he doesn't sleep there either! Even though he is eating food during the day (not too well!) he still drinks around 3 bottles of milk during the night. I think he is a milkaholic and is just in the habit now but don't know what to do about it! Too tired to stay up all night trying to get him to sleep in his new bed, letting him cry doesn't work. I think the milk is just a soothing thing as his brother had this problem but would use a dummy instead. Joe refuses one and prefers the bottle teat, doesn't work with no milk though!!! Help! Going mad from lack of sleep, my body is falling to pieces and can't remember the last time I even gave hubby a kiss goodnight with our permanent little lodger between us!

Please don't tell me off for having him in our bed, sleep deprivation is torture!

Oh, I really feel for you - we had a sleeper and a non-sleeper.... I think I got through it by being consistent and patient (which, I know is easier said then done, but if you persevere, it does bring the right result!)

Whichever of the tips you decide to follow, I would say give them a few weeks to establish the routine before dismissing them - as babies need time to adjust to the new way. I would say do it for two weeks before dismissing it.

Good luck - and sending loads of reiki energy boosting bubbles to burst over you to see you through this time.... 🙂

Hi Crystal Lady,

I would suggest moving his cot into your room, give him a bottle of milk last thing before going to bed and place him in it. If he wakes, don't go over or give a bottle but talk to him as this might reassure him you're still in the room. Also, my 3 had something what i called 'smellies' which were towelling tea towels, as they didn't take to the dummy either.

HTH

warmest wishes- calla lily x

sleeping babies

I had forgotten what it is like to have a full nights sleep, it has been 4 and a half years since I have been able to sleep through the night.

Disrupted sleep, due to my son, cost me my mental health as well as my job. I wasn't able to function during the day as I was being woken up 2 or 3 times a night.

When I had no. 3 a year ago, I was determined that I wasn't going to make the same mistakes again. Sleeping with mum is all well and good when breast feeding, but once they are fed they have to go back in their own bed otherwise they don't learn how to settle themselves. I guess I am quite hardened to it after 3 kids, but I can't be a good mum if I'm not refreshed and had no time out from them.

In the night I let him cry and fidget if he isn't tired, I check him, give him some water and leave him to it. If he doesn't settle I recheck after 15-20 mins.

Recheck means no talking, no eye contact and NO picking up! (unless it may be wind)

I've found that now he can't be bothered to wake up because he doesn't get the attention when its dark. We have time rules, i.e. no milk before 6.30AM and I dream feed him at 10.30pm to make sure he is hydrated and full. Lavender oil on the bedding is quite good and we have a music mobile as a distraction and que for sleep time.

No one understand unless you have been their, get some ear plugs and try it for 3 nights! I have followed ideas outlines by the baby whisperer, I would recommened the book too, very good book!