Need advice - 7.5 month old not sleeping in her crib
Megcheer2
member
The past two nights with Sydney have been terrible...we've had to rock her to sleep and then no matter how fast asleep she is, once we put her down in her crib she starts screaming and crying. Once we pick her up, she's back to normal.
Christmas night we were at my parents house and so we figured she was just taken out of her normal routine and didn't like sleeping in the pack and play. She also had some serious gas, so we thought her tummy was hurting.
Then last night she only had a little gas but we gave her gripe water. She was not up nearly as often as the previous night, but she would still be fast asleep with one of us holding her and then the second we put her in her crib, she was awake and screaming again.
Both nights we brought her in our bed and she slept with us. While I love snuggling with her, this is not a habit I am comfortable getting into and obviously we don't sleep as well with her there.
She's been sleeping 12 hours straight since she was 3 1/2 months old, so this is quite the switch for us. I do think her upper middle teeth are coming in, but the amount of screaming she does makes me think its something besides teething. When she's awake and playing, she is fine...its just been at night that she's super fussy.
Any suggestions??
Re: Need advice - 7.5 month old not sleeping in her crib
Oh Megan I feel your pain. Annabelle is not sleeping these days either and last night I brought her to bed with me, because Mommy had to work today.
Maybe Sydney is going through a growth spurt? Or like you said teething? Did you try baby oragel for her gums? If it is gas, I'm sure you know to work her legs like a bicycle, gripe water (which you used). Annabelle had really bad gas on Christmas morning too.
I hope Sydney sleeps better last tonight for you.
I have no real help for you- DS is a little older and going through the same thing- right now he's "napping" in our bed. I joke that he likes high thread count sheets and a nice pillow top mattress.
Occasionally I am able to calm DS down in his crib if he's really, really tired but gently rubbing/cupping his head- if that makes sense, like to make the transition from sleeping in our arms he needs some contact on his head to fall back asleep.
have you tried CIO? And not just sitting her down and just letting her scream, but where you go in every few minutes and just rub her back until she stops, then leave, and repeat as many times as neccessary? John woke up in the middle of the night a few times last week and we did this and the first night it took an hour of rubbing his back, the next night like 20 minutes, but it only lasted 3 days and he is back to normal. The only time I will pick him up out of his crib crying, is when he is hysterical because no amount of rubbing his back will calm him down.
Do you normally rock her to sleep, or do you put her in the crib awake and let her fall asleep on her own?
Sean does this when he is teething. Which also, seems to only really bother him at night. Last night was one of those nights. He was up at 2:00 screaming in his crib and standing up in it. When he is standing up and doing that cry there is no amount of soothing that will get him back to sleep....the only thing that works is bringing him to bed with us. And he knows it too-he points at the door as soon as I pick him up like he is saying "get me out of here!"
I also am really conflicted over doing this....it's NOT a habit I want to start but when its the only way he will get sleep, and I have to work the next day, I don't see many options. One thing I do though is try to transition him back to his crib before he gets up for the morning....after he's been in our bed for an hour or two. Sometimes he doesn't bat an eye and sometimes he throws a fit again, but at least this way I feel like I am showing him, ok, you can come snuggle with us for a little while, but your crib is where you need to be.
Thanks ladies. I agree it could be a growth spurt, but frankly my girl is not even 8 months old and is ready to move into 12-18 month clothes (22lbs in early December) so I don't know when these spurts are going to stop!!
We do not normally rock her to sleep, she typically goes down when she's tired and falls asleep on her own. She is such a good sleeper, which is why I'm so surprised this is going on.
I did try to calm her down without picking her up, but she was so hysterical each time that I just had to pick her up. We let her CIO the first time for about 20 minutes and then couldn't stand it any longer. She had big fat tears rolling down her face when I went in to get her.
I tried twice in the middle of the night to bring her back to her crib and each time I layed her down in it - even though she was sound asleep when I brought her in there - she started screaming as soon as she was back in her crib. I didn't even have enough time to leave the room before it started.
We all need our sleep, but I don't want to get into this habit with her
That is around the size of my daughter, she was 23 pounds at 8 months. Her growth spurts stopped around 12 months, but she went through a lot. I would also guess teething (which was horrible for us. The canines were the worst, but all of them were bad) or maybe an ear infection? If it's out of the blue and she is normally a good sleeper, the first thing I would consider is something unusual or medical, like teething, ear infection, food issue (have you introduced a new food or increased a food in her diet?) constipation or something along those lines and she just sleeps better with you because you make her feel better : )
I just found this blog entry about sleep "regressions" - basically when they are coming up on big developmental milestones sleep can be affected.
Is she cruising around? getting really mobile?
That could be affecting it as well.
https://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006/02/qa_what_are_sle.html
My DD had the same issues with sleeping right before 8 months old. I thought it was a schedule change because we had been on vacation for over a week, but it lasted about a month. She reached a bunch of developmental milestones at once (sitting up, pulling up, and cruising all within a week), so I think she just had so much going through her head with her new skills it was difficult for her sleep.
Also, I've heard that at that age that kids begin to be able to picture their parents in their minds, so if they wake up and they're alone they can get scared and want to be close to you.
Sorry I don't have much advice. We just either stayed up and held her (in the dark) until she fell asleep or brought her to bed with us. It passed after about a month.
I have read that about them regressing on sleep when they are reaching developmental milestones. She doesn't seem close to crawling yet though and she's been sitting on her own for a while now, so it seems unlikely but I could be wrong.
My sister suggested a possible ear infection too, and I figured that since she wasn't pulling at her ears and doesn't have a fever that that wasn't the problem. But it does make sense, so if I find out she didn't sleep well today and tonight is another bad night, I'll call the pediatrician tomorrow.
Ella's had ear infections twice where she didn't pull at her ears and the only symptom was really grumpiness and finally a fever.
I would rule out teething by giving her motrin before bed for one or two nights and getting her ears checked. If those come back "clear" I'd probably do sleep training/ CIO. It sucks but its should only take a day or two.