PDA

View Full Version : Advice Please! 7mo DD not napping /still waking at night



MLH
10-28-2004, 04:37 PM
I'm new to the forum but would love some advice.

My 7mo old DD has never been a great sleeper but she would at least take 1 hour long nap and one or two short naps during the day. She has recently learned to crawl, sit up/and stand up in her bed! Now she won't nap. We have tried CIO (to an extent)and it really isn't working now that she can stand up in bed.

In addition she has never slept through the night. We have a set bed time routine and getting her to sleep initially is no problem. We can even put her down just drowsy to start the night. Her normal routine is bed at 8, up around 1am to eat, back down and then up again around 4 or 5 to eat again and then back down to around 8 or so. We let her fuss until it turns into an all out cry before going to her during the night.

I was jumping for joy a week ago when she slept basically from 8:30 - 4 am with only fuss waking. But then she reverted back to an even worse schedule than listed above for the past week since she has learned to stand in bed. We have tried a version of cio, rocking her till she is asleep and then laying her down only for her to wake right back up.

Any advice would be appreciated. I would love to cut out the 1am feeding. But even more than that, getting her back to napping would be great.

Sorry for rambling and thanks for the help!

induetime
10-30-2004, 08:27 PM
First of all, you're not alone. :) Second, she's probably just getting used to this discovery of new things she can do in her crib. I've noticed my DD's bed time habits always go thru and awful regression before improvement. Once she figured out how to get herself on her tummy in the crib, all hell broke loose for some very lllooonnngggg nites. Now she's over it. My last thought is this - have you tried putting her to bed earlier? According to Weissbluth (and I am NOT his biggest fan), babies should go to bed around 7pm or so. It's held true for us, but every baby is different.

Good luck. Know there are thousands of us awake with you in the middle of the night. :)

simba
11-01-2004, 10:05 AM
HI!
My 5 mo. old also wakes up plenty and doesn't nap that well. I am reading Dr. Weissbluth's book ("Healthy sleep habits, happy child") and it is helping. It is a bit long and I haven't finished it yet (lack of time, extreme tiredness), so I have not implemented the whole method (just the nap part for now), but I will give it a try! It emphasizes naps a lot, so that will maybe help you! He proposed crying it out, but he explains why and how to do it effectively. Also, he offers alternatives. Again, I haven't put his advice into action except for the first morning nap part, but it sure looks good on paper, we'll see if it works. The first morning nap part is working, so I am hopeful, but it is also the easiest thing to do. I don't know if the rest of his sggestions are actually doable for me, we'll see. I think you should read it anyways. At least he gives hope, and many moms swear by it!
Keep us posted!
Silvana
Mom of Luca
May 30, 2004

proggoddess
11-05-2004, 09:50 PM
Did you give her some new food to eat that week? We had no problems with DD sleeping until we gave her a jar of sweet potatoes at 6 months. Her normal bedtime is 8pm and she was up until 10:30. We had to let her cry a bit.

Maybe to cut out the 1am feeding, when she wakes up, don't feed her right away. Cuddle her for 10 minutes and then feed her. Just to give her the message that nighttime is not for eating. She might be sleepy enough to give up before 10 minutes and go back to sleep.

For us, when DD wakes up at night, she usually just needs a paci re-insertion.