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Trouble with my daughter sleeping

bowlngirlbowlngirl member
in Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months

Help! My daughter (8 months) does not think she needs to sleep.  She will only nap for about 20-30 minutes at a time in her crib.  If you hold her you might get lucky and she will sleep for an hour.  Night time isn't much better.  I rock her to sleep then lay her in her crib around 8:30.  She is back awake before 12.  Then she is usually up around 2 wanting a bottle. The up again by 5.  I am cutting back on the amount of formula she gets every night hoping to get her away from the night time feeding.  When she wakes in the middle of the night I rock her back to sleep.  The second I try and lay her down she is awake and crying.  So we sleep in the chair a lot of nights.  She is horrible about self soothing.  I have tried letting her cry but she will cry for hours.  Many suggest giving them a bath to calm them before bed.  Not an option, she is scared to death of the water.  I don't know what else to try.

Thanks,

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Re: Trouble with my daughter sleeping

  • rspalding001rspalding001 member
    edited February 2015
    Was she doing this before you started cutting back on bottles? Maybe she is really hungry and isn't ready to be night weaned yet? I nursed my daughter in the night when she woke up until she stopped waking up at night.... Around 10 months. Maybe she isn't ready yet?
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  • CrequitoCrequito member
    Around 9 months we went through a really horrible sleep regression with my daughter.  She refused to sleep in her crib and my husband and I would up sleeping sitting up with her in a chair, alternating nights for 2 weeks.  At that point I was at my wit's end and decided to try the cry it out method.  I knew she wasn't waking from hunger, she had been sleeping 8-10 hours at night already for a few months.  I made sure she got a good dinner in her and that she wasn't gassy and started the CIO method.  It took 4 days and she was back to sleeping in her crib for 8-10 hours at night with no issues going to bed.  Every now and then she'll decide to fight bedtime but we've kept the same routine in place and 95% of the time she gets in her bed with no issues and puts herself to sleep.  I thought I would never try CIO but I guess getting to an exhausted place I figured it was the only chance I had left.  The first night was the hardest but she didn't really cry that long.
    Check with your pediatrician first though, maybe your LO needs a late night feeding still?  Our pedi was on board with CIO.  And the morning after the first night my baby girl woke up with a smile like nothing had happened the night before, so you don't have to worry about it scarring your child.
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  • SLGILL1978SLGILL1978 member
    I wouldn't cut out any middle of the night feedings until she is at least a year old. That is baby's main source of nutrition.

    To help with self soothing, does she take a paci? How was her sleeping prior to this? Did you sleep train? Is co sleeping an option to help you both get rest?


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  • megledumegledu member
    Hi Crequito - your LO sounds like she was going through what my almost 14 month old son is doing now. He slept through the night at 11- weeks and we knew we were so lucky but now we get about three nights a week with the other 4 alternating between my husband or me sleeping with him in the chair in our living room. 

    We feed him a good dinner, give him his milk separately in the living room with us and let him snuggle with me for about 15 minutes (max) - he is usually asleep when we take him up to his room/ crib.That's usually between 8-8:30pm. On the nights that he wakes up, it's usually around midnight and he refuses to go back to his crib... refuses to even let us rock him back to sleep in his room at all. After about an hour of crying and walking and trying to soothe him to no avail, we end up downstairs with him sound asleep on one of us. If we move to take him back upstairs he somehow knows and the process starts all over. 

    Like you, I never thought I could do CIO - the methods seem so harsh. Can you tell me how you started and what you did to get through those 4 days? I know he's not hungry, these nights are different from the teething tears (which I understand completely)... we are just exhausted but I feel so bad complaining because I know there are so many mamas/ daddies that have it so much worse! Any advice you can give is SO GREATLY appreciated!!

    Thanks!
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