Re: My baby won't sleep anymore!!!

Posted by E.S. on May 28, 2003 at 00:56:23:

In Reply to: Re: My baby won't sleep anymore!!! posted by Marie on May 27, 2003 at 16:59:36:

: : Help, what is going on. Up to the last week or so my son has been a good napper and night sleeper. For the last week he'll take 1 , 1 hour nap all day and any other attempts at more naps go down in flames. He's also been waking up 3-4 times a night. He gets a bottle once and then binky the other times he gets up. He also won't sleep on his back, at all and this is becoming a big problem since he can roll over. What am I going to do with him..... I am really tired and stressed out. I need advice and lots of it.

: Hi Sue,

: My son does the exact same thing. He is seven months old. He has started waking 3-4 times each night, and maybe one night in a week to give mommy a break he'll wake just once. I feed him once too and other times I just try to put him back to sleep. I have to stand by his crib and pat him gently a few times to make him sleep. Unfortunately he does not take a pacifier. My friend who is training to be a pediatrician advised me to let him cry it out at night. She told me to just go into his room once every 10-15 mins but not to pick him up. She said eventually in about a week's time he will realize that waking up in the middle of the night is not worth it and will learn to settle himself back to sleep. I tried it, but it did not work. My son's screaming was loud enough to bring the roof down at 1 AM, my daughter woke up from it and she started yelling too. So after 15 mins I ended up feeding him. Apparently you need a heart of iron and nerves of steel to make it work! Try it if it works for you.

: My son too sleeps on his side and ends up on his tummy. He will not sleep on his back. He sleeps curled up like a little ball in a corner of the crib. I don't worry too much because he has lots of head control and can roll both ways with ease, which he does many times at night and always ends up in the bottom right corner of the crib, no matter where I put him.

Hi Marie,

I believe in the crying it out method like your friend but only if one is absolutely sure that the baby is not wet, sick, hungry, or teething. Most babies that do keep waking up at night are waking up because they are hungry because their appetites do increase after 4 months. I have learned that with my 2 babies and other peoples babies and doctor's advice. If one wakes up and feeds the baby, makes sure diaper is not wet, if teething and gives medicine, and baby is not sick, and if baby still cries after all of this, then crying it out would work and it only takes 1 or 2 times. I think checking on them every 10 to 15 minutes duing the crying out method would work or watching them through monitors. It seems heartbreaking but it would work.

According to my babies pediatrician who is chief of pediatrics and genetics (I took my babies today for well checks and asked him many questions about different things), he says that most babies after 4 months should already be sleeping through the night. He also says that babies are very intelligent and know that all they have to do is cry and their parents will pick them up. They know how to manipulate them by crying.

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