Sleep help, 9 month old wants to party at night

scubagirl81

Since you ladies are so awesome, I was hoping you could help me out. DS has actually become a pretty good sleeper by now, he takes 2 decent naps a day, and goes down easily for naps and at night with a little rocking (eating his bottle and rocking usually takes about half an hour). The problem is when he wakes up in the middle of the night. He'll eat without any trouble, it takes him about 20-ish minutes. But after that it's so hard to get him to go to sleep. On a good night it takes another 20 minutes with at least 2 attempts at putting him down (although that often is because he needs to burp), last night was a really bad night and he was still awake 2 hours after he first woke up. I don't know why it's like this in the middle of the night but fine every other time he goes to sleep. How do I fix this?

ToastieSimons

It's a phase.  Both my boys went through it.  I know it sucks but we let him get up and play in the bedroom quietly with the lights dimmed.  I'd let him go 2 hours and then it was bedtime.  The next night was 1.5 hours and then it was bedtime.  3rd night 1 hour.  After about a week or 2 it completely passed.

scubagirl81

He's done the 40 minute thing for quite a while, with the occasional bad night, but now the bad nights are like once a week. I don't mind the 40 minutes as much, although I wish it would go as smoothly as the other times he goes to sleep, but the 2 hour wakings are not cool.

ToastieSimons

How are you putting him down?  

For DS2 What we did was put him back in his crib with all the lights off and say "night night time".

I'd leave him in there till he fussed.  I'd go in rub his back till he calmed down and say "night night time" and leave.

I'd do this until he finally fell asleep.  Once he realized he wasn't getting anymore attention at night he gave up trying to stay awake.   And I didn't make him CIO.  But if he wants to lay in his crib in the dark and talk to himself and play with his lovie I didn't care. If he fussed I went in, but it was usually "play with me, i'm bored" fussing.  

scubagirl81

I've tried that, he will lay in there happily for hours talking to himself and whatever else he can see from his crib. I don't mind that so much, but it keeps us awake and he needs help getting back to sleep eventually, so it's still 2 hours awake in the middle of the night.

dizzycooks

Omg I would take quiet chatter in a heart beat... He can come play with my dd because she's up all night too. Maybe he can make her happy because she's generally pissed.

Aussie45

Maybe try going in and soothing him saying it's 'night night time' when he's up and playing. DD slept from about 12 until 6am when she was about 8w old so I don't have any experience with waking up hungry in the MOTN really. Maybe he's more in the habit of eating rather than being hungry? You could possibly try cutting night feedings out and just going in and soothing him or having your SO go in so that way he doesn't smell the milk.

Either way, sorry you're losing on out sleep It's tough being so tired all the time.

scubagirl81

I don't mind that he wants to eat, I feel like waking up once in the night at 9 months old is fine, especially since he's not eating a lot of solids yet. It just bugs me that it takes at least 45 minutes to get him back to bed, and that the bad nights where it takes even longer seem to be happening more frequently. He's always fought sleep, I know he thinks he's missing out on a lot of excitement. He used to be horrible at napping and great at night, now napping is fine but we're dealing with this motn issue. It's always something, huh? ;-)

Aussie45

scubagirl81 said:

 He used to be horrible at napping and great at night, now napping is fine but we're dealing with this motn issue. It's always something, huh? ;-)

I swear for like the first year, we would get something going right and then something else would fall apart. It's how it always works Hopefully he starts going back to sleep for you soon! I'm a cranky butt when I'm tired lol.