I am going to lose it.

mandaamaee · October 2013

My son will be 1 year on Friday, he is EBF (he also is a great eater during the day, eats everything we eat) and wakes up 2-4 times a night. I cannot do anything to soothe him back to sleep, so I always end up nursing him, then I have to wait around 5 min after he is asleep to put him in his crib, and leave the room. A lot of the time he wakes up when I put him down and stands up and screams. Which causes me to start this vicious cycle all over again. I am at the end of my rope. I can't keep doing this. Any advice?? Thanks!

jnnfrrose6 · October 2013

Nicb13 said:

Have you read up on any sleep training methods? Might do some good at this point because IMO, the older they get, the harder it becomes. Whatever you decide, be 100% consistent and it should work.

Agree. I'm not advocating CIO, either, but do you give your LO any chance to calm himself down? I'd research some methods and use the one that you think is best for your family. I don't have any advice because we sleep trained early for our LO, but GL!

singingirl96 · October 2013

My son was the same way. I ended up doing CIO and had my husband go in to check on him since he has no boobs...

It sucks at first, but my son stopped waking up in the motn within 4 days. In a week, it was really consistent. He now sleeps 12 hours straight... Its amazing.

I never thought I do CIO. I was really against it... but it has saved my sanity.

just sayn.

singingirl96 · October 2013

Oh, and you should definitely put him in his crib awake. He needs to learn how to soothe himself to sleep. Once they can master that, they'll fall asleep on their own if they wake up in the middle of the night.

aeh72 · October 2013

We ended up doing a form of CIO (which, I undersand and respect is not for everyone) and it worked well for us (we would go into his room at a increasing longer intervals of time and pat his back so he knew we were nearby. Eventually, he would fall asleep). What got me through those tough episodes when he would be crying hysterically in his crib is the thought that if I picked him up and rocked him (I wasn't nursing), we (like you) would start the horrible cycle all over again. I feel bad saying this, but that was a worse thought to me than having to listen to him cry because I knew he would eventually fall asleep and I knew in the morning, I'd get a big bright smile when I went into his room.

On a practical note, we also have a projector toy that shines little images on this ceiling while playing lullabies That frequently helps soothe DS when he's having a hard time sleeping.

aylafsu88 · October 2013

The situation you describe is exactly what we experienced. At 10 months I was exhausted from being up 2+ times a night with LO and going through the cycle of trying to put her down, she would wake up and I would nurse her again. I read Sleep easy and found it to be really helpful. We followed a lot of their suggestions but I did make some modifications. Since LO was younger I made it a rule to not nurse her unless it was 6+ hours since her last session, I also had my H get up with her in the MOTN. The first week she was only waking up 1X a night and after that she would STTN. It was amazing to get 8 hours of interrupted sleep.
I agree with PPs, read a couple of sleep training books and see what works for you.

singingirl96 · October 2013

Let me be clear that CIO doesn't have to be just leaving your kid crying until he falls asleep... that is a gross misconception. You do it in intervals. First you go in after 3 minutes, then 5, then 8, then 10... and so forth... Increasing every time. On the first night we didn't even make it to the 10 minute interval. He fell asleep before then.
The second night was tougher, I think we made it to a 12 minute interval.
The third night he fell asleep after 5 minutes.
Then after that, it's been clear sailing...

So it doesn't have to be all or nothing.

blu-eyedwife · October 2013

Another POV - my kid ramped up his eating right around 12 months. For us it was almost exactly the day he turned one. All of a sudden he was eating nonstop, round the clock. I think it was a growth spurt - which makes sense because he jumped percentiles between his 9 month and 12 month visit.

It lasted a couple of weeks, and then he went back to waking/eating once a night. At 14 months he just stopped waking completely.

skibunny59 · October 2013

My 18 month old DD does this. She sleeps in bed with us after her first wake up (usually around midnight). Co sleeping has been a lifesaver because my lazy butt doesn't have to get up. I am no good at sleeptraining. I've never really been consistent with it and it's mostly because I'll try it for one night, realize that it requires WAY more effort than I want to put in and then we are back to our old ways of me just laying her next to me in our bed and offering her the boob. We tried nightweaning over the summer since I was off (I'm a teacher) and it was a big fat fail. After night 8 of neither of us getting any sleep, we just threw in the towel.

We really do get good sleep co sleeping and honestly I love it. I'm at work all day so I like that I can have this special time with her. And I keep thinking that the day will come when I will want to cuddle in bed with her and she won't want to so I might as well enjoy this time with her now while she's little.

We may try nightweaning again. We'll see how it goes. Oh and my DH although he is wonderful help most of the time, is completely useless at night.

GrantHenson · October 2013

I suggest you look into the sleep sense solution. Great help for my lil one

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