How do you get very alert baby to sleep?

Question

My 9 month old baby boy is very alert. He has been depending on us to rock him to sleep every night / nap time. We tried a variation of Cry It Out - but he doesn't seem to improve with it. I am so exhausted with the limited amount of sleep I am getting, since he started waking up more often every night. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Answer 1

Well u should try making him more active during the day, encourage him to crawl around and play with toys more often.. This will drain his strenght and by night time a goodnight's bath will help relax him, he'll be too tired and go to bed easily....

Ps.. Breast milk does help too...

Answer 2

I can sympathize. We had to deal with a similar situation about two months ago. What has happened is your son has learned to need rocking in order to fall asleep. You need to do this in steps:
1. Start a bedtime ritual if you don't already have one. At about the same time every evening go throught the same ritual. At 7:30 my 8 month old 1) "feeds" the kitties; 2) has a bath; 3) mini-massage and pajamas; 4) book in his nursery; 5) bottle in the dark with singing; 6) bed. I put him in his crib drowsy, but still awake. If he starts falling asleep, I stop and put him to bed right then so he is still a little awake.
2. If he cries, you have to let him figure out how to get himself to sleep. This does involve a little sleep training. When we did it, I let him cry for 2 minutes, then I went in to soothe him, but not pick him up. Then I left and waited 5 minutes before going back in. Each time I left him, I added 3 more minutes to the previous wait-time. The first night took about an hour of this, and was grueling. The second night was less, about half the time, and the third night, not a fuss! He now goes to sleep, most of the time, without fussing. And when he does cry, it is never more than a few minutes.
3. You need to do step 2 before dealing with the middle of the night wakings and naptimes. After your baby starts learning how to get himself to sleep at bedtime, he will begin to use the same self-soothing techniques in the middle of the night.
4. Until he does learn to self-soothe, go to him in the middle of the night and rock him. If, after two weeks, he is still waking in the middle of the night, you will need to do the steps outlined in step 2 in the middle of the night.

Not everyone can let their baby cry. So if you can't follow through, don't even try steps 2-4, although the ritual may help. If you don't follow through, they just learn that crying long enough will get you back to rocking!

A good book to try that covers many different methods and encourages a gentle approach is "Sleeping Through the Night" by Jodi Mindell.

Good luck!!

Answer 3

Give him a bath with bedtime bubbles in, which contain lavender for relaxation. Instead of having the main light on in the bathroom, put candles in. When he's out of the bath and into his night things, give him some milk and read a relaxing story (my daughter likes Sleepy Me), and then settle him down into his cot. If he cries, let him but give it at least 20 minutes before going back in as it takes that long for him to work through it. If he doesn't like the dark try installing a night light. Put some relaxing music on in his room (quietly), and maybe even sit in the room silently with him for 10 minutes, reducing the time by a minute every 2 nights. Eventually he will learn, but it takes time, especially at that age.

Answer 4

My twins were very hard to get to sleep. One would always keep the other up. We actually started driving them around to try to get them to sleep after we took their bottles away at 12 months. It was actually pretty nice. My husband was working a lot of hours and we had some family that moved in with us for a while, so that was our opportunity to get out just us for a few minutes. We would go through a drive thru and get a sweet tea a snack, then drive home and they were out. It got them out of the habit of us holding them to sleep at least. After that I found that they really liked Shrek and would lay still to watch it. They would crash out about 5 minutes into the movie. My current baby I just cuddle with, they grow up so quick. My 3 year-old will barely cuddle at all anymore.

Answer 5

if he is crawling, crawl with him. Get him to chase you around. Make him tired, limit him to one nap during the day. Add cereal to his bedtime bottle and it may help through the night but my 10 month old needs to be held when she goes to sleep and she is up some nights 4 or 5 times so im in the same boat. But making the baby tired helps when its bed time

Answer 6

Wear him out girl! Do you have a jumper? At 9 months my son jumped up and down for an hour after lunch and dinner wore himself out. It strengthens their leg muscles for walking too!
Look at this and go get one at walmart of babies r us:

http://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Exersaucer-Smartsteps-Jump-Go/dp/B00064MJDQ/sr=1-2/qid=1170432298/ref=pd_bbs_2/105-7732167-3662053?ie=UTF8&s=generic

After the jumper at night we gave him a bath, read him some books and put him to bed. Same routine every night, same bedtime every night. My alert baby looked alert until he passed out. He looked fine then his eyes roll back into his head and he'd go right to asleep in seconds flat!

The cry it out method is really The Ferber Method. Unless you have read everything that Ferber intended parents to do, you haven't heard the whole story. Please read this:

http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/7755.html

He'll sleep. Wear him out and learn what Ferber has in mind. It will work. You'll sleep, he'll sleep, it'll be great!! We did this with our youngest and he is a champion sleeper now. Best of luck mama, you'll be sleeping soon!!

Answer 7

ok try this put him in a swing turn it on and sit in fron of him if he screams and cries sing to him when he falls asleep that way do it for 2-3 more days then stop signig to him just sit in front of him when hes used to tat and falls asleep stop sitting with him then move the swing to anouther room without any one try that for a few days when let him sit in the swing with out it going to fall asleep when he gets the hang of that move him to the cribyou may also try replaceing your singing to him with some sort of music dont take that away at any point he does need some sort of normality continue that untill hes older besides babies sleep beter when theyfall alseep with sounds and then noises dont wake them up as easly good luck

Answer 8

run him a vary worm bath no bright lights that only makes him want to stay awake put bedtime bath in there wash him in it to it helps more than just putting it in the water then get him out and use the bedtime lotion to then always keep a vary worm towle in the dryer for after he is done with bath and nightsleeper is on him wrap him in the towle and put some soft music on and rock him to sleep...trust me it works sooo well i have four children and our yougest is a vary sick child this is what i do for him to help him relax good luck

Answer 9

Believe it or not try a vacuum cleaner. I have heard that in the womb it is actually very noisy, and I have heard from more than one person to try vacuum cleaner. Also warm milk, or banana, both have tryptophan which helps sleep.