how to put my 7 month old to sleep?

Question

my son has a bad habit of antin to go to sleep at 1:00 in the morning and i cant get no sleep. my mother told me to let him cry hisself to slep about 30 mins before his bed tiem so he will learn that i will not always pick him up. he is also very attached to me VERY attached. i can not do or go anywhere with out him. i have let him cry himself asleep and it works but i also want to know of a different way. i hate him to cry and i know that he needs to but i need a different way to get him to sleep about 9:00pm he dont sleep but once aday so that aint it. please help me out!!!

Answer 1

put him in the crib make sure that there is no toys that can hurt him. let him cry himself to sleep!! it will take at least 3 days. if you cant stand the crying leave the house for about 40 minutes there is no other way!! I promise i got 2 and if you don't you will be sorry later!

Answer 2

I had to find this out the hard way.. It's hard rocking a 7 month old to sleep, just imagine when your child is 15 months. That's right, 15 months. Cause it will continue and can continue for a while. My sister did that to her daughter and her daught is 2 1/2 and sometimes she still has to just to get some sleep herself. My suggestion to you is let him cry. Put a radio in there and put it to that white noise where there's no channel. If you feel like he's cring too hard go back in there and let him know that it's time for bed and give him another kiss goodnight. Reminding him why he's in there by himself will help him understand a little better. I would start this with naps though. When you get the naps down start tring it for bedtime too. Good luck!

Answer 3

Ease him into putting himself to sleep.
1. Do the same routine every night. Bathe, bottle book, snuggle, whatever you do. Do it the same way the same way every night. No exceptions until he gets this down!
2.Put a chair in his room next to the crib. Or even sit on the floor! Hold him until he gets drowsy.
3. When he's about to fall asleep, put him in his crib and sit beside him. Talk to him, or sing but don't touch him. They also make toys that play soft music, even light shows that you can put right in the crib.
4. After about 15 min. start moving slowly away from his crib. Move a step or two back every two min. or so until you are out the door.
5. If he cries when you leave the room, repeat the soothe and exit slowly process.
6. Stay for a shorter amount of time every day until you can just do the night time routine, give him a snuggle and put him down.
Keep trying! He may scream his head off at first, but he'll get the idea soon enough. He may also fuss when you leave the room, but give it a min. he may surprise you! Also, if he is still waking up to eat at night,do as little as possible. Try not to talk to him, no bright lights, minimal movement. This will help him go right back to sleep.

Answer 4

We always did a routine. Dinner, bath, book, bed. Once the kids KNOW that this is what is going to happen, it helps. I would let them play in the tub for a little bit and then the book would help to relax them. Sometimes I would tell a story instead, but with such a young baby, I would still just sit with a board book or picture book.

They can pick up on your stress--I never wanted them to cry it out either. Once I got them in the routine, the just knew what was coming. That doesn't mean that they would like it, they just had a better understanding of what was to come.

Hope it helps and hope you are able to get some more sleep!

Answer 5

Your mother is right [don't you just hate that? :)]

If you give in to your child's irregular sleeping patterns, they will become more entrenched and harder to break.

The baby crying will not hurt the baby.

So - when bedtime comes, turn on a small nightlight, put the baby in his bed and leave the room.

If he cries, wait 3 minutes and then go back in to reassure him that you are still around. But do not pick him up. Tell him it is time to go to sleep and leave the room again.

If he cries, wait 5 minutes, then go in and reassure your child that you are still nearby. Then say goodnight and leave.

Repeat increasing the time by 2 minutes each time. Eventually he will wear himself out and fall asleep.

When your son realizes you are there and do not "disappear" during his nighttime, his security need will be met, and he will feel comfortable going to sleep.

His crying patterns will decrease, and pretty soon he will not cry at all.

By the way, when he starts walking, and falls down - applaud and give him a big smile! If you get a worried look on your face and rush to kiss his little boo-boo, he will learn that every time he fails is an occasion to cry.

Welcome to PARENTHOOD!

