my 7 month old refuses to sleep through the night?

Question

have tried EVERYTHING!! And when I say everything, I mean everything. Yet, still this is her third time waking up tonight and its only 3:45. I am sooooo DRAINED part of me just wants to give up. My boyfriend says we should let her scream herself back to sleep, like just leave her upstairs to cry and go sleep downstairs. I just can't do it, it seems mean.

Answer 1

so does my 18month old!!! he wakes up up to 30 times a night if he is in his own bed.. he can cry it out for 5hours and take an hour to calm down even when i've got him.. i've used a sedative to get him to sleep and even that didn't work.. the only way he sleeps through the whole night is if i sleep with him and i know he gets enough to eat because he has a good dinner then a snack after his bath and then a bottle before brushing his teeth.. you could try just patting her back to sleep when she wakes up, give her 5-10minutes to settle by herself.. and then put her back to sleep without talking to her, make sure the nightlight if any isn't too bright.. if you are breastfeeding you could try cluster feeding her in the evening.. or check her naps.. my son was having 3-4 hours wprth of naps at 7months and went down to 2 at 9months and now at 18months he doesn't have a nap and i notice a BIG difference in his sleeping at night without a nap he sleeps much better.. not all children need lots of sleep.. well.. good luck and i know it must be really hard!!

Answer 2

I SO relate to what you are going through. I read so many things on the internet to try and figure out what to do. My baby is now 7.5 months old and doing MUCH better. Let me tell you- at 6 months old he was still waking almost every 1 to 2 hours! I tried to justify not letting him cry (mean, won't work, etc.) and finally- I HAD to do it. It took 5 nights. BUT...it WORKS! However, he does still wake once to nurse and again early morning (I usually don't go to him until 7). I am telling you- I think it is more cruel to let them continue on without sleep. "Healthy Sleep..Happy Child" says that up to 9 months you can still nurse twice a night. I don't know..I am thinking that I should start cutting that out too. I have noticed that after all the trouble of sleep training- I give him the benefit of the doubt now and go to him if he cries. I think this may be a mistake...however, most nights are very good in comparison. When you think that we went from him waking ever hour most nights to now waking only after he's been down for 4-5 hours....AMAZING! Hope this helps. It's HARD...my son cried up to 1 1/2 hours during sleep training. But I am so glad I did it. I wanted a relationship with my husband at night- and our baby was killing me by not letting me sleep at all!

Answer 3

I have two children and one is 8 months the way i got days and nights was making sure that he stayed up most of the with only 2 nap then i don't know if you are putting cereal in the bottle but maybe she get hungry and don't put her to bed until 8 and if you have changed her and feed her then let her fuss it out.

PS: when you put cereal in the bottle make sure it is like a grits thickness only at bed time let me know if it works. Good luck

Answer 4

Dont you let that baby scream in hopes of a few extra moments of sleep.You choosen to be a mom and this is what a mom is about.It goes further than cute little smiles.Why is your computer turned on with you sitting at it if you want to teach your baby good sleeping habits? What do you mean you just want to give up? Give up what?

Answer 5

does she do this every night? if the answer is no..then try to figure out what is causing her to wake up

are you transitioning her to her own room/bed? if yes stick to your guns...do not give in, its for the best :)

has something recently changed in her daily routine? if yes this could be a cause

also figure out what she has eaten during the day....some foods may cause her to become very gassy making it hard for her to sleep.

most times (other than the normal refusal to sleep in her own bed) there could be something medically causing a sleepless night...if it continues for 1 or 2 more nights and isn't normal for her then contact her doctor about it.

and yes it is ok, to let her cry (unless she is in pain) for at most 10-15 mins before going in to comfort her. at 7 months she is able to calm herself and goto sleep...you can try adding relaxing scents through an inscence outside the door, or oils kept out of her reach. you can also try white noises, like water falls, birds chirping, whale noises etc. also make sure she is not too hot/cold (feel the back of her neck to determine her comfort level)

Answer 6

Lack of sleep in children can cause serious
health problems.If parents follow some simple
techniques for making their children sleep,
it can be avoided. I found useful information
at http://nosleep.in/sleepchildren.html

Answer 7

Go give her a warm calming bath and feed her GOOD right afterwards and she'll sleep well! if that doesn't work then maybe something is wrong. give her some meds and maybe she'll sleep, maybe teething...i'm a mother of 5 and my youngest is 8 months so i feel ya.

Answer 8

put a half teaspoon of whiskey in her last bottle, it wont harm