My 7 mth old sleep well in the day but does not want to go to bed on his own at night. Help me please.?

Question

This is my baby's routine.
9am wake, breastfeed, breakfast
11am sleep
1pm wake, breastfeed and lunch
3pm sleep
5pm wake breastfeed and dinner
7.30pm sleep
8pm wake breastfeed
10pm breastfeed and formula and sleep

He can sleep on this own in the day. Very hard to put him to bed at 7.30pm and 10pm. It takes about 1 hour for him to sleep at 10pm. He would stand up in the cot and smile and laugh at us. He would play with his blanket and roll around. We would keep forcing him to lie down but he would keep climbing up. He is still not very stable standing so he would fall and hit himself on the cot and cry. He also wakes every 3.30 hour in the night. I tried letting him cry but he would only fall asleep after I give him a feed. He would empty my breast before he sleeps. That makes me wonder if he is hungry in the night. There are a occasions where he would sleep 6hrs but that was quite rare. What is the problem? Is there anything I have done wrong?

Answer 1

Try this, Works for me and it is brilliant! My son now sleeps through from 7pm to 7am.
7am Wake baby up. breast feed.
8am breakfast
9am put baby to bed awake and let self settle.
11am Wake baby, breast feed.
12pm lunch.
1pm put baby to bed and let him self settle.
3pm wake baby, breast feed.
4.30. If baby is showing tired signs, take him for a walk in his pram or a drive in the car to encorage a nap. Do not let him sleep past 5.15pm.
5.20 dinner.
6pm bath
6.30 pm breast feed. you must be finished this breast feed at 6.50 so adjust it accordingly.
7pm. put baby to bed awake and let self settle.
It is really important to put the baby to bed at 7pm so it's sleep cycles work with the daylight hours.
10.30 give him a breast feed without waking him up. Gently pick hiim up from the cot and make him comfortable then rub your breast under his nose until he attatches. I find that at this age my son now stirs and half wakes until I start feeding and then settles in to his feed asleep. Gently put him back in his bed.
This may take a few days to get right but I found that my son ajusted really well to this routine.
When you put him to bed, he will probably cry for a while, especially the first time. If his cries are differing in pitch and volume or he is pausing in between, this is protesting. It is ok to let him do this. If his cries are constant and even. There is something wrong that you need to address (ie dirty nappy, too cold, hot etc.) At 7 months he knows that if he acts a certain way, you will react. He does not need a night time feed at this stage.
If he is still feeding, try to reduce the night time feed by a minute each time until it is gone. You can also try giving him water (the idea being that if that is all he is getting, it is not worth waking up for ) sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.
You are feeeding alot during the day too. It would be interesting to find out just how much he is eating with each feed.
You will find (I did) that when he drops a night time feed, he will breast feed for longer during the day. Which means he is still having the same amount of milk.

I know that this means you will have to get up earlier but it really is better than loosing loads of sleep at night.

As for the standing in his cot (doesn't that drive you crazy - my son has just gone through that, he is 8 months old-still does it too.)
Go in after 10 minutes and lie him down. Don't look him in the eyes just lie him down, then leave. In another week or two he will be falling on his bum instead of his head. It will get easier.

I follow Tizzie Hall's "Save our sleep" book. It is brilliant!
All of the routines are in there from birth to 2 years. You can also get individual routines on line.
Good luck
Hope it helps

Answer 2

Sounds like your tot is testing you. He still has his day routine but the night is way out of wack. I would try to set up a more rigid schedule... so for example, he wakes at 9 am.... feed him change him do some house chores play with him then at 12 pm feed him lunch change him and let him sleep for 2-3 hours.... then keep him awake by playing with him, doing some errands, more chores around the house... until 6 pm do the dinner thing and chenging the diaper and bath stuff... then give him his bottle and try feeding him a good prtion for cereal... that way he has the full feeling and he will fall asleep from the busy day... it will take a couple of weeks for him to get used to it but then he will sleep better and you can too! Just make sure you wake him and put him down at the same times! Remeber he is like putty you have to mold him into doing what you need him to do. Good luck!

