58 responses so far ↓

• 1 diandra // Jan 20, 2009 at 11:21 am

  hello some weeks ago i left you a comment about my daughter shazney but i cant find your opinion,can you help me pls??

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• 2 Paula // Jan 20, 2009 at 11:41 am

  I have 3 year-old who needs her sippy cup or 3 to go to sleep at night! My 20 month old has a soothie for sleep. Sleep is such a struggle and I myself need 8 hours to feel energized! I give into their requests because it is a little faster than to not give in. Should I take away the sippy cup and soothie cold turkey? Cry it out? Help?

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• 3 patricia // Jan 20, 2009 at 12:12 pm

  I am starting to have trouble with Jordan at night time..he is 26mo old & was going to bed & asleep by 8PM but now he wants to lay on the sofa to fall asleep & since this weekend he now wants to lay in my lap & have me cuddle him for an hr or 2 & then he will say nite nite & go to bed & sleep…my husband is a truck driver & I wonder if he is having some anxiety about me leaving him also…..he is also starting to wake in the middle of the night saying ma-ma & as long as I answer he will fall back to sleep on his own….help…..I’m at wits end on this one..he gets up at 5am & is at the daycare by 6am …..he does take a nap at daycare….thanks for you help…
  Pat

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• 4 Ruth McDonough // Jan 20, 2009 at 12:13 pm

  My baby is 9 months old. We have been following a routine and putting him down in his crib awake since he was 6 months old. He still cries every single time for no less than 20 minutes, sometimes up to an hour! What are we doing wrong?

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• 5 lindsay // Jan 20, 2009 at 12:33 pm

  my daughter is now 15 months old and is still not sleeping through the night, she has 4 meals a day plus a 8oz botlle with her nap.
  what am i doing wrong?

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• 6 Emilie Ward // Jan 20, 2009 at 12:36 pm

  Hi Dana,

  My son used to have a hard time going to bed….but we tried letting him CIO a few nights and now I can put him down and most nights he goes to sleep with absolutely no fussing.

  However, over the last week or so, we had decided to move up his wake up time.
  In the past we have put him to bed around 8 PM…and he normally gets up at 6 AM. In this last week he has gotten up 15 minutes earlier each day.
  The first day he woke up at 5:45, then next day at 5:30…..today it was 4:30!
  He hasn’t really fussed to get up, but he is keeping my husband up. We’ve tried to just let him stay in his crib thinking he would put himself back to sleep, but he hasn’t.

  I’m more worried b/c I know he isn’t getting all the sleep that he needs, but we don’t know what to do.

  Any suggestions?

  Thanks,
  Emilie

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• 7 Emilie Ward // Jan 20, 2009 at 12:38 pm

  Dana,
  Let me add to my comment.

  He will turn 2 at the end of February and has been sleeping thru the night since he was about 11 months old.

  HE decided to move up his wakeup time (not WE – sorry for the typo!)

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• 8 Pam // Jan 20, 2009 at 12:48 pm

  My daughter’s family lives with us. Her husband is a stay at home dad and she works days. The parents and kids co-sleep in the parent’s bed.
  The problem is he lets the kids stay up at night until they pass out around 2 am from exhaustion. He has the TV going all hours of the day and night. The kids rarely take naps unless they fall asleep where they are playing or watching TV. Mom comes home and falls asleep around 9-10 PM while the kids are going full blast.
  The kids and their dad do not get up until noon or later.
  The oldest will be starting Kindergarten this fall and she will need to be up before 7AM. How do I convince my son in law that the children need regular hours and to sleep at night instead of the day. I have talked to him and my daughter, but nothing changes.
  My husband has to leave for work at 5:30 AM and we are kept awake at night by the kids’ activities.

