11 months & STILL NOT SLEEPING, HELP!

rogers1222

My son is 11 months old and still not sleeping through the night.  He wont go to sleep on his own and wakes up 3-4 times a night.  I am at my wits end.  my husband and I dont know what to do anymore.  We have tried letting him cry it out but he gets so worked up he cries for HOURS.  The only way we can get him to sleep is to rock him initially and lay him down completely sleeping, then each time he wakes up during the night i have to go get him, he wont put himself back to sleep on his own.  Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated!

awesnap

Have you tried rocking him until he's calm but not asleep, then putting him down? It would take a long time/multiple pick ups and downs but the idea is for him to fall asleep on his own, which might be easier if he is calm and not worked up.

Another suggestion is to sleep train when they are very very tired so you just put them down and they can't help but sleep. Not sure if you were following Ferber or just winging it.

Sorry that's all I got.  

dragon_chica

I'm sorry to say it, your son will STTN when he's ready.  DD didn't STTN until after 12 months.  DS has only STTN once.  No amount of CIO, rocking, solids, whatever else will make it happen until he's ready.

ldcoffel

We recently saw a sleep specialist who worked out a plan to help DS because he was waking 8-10 times a night. We are in the middle of his "training," but it has improved already. You might try looking one up in your area. Our problem is that I nursed him every time, so DH started sleeping with DS on a mattress in his room and not letting him get off. He did it for bedtime and naps for three days and now I take over. Then we transition to the crib.

katie4253

dragon_chica:

I'm sorry to say it, your son will STTN when he's ready.  DD didn't STTN until after 12 months.  DS has only STTN once.  No amount of CIO, rocking, solids, whatever else will make it happen until he's ready.

Yes.  This was us too.  Sleep training worked for going down and getting better about how he went down after he woke up in the middle of the night.  But, he just started sstn like a week ago (and it is still somewhat inconsistent.  

meg1974

From what I've read and heard, I don't think it's that abnormal. DD#1 didn't STTN until 13 months. DD#2 still gets up once or twice a night (she only eats once). 

There are some really good tips on this web site:

https://www.askdrsears.com/topics/fussy-baby/31-ways-get-your-baby-sleep-and-stay-asleep

What helped us was putting her to bed different ways (i.e. nursing, rocking, etc.) so she doesn't get used to one way of falling asleep. We don't do CIO, but we also don't rush in every time she wakes up. Sometimes she will fuss a little and then fall back to sleep. Do you use pacis? If not, you could try introducing one. Also, try white noise, a sleep sheep or something similar.  

eric and jess

We were in a similiar place a few weeks ago, except that we couldn't get him to stay asleep when he put him down, so we co-slept.... I had tried other non-crying interventions before, but I just bit the bullet and tried Ferber because I didn't know what else to do.  Likewise, our LO would cry for ours on end PRE-FERBER.... but with the check-ins at 1 min, 2 min, 4 min, etc he actually did fall asleep.  The first night took 90 minutes.  Night 6 took 10 min and night 7 took 50 min, but he actually took a nap today.  It was a big accomplishment for him... and he is getting SO much more sleep.

I would check it out - soon your little one will be able to climb out of the crib - that is why I decided to try Ferber now.

kalioury

In the same boat for the most part... LO will be 1 in 3 weeks and we've been dealing with this since birth. To say we're exhausted is an understatement! I read Ferber a few weeks ago and realized a lot of my son's problem was his sleep associations... everytime he was falling asleep, I was feeding him and rocking him. So it was very obvious that when he woke up in the middle of the night, he simply didn't know HOW to go back to sleep without me rocking him and a bottle in his mouth. It's not his fault, it's how he was taught to fall asleep, essentially. So what I did to start out small was to start feeding him his night time bottle BEFORE I changed his diaper and put him in his jammies. That way he wouldn't fall asleep while eating. I also let him play a little bit. To my surprise, for the last couple weeks, when I put him in his crib awake, he cries for literally less than 5 minutes and then lays down and falls asleep on his own. I was kind of surprised how easy it was. BUT he is still waking up, and I'm trying super hard to not give him a bottle because it's the easy way out and I know it'll put him back to sleep... my next step is weaning him off the night time feed in hopes that he will just stop waking up in the middle of the night looking for it. He did it last weekend one night, but hasn't since. It's hard!