Answer 3

Try cutting out the last nap. If you can, alter the schedule a little so that he sleeps more earlier on in the day.

Its very, very, very normal for him to wake that frequently in the night. Really really. My daughter woke every hour and a half sometimes for months on end. There's no need to have him cry, he's much too young to understand your reasons for that. Just let him eat at night. You're not doing ANYTHING wrong. You're nursing your baby, feeding him right on track.

Remember that their tummies are very very small. They process their food quickly and need to eat more often. You could also try nursing him a little more often throughout the day - what we call "on demand" - whenever you think he's "asking" for it.

The best thing you can do, is follow HIS cues. He knows what he needs. And I can tell that your instincts are telling you that you do think he's hungry at night.

Babies learn to sleep at night at different levels. Yes, you hear about the wonder baby who sleeps through the night from the beginning, or from 3 months, or 6 months, but the reality is: most of them don't. I know it can be hard, and takes a lot of patience sometimes, but everything you've said about him fits WELL into the range of

completley normal. :)

Answer 4

GIve him a homepathic dose of chamomilla right before bedtime. See your local Whole Foods or natural foods supplier for them, made by Hylands and Boiron. Be sure to follow the label to the letter.

The other thing I did with my own son is jiggle-walk him to sleep to 80s music. Worked like a charm and over 6 months of doing that, about 2 miles a night, I lost 35 pounds!

Also, at 7 months you should get him to cut back on the naps. If he sleeps less during the day he'll sleep better at night.

Increase his food levels might help.

Check his teething levels also, they might be causing him trouble. I recommend, no, make that swear by, Hylands teething tablets. Those are available in most grocery and drug stores and are a godsend. The chamomilla I mentioned above can help on that as well.

Answer 5

I too have a 7 month old who sleeps better during the day than night, but I changed her schedule around in order to get her to sleep more at night. I would say, even though I don't know his need, that he is napping too much during the day. My daughter takes 2 naps, the first for about an hour and a half, and the second for 45 minutes. I wake her up from her naps, unless she had a really tough night of sleep the night before, in which case I may let her sleep a little longer.

Here's her schedule:
9am- wake up, eat
12pm- eat, nap
1:30pm- wake up
3pm- eat
5:00pm- nap
5:45- wake up
6:00pm- eat
8:00pm- eat
10:00pm- eat, bed

Granted, she still wakes up 2 times a night to eat, but she was waking up like 4-5 times a night before I fixed her schedule, so this is much better..

Try cutting back on the naps and see if that doesn't help him get to sleep easier at night. Also, I think it's still common for them to wake up at this age, but no one likes to talk about it!!!

Good luck!

Answer 6

Hi.
Your baby reminds me so much of when I had my son (now 32) he was just the same. I found I was for everlasting feeding him. But sometime we just have to let them be and cry a little, might find this quite disturbing but they do tire in the end. You have done nothing wrong my dear. If you are fearful of him falling and hurting himself in the cot, have you tried padding the sides? Maybe he's just an energic little man. Have you spoken with your GP or plunket nurse? Hope you find more answers, but what works for one doesn't always work for others. Good luck.
Sue

Answer 7

He sleeping to much during the day. At 7mos he should be awake more. Try keeping him occupied with toys or some stimulating motor games. He will be tired at night and should sleep without waking. Put him to bed about 8:30 and he will wake up about 7:00. He just has his nights and days mixed up. It may take you a few days to get him straightened out, but well worth it for you!

Answer 8

during the first three months of an infant's life being woken up on a nightly basis is presumed. however, after 3 months you can get him closer to your schedule but it may be pretty hard at first. try cutting out his 7 thirty nap so that he will need a full nights sleep.

Answer 9

Carrying the baby, walk around the house,whispering nice things and gently pat it on the bottom. Worked for me everytime. Rob

Answer 10

I wish i can my 11 mths old still wakes up at night and never puts himself to sleep

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