Sleep training a 9MO

[Anonymous]

I'm sure there are 92376238764 posts on this already, but I'm ready to sleep train my 8.5MO. I chalked it up to a crappy sleep phase (he was a sleep unicorn until 4 months) but we're now on month 4 of the 4 month sleep regression and I'm over it. He's eating solids and nursing/BM bottle fed. Typical night looks like this:

8pm - nurse and down to sleep
Anywhere between 11:30pm-1am - awake and SCREAMING! I try shush/pat and pick up/put down but end up nursing back to sleep. He seems to eat a lot but my supply has dropped so I feel like it can't be that much
Anywhere between 2:30-4:30am - usually up at least once again but can shush/pat or pick up/put down
4:30am - up again and I just end up taking him down on the couch where he sleeps on me until 5:30am when he's up for the day (and DS1 is usually up and coming downstairs around this time anyway - we're early risers)

Last night I fed him a 7oz bottle when he woke at 11:30pm and he drank about 6oz and when he woke again at 1:15 I let him CIO for about 20 minutes before he passed out. He slept until 5am. Should I just keep doing this until he learns to STTN? DS1 was similar with a 4am wake-up and down on the couch, but I feel like he was at least not feeding during the night at this age. Both boys are above average size.

He's also started these screaming fits during the day. I think he gets overtired but I'm also wondering if anyone has sleep trained their baby and it's helped with their outbursts during the day?

[MDLady]

That schedule sounds ROUGH. I've always said that I will not use the cry it out method but we ended up having to do that. It sucked really bad but it was the only way that my daughter learned how to sleep on her own. We have tried everything but nothing else worked.

I nursed her twice at night until she was 9 months. Stopped nursing completely at 12 months. It wasn't because she was hungry. She just wanted to be held and sleep on top of me. So when we decided to cut out the nursing session, she protested quite a bit. First couple of nights were really bad. But then each night got better. Probably took a week total but it was worth it. We broke down a few times later when she cried hard and it was really hard to retrain again.

She's 2 and many nights she still wakes up at night once or twice, mostly if she loses her pacifier. And at around 5am we bring her to our bed because otherwise she will stand and cry.

Sleep has been a constant struggle for us, since day 1. There were weeks and months that were great. But then it would completely change. Growth spurts, teething, separation anxiety, etc etc would always throw off her sleep schedule. So good luck!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Yes, just keep doing that. Also, I'd start shrinking the bottle at 11:30, slowly. No baby that old needs to eat that much in the night.

[Anonymous]

Sound overtired and not enough sleep. I would move bedtime up to 7-7:30 gradually and see if they helps. I would feed if gen wakes up before 12 and then cio after 12am. It may only be a day or two and he'll keep sleeping.

[Anonymous]

6 oz at 11:30 PM is a lot. He might actually be hungry if he's drinking that much. How much is he drinking and eating during the day?

Also, 8 PM might be too late for bedtime, especially if he's up at 5:30. Have you tried putting him down earlier? My kiddo at that age was going to bed closer to 6:30, 7 at the latest.

My guess is that a) he needs to eat a bit more, especially for dinner and b) he's overtired. How well does he nap during the day?

[Anonymous]

I would keep trying to drop one feed at a time. Pick whichever one and cio that feed

[Anonymous]

He is going to bed too late! It's amazing how many parents don't understand this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He is going to bed too late! It's amazing how many parents don't understand this.

I agree with this. Why is he up so late? My 9 month old went to bed between 6:30 and 7 at that age.

[Anonymous]

Weissbluth Healthy sleep habits, haapy child. Read the book and follow it. Just remember sleep begets sleep.

[Anonymous]

Are you nursing him to sleep? If so, stop. That will probably help with the middle of the night sleep associations. At least it did for us at 8 months old. Once I stopped nursing to sleep and did CIO (which was literally 5 minutes of crying two nights in a row), the night wakings stopped within a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Weissbluth Healthy sleep habits, haapy child. Read the book and follow it. Just remember sleep begets sleep.

I hated this book. Much preferred Ferber.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, all. He's picked up from the nanny at 5:30, he eats dinner at 6, then bath, and upstairs at 7. He's playing with his brother (2YO) and then nurses one last time and out by 8 - not sure how we can modify that especially when the other parent gets home at 6:30 so one of us is dealing with both kids for dinner and the witching hour alone. And both of my kids are up early, regardless of what time they go to bed.

He naps ok during the day. Could always be better.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a consistent nap/bedtime routine?

[Anonymous]

I also think you should move up his bedtime. My 10 month old goes to bed at 6:30. I wish we could push it back but I've tried and end up with horrible nights like that. Have you tried 2-3-4?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weissbluth Healthy sleep habits, haapy child. Read the book and follow it. Just remember sleep begets sleep.

I hated this book. Much preferred Ferber.

Haha, NP and yeah, I bought the Weissbluth based on all the recs here. It's just sitting on my shelf. I think I read snippets totaling maybe 2 pages out of the hundreds of pages? Soooo long and boring.