My boys are taking turns, or almost weeks it seems, waking up in the middle of the night. They are almost 8mo old and have not been taking food at night for the past 3 months. They USED to STTN almost every night!! I think these night wakings are due to milestones and busy minds. They wake up talking and then get louder and eventually start crying. Maybe they just want to see me I do NOT want to have to feed them - I don't think they need it! They get 3 servings of solids a day, plus 4 bottles of 7-8oz each. Pooping and peeing fine, going to bed fine (adjusted bedtime earlier to 7:30), napping for the most part fine (2 and sometimes 3 naps). I really do not know what to chalk this up to, other than milestones waking them up and teething. PROBLEM is....I am trying to keep both of them from waking up when one wakes! I am terrified of the wakeful boy waking up the sleeping boy and then having both of them up, necessitating my hubby having to get up (which I try not to do, since he has to get up at 6AM and get to work anyway Mon-Fri). Lately, I have been getting into the habit of taking the crying one (after we let them talk and cry a bit to see if they will go to sleep on thier own) out of their crib because pacis do not seem to work for them in the middle of the night. I walk them around, rock them in my arms till my arms get numb (last night it was for 45 mins), and they do not seem to be able to get to sleep this way like they do if they are having trouble with a nap, etc. In desperation, after trying to put them back down a time or two to no avail, I take them into the guest bedroom with me, lay them down next to me or hold them close to me on the bed, put a blanket over both of us and eventually they fall asleep again. Trouble is, I am almost always too tired to wake myself up enough after this to bring them back to their cribs to sleep for the rest of the night, and we end up sleeping together in the guest room bed. In your all's varied opinions and experience, is this a bad habit??? It does not happen every night, but can happen a couple of nights in a row for one or the other baby. I do not know what else to do, other than let them CIO, which I might just do if there was only ONE of them in the nursery! Do I just need to get myself up enough to put them back in their cribs, or is it ok to snooze with them for the last few hours of the night? :unknw:
You can do CIO with both of them in the room - we did because we did not have the option to separate them. They may wake each other up a bit, but our guys almost always slept through the other one whaling. We finally did CIO around 9 months because we just couldn't take the constantly getting up at night anymore. If you are willing to do CIO, it would probably solve your problem unless there is something else going on (like teething). We waited so long partially because I didn't really want to do CIO and it took getting desperate to do it, but also because from 6-9 months, we had a constant string of teething, colds, etc. (they each got 8 teeth from 6-9 months!). All that said, if you don't WANT to do CIO, that is understandable and a lot people don't. But don't let the idea of one waking the other one and them being in the same room stop you. Like I said, we did CIO with them in the same room, at the same time, and I know others have, too. We went in at intervals, because it was less stressful for ME, so it took us about 2 weeks to really get things under control. Good luck in whatever you decide!
Personally, I would do CIO with both of them. Start on a Friday night or something if your DH need sleep during the week. But that's your call. There is nothing wrong with the current situation if you are happy with it. But given this post, I have to assume you are not.
Can you put one in the guest bedroom in a pack and play or in a crib to get them through this night-waking time? then pick a sleep training method and stick with it (we used CIO, but there are others "pick-up put-down method", going in at intervals to reassure etc). I always worried about one waking up the other, and we had the spare rooms, so I used it and the sleep training went very quickly (within 2 nights mine were STTN and have ever since, and my kids just turned 3yrs old). Good luck.
Have you thought about the fact that they might be going through a growth spurt and may actually need more food? What would I do? I would feed my babies.
You've got to choose what works best for you (CIO v. something else), but my 9 mo girls went through something similar at around 8 mos and it sounds like I did something similar to what you are doing. My girls wouldn't wake at the same time, but no sooner would I get one snuggled back in, then the other would wake. As a result, I was getting only about 4 hours of sleep per night, and that was not in a single stretch. I tried using graduated extinction, but that just got everyone awake and upset. I finally hit the point of exhaustion and started taking the last one to wake to bed with me. I also nursed them, even though I didn't think they were hungry, because it worked and I was tired. Now, one month later, I don't have to take anyone to bed with me anymore. I still have to get up with one or the other and nurse her back to sleep, but it is a quick drink, and she usually returns to sleep quickly (admittedly, I sometimes doze while she snacks, but when I wake up, she goes back into her crib and I go to bed). Plus, our rate of STTN is increasing, so I feel like what we are doing is working. I suppose I analogize what I am doing with giving a bigger kid a drink, then sending them back to bed. It is a small comfort that gets everyone back to bed. MY POINT: You are probably not teaching them bad habits. Plus, if what you are doing gets you rest, then you are better able to be a mom during the day. But, you have to do what works for you family and what you think is right. If that is temporarily snoozing with a baby to get through a rough patch, so be it - don't listen to anyone who tells you otherwise. But, if that means CIO, that works, too because it is what you have chosen. Plus, you can always change your mind if you think what you chose isn't working. Isn't parenting great! There are no right answers! Good luck, momma!
Thanks, all, for the replies. Like Arizona said, there is no one right way to get through things like this...and that is encouraging! But I appreciate the ideas and your experience I think I will try the PnP tonight if anyone wakes up and just seems to not be wanting to go back to sleep (not related to teeth or hunger, leg stuck in crib slat, etc).
My guys went through a phase around 6 months where once they woke up at night (usually around 3-4am), they would only go back to sleep in our bed. DH and I spent about a month sleeping in different bedrooms each with a baby sleeping with us. I wasn't comfortable with CIO at that point, but didn't think they needed fed either. Most nights they would go right back to sleep with us, but there were a few nights where they did need a bottle to go back to sleep. After a month, I felt comfortable with CIO, and they were ready too since it only took a few nights before they were sleeping the whole night in their cribs. We did CIO for both at the same time and they slept through each other's crying. My personal feeling is that there are no bad habits. Any habit that forms, you can break. You can do it gradually and take baby steps or do it quickly with CIO. Whatever works for you and your family at that moment is what is best. If co-sleeping for the second half of the night works for you, go for it! If you're ready to CIO, go for it!
I leave them in thier crib always at night... I need them to know once they are in there, thats it... no amount of crying will get them out. Logan is up SOOO much at night, and he cries... a lot. But I run his back, give him a paci, let him cry... turn on the vaccumm, drowns out his cry and sushes him back to sleep. :youcandoit:
Wow...I should have read this before I posted. I am in the SAME EXACT position right now. This just goes to prove that there is something going on in the 7-8 month period that just gets to them....I have no idea what to do either, but I can say I feel better that otehrs have and are going through it too. I need to get the noise machine going.
hang in there, Ladypotter! Definitely something going on during this time of their lives. Or rather, some THINGS...!
