Hi all
My daughter is almost 9.5 months old. For the most part, she has always been a great sleeper (sleeping 10-12 hrs at night and taking two 1-2 hr naps during the day). She has been pulling herself up for the last few weeks but has really "perfected" the move in the last 7 days. She can get up with barely any effort but still has not figured out how to get herself back down. Here is the problem - she is now waking at night and standing in her crib and crying until I come rescue her because she can't get back down. I know stirring a little at night is pretty normal but she has always just crawled around her crib a little and fallen back asleep. Over the last week she has waken up 1-2 times, will stand and cry and I have had to go in her room and rock her back to sleep. Last night was the worst - she was up 4 TIMES! I tried to go in and just lay her back down in her crib (not pick her up) but she threw a fit!!! Total tantrum. So I did that twice and then caved in and rocked her back to sleep. Should I just continue to lay her down (and not pick her up) and let her CIO until she falls back asleep? I am desperate for some suggestions. It has been a week of interrupted sleep for both of us and so we are both a little "fussy". What can I do to get her out of this habit?
Thank you!
Re: HELP PLEASE!! 9 month old waking several times at night to stand = POOR SLEEP
I am not sure how much advice I can offer. DS was the same way at 9months. Our pedi said that babies 9-12months can go through major sleep regression because of all the milestones they are meeting. Like their little brains are moving so fast with all this new information they don't want to sleep...think about when you are excited for something happening the next day, it's hard to sleep. DS is 10 months, and still wakes up at least once at night, sometimes we hear him just playing in the crib, other times he screaming to get out. I have never been able to do CIO method, so I try my hardest to comfort him without picking him up, but sometimes I have to, I rock him to sleep, I started using a noise maker, the night light that shines stars on the ceilings....I know they are a little distracting, but I feel like he is focusing on one thing and it calms him down. Make sure all toys are put away in his room, because if he sees a ball or anything, he wants to jump out of my arms to play.
If she is having trouble getting back down, this is something she has to learn. When DS learned how to pull himself up, he didn't know how to bring himself down. During the day, we would encourage him to pull himself up using a table or a chair, and then show him to bend his knees to bring himself down. Eventually he got it, and now if he gets up in the crib, he will sit back down, grab his blanket and soothe himself back to sleep. It is a phase and should pass soon, but with us, one phase passed, he slept great for a few weeks, and then he learned something new and was waking up again. Hope this help a little, and hoping this phase passes quickly. it is tough, we went two weeks with DS waking up 2am and staying up until 4am..it was brutal! Sometimes we just brought him into bed with us, but we kept all the lights off, did not talk to him, or play with him, I just kept trying to lay him down and say it's bed time bed time.
Yep. It seems like every time DS learns something new, he goes through a few nights or a week of bad sleep. It does get better though.