Answer 6

Defiantly try to get a routine down with your boy! You are not the only one out there with this problem. My daughter is 17 months now and she is sleeping through the night and goes to bed at about 8pm. It wasn't always like that though. There are alot of books out there that can help you. They book that I used was called the No Cry Solution..You should check it out, it helped alot! Try your nearest book store or even the Internet. I usually gave my baby a bath and a good lotion massage, then we would read and have a bottle. I used key words with her too. Just to let her know that it was getting to be time for bed. I used to say to her time for bed mama loves you night night. Then we would put on a nice classical lullaby CD and she eventually learned not to fight it. We also got her used to having a "cuddly". It was something that we used to help feel safe and now she has grown to love her blanket and can't sleep with out it! Hope this helps and good luck with your son...Letting him cry doesn't need to be the answer!

Answer 7

What worked for me was getting my daughter into a nice, quiet and relaxing bedtime routine.

What we would do is around 7:30 pm, I would begin her "bedtime". I first gave her a bubble bath (lavendar nighttime soap is very calming and soothing). She loves them, and back then, she enjoyed the time. I would allow her a fifteen minute bath, and then we would go into her room where I dried her off, applied the lotion (again with the lavendar), and put her diaper and jammies on her. We would then go into mommy and daddy's room and while she had her final feeding for the night, we would lay on our bed and with the lights low, listen to music or I would read a story to her in a soft voice. During this time, she was not allowed to play around, or move around the bed. If she refused to lay down and relax, then she went right to bed. Otherwise, we would remain on the bed for about 1/2 hour or so, and then I would take her to her room, turn the radio in her room on low, and then leave the room. If she cried, I would allow her to cry for a bit. If she didn't calm down after a few minutes, I would go into her room, but not pick her up. I would lay her back down, speak softly to her and rub her back, calming her. I never picked her up, and after she calmed down, I would leave. If she cried again, I waited for a time - longer than the first time - and then went in again.

From what I have read, around that age, they become more aware, and they realize just how "big" their world really is, and it is rather frightening to them. At night, they can develop fears of the dark, or be scared because they realize what "alone" really is. They also become rather restless due to the amount of growing they are doing at that point. Sleeping is rather difficult at times. But it is a necessary "evil". So making sure they get the time offered to them to lay down and rest is very important. It is also important for your sanity.

As for the clinginess; try leaving him once in a while for an hour or so with a sitter. Maybe grandma will be willing to visit for a while, or an aunt, or a very good friend of yours. While it is important for mom to be there, kids need to know that sometimes they are not going to be with mom and that others can help them as well.

Good luck!!

Answer 8

Give it some time, after a few nights he should stop crying himself to sleep. He will get the message and learn to fall asleep on his own. Make sure to give him your attention a little before bed. A bath, a story, some mommy time will help him ease into it and let him know you love him.

Answer 9

I have four. My first baby was like yours to the point that he cried if we went toward the bedroom at a certain time of the night. I know what it feels like to cry so I never let any of mine cry themselves to sleep.

I used reversed psychology. Whenever He got sleepy, I pretended that I wanted to play every time he wanted to go to sleep.

It got to whenever he got sleepy he would try and sneak off (he would crawl) somewhere in a corner looking out of the corner of his eyes to see where I was and if he saw me coming towards him to play he would cry until I said, " OK Mommy won't play ", and I would hold him a minute and lay him down and kiss him goodnight while saying, "Mommy loves You",... Goodnight.

It worked with all four of mine. It will probably take about two or three days of being presistant in playing with him, depriving him of his wanting to sleep, but it's worth scraficing your sleep a little longer to gain the opportunity to get the sleep you need for the rest of your time raising him.

God bless you and your Baby.

Answer 10

A warm bath before he goes to sleep, about a half hour before bedtime. Sometimes a warm bottle helps too. Overall, the crying will discipline him to go on and go to sleep if you never respond to it. As long as you can tell the difference from his cries. A sleepy cry is loud, whiny and annoying. Let him be--they catch on quick and will finally adjust to their new bedtime.