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• 9 Stephanie // Jan 20, 2009 at 1:03 pm

  Hi, My daughther has stoped taking as long for naps during the day. She only last about an awake but then she is tired again, I’ll put her down but then she only sleeps an hour and she is up again. I don’t know what to do, How do i help her take a longer nap? or is it ok she only takes an hour nap? she’s almost 5 months so she is taking about 3 naps a day, but there just not long enough to get her to the end of the day.

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• 10 Betty // Jan 20, 2009 at 2:00 pm

  My 5 1/2 month old daughter naps very well during the day. I can just put her down in her crib and she’ll fall asleep on her own.
  However, when it comes to bedtime at night, she cries and screams as soon as we put her down to go to sleep. I have no idea why this is the case. Would you be able to offer me suggestions as to how I can fix this problem? We have tried letting her cry for 10 minutes at a time for 2 nights in a row and she vomited both nights.

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• 11 Kimberly // Jan 20, 2009 at 2:20 pm

  My son, Chase, started off being a great sleeper. At only a few months old, you can put him in his crib at bedtime awake and he would go to sleep on his own and sleep through the night. He is now 10 mos old and for the past month his sleeping habits have changed. We still do the same routine before bedtime, so I’m not sure what happened. He cries when you put him down at night for bedtime and even wakes crying in the night. It seems like some of his night crying is bad dreams but I’m not sure. Please help! I want to go back to the way it was where we were all sleeping well. What can I do?
  Kimberly

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• 12 Naomi // Jan 20, 2009 at 2:33 pm

  I want to try to get my 2 year old to sleep on her own but she shares a room with her 4 year old sister who falls asleep on her own in her room but the two of them fight and play when they are alone together trying to go to sleep so we let the 2 year old fall asleep in our room with me cuddling her then I put her in her crib but she has been waking up lately once a night and I have to bring her to our bed to get her to fall back asleep. How do I handle it?

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• 13 Angie // Jan 20, 2009 at 2:42 pm

  My son is 9 months old. He only takes naps during the day if he is held. The minute we lay him down, he wakes up and will not go back to sleep. What can I do to help.

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• 14 Shauniqua // Jan 20, 2009 at 3:37 pm

  Hey Dana,
  Thanks for all your great advice and follow-ups. My 2 year old just started going to sleep without getting out of his bed 3 times a night. Now my 3 month old (after being without) a soothie for the first month, I gave in and now in 2 months he’s completely attached. Should I begin to ween him off or cut it off cold turkey?

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• 15 Selina // Jan 20, 2009 at 3:41 pm

  My 5 month son (who usually sleeps through the night and wakes at 7am) has recently been waking up in the middle of the night (at 3-4am) for a feed. How do I stop this habit?

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• 16 Stephanie // Jan 20, 2009 at 4:23 pm

  My son is 8.5months now and really his sleep is fantastic in comparison to what we have been through, but happens now is that we put him to bed tired but not asleep at about 630pm, but he is waking between 4 and 530am. I have tried easing off the feed and also let him have 5-10min to put himself back to sleep, what seems to happen is that he will suck his thumb for a little while, but not actually go back to sleep and then he is already tired and a bit cranky by the time 6-630 (when i consider it day) comes around and then he doesnt seem to catch up on any additional sleep during the day. What can i do????

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• 17 Danni Tower // Jan 20, 2009 at 4:32 pm

  My 12 week old daughter, Darcey, has real trouble going to sleep on her own at bedtime, but not at other times of the day. We do a consistent bedtime routine every evening at 6pm with a bath, changing into pyjamas, feed in a dim, quiet room and then goodnight at 7pm. Darcey will sometimes go to sleep for about 20 mins but then wakes up and screams usually for about 2 hours before finally falling asleep exhausted at around 9pm. During the 2 hours of crying we go to her every 5 minutes to reassure and sooth her, not picking her up unless we think she might have wind, but she is only quiet for a few minutes and then starts the crying again. During the night and for her daytime naps she does not usually have a problem going to sleep on her own when we put her down awake – so why are the evenings so difficult? Do you have any thoughts on how we can stop these painful evenings?

