- Bichon Frise
- 7 years ago
- Wedding: May 2012
My nine month old has never been a good sleeper. He used to wake up 4 to 5 times a night until he was about 3 months old. Then he was waking up about 2 times a night. I know there are babies who sleep right through the night without waking once, but I didn’t mind getting up twice with him. My son is breastfed and often nurses for comfort/to sleep, so I didn’t want to deny him that.
Then when he was about 8 months old, something changed. We went out of town with him for a couple days, then I got sick, then he got sick, then he got two new teeth. The list of excuses could go on and on. He went from waking up about twice per night (I know, it never really improved from when he was 3 months old) to waking up about 5 or 6 times per night. Now in the last week and a half, he’s been waking up on average 9 or 10 times per night! Yes, 10 times per night!! I am exhausted! I hate to let him cry for longer than a few minutes, because he just keeps getting angrier and angrier, and then I have a harder time getting him to sleep. The only things that help him sleep are either me nursing him or rocking him. But to have to do this 10 times per night is just getting crazy!
This is an example of his nighttime sleep:
<div>7:30pm – goes to sleep for the night</div>
<div>7:50pm – wakes up</div>
<div>8:35pm – wakes up</div>
<div>9:15pm – wakes up</div>
<div>10:45pm – wakes up</div>
<div>11:50pm – wakes up</div>
<div>1:30am – wakes up</div>
<div>2:45am – wakes up</div>
<div>5:00am – wake up</div>
<div>6:20am – wakes up</div>
<div>7:10am – wakes up for the day</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Apart from letting him cry, which I really don’t want to do, what are my options? Will he eventually outgrow this phase? Is there something I can do to help him get back to his more normal schedule? I can’t keep this up much longer as it makes me highly irritable and tired during the day. </div>