Baby Sleep Issues

Author
Discussion

paoloh

Original Poster:

8,617 posts

211 months

Friday 27th November 2009
quotequote all
Our 9 month old will sleep for a maximum of 2-3 hours a night.

Anyone got any secret methods of getting a child to sleep?

Stevenj214

4,941 posts

235 months

Friday 27th November 2009
quotequote all
https://www.woombieuk.co.uk might help?

ETA: not sure what PH rules are, but thought I'd add that the site is run by a friend of mine.

Edited by Stevenj214 on Friday 27th November 19:29

paoloh

Original Poster:

8,617 posts

211 months

Friday 27th November 2009
quotequote all
Stevenj214 said:
I will show this to the powers that be.

cheeky_chops

1,603 posts

258 months

Friday 27th November 2009
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what time to they go to bed? And what do you do when he/she wakes?

Halb

53,012 posts

190 months

Friday 27th November 2009
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cheeky_chops said:
what time to they go to bed? And what do you do when he/she wakes?
The baby or the powers that be?biggrin

paoloh

Original Poster:

8,617 posts

211 months

Saturday 28th November 2009
quotequote all
cheeky_chops said:
what time to they go to bed? And what do you do when he/she wakes?
She goes to bed at 6.30. wakes at 10ish and from then on it is chaos.

We've tried keeping her up later and that fails miserably.

Bed time routine is 6ish, a bedtime bath, a nice warm bottle.

road_rager

1,091 posts

206 months

Saturday 28th November 2009
quotequote all
Hungry?, that normaly wakes them up

paoloh

Original Poster:

8,617 posts

211 months

Saturday 28th November 2009
quotequote all
road_rager said:
Hungry?, that normaly wakes them up
She does have milk or water each time she wakes.

Lemmonie

6,314 posts

262 months

Saturday 28th November 2009
quotequote all
Where does she sleep? Your room or own room?

When she wakes at 10pm for a feed where do you feed her?

Assuming she doesnt like to go to sleep again, what do you do?

What people forget is that children need to be sleep "trained" They dont know how to do this on their own. A 9 month old will quite often require a feed during the night still and may possibly go through a growth spurt which can disrupt the nights as they require more food.

Your bedtime routine is spot on. When she wakes for a feed make sure you do it in the same room as she sleeps, keep lights low, no talking, minimal disruption, feed, change is needed (it was recomended to me you dont change but my little boy would often then wake up wet having soaked through a nappy) Then place back in bed and walk out.

This is tough bit: COntrolled crying. Its a technisue used to teach babies to resettle themselves after waking. Let her cry for just a minute, sound like no time but just one minute of listening to your child cry is enough to break your heart! Then go into her, cuddle, comfort, then as she stops pop her back in and leave them room. Chances are she'll do it again! Leave her 3 minutes this time and increase each time. She will eventually fall asleep.

You may need to do this for several evenings but i can guarentee you after about 3 to 5 nights she will learn to settle herself. Expect the first night to be doing this for over an hour or two.
Each night it will be less time and then none at all.

My very top tips though are this:

1) be consistant and dont back down
2)send your wife out for the first night and do it alone. It is very hard for a mother to do and it will be easier all round if she doesnt feel strong enough to do it for her to go out.

Good luck though. Once mastered your daughter will be heppier for it. She doesnt want to be distresed and awake either!

whirligig

941 posts

202 months

Saturday 28th November 2009
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Top tips from Lemmonie there. We had this problem with our eldest and it was exhausting. My OH was away for up to 6 months at a time (navy!) and I was knackered beyond belief. The controlled crying is very hard to cope with at first but SO worth it. I reckon it took me about 3 weeks to crack it but I went from having a wee boy who was awake more than he slept to one that would sleep for a straight 9 hours.

Good luck and I really sympathise!

staceyb

7,107 posts

231 months

Saturday 28th November 2009
quotequote all
How does the mini sleep during the day and when?
Do they do activities during the day?

paoloh

Original Poster:

8,617 posts

211 months

Saturday 28th November 2009
quotequote all
Lemmonie said:
Where does she sleep? Your room or own room?

When she wakes at 10pm for a feed where do you feed her?

Assuming she doesnt like to go to sleep again, what do you do?

What people forget is that children need to be sleep "trained" They dont know how to do this on their own. A 9 month old will quite often require a feed during the night still and may possibly go through a growth spurt which can disrupt the nights as they require more food.

Your bedtime routine is spot on. When she wakes for a feed make sure you do it in the same room as she sleeps, keep lights low, no talking, minimal disruption, feed, change is needed (it was recomended to me you dont change but my little boy would often then wake up wet having soaked through a nappy) Then place back in bed and walk out.

This is tough bit: COntrolled crying. Its a technisue used to teach babies to resettle themselves after waking. Let her cry for just a minute, sound like no time but just one minute of listening to your child cry is enough to break your heart! Then go into her, cuddle, comfort, then as she stops pop her back in and leave them room. Chances are she'll do it again! Leave her 3 minutes this time and increase each time. She will eventually fall asleep.

