[carang]

then leave her alone... you can't "make" someone fall asleep until they are ready, be they children or adults.

[Konradsmom]

Fennho,

I (still) have the same problem with bub at 8.5 months now. He wakes up during the night, sometimes 1am, somtimes 4am, and stays awake for 2 hours. During this time, he would play a bit, but after a while, would cry out for us. eventually he'll fall back asleep, but its disruptive for us adults to have to stay up for 2 hours every night.

I'm puzzled too as to why he has this habit, anyone has any experience on how to help them" adjust" back to a better pattern?

We tried altering his schedule ( have him sleep a bit later, cut down his day time nap time a bit), but nothing seems to work.

[carang]

both of my kids have done it in the past and they both grew out of it. it is a phase as is much of growing up... one phase after another. if you look at it in the grand scheme of things, it's a very short time from your life (although, i know it feels like you haven't had a decent night sleep in years!).

[xcultural mummy]

Hello there,

It's best to follow your own instincts when it comes to what to do with your baby. There is a natural point when you feel that she's old enough to cry it out a little and I think there is a difference between being cruel and being firm. So it's fair enough for you not to want to let her cry, whereas you don't have to be there next to her all the time if she's not actually crying. She'll let you know when she needs you! It sounds like it's you who'd rather be there and you can't let her go!

I used to help my toddler sleep when he was younger, though it was mostly not to do with night sleep but day time naps. Then it came a point when I was clearer about what was a cry, and what was a distress cry, and at 11 months (I'm a stay-at-home-mum) I thought, sod it, he's old enough to be able to fall asleep on his own, and I put him down in his cot for naps and night time sleep. Sure enough, it didn't take long each day before he fell asleep and it was more of a mock cry than real crying, and now at 19 months he'd say night night and bye bye and give me a kiss before I switch the lights off.

The moral of the story is, trust yourself and do what you believe is right in accordance with advice we're all giving you!

Hope this helps!