Please give me your ideas, I'm tired!

[GooseMama]

I have a 9 month old daughter who has never been a good sleeper but she is clearly not getting enough sleep. She will nap once, maybe twice a day if I'm lucky for about 45 minutes. I make sure her belly is full of cereal and then I nurse her down at night(we co-sleep) between 7-8pm but no matter what time she goes down, or how tired she is, she will always treat it like a nap and will be awake 45 minutes later. Sometimes I am able to nurse her to sleep again but she is again awake 30-45 minutes later awake and ready to play. Out of frustration I will usually take her downstairs to play until I'm ready for bed at abt 11pm. This is not a good plan I know! She will only sleep for longer periods of time unless I am in bed with her and I'm desperately missing my child free time at night! She wakes up at 7 am. Any ideas on how to get her to sleep for longer periods when I'm not in bed with her? Thank you!

[Just1More]

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Edited by Just1More - 3/9/12 at 11:01am

[matumama]

I have to go to bed now or I will be sunk, but for a thought about daytime activities relating to nighttime sleep read my thread called something like "Toddler sitting on my head, HELP"

[MommaKendra]

I am having the same issue and my dd is almost the same age as yours. She was sleeping decently from 3 - 4.5 months but regressed (?). Now she is up every 1-2 hours all night, usually instantly if I try to leave her. This has been going on for over 3 months. I love cosleeping but want my evenings back! And all this waking up has left me exhausted.  I miss having time to do things for me, catching up on house stuff or just watching a show with DH. I am against CIO. I'll be paying attention to this thread for sure. 

It is reassuring g to know I'm not alone though :)

[excited2bemommy09]

I also have experienced times like these with my two girls (Now 3 and 20 months.) And I'm sure I'll go through something similar with our next little girl who is almost here! I feel like all my mommy friends go through this transition stage at about 9 months! Even mom's with babies who slept soundly all night before. I agree with the previous reply that teething can really mess with our children! Hylands teething tablets have helped our girls calm down enough to sleep better. Another thing that has helped a lot is brewing Chamomile tea and watering it down for them to drink in a sippy or bottle. They end up relaxing and falling asleep withing minutes it feels like! Now I'm not a Dr. so I don't know if you would want to check with someone first if that's considered safe or not as we have never checked with anyone "high up". :o) Also, it could be diapers maybe? We use cloth diapers and EC and I think around 9 months or so my girls both would start peeing a whole lot more and if they weren't in an absorbent enough diaper they would wake up more as they were uncomfortable. We've been using pocket diapers and stuffing them with two microfiber cloths folded in thirds (from the auto department of stores) and one organic cloth of some sort (hemp, bamboo, cotton) and that seems to hold much better than even the brand name overnight disposable diapers we tried for awhile with no luck. You may also want to look into learning a little bit of reflexology for times when she wakes in the night and you want her to fall back asleep. There are points on our feet that work wonders for making us relax. It's helpful for even daytime events when your trying to keep your baby calm and quiet. I've used it many times through weddings, recitals, services etc! Anyways, whatever it is, I hope it all works out and you can get your nights back to normal! Stay strong and don't loose your mind!! Babies go through stages and I'm sure this one will pass!

[Taos Mountain Mama]

This is not going to work for a middle-of-the-night strategy (my daughter is almost one and she still wakes up every 1-2 hours), but this works for me when I put her down:

I nurse her until she is just about asleep (this is usually between 7-730pm). Then, I put her down on her tummy and pat her back and shush her. I'm talking a pretty forceful pat on the back (I mean, don't hit her or anything, but more than just a little tap). Eventually she'll fall asleep. Then, when she wakes up, instead of letting her have the boob again, I gently put her back on her tummy again and do the pat the back thing. USUALLY this gives me 3-4 hours between 7 and 10 so I can have some alone time.

And, again, she comes in bed with us around 12 at which point she nurses about every hour. I've never even tried the pat the back technique in bed with us, but it does work when I'm not in bed with her!

Just a thought! You never know until you try!