Teaching a baby to sleep through the night

newmother

Sun, Apr 25 2010, 12:56 pm

Hi! I joined imamother recently and I really have gained so much from reading through the forums. I have a question that I hope someone can help me with! I am in middle of trying to teach my seven month old DS to sleep through the night. I right now put him to sleep at around eight o'clock by swaddling him and then feeding him. He usually eats again around 12 and then around 4. I want to train him to sleep through the night and I am not sure how to do it. Should I just slowly take out the 12 oclock feeding and then the 4 oclock one or is it just easier to let him cry it out? Another question is if I should reswaddle him each time he breaks out of it or just let him learn how to sleep without being swaddled? any advice would be appreciated!

cubbie

Sun, Apr 25 2010, 1:57 pm

IMHO 7 months seems a bit old to be swaddled, he should be quite active by now - I would switch to a sleep sack. A 7 month old who eats well during the day should definitely not be eating at night, there is no reason why any healthy 7 months old baby needs feeding during the night. Are you breast feeding or bottle feeding? Does he wake up exactly the same time to eat every night? Is he eating solids, if so how much, there are different ways to cut out the night feeds without having to let him CIO but I need a bit more information about his daytime routine to get a better picture of things.

newmother

Sun, Apr 25 2010, 2:47 pm

He is eating approximately every 2-3 hours. He has a baby food jar (4 oz) for one feeding in the morning and rice cereal and applesauce for another feeding in the evening. The rest of the feedings I am breastfeeding. He usually wakes up around the same times at night and if he wakes up early (less than 4 hours) I usually put him back to sleep with the pacifier. I know he is too old to be swaddled but it calms him down whereas a sleep sack only takes care of his feet, not his hands! Thanks so much!

Soph

Sun, Apr 25 2010, 3:00 pm

Dont pay attention to anyone bout swaddling!!! it can do noooo harm, and theyll grow big strong and fine! my brothers were swaddled (by choice....theywouldnt sleep without it) and my 1 year old too...up until....now... LOL

dont worry they eventualy let loose, but still like being swaddled as a nightime routine.

anyway, bout the sleeping, try giving her the 12 oclock bottle a little earlier each time, until it becomes one with the 8pm... and then push the 4 am later and later...this is done by 10 min at a time... its a little slow but works like a charm....
unless u want to go the cold turkey way and just eliminate and listen to crying for a couple of days...

good luck!! welcome to imamother!

6coop

Sun, Apr 25 2010, 3:44 pm

I swaddled my last baby until about 6 1/2 months which is when I wanted to train her to sleep through the night. I decided to sleep train and unswaddle at the same time because I was afraid that she might roll over while still swaddled and I knew that while sleep-training I wouldn't be going in to her as often. (I don't think the swaddling had any impact on her motor development at all and she really loved it, but I stopped doing it for safety reasons.) She did fine with both at once and it wasn't any harder than with my other kids who weren't still being swaddled.

I sleep train my kids by letting them "cry it out" which, I guess after so many kids, really isn't so bad. It only takes my kids a few days to get it. At first I put the baby down at "bed-time" (between 7-8), making sure that they are happy and comfortble. I'll usually go to them and feed them the first time that they cry (really cry, not kvetch) after midnight (or a certain amount of time after I first put them down). After the first few days, most of my babies stop waking up and crying. They might wake up and kvetch for a minute, or two but them go back to sleep on their own.

amother

Sun, Apr 25 2010, 4:00 pm

Does your baby sleep in your room or in his/her own room.

My baby 7 months old, goes to sleep with a pacifier around 9 and wakes around at 2 and 5. Some nights he only wakes once. I hope with time he will skip waking up at 2 and only wake in the morning. For now this works for me. I dont breastfeed though so it might be easier....

newmother

Mon, Apr 26 2010, 1:03 pm

Thank you for the replies! DS sleeps in the room with me and DH since we are currently living in a one bedroom apartment. It is a small apartment so even though I would love to move DS somewhere else there really is nowhere else to put him.

6coop

Mon, Apr 26 2010, 1:51 pm

With my first we were in a 1 br apartment. Dh and I slept in the living room while we sleep trained because I knew that it would be impossible for me to not go to him every time he kvetched and that ds would just pick his head up and see us and it would be even worse. When we moved back into the room we put up a curtain between our ds's crib and our beds so that he wouldn't be able to see us.