Seriously how do I get this kid to sleep?

[Aidan's Mum]

Austin is 6 1/2 months old now and he has fallen asleep on his own very few times. Usually he will have to nurse to sleep or be walked around by Daddy. Sometimes he just won't fall asleep, gets into the overtired stage and cries his eyes out and it takes me 1/2 an hour to an hour to get him to sleep. Lately he just screams and I end up giving up and he is miserable.
Even if I let him CIO he would not go to sleep, he screams louder and louder.
I am at my breaking point emotionally... a 1/2 a year of crying is really getting to me!
What the heck do I do?

[ellasmommy]

DD has been like this too. She use to fall asleep quite easily when rocked, or after a late feeding, but lately she's been putting up a HUGE fuss before going to bed for the night. We've tried letting her CIO a few nights, but she just gets herself into a worse state, almost hyperventalating. I've gone back to walking her a bit, letting her cry in her crib and then calmly talking to her while rubbing her tummy(but leaving her in her crib). I've also gone back to swaddling her, which she hated after 2 months. It seems to be helping since she's started rolling over. She tends to kick a lot too in her sleep, I thought it was gas, but it doesn't seem to be. Have you tried swaddling? So far that's been the most help, not a solution, but it's cut down on the crying.

[librarianage]

I feel your pain. My dd behaved this way for months... she's 8 months now. We ended up using our own taylored version of CIO - since she too would just get more and more worked up if we let her cry. What we did was make sure she was getting loads of food during the day - as much as she was willing to BF and eat - I just kept feeding her every couple of hours when she was willing. Then we instituted a really rigid bedtime routine. We then started to wean her off of nursing to sleep - when she cried at night daddy would go in and do his best for as long as he could before he brought her to me. I gradually reduced the number of minutes I fed her until it was down to zero. We also moved bedtime feeding to before wind down time, so it was no longer associated with going to sleep. Lastly we implemented a 1, 5, 15 minute CIO plan. We'd put her in her crib, rub her back give her hugs and kisses and then leave. If she cried we'd go back in for 1 minute, stay 1 minute, then leave again (crying or no). Then go back in after 5 mins. etc. The first night was terrible - she cried for close to an hour with us going in every 15 mins. But the next night was better.
Now she only gets up once or twice at most - sometimes she sleeps through - and I only every feed her once.
Believe me, this was not my first choice. We tried everything - cosleeping being my preference. But she would have none of it - waking every 45mins to 2 hours.
Good luck - I know how it feels to be at your limit physically and emotionally...

[AliRonanMama]

Austin is 6 1/2 months old now and he has fallen asleep on his own very few times. Usually he will have to nurse to sleep or be walked around by Daddy. Sometimes he just won't fall asleep, gets into the overtired stage and cries his eyes out and it takes me 1/2 an hour to an hour to get him to sleep. Lately he just screams and I end up giving up and he is miserable.
Even if I let him CIO he would not go to sleep, he screams louder and louder.
I am at my breaking point emotionally... a 1/2 a year of crying is really getting to me!
What the heck do I do?

My DS is almost a year old, and we've been having some serious issues getting him to sleep too. I've been following some of the advice in the book The No Cry Sleep Solution, and it's really been helping, albeit slowly.

When it's Ronan's bedtime, we get his jammies on, brush his teeth, and then I go into the dark bedroom and nurse him. Whenever he starts to doze, I gently pop him off the boob. If he fusses, I let him back on for a bit and then when he starts to fall asleep I pop him off again. In the beginning, this was a tedious process, I'll admit. But I'm seeing real results now. Most nights, I nurse him until he's pretty tired, then he'll roll off of me and I lay him down in his bed. Often, I'll just keep my hand on his back and he'll lull himself to sleep.

To be honest, we had a terrible time with my DD and she nursed to sleep until she was almost two. I NEEDED to change things this time around and this is really working. It's not a quick solution though, so if you decide to go this route, be prepared to not see instant results. I've been doing this for about 2 months now and things get better every night, but it definitely wasn't an overnight success. KWIM?

[Aidan's Mum]

Actually my problem is mostly naps. Bedtime isn't so bad when my hubby is here and we can take turns but usually he is so zonked that he falls asleep not too bad at night. But I'd like to avoid that zonked bedtime and have him rested during the day too! He just resists so much, like he is missing something.

[e & c's mommy]

my dd (almost 9 months) was the worse sleeper ever!!!! but, here is what works for me...after trying every combination!!
i put her to bed at the 1st sign of tiredness (rubbing eyes in my case, or slightest tired cry) this is imperative or else if i miss it and let her get more tired she goes crazy and i have to rock her and try to get her in to bed w/o waking her.
so, i take her up to her crib...i have the leap frog frog, the day/night one..so i lay her on her belly put her soother in her hand, turn on the frog to nighttime mode, and set it to 10 minutes, then i put a blanket on her and pat her bum, not hard..but not soft, until she isn't crying or takes her soother (she doesn't always like her soother) then i walk away, she cries for a bit sometimes but,passes out! Oh, and i keep on a nature machine with waves sound in the background. this combination works for us...but of course, when she's teething(the past 2 weeks straight!), or sick...it won't.
The key for me is the putting her down b/f she is "really" tired.
My baby has gone day's w/o really sleeping, and she has had tears since minutes after she came out....her cries don't let up....she's the most difficult baby i've known, but...this works for us!!!! she likes the routine i think, she still wakes up throughout the night though, but, i just reset her music, oh and dip her soother in water???? seems to work!!! good luck finding what works for you. this works wonderful on my dd's naps also!

[aidensmom]

My LO has just now started to sleep through the night occasionally, but not always. We had about 8 months of not sleeping through and the only time she seemed to sleep well for naps was if she slept with me which is hard when I've got a 2.5 year old. I still swaddle and give her her soother and pat her bum gently. I tend to nurse her until she's almost asleep then give her her soother and put her to bed on her tummy. I'm trying to put her to bed while she's still a little awake, that was working for awhile, but we backslid after 2 months of colds/teething.

[kailaMom]

My DD is 6 month now, I have the same problem.
if I don't miss her sleepy sign and my husband walks around with her at night, she usually sleep pretty quickly.
but for naps.. I have to walk with her longer than 10 mins. Almost a month ago, she was 18.6oz. oh my back.. my shoulder...

one time I tried to get her fall asleep on my bed with me, she cried so much.
I was too tired to pick her up.. I watched her crying...
She didn't stop crying, getting worse and worse.. I got worried and picked her up.
she got really tired and upset, it took longer than usual...

I need to find a way to put her sleep in a crib by herself...

btw what is CIO plan?

[JKPLJ]

i find DS falls asleep shorthly after eating , or if he is between feedings and he is the type of kid that needs to suck on a bottle to fall asleep , so i give him water. he will be 6 months on monday and he will fuss for about 30 mins after that i will go and get him , or if his fussing changes from a fuss to a cry i go in , but if your LO falls asleep fine at night after a feeding try a bit of water room temp , this way they wont be over filled but has that sucking to fall asleep , my Ds also takes his soother out of his mouth but wont take a bottle out so , it works
CIO is cry it out

[librarianage]

CIO plan is a 'crying it out plan' where you let the baby cry for progressively longer periods of time until they learn to put themselves to sleep. They're really terrible to implement but sometimes the only thing that works....