How to help a 7 month baby to sleep better?

[irene b]

Hi Mummies,

Just want to ask for your tips and idea how to help my baby to sleep better. He is 7 month and going to 8 month soon. He will fuss a lot when going to sleep since born. But yet he can sleep through night when he is 3 - 6 month old. He can sleep from 9 - 9.30 pm to 7 - 8.00 am. Maybe wake up once for milk only.

But since 1 month plus ago when he is teething, his sleep patern have change a lot. He will fuss when we bring him in to sleep for about 15 - 30 mins. He sleep then wake up 2 - 4 times a night crying. He seem like crying in sleep as his eyes is close. We only can carry him up and pat him. Sometimes we even have to carry him walk inside our room and pat him. If you sit down and pat him he know and he will cry even louder.

I have been trying so many thing like giving him the teething ring, apply pearl powder on the gum, cold cloth to sooth his gum as my friends suspect his gum pain so disturb his sleep. But this is when teething time but now his 2 bottom teeth have come out then still he fuss a lot during sleeping time and wake up 2 - 3 times a night crying. Definitely not for milk as we try few times, he just suck less than 20 ml then fuss again with scream and crying.

He have been nap 2 times a day. Every nap about 1 - 1.5 hours which I think is good. But still he can't fall asleep easily EVERY NIGHT. It's mean we have to bear with his scream and cry every night when we bring him to sleep. This sometimes very stressful as he cry very loud and see his tears keep flowing down to the cheek we also heart pain......
Also, we have to carry and pat him to sleep every night. He wont be able to sleep by lying on the bed even we just beside him. He must sleep on our body then when he deep sleep only can transfer him to bed. Sometimes he not deep sleep yet then he will start to cry again then we have to again carry him, pat him and sing lullaby .......it's a very tiring process...

I really don't know how to help my boy to sleep better......

 

[silly1812]

Hi Irene. Have you found a method of how to resolve you son's sleeping problem? Interested to know coz my son is also like that.

My son is 6 month old, and used to sleep through the night when he was 2 - 3 months old, waking up only once for milk. When he reaches 4 months old, he seemed more crankier especially during his bedtime, i.e., he refused to go to sleep and we have to spent around 20 mins to rock him to sleep using the rocker daybed. But then when he turned 5 months old, things gotten worse! Not only he will fuss for 30 mins before bedtime, we also need to carry him AND pat him at the same time to calm him down until he is sleepy, and transferred him to the rocker daybed so that he will fall asleep. So all in, the process will take somewhere between 40 mins to an hour.

Usually he will have a bath in the evening around 6.30pm/7pm, and then will have his milk. He would not go to bed immediately coz he seems to wait for his daddy to come home otherwise he will not doze off. So usually he will fuss to sleep by 8.30/9pm. During this stage, I'm not sure why but he always fights his sleep. It is clear that he is sleepy and will doze off but a fe seconds after that he will wake himself up and start crying. So this is the part when things got difficult.

When he finally fell asleep (probably around 9.30pm/10pm), we will dreamfeed him around 11pm/11.30pm (last feed), and he will continue sleeping till 1.30am/2am. I'm not sure why he wakes up at that time, coz he just had his last feed not too long ago, and it is suppose to last him longer. Anyway I will usually nurse him untill he fall asleep. His next waking would usually be 3.30am/4am. This time he will unswaddle himself and his hands are all over his face and eyes, and he is annoyed by this.. so he'll cry. Tried nursing him but he suckle for a while and he won't go back to sleep coz he is fully awake by then, and won't go back to sleep till 6am. During this period, I tried re-swaddling him back, give pacifier, carried him, pat him, rock him.. but nothing works and is tiring me out.

Like you, I also hope my boy to sleep better but I don't know how.

Oh.. and the swaddling part. Haiz. My son is big already (6 months), and quite long, and knows how to roll over (from back to tummy only). So by right, we should not swaddle him. But my boy cannot fall asleep without being swaddles coz he will scratch his face/head/eye/ears and will cause the flare up of his eczema, hence we swaddled him to prevent that. We have been swaddling him since he was 1 month old and he probably gotten used to it. But now he knows how to unswaddle himself, and this also causes his frequent night wakings.

He has been sleeping on his back. Last time he could sleep on his tummy without being swaddled (when he was 3/4 months old), and yes, he sleeps better and longer like that. But since his bad flareups, we did not put him to sleep on his tummy anymore. Plus, now that he knows how to roll, he associates it with playtime when on his tummy. I tried putting him to sleep on his side, BUT he don't seem to know how to be in that position. I even used his bolster/pillow to support him, but he doesn't like it.

I don't know what to do...

 

[ppheww]

I hope you have found a solution.

Else I think you baby is too hot. My 10mth baby sleeps in 25deg Aircon plus a fan blowing, cos his bed is at a corner away from the aircon vent.
i put him in short sleeve long pants with socks he needs the fan to be blowing else will wake up multiple times even if I set at 23deg.

as for the eczema, it might be heat rash. My son got it too when he's too hot and will scratch thru out the night if no fan. Try applying powder instead of cream, we also got the cream from pd but does t work.

I know my son needs fan but sometimes I will off it or blow higher when he has cold n cough due to old folks.... Alas then made him wake up for the entire night for many days before I realize it's the fan....

 

[Wendy1982]

There are many ways to help the baby sleep better through night and day, u just have comfort, love its other and hugging.:001_302: