My son will be a year old on Nov 3rd and he still isn't sleeping through the night yet. He goes to sleep around 10 pm (which is much later than I'd like, but he's totally wound up until then no matter what I try to do to get him in a calm mood). And he sleeps soundly until midnight. Then he will wake up and nurse for a few minutes and go back to sleep. And then he's awake again every 1-2 hours and every time he either nurses or I give him his pacifier and he is back asleep with a minute or two. Which is good, but it always takes me 15-20 minutes to go back to sleep. I still feel as sleep deprived as I did when he was a newborn and it's wearing on me. I feel like I haven't had a "real" night's sleep in almost a year. I feel like I've tried everything. Letting him "cry it out" makes him and I BOTH cry and I'm just not comfortable with not responding. It makes me feel like I'm neglecting him. We have a white noise machine in the room and that helps him sleep longer, but not STAY asleep. What can I do to get him to sleep better? I'm starting to feel like he's going to never sleep all night, meaning I won't either!

Hey, Mandi! Oh....
What's funny is just last night a friend was telling me about her sister-in-law whose 7mon old is not sleeping well at night.
I hate to say this, because I think you and I are a lot alike, but it probably is time to seriously let him cry it out. I nursed for a yr too, and would have liked to have done it longer, but at a year old, he doesn't need that extra in the middle of the night. I think when mine were a yr old, I was still nursing that one time before they went to bed for the night. Since he's still waking up several times, I would probably just totally cut out one of those feedings or even pacifier times and just let him cry it out. Do that for a week at least. Then cut out another one of those times. Yeah, you'll about go crazy, but he'll get the message sooner than you think. Also, he understands your speech and body language a lot. Just tell him no gently, don't turn on the light, etc. Perhaps you could even rock him some, but don't give him anything to drink. I hope all that makes sense and helps a little. Best wishes to you and Judah! You can do it and you need to do it! He'll still love you!

Thank you so much for your reply! I really didn't want to hear anyone say to let him cry it out, but I'm afraid that is my only option at this point. You're right he doesn't need those night nurses he just expects them now and relies on them to get back to sleep I think...I guess I need to help him learn how to go to sleep without something in his mouth...Also, I need to toughen up haha. It's heartbreaking to hear him cry for me, and it makes me feel as if he's going to be heartbroken as well if I don't help him back to sleep. But by helping him back to sleep, I think I'm just making the problem worse because I'm not helping him help himself...if that makes sense.

Hi Mandi,

I know how hard it can be to cut out the middle of the night feeds! With my son (now 23 months) I just literally had to stop the feed he would have at 11pm. It was hard at first, because he would obviously still wake up expecting the feed, but after a few times of being strong and helping him to calm down, and then letting him cry it out for a bit (not for too long, though! lol), he stopped waking for that feed. I hated letting him cry, but it was seriously the best thing I could have done! It was like magic (in the end..). Now he has slept from 7 or 7:30pm - 7 or 8am ever since

Good luck! I hope you find something that works for you and your little one

im assuming youve talked to the doc about it what was thier suggestion ? i was never coufortable letting jax cry it out either i hated it it just killed me listening to it my doc told me to let him cry for 10 mins and check on him calm him a bit then walk out if he kept crying let him cry for 15 mins and do the same and just keep it up eventually he learned to comfort himself back to sleep and i learned to let him cry and now he sleeps 9pm to 8am with no issue and when he does wake up he plays for a little while and right back to sleep on his own. i know its hard but it really did work. my doc also suggested i start to ut him to bed earlier that way we could work on the crying thing while i was still awake then by the time i was ready for bed he was sound asleep.

Every baby is different (i have 5 kids) My oldest son was colicky and cut all his teeth between 5-7 months my wife and i were up every 2 hours it also seemed like he would never sleep, he also did not want anything to do with my wife he wanted me. it seemed like i could only get him to sleep on my chest.don't give up trying when you find what works stick with it and good luck .Don't worry it will get better.Its all part of being a parent.one more thing ,what i did with all my kids is hum or sin to them while i rocked them or walked around .good luck.

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