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• 18 Rosa // Jan 20, 2009 at 5:54 pm

  my daughter is four months old. she can sleep on her own only at night time which is good. she turns over and move around too much, most of the time i find her in her cot upside down and sometimes her arm and leg is hanging out of the cot. I get so worry and have to wake up twice everynight to check on her and when i put her back on her pillow she wakes up again and starts all over again. can you please help me?

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• 19 Ron Samuelson // Jan 20, 2009 at 6:00 pm

  I forgot to mention that part of the problem with Logan’s sleep pattern is that he is has a twin sister…this is where the difficulty is. How to get them both to sleep with the different patterns that they have…

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• 20 Jennifer // Jan 20, 2009 at 6:29 pm

  Our 11 month old daughter use to go to sleep no problem for her naps and at night time and sleep from 7pm to 7am. She now wants me or my husband to stay in the room with her until she falls asleep which can sometimes take an hour or more! We have tried the controlled crying however she becomes very upset and only gets worse the more she cries to the point where she is very sweaty. There has been moments where we thought she may vomit and that is when we are with her in the room but she becomes irate because we won’t pick her up. On the occasion where we have picked her up because we thought there may be something wrong she has stopped crying. I don’t feel comfortable letting her cry for long periods of time but is there any other way to get her to go sleep on her own? Can you please help us?

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• 21 Aideen Stacey // Jan 20, 2009 at 7:02 pm

  My 5 year old wakes frightened in the night, every night, often he has very vivid dreams. When he wakes he shouts out, then runs in to my room to sleep with me. I take him back to his bed but he keeps jumping up again when he wakes and realises im not there. When I put him to bed each night he falls asleep on his own so that can’t be the problem. He’s always been a poor sleeper from day one, partly because he had glue ear as a baby and woke in pain quite a lot. Ive hardly had an unbroken nights sleep for 5 years. Please help!! I now also have a 15 month old baby who gets woken by my 5 year old when he shouts out in the night, then I have to go in to him. I cant leave him cry because he wakes my 5 year old, who has usually only just back to sleep himself. And Im a working single mum! My nerves are on the verge of shattering. If you can solve our households sleep problems you’ll deserve an OBE. Please try.

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• 22 Tina Holmes // Jan 20, 2009 at 8:01 pm

  Our 5yr old still suffers regularly with night terrors. I try to console her and although she won’t let me hold her (just kicks and screams), my partner insists on taking her into our bed. Usually, for the sake of peace and sleep, he wins. Is this going to go on forever? It’s now been three or four years and I’m sure it’s doing her no favours. What are we doing wrong? It’s him isn’t it?!!………

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• 23 Hannah Bice // Jan 20, 2009 at 10:16 pm

  My 16 month old daughter is sleeping in her own crib every night and sleeps through the night most nights (she occasionally wakes during the night). My only problem is that I can’t get her to fall asleep in the crib. I have to hold her or read to her until she falls asleep in my arms then transfer her to the crib after she’s fallen asleep. Please help.

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• 24 Leeanne Blaik // Jan 21, 2009 at 12:13 am

  My 11 month old baby boy got out of routine of sleeping through the night after holidaying away. After waking up to 6 times a night, I took advice from your website and suddenly stopped feeding him to sleep with his last bottle of the day. He is now waking only once a night which is much better. But his daytime naps are still terrible. He is barely sleeping a 1/2 hour twice a day and he used to sleep 1 hour twice a day. He wakes up crying and I cannot put him back to sleep. It is very frustrating. I put him in the cot awake and sit with him for a few minutes until he falls asleep. He is just waking up too quickly. Please help.

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• 25 Belinda and Ryan // Jan 21, 2009 at 12:16 am

  I have just stopped holding my 7 and a half month old to sleep, the only way I was able to get him to sleep in his cot was to give him a bottle then pat him until he falls asleep. How do I teach my son to go to sleep in his cot without giving him a bottle or patting him?

