Moving this over here, so you all will see it.

By Mommyrn on Sunday, January 7, 2007 - 01:00 am:

Hi everyone,
I'm new here to Moms View and in despirate need of advice. I'm a 31 year old first time mom. My little guy will be 8 months in a week. I'm already amazed at how time flies! My husband (35 years old) and I will be married 9 years in April. He's an awesome husband and an ever better father. He's loving, supportive, and just all around wonderful. I don't know how I'd manage without him.

Here's my problem, my child still does not sleep at night! We have what I thought was a pretty good night time routine. He goes down in his crib anywhere between 8:00-9:00 (on a good night) and is awake usually 45 minutes later. I replace the pacifier and hold him down gently, which may by another 1.5-2 hours. Much to my dislike my husband did try the "cry it out" method, but now with him crawling he just gets up on his hands and knees and bangs his head on the sides of the crib! Most nights he will not settle down and spends the majority of time sleeping in his swing.

I'm very tired at this point (I returned to work 5 months ago and work 12 hour night shifts) and I'm out of ideas. Can anyone help?

By Kate on Sunday, January 7, 2007 - 09:06 am:

Hello, welcome!

If you're working nights, isn't it mostly your husband handling this issue? Does he do anything differently than you do on the nights you are home? I'd compare your routines before figuring out how to change them. It could be that your baby is confused by the possible difference you two have in getting him to sleep and staying asleep. Even if you are still home at bedtime and the one to put him down, if he's spending his night in a swing then he must keep waking even after his initial wake up two hours later.

He's too young, in my opinion, to be left to cry it out, so I'd wait at least a year until you try that again. How is his nap schedule? Will he sleep well for you then? Is he too well rested to continue sleeping thru the night? It sounds like he can't put himself back to sleep, and that is what he needs to learn. All night long everyone goes thru sleep cycles where they rouse every few hours but they know how to fall asleep again on their own and don't even remember waking. HOW to teach him that is not always easy, especially at such a young age. I'd do some research on that particular issue--getting baby to learn to fall sleep on his own.

Good luck; I'm sorry I had no advice!

By Mrsheidi on Sunday, January 7, 2007 - 09:23 am:

We used a crib toy aquarium so it could lull him back to sleep.
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