desperate sleep help

my ds is almost 9 months old.

he rarely sleeps through the night.

for a while there we thought we reached the point where he was done waking up but of course he got sick and now wakes up again.

But the problem is he gets himself so worked up that we can not calm him down and then we end up just giving him the bottle.

I never thought we'd be those people giving a bottle at 9 months still but we are just so exhausted we do it.

but now were stuck. we don't know what to do. if we let him cry he gets more and more hysterical (and also afraid hes going to wake up dd). and then if we go in there, whether we pick him up or not it gets worse. He doesn't even want to cuddle, he squirms. I don't know what he wants. So then we just give him the bottle to quiet him down and eventually get him back to sleep.

I'm really at a loss. I don't know what to do.

Meanwhile, my dd slept through at 6 weeks, regressed then we did the Ferber method, worked beautifully. This kid, not so much.

help

desperate sleep help

Is this a recent thing? Has it been going on for awhile? Because it sounds like my daughter when she goes through a sleep regression/teething.

desperate sleep help

well yes and no. because he never went more than a few days sleeping through the night!
I just don't know what to do

desperate sleep help

Is your LO breast or bottle fed? Our LO was born in May (shes about 8 1/2 months) and still requires 1 MOTN feeding/nursing session. We hired a sleep coach a couple months back and she said that from 6 months-1year, about half of all breast fed babies wont desire to eat during the night, but that the other 50% do.....and that it is perfectly age-appropriate for 1 MOTN feeding at this age. I'm not sure if it is any different for formula fed babes......
If your LO gets that 1 bottle a night, is he satisfied? Or, are there more wake ups?

desperate sleep help

My DS did not sleep better until he was 12 months old. He is now 21 months old and usually wakes up at least once per night 3-4 times a week. I think some kids are just crumby sleepers. He slept much better from 12-18 months than he has from 18-21 months - thank you teething and colds!

Re: desperate sleep help

No advice other than maybe he's just not ready. Unfortunately, some babies just don't sleep through night, and it sucks because it's 2016 and we have homes to take care of, and jobs to do, and other kids and responsibilities to attend to - so it just really sucks when you can't sleep!

Neither of my kids could go all night without eating until they were close to 1. Nothing else worked. They were hungry, they were babies. Not all babies can go that long without eating - it sucks, but there's not much you can do to change them physiologically. My daughter is nearly 18 months and still doesn't sleep through the night - there's nothing I can do to change it. I don't have to go in to her anymore, but I hear her crying and waking up.

Re: desperate sleep help

Re: desperate sleep help

Maybe reassess bedtime and wake time? Maybe try an earlier or later bedtime based on what you are doing now. Also, nap schedule. He should be taking 2-3 naps. First nap is 1.5-2 hours after waking and then last nap should wake no more than 2-3 hours before bedtime. Good luck!!

desperate sleep help

What we did to break the MOTN feed was lower the amount of formula in the bottle every 3 nights by one ounce. So nights one-three he got 8 ounces. Nights 4-6 he got 7ounces, nights 7-9 he got 6 ounces...etc. By time we hit 3 ounces we could soothe him back without it. Then we worked in him self soothing.

I will say this. With my now3.5 year old, I think we pulled that MOTN bottle too soon and it KILLED us. He was up several times a night and it was a FIGHT. He also didn't sleep through the night consistently till he was 2. Some kids are bad sleepers. We eventually hired a sleep trainer when he was 17 months because I was just about due with #2 and I couldn't inagine being up with both. The trainer was fantastic and just helped me to understand that CIO and Ferber were not right for all kids. We did a gradual release method (kind of like the bottle above) and it worked great. We also got rid of the paci the same way!

Ds2 is easier....but still wakes up 1-2 times a night. Thankfully not a fight---he usually goes right back down.

Good luck.

Re: desperate sleep help

desperate sleep help

My DS did not sleep through the night regularly until about a year. And even then we still had period of time when it got bad. We did CIO but that would only work for a certain amount of time.

Re: desperate sleep help

How long has it been going on? Is it possible he has an ear infection? Try giving him tylenol or advil before he goes down tonight - if he's fine, I'd take him to the ped in the morning to have his ears checked.
Sitting up and sucking on the bottle would releive the pressue and pain if it's an ear infection.

My kids were good sleepers, but when they woke up, like that, non consolable, it was always due to an ear infection, and kids usually get them after being sick/having a cold etc.

Re: desperate sleep help

Need more info here. Is he eating enough during the day? Is he falling asleep at night while eating? What's your routine to put him to bed?