[Jayden]

Anyone have any advice as to why Jayden, my 7 month old kid (boy) is awaking up to 5 times after we put him down to sleep for the first couple hours before he can sleep till morning?

Any advice welcome.

David

[jane01]

Oh you poor thing, nothing worse than having to get up all night. 5 times a night seems a bit much at 7 months.

Is this something he has just started doing, or has he been doing it for a while? If it is something he has just started, could it be that he has teething pains? Try Bonjela and/or Baby Panadol (from Watsons) or Baby Nurofen (although this is hard to get in HK) before he goes to bed. Sometimes the teeth move around under the gums and you can't see anything, but the baby is upset.

If it is something he has been doing for a while, this website is from a sleep school in Australia and has good tips on settling techniques:

http://www.swsahs.nsw.gov.au/karitane/docs/survival.asp

Good luck.

[jane01]

PS. Is it only going to sleep that is the problem? If so, consider a bedtime routine. Ours is:

* 7pm bedtime - every night
* dinner
* bath
* milk
* teeth brush
* story
* kiss & cuddle
* tuck in with teddies
* good night

At the risk of sounding anal, there are no variations to this routine and once it was set (which I did with slight variations when my daughter was 6 weeks old) we haven't changed it. Now my daughter knows what to expect and when she needs to go to sleep. There is rarely any protest.

[j_s]

my little boy (seven months) does the same, but all of his wakeups are in the second half of the night. he sleeps really well for the first 4-5 hours. a bedtime routine is a good idea - so is trying to get him to sleep for longer during the day. at sleep school they teach you to resettle the baby and gradually take longer and longer to go back - the idea is that the baby learns to put him/herself back to sleep.

[Jayden]

Thanks for all your replies. Yes, we have considered that it may be teething problems but never did anything about it. I guess we're just enduring it and hoping it will go away, which is wishful thinking, to say the least.

We do try somewhat of a routine, which consists of various things including playing a CD with so-called sleeping songs that actually seems to work. He's asleep in a matter of minutes. I guess it's not so much getting to sleep that's the problem, rather it's more staying alseep, I think.

I also forgot about the routine where you take gradually longer and longer when tending to him after he awakes so he learns to sleep on his own. Will try that one and hope it helps. Thanks again!

David