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• 26 Liana Versanov // Jan 21, 2009 at 1:41 am

  My son is 11 months old and i got him used to fall asleep with us in our bed .
  How can i teach him to fall asleep in his crib?
  It’s absolutely impossible for him to sleep in his crib

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• 27 sara // Jan 21, 2009 at 5:26 am

  My 2 1/2 year old wont sleep through the night. He will go to bed ok but we have to stay with him until he falls alseep. Then he will go about 3 -4 hours and wakes up crying for mummy. He drinks about 3 bottels of juice or milk at night (he uses that as a comforter) but just says he wants cuddles or to come into our bed. If we leave him he gets really upset and i cant leave him crying for to long.

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• 28 Noeleen Murray // Jan 21, 2009 at 6:40 am

  Hi,

  My 18 mnth old son has slept at most 3 times through the night. He goes to bed no problem and falls asleep with a soother, he doesnt take a bottle anymore. But he always wakes during the night and will not go back into his own bed. He wants to come into our bed. Even if i take him into our bed he can be awake up to 2 hours , just rolling about before he falls asleep again. I have tried putting him back into his own bed repeatedly but he get hysterical and i dont see how he would ever fall asleep this way as he is in such a state, he is usually out of the bed again before i even get to the bedroom door. HELP

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• 29 Greg // Jan 21, 2009 at 9:08 am

  We have a 3 year old that who does not stay in her room throughout the night. Our bedtime routine is pretty much the same with her, read a book or puzzle, lights out BUT we need to stay with her until she falls a sleep. (which takes a 1/2 to 1 hour). In the middle of the night she somehow sneaks into our room and remains there. In the past we used to get up and put her back into her room and 50% of the time she remained there….we were trying not to lock her door. Are there other ways to achieve the task of having her sleep through the night???

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• 30 Laura Sullivan // Jan 21, 2009 at 12:46 pm

  My 8 1/2 month old daughter, Katie, co-slept in our bed until she was 3 months old. We then started putting her down awake in her own crib in her own room. She would sleep 12-14 hours without crying for us. It was great, although we didn’t have naps totally down. At 5 months she got her first tooth and kept getting teeth until she had 8 of them at 7 mos. This was tough for her and interrupted the nighttime sleep. Because she was in pain, I’d get up and try to help her with it – give her tylenol, whatever, and she’d sometimes end up in our bed for the night because it was so tiring. Then we had holiday travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas and things got even worse. She’s been having a lot of separation and stranger anxiety, so she’s clung to me. She wouldn’t go to sleep without me and would wake several times in the night and couldn’t be consoled unless I nursed her. I’m now trying to get us back on the track of sleeping through the night, and I’m trying to establish a regular nap routine. Crying it out was a disaster. It made her more anxious about going to bed on her own. I’ve been trying to put her in the crib at naptime or bedtime (with her basic needs for food, diaper change, comfortable temperature all met) and stay in the room with her until she falls asleep. She stands up in the crib; I lay her back down and gently tell her to lay down, it’s time to sleep. She bounces back up. We go over this routine until she’s upset and I have to pick her up to settle her a little (hold her usually; occasionally this won’t work and she’s actually getting hungry again so I do nurse her – that’s better than going to the kitchen and getting her lunch or a snack, isn’t it?) and then we try again. Her frustration escalates and she seems more awake (and yet more tired) as things progress. Finally, she pretty much falls asleep while I’m holding her trying to calm her down and I put her in the crib. She either stays asleep, goes to sleep because she’s almost there, or fusses and we start all over again. I’m with her for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Sometimes we run into lunch time and she’s hungry again, as I mentioned before (I’ve actually heard her stomach growling even though we started out not hungry). I feel as though I could spend all day on this. Is this just what we need to go through, or is there something else I can do? Oh – she does suck her fingers and hold a soft blanket to soothe herself, but she never seems to get to the point of sleep without going through this long routine. She’s also not napping as long as she used to. She’s waking after an hour (or less) when she used to nap for 2+ hours.

