I Need Help!

[Amandahas4]

My 9mth old daughter is keeping me up all night. We go to bed at 10:30pm we lay there and nurse. Then she plays, and then around 12pm she will fall asleep and i'll put her in her crib. Last night she woke up at 2:30am and nursed several times before we got up at 7am. If i move she'll wake up, if hubby moves, she'll wake up. She crys until i put my nipple in her mouth! She's using me as a human pacifier. She's always slept with us. Maybe 6 times she's slept in her crib. For two night's in a row she slept ALL night! That was about a month ago. My Dr. Says she has no reason to get up at night at all, and that i need to put her to bed awake, and when she wakes again i need to let her cry it out. i have 3 other kids and never dealt with this with any of them. What should i do?

[OTMomma]

Cry it out is cruel and mean, no matter what your ped says. I think there are several things to consider- How is she napping during the day - being either over tired or over rested can lead to the night time issues. Is she teething? Is she learning a new skill, walking, crawling, etc? Both of those caused my babies to sleep poorly and want to nurse all night.

One trick that really helped my dd to sleep better at night was to give her a bowl of oatmeal near bedtime so her tummy was good and full (I think she was over a year when I did that, but I don't recall for sure) that was on top of nursing on demand.

You should also consider posting in Night Time Parenting.

[Ruthla]

Your ped is wrong. Maybe there's no physiological need for her to wake at night, but that doesn't mean that emotional needs for nightwaking aren't valid!!! But the thing is there there might be physical reasons that your baby is waking at night- just because SOME 9mos are ready to sleep straight through doesn't mean that all of them are!

It's possible that your LO is busy and distracted during the day and doesn't nurse enough, and needs the nutrition of nursing at night. She might be teething and need the comfort of nursing- this also would explain the disrupted sleep.

I really hate it when pediatricians give out parenting advice disguised as medical advice.

[nummies]

CIO (crying it out) is child abuse and never ok in any circumstance.

How is she napping during the day? Is it possible that she is sleeping too much or too little during the day? This can really affect their nightime sleeping. Does she need an earlier bedtime? Going to bed at midnight and waking at 7am doesn't seem like enough sleep at night. Maybe she is overtired? Good luck!

[Shazer]

Your DD is at the stage for repeated night wakings due to all of the changes she is going through at present: teething, crawling, talking, studying things,etc. It can be a miserable time for parents because of the lack of sleep. My DD is now ten months and the first few weeks of October were hell. She had teeth coming in, woke up every night and would be awake for hours no matter what we did, nursed frantically all night when she was sleeping. She tossed and turned while she was sleeping so I didn't get much sleep even when she was asleep. If you go to the NIghttime Parenting forum, you'll find a lot of similar issues.

It is getting much better for us. She now has periods of sleep for three hours. She has never ever slept through the night.

Anyway, know that your baby isn't trying to be this way. She just has so much to process, so many bodily feelings she is dealing with, that she needs the time to work it out. Have patience, nap when she does if you can.