You may need to do this for several evenings but i can guarentee you after about 3 to 5 nights she will learn to settle herself. Expect the first night to be doing this for over an hour or two.
Each night it will be less time and then none at all.

My very top tips though are this:

1) be consistant and dont back down
2)send your wife out for the first night and do it alone. It is very hard for a mother to do and it will be easier all round if she doesnt feel strong enough to do it for her to go out.

Good luck though. Once mastered your daughter will be heppier for it. She doesnt want to be distresed and awake either!
She has her own room.

When she first wakes, we give her a bottle/water/dummy

Always in her room with no lights/no eye contact/no talking

She always goes straight back down after waking but wakes 3-5 nightly

Is this just normal?

paoloh

Original Poster:

8,617 posts

211 months

Saturday 28th November 2009
quotequote all
staceyb said:
How does the mini sleep during the day and when?
Do they do activities during the day?
I get up with her at 6am.

Her first nap is 9.30 for 30 minutes

2nd nap 12.30ish for 1.5 to 2 hours

3rd nap between 4 to 5 for 15 minutes ( if she doesn't have this one, she is a moo to get to go down at night )

Lots of activities. She is already cruising around the furniture.

Biggles111

463 posts

270 months

Sunday 29th November 2009
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For what it's worth we have the same problem; ours is 10 months old, so you're not on your own in suffering.

I think at this age a lot of it is down to a growth spurt/genuine hunger. However, controlled crying is definitely worth a go as they get older. We're on our third (and last), and did do controlled crying on the first two when they were a bit older.

cheeky_chops

1,603 posts

258 months

Sunday 29th November 2009
quotequote all
pretty good advise above

my 1st slept thru no problem

No2 was a bugger - loved his 4am feed and wouldnt let it go. Every night crying for it @4am. Only way we broke it was let him cry, pop in for a shhhhh and a rub on the back every 10 mins. 3 nights, hour each solid crying and eventually he just gave up!

rocksteadyeddie

7,971 posts

234 months

Monday 30th November 2009
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Some wise words above, paricularly about allowing them to cry. If you have a baby monitor chuck it in the bin. If she needs you to wake up she'll make sure that you do. We have a 9 month old (child number 4) and she goes through the night as often as not now.

What are you feeding your little one? I suspect there's a good chance she is hungry. We feed ours a mixture of baby food, and food from our own plates. Just mash it up in a bowl with a fork. She seems to sleep better when she has had home made baby food than the stuff out of the jar. I suspect this is because it has some proper lumps to keep her full for longer.

HTH as its bloody hard hard work when you're up that many times a night.

paoloh

Original Poster:

8,617 posts

211 months

Monday 30th November 2009
quotequote all
rocksteadyeddie said:
Some wise words above, paricularly about allowing them to cry. If you have a baby monitor chuck it in the bin. If she needs you to wake up she'll make sure that you do. We have a 9 month old (child number 4) and she goes through the night as often as not now.

What are you feeding your little one? I suspect there's a good chance she is hungry. We feed ours a mixture of baby food, and food from our own plates. Just mash it up in a bowl with a fork. She seems to sleep better when she has had home made baby food than the stuff out of the jar. I suspect this is because it has some proper lumps to keep her full for longer.

HTH as its bloody hard hard work when you're up that many times a night.
She eats Weetabix for breakfast with some toast. Followed by a bottle.

Lunch is home made food. Lasagne, pie, risotto.

Evening meal is whatever we're having.

Bottle before bed.

She is already on full solids.

staceyb

7,107 posts

231 months

Monday 30th November 2009
quotequote all
paoloh said:
staceyb said:
How does the mini sleep during the day and when?
Do they do activities during the day?
I get up with her at 6am.

Her first nap is 9.30 for 30 minutes

2nd nap 12.30ish for 1.5 to 2 hours

3rd nap between 4 to 5 for 15 minutes ( if she doesn't have this one, she is a moo to get to go down at night )

Lots of activities. She is already cruising around the furniture.
I would cut out her morning nap and move her lunch time nap forward a touch.

Penny-lope

13,645 posts

200 months

Monday 30th November 2009
quotequote all
staceyb said:
paoloh said:
staceyb said:
How does the mini sleep during the day and when?
Do they do activities during the day?
I get up with her at 6am.

Her first nap is 9.30 for 30 minutes

2nd nap 12.30ish for 1.5 to 2 hours

3rd nap between 4 to 5 for 15 minutes ( if she doesn't have this one, she is a moo to get to go down at night )

Lots of activities. She is already cruising around the furniture.
I would cut out her morning nap and move her lunch time nap forward a touch.
I'd agree....my little one got a few hrs early afternoon, but no other naps unless he was really grumpy.

Bill

54,163 posts

262 months

Monday 30th November 2009
quotequote all
Agree with what has been said already (although I can't remember precise dates miniBill dropped sleeps) IIRC he was only on one sleep during the day at that stage.

If you do do the controlled crying thing (as people has said it's tough but worthwhile) it's important to remember that you're not making her cry, you're letting her cry. And they will, at times it'll sound like someone's in there stabbing them so send your SWMBO out.