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• 31 linda_caissie // Jan 21, 2009 at 1:22 pm

  hi there i was wondering about how to break marlee of her soother.she takes it at nap time and bedtime .any ideas would be great ty linda

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• 32 iris robertson // Jan 21, 2009 at 2:52 pm

  Kate, is now 7 months old and for the past few nights wakes up at 4 am and won’t go back to sleep until she has a few ounces of milk. This needs to stop but we haven’t found the answer as yet. Please help.

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• 33 Jenny // Jan 21, 2009 at 4:08 pm

  My 16 month old stays with Grandma during the day. She has a crib there and takes 2 naps. Should she bring her blankie and teddy that she sleeps with during the night from home for nap time or should she keep a blankie and teddy at Grandma’s for nap time? I am going to start using the program Friday night… wish us luck!!!

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• 34 Paula H // Jan 21, 2009 at 9:09 pm

  I have a 3 1/2 month baby girl. She sleeps through the night since she was 6 weeks old. Thanks to your advices she was doing perfect with naps and night sleep. She loved her crib and she just went to sleep without any help. BUT when she was 2 1/2 month she started with an allergy to dairy and soy. Everything went backwards. Even though she still sleeps through the night, everyday is more difficult to put her to sleep. She hates her crib now and nap time is a nightmare, she cries a lot when she is sleepy. What can we do to make it better again.

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• 35 Nicole // Jan 21, 2009 at 10:57 pm

  Dana, my son, Ben, started sleeping through the night at 4 months and was a great sleeper until he was about a year old. Then he started waking at night crying usually one time a night. It has progressively gotten worse and he now wakes 2-3 times a night. (He is 21 months now.) At first he seemed very scared and I thought he was having dreams, but now I think he is having separation anxiety as it’s not even really a cry as much as a wine/yell but he calms down as long as I go in. If one of us does not go in, he will escalate into an all out crying tantrum. I’ve tried letting him cry it out, but it is very hard for me. To make matters worse, we now have a 2 month old. The little one is sleeping in our bed (which I NEVER did with our older one b/c I didn’t believe in it) because the first few days he was home his crying woke up the older one so we figured it was just easier to have him in our bed where we could thwart the crying quickly. However now, he will NOT sleep in the bassinet and letting him cry is clearly not an option. I really don’t want him in our bed for much longer but don’t know how to fix this. HELP (I really have 2 problems here).

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• 36 Sarah // Jan 22, 2009 at 10:05 am

  I have a nine month old daughter. She was sleeping great until recently. About a week ago I started giving her only 1 nap a day because it would take an hour for her to fall asleep and then only sleep for 40 min. Now she’ll fall asleep in 20 minutes and sleep 2-3 hours. However, this week her night sleep is interupted. She is starting to crawl in her sleep and wake herself up. It seems to really scare her. What can we do? Is this related to only taking 1 nap?

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• 37 jessica // Jan 22, 2009 at 2:41 pm

  I have a 23 month old and are expecting in about 5 weeks my son takes a bottle and i lay down with him in order to go to sleep he wakes crying and will get up and run aroung the house instead of going back to sleep he wakes everyone up and i cannot get him to go back unless he has a bottle i dont know what to do and i need to try and fix things before the baby is born

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• 38 Heather S // Jan 22, 2009 at 3:35 pm

  Hi Dana,
  Our 2 1/2 year old has always been a good sleeper. She would always go to sleep well on her own, sleep through the night and sleep 10 – 12 hours each night.

