Sleeping issues

[dewoman81]

DD used to be the best sleeper. Sleeping through the night since 2 months or so. It is bath, books, songs and nurse, then off to dreamland for 8+ hours. We have a music timer for 5-10-15 minutes that we listen to while rocking, then reset for 10 minutes after I leave.

All of a sudden (for the last month), she is testing me. She now wakes herself up during songs or nursing. She will clap and giggle at thin air. She will fight me to rock her. I just hold her tight and try to get her to settle back down (as if I am swaddling her in my arms). She sometimes cries as I hold her. We have tried everything. It is taking 1-2 hours to put her to bed and it is just plain old frustrating. We have adjusted her bed time earlier or later based on her tired cues.

It doesnt matter how long it takes to get her settled, she cries as soon as she is put down in her crib. We have let her cry and she eventually - within 10 minutes or less will fall asleep. I know it is that long because of her music timer. We never let her fuss/cry longer than the music plays. Sometimes, I am in the room with her patting her, but she cries longer when I am there. I have left and she will cry for 1-2 minutes, stop, wiggle around, cry for 30 seconds, wiggle around, cry, wiggle cry, then finally off to sleep. I cant stand to hear her cry, but it is the only way. I never used CIO, but what else can I do?

She is almost 10 months old so I think she knows we are there. She just doenst want to miss anything. We cosleep at 4am when she wakes up with her dad, but other than that it is not an option.

[jodyvo]

My DD will do the same thing. I also find that I have to let her cry some and she will fall asleep. I usually give myself a time like 10 minutes and she is usually asleep in 5. It just may be the age
Good luck

[whitnessforhim]

I just let DD stay up if she's not tired. Its to much of a battle to force her to do what she doesn't want to do...so we don't.

Last night for example she wasn't sleepy at her usual time (10pm) so I laid in bed watching her roam around the room and bathroom playing. She played for a good 30mins until crawling over to bed reaching up for me ready to go to sleep.

Its much easier putting her to sleep when she's ready rather than following an exact schedule and forcing her. I swear once you think they're on a schedule they change it all up on you!

[jgassa]

Babies usually reach an age where they need to learn to soothe themselves to sleep. Once they learn they sleep sounder, longer and over all better.

[chellefarrell69]

Your baby is crying because she knows the routine and knows that eventually she's going to end up all alone:( She's also started to figure out that if she cries, you might stay a little longer. I would recommend continuing your routine, except to lay her down after nursing and leave the room. I have two children so I understand your not want to hear her cry:( I will say, though, that it doesn't hurt her to cry 10-15 minutes. Any more than that or hearing a change in cry does warant going in to sooth and calm her down. I'll be praying for you and your little girl.

[klynnw]

I do this with my 6 month old.....don't know if it would work for you, but I t hought I'd share anyways. We used to rock him to sleep, but then he started resisting that, so I started laying down with him in our bed. He fusses and rolls around, sometimes he smiles and coos a little, then eventually, he snuggles up and falls asleep. When he has been asleep until he is really liimp or sometimes his little feet twitch, then I know he's really out and I move him to his crib. With my four yo, when he was this age, we just put him in his crib and he would fuss and whine a little, but would usually fall asleep in 10 minutes or less. If he couldn't soothe himself to sleep in 10 minutes, then I knew he wasn't going to sleep yet. Good Luck!