7 month old baby and sleep!

[jec2]

HELP!

Seems like there have been some recent posts about sleep. Well, here's mine...

BACKGROUND: from 4-6 months DS was sleeping about 11 hours/night (occasionally wakings at either 11, 1, or 3). He wasn't napping very well, but when he did nap, I could pretty much count on at least 20 minutes (sometimes 45 or even an hour) in his crib at least once a day. By 6 in the eve he was so spent and exhausted/fussy that getting him to sleep was pretty easy and he seemed to STAY asleep. Much of this pattern coincided w/ my reading the No cry sleep solution.

Now, for the past month or so, he won't go to bed at 6-ish anymore but is usally awake until 8 or 9. Plus, he's waking up nearly every 2 hours. I nurse/rock him back to sleep and then by 1 a.m. I just bring him to our bed and he nurses sometimes a lot after that. He is napping more but only in the car or in a carrier/on my lap. CANNOT get him in the crib to save my life for naps anymore. I try a nap in the a.m. when he's tired and he'll do about 20 mins on my lap. a few naps in the car as I take him for long drives and then park and let him sleep sometimes 1 1/2-2 hours. We then have an Oprah nap where we both crawl into my bed and nurse/sleep and then I slip away.

QUESTION #1: Is this teething (we still don't have teeth)? Is this because he's on the verge of crawling? Is he hungry?

QUESTION #2: What do I do? Should I be soothing him differently at night (e.g. not nursing him back to sleep)? Trying to put him down earlier? Later?

QUESTION #3: How do I get a 7 month old to self-sooth? He doens't take a paci, he hardly sucks his thumb, he gets more angry the longer i let him cry (if i even try). If he is teething and possibly in pain, do I let him try and self-sooth or do I immediately run to the crib or what?

If you've read this far, I appreciate it. Hope somebody can offer guidance.

thanks

[miki]

Juliet,

Lorelei is a month older than Finn. I've found we go through cycles of quiet nights and wakeful nights. I've always found the night waking to happen when she's about to do something (like crawling) or if she's teething. She's got 4 teeth now, they came in 2 at a time. Each time I suspected it was teething because of the amount of drool and frequent runny poops. I'd give her Motrin before bed and that would help keep it to 1-2 wakings. I always just do whatever it took to get her back to sleep. She doesn't seem to be the sort of baby who gets into a habit easily so I'm not afraid to just nurse her back to sleep even if I know she really can go the whole night without it. You know your baby best. You do what feels right. About Finn staying up later, my SIL said this is what her babies did. They just had later bedtimes when they got closer to 1 yr. And the napping, I'm sending you some good nap vibes. Lorelei was a terrible napper until about a week and a half ago. Literally overnight she went from my having to hold her each afternoon for 2-3 hours because she was so tired to falling asleep by herself in her crib and taking decent naps of 1+ hours.

Good luck. Remember, it's always one phase or another.

[jec2]

Thanks for the words of encouragement about the naps. These have always been a struggle and somedays I just want to duct-tape him to the crib (kidding, of course!!!).

And, I do think he is teething, but goodness, I've thought this since month 4 :P He is just nursing like a fiend, my nipples are sorer than when he was a newborn. The crawling thing gets him so frustrated during the day as he just so badly wants to do it. So, I think you are right, that it is all of these things combined that is making him a fussier baby that is waking a lot more at night. I've been trying to give the motrin before bed, and do think that helps a bit so, again, it has got to be teething. Hopefully these things will sprout already!

Anyway, thanks for your reply.

[cuca_]

Juliet - Just wanted to give you some more words of encouragement about the naps. My dd was never a great napper. Getting her to sleep one hour at a time was quite an achievement. Most of the time she would only sleep for 30 minutes or less at a time. However, about a month ago (she is turning one in a week) she dropped one nap and started taking a 2+ hours nap. So there is hope!! Now with regards to the night sleep, I really can't help. DD is still waking up at least once during the night.:-(

No Cry Sleep Solution also helped me a lot with the naps and with getting her to bed earlier. However, I am still looking to solve our night waking problem. Hopefully you will have better luck with Finn.

Oh, and DD also went through the no naps in the crib phase. I followed the suggestion in NCSS about having her play in her crib for a while every day, and it seemed to work. Now she naps in her crib no problem.

HTH

Carmen

[jk3]

We went through a really, really bad stretch at about the same time. DS was sleeping through the night (9-11 hours) and then all of the sudden at 7 months or so he would not sleep in his crib. He would cry for a long time and we would finally break down, get him + let him sleep with us. If we went in to check on him during a crying fit, it got much worse. He really wasn't comforted unless we took him out of his crib. This lasted about 2 1/2 months and I attribute it to the onset of separation anxiety + teething. Finally at about ten months he grew out of this and returned to sleeping through the night in his crib. At the same point he also started to enjoy being in his crib. I put little toys-plastic/rubber animals- in his crib and he likes to play with them before he goes to sleep and when he wakes up. He had nothing in his crib before that point but I wasn't too worried about suffocation since they were little and not soft. It was extremely hard at the time + I'm sure it will happen again at some point but now he is able to fall asleep on his own.

Jenn
DS 6/3/03