  All of a sudden she won’t go to sleep alone (my husband or I have to lay on the floor beside her bed until she falls asleep) and if she wakes during the night she calls for us. This all started a few weeks ago when our cat got closed in her room for a few minutes at bedtime and she is blaming that incident. We have gone so far as to take the cat to my parents for a couple weeks and it hasn’t solved the problem.
  She has undergone a lot of changes lately such as:

  - baby brother born in September
  - at the end of December we moved our son from a bassinet in our room to the crib in the room next to hers
  - gave up her pacifier a few weeks before Christmas
  - over the holidays my husband was home for a couple weeks
  - we had company staying with us over the holidays
  - Her schedule was completely messed up during the holidays
  - And of course the cat incident

  How can we get her back to going to sleep on her own? We’ve tried rewards, explaining to her why we can’t sleep in her room, tried getting back into routine (bath, brush teeth, story and to bed) and one night tried the Cry-it-method for about 1/2 hour until she was crying so hard I thought she’d be sick. Even with someone laying beside her she probably still doesn’t get to sleep until 9:30/10:00 because she tries every stall tactic she can.

  Please help!!! Thank you!

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• 39 katie // Jan 22, 2009 at 6:16 pm

  Hi Dana,
  I have a four month old baby. She has been falling asleep on her own since she was 3 weeks old and she prefers it that way. She takes three naps throughout the day. One in the morning for 2 hours, one in the afternoon for 1 hour and one in the early evening for about 45 minutes. At night, I put her to bed at 8 and she goes right to sleep. She wakes up at 4 in the morning every day to eat and then she goes back to sleep for 2 to 3 hours. Is she doing this because it is out of habit or because she still needs to eat? She is a big baby and already weighs 18 pounds, so it doesn’t seem to me like she needs to eat anymore. Please help me, I have not slept through a whole night in so long!!!!!

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• 40 Lori // Jan 22, 2009 at 9:18 pm

  So I think we may have conquered the not sleeping through the night with my 10 month old. I went through the steps at bedtime where you stand by the crib, middle of the room, and doorway. Now I am supposed to be out of the room totally, but my son screams and cries. I know Dana that you say not to let them cry it out, but what else can I do??

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• 41 Alexandra // Jan 22, 2009 at 10:46 pm

  Due to nasal congestion that my daughter was born with, she has been sleeping upright in her chair or swing since 2 weeks old. She is now 3 months, and all cleared up, and refuses to sleep flat in her crib. She wants her swing or chair! How do I break this habit?

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• 42 Linda // Jan 23, 2009 at 12:34 am

  I have a 2 1/2 yr old & a 7 month old. I get very little sleep. The baby wakes several times a night and I don’t want my toddler to wake because she will then need to be held or layed with so I go in & try to hush her first but I always end up nursing her. It’s the easiest thing to do when you’re half asleep & worried about waking everyone else. I’ve tried to let her cry it out & she has gone back to sleep but will usually wake an hour later again.
  Help! I really need some sleep.

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• 43 Angie // Jan 23, 2009 at 9:37 am

  I read the Sleep Sense Program when my daughter was 3 months old and I was feeling desperate. Now she is 12 months old and sleeping well. Thank you. I have a few questions though. Each night she goes to bed around 7:00-7:30pm. and falls asleep on her own. For a couple weeks now she is waking in the middle of the night. Sometimes she just cries out one time and other times she might cry for 5 minutes. I don’t go in her room because I don’t want her to get upset if she sees me. Is this normal behavior for her to cry out in the middle of the night? Is she dreaming? Also, she keeps waking earlier and earlier in the morning. Is there a way to get her back to waking at 7:00am instead of 6:00am? Do I need to push back her bedtime to do this?
  Thank you for your help!

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• 44 Kate Gray // Jan 23, 2009 at 5:59 pm

  Hello my name is Kate and I am a 19yr old Mum, I have a 10 month old son who is waking all through the night, up 6 times a night or even more. He is still breast fed and is wanting to suckle before he goes to bed. I have tried weening him off and tried a bottle of formular but he will not take it. When putting him down to bed at night I have a routine of dinner, bath, calm down time, breastfeeed then bed, but when it