Sleep Help Needed!

[vernacular_life]

Apparantly the Fairies flew in and stole my baby and replaced him with a Baby Who Does Not Sleep.

We've been lucky up until recently.....
Ben is 10 months old and STTN(7 - 7) from about 3 months until 7 months.
From 7-10 months, usually woke up once between 3:30 and 6, I nursed him, and he'd sleep until 8:30

The past few nights:
sleep at 7/8ish without a fuss
12:00 wake,scream uncontrollablly, fall asleep w/o nursing but with us going in, patting him, cuddling,
12:30, wake, scream, fall asleep WITH nursing
1:15-ish, wake, scream, fall back asleep without nursing, but with the holding/patting. Sometimes give him teething tablets at this time
3:00 - wake, fuss, puts self back to sleep
6:00 - wake, fuss, nurse, back asleep
7:30 wake for good in happy playful mood.


He's teething a little bit, but nothing too badly. Not sick (well, always has a cold, but not worse than normal)....

I'm a bit embarassed to admit that I haven't read any of the sleep books.....because he has no problems at bedtime!! Are there any that you can recommend for handing the freakish wake-all-night long kid?


Off for more coffee, and I don't even DRINK coffee.

Comments

[tray85.livejournal.com]

Oh no. I had angel sleep baby until 10 months too. AT that point, she had started crawling. I've heard that mobility can be a catalyst for not sleeping well for some reason.

I'll tell you what not to do because we could just kick ourselves for doing what we did. I/we made the mistake of bringing her to bed and nursing her to get her back to sleep. She therefore couldn't get to sleep on her own. Anytime she woke up, she'd need the boob or at least a parent laying next to her.

Each book out there has varying methods for getting them to self-soothe.

Is Ben going down awake at night in his crib? If not, that's where you'd have to start with the sleep training. That was 99% of our problem and led to eliminating most night wakings.

If he is, then you'd have to sleep train in the middle of the night.

Weisbluth seems to be more strict CIO (and while I respect his research, his book was a PITA to read - esp. while sleep deprived!!) My friend and I kidded that it should have been a pamphlet saying "cry it out dummy". :P

Ferber has a CIO method but check every few minutes

Sleep lady has the shuffle where you start out hugging briefly through the crib, then you sit on a chair near the crib and just offer shushes and night-nights (she doesn't want you constantly touching or else that can become the new sleep crutch). Each day you offer less consoling and move the chair further away.

I couldn't bring myself to let Katie do strict CIO in the middle of the night (like we did at bedtime). They seem to be more irrational then and get hysterical (not to mention that your resolve at 2am is not so great). I did a little soothing and then it was back in the crib, put on the fishies and gave her a bear. She cried (more like fussed) a bit but after she realized that she was staying in her crib and that she had to deal with it...she went to sleep. It took a few nights of this and now (knock on every available wooden surface), she's fine.

Best of luck!

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

We ALWAYS put him in the crib awake and he puts himself to sleep (takes a few minutes for bedtime, about 10-15 for naps), and is usually really good at self=soothing (sucks on fingers, no paci).

The odd times that he does cry at bedtime, we let him CIO. The little bit that we let him do at 2am just seems to exculate to Screaming Fits that get even worse when we come in.

I'm going to put up the aquarium again and try that...we'd just used some 'sleepy songs' then white noise, but maybe the fish will help.

thanks for the suggestions and the sympathy!

[snowzilla.livejournal.com]

Oh no. Sleep hell sucks. I would know - we've been living it for the past 18 months. ;) I don't have any sage advice - fortunately, Avery's old enough now that weaning her off the night-wakings has been a lot easier, and less gut-wrenching, than it would have been when she was younger. She cries, but now we can clearly tell the difference between her pissed off cry, and her scared/upset/hurt cry. She's usually just pissed off - I think she gets that from me. LOL

[cesariohaines.livejournal.com]

Damn! Those space aliens sure do get around! As I am in the exact same boat as you, I have no sage words of wisdom, just empathy! Hoping that it eases quickly and know I'm with you in spirit (especially at 3:00 in the morning)!

[ee-chick.livejournal.com]

ooooh, that sounds rough. Poor baby. Poor parents!

I hope he gives you all a break stat.

[sarahnj2007.livejournal.com]

Ah... I've gone thru this sort of thing before ;) Not sure I've much advice, but I can say these sorts of disturbances don't often last long. A few nights, a week, and just when I'm convinced I'll have to kill myself to get any decent sleep, the kids come back. I think the fairies get sick of it and just return them.

Things I always suspect are illness, especially ear infections. If teething, or if an ear infection is suspect, personally, I dose with a wee bit of tylenol. The child, not me. But that's okay too if you need it. Usually Excedrin's better for MY head. But seriously, sometimes a dose of tylenol does the trick. If there's pain from teething it can knock it out before it starts and wakes 'em. It might be worth trying just one night and seeing if it helps at all.

He may be in a growth spurt. You might want to go ahead and feed him at the first waking and see if that helps at all. Or wake him a 1/2 hour before he usually wakes and feed him then, then back to sleep. Sometimes disrupting a sleep cycle can fix it.

Noah didn't walk until he was 13 mos, but Jason has just started getting the hang of it. I think he wants to keep up with big brother. Right before he really got into this he was waking more. Increased waking seems often to be related to developmental surges.

When Noah was an infant I liked the Ferber book. It was almost all that was out there, but I really think it worked well. I've still got my well worn copy, and do refer to it when sleeping issues start to look like a pattern.

If it's just been a few nights though, not to worry, it will probably break and be normal again before you know it.

That's all I've got so I'll bow out now.

[onelargecat.livejournal.com]

No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley is AWESOME. It's specifically not anything I think you could call "sleep training," and there's no crying it out with her methods, which is why I like them.

That said, I haven't really used her methods yet because I'm not ready to night wean, but it sounds like Ben's been night-weaned for a while on his own, so that book should cover exactly what you want.

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look into that one - I don't mind letting Ben fuss a little while, but the whole crying uncontrollably for 30 minutes isn't my style!

Luckily, last night was better, as he only woke at 3 and fussed for a few minutes before putting himself back to sleep without me stepping foot into his room. I was up and putting my slippers on when he got quiet. yay!

[spacedcowgirl.livejournal.com]

calvin was doing this last week - he ended up with an ear infection.

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

I'd have thought that if he didn't have tubes!

Luckily, last night was better..only one waking with fussiness, and he put himself back to sleep before I went in. Yay!

[spacedcowgirl.livejournal.com]

oh that's right i forgot he had tubes! I'm pretty out of touch lately with everything going on :) I hope whatever it is it passes soon! :)