Night wakings as well for 10 month old son

[JulianosMom]

Hi all,

I am new to this website as I just heard about the baby whisperer. 

My 10 month old son just recently switched all his nap and bedtime routine on me as well he is waking up a lot during the night. 

He has been sleeping thru the night since he was 4 months old and ever since he started teething, he has become a very fusy baby to put to sleep.  I usually give him his milk at 830pm and then hug him for a bit and then off to his crib he goes and falls asleep on his own.  For the past 2 weeks I would say he now wants us to walk him to sleep and I have to wait until he is sleeping before I put him in his crib.  Then he often wakes up now so I pick him up and then he falls asleep and back he goes again.  This happens every couple of hours.  I usually get tired after a few times where I give up and just bring him to bed with us where I know I can fall asleep and not have to worry about dropping him from my arms.  He top 3 teeth have cut so I am not sure what else it could be.

Also he doesn't seem to like his crib during the nap time. If I put him in his crib during the day, he will only sleep 45 min but if he is in my bed(even without me) he will sleep 1 1/2 to 2 hours both morning and afternoon nap.

I don't know what to do and I am getting really nervous that if he keeps waking up and then I will have 2 baby's constantly awake.

Can you ladies please shed some light for me and give me some advice and opinions

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Hi JulianosMom

Well I think that what has happened is your DS has learnt a sleep association - that in order for him to fall asleep he must be in your arms.  So what is happening is when he stirs during the night (all babies come in and out of sleep during the night) he realises he is not in your arms and cries out to you to come and pick him up because he doesn't know how to go back to sleep unless you are holding him.

Also teething often does interupt night sleep but I think that the sleep association is the bigger issue for you. 

What you need to try and do is get DS used to falling asleep without his prop (YOU!).  The other thing you might like to try is an earlier bedtime - 8.30pm is quite late for a 10 mo.  Usually babies at that age go to sleep around 7 or 7.30.  If DS is overtired that will not be helping him drifting off to sleep.

So, how do you break the prop that has been developed?  I would suggest that you start gradually placing DS in the crib sooner and sooner, first just before he drifts off to sleep then when he is a little more awake, so on and so on - so that he is still calm and relaxed when you place him in the bed but that he learns that it is where he will be if he wakes up during the night. 

I would suggest you have a look at two other boards on this forum - the Props Board, where you will find out information about gradually weaning props, and the Pick Up Put Down board, which is a method Tracy recommends for using when you are trying to change those sleep associations. 

HTH, please let us know how you get on
Jo

[JulianosMom]

Thank you.  I will have a look at it.  Well I have made progress last week.  I got my DS sleeping back into his crib, so now I have my life back,in the sense that I am not worried about him falling off the bed. 

I have to work on what you said now, getting him to sleep on his own.  He is only waking up 2 times now since last week waking up 4-5 times and what I did was just sshhh him and rub his back and then he went back down, so so far I am happy at what I have accomplished.

So you think that if he goes to sleep earlier that he would sleep better as he is not overtired?  Would he still sleep until his regular time at 7-7:30  ish or will it be earlier?

[Jo-FrasersMum]

So you think that if he goes to sleep earlier that he would sleep better as he is not overtired? Would he still sleep until his regular time at 7-7:30 ish or will it be earlier?

Exactly.  LO's at this age sleep an average of 11 - 12 hours overnight so there is a good chance that there would be little change to your DS's wake up time.

Congratulations on your hard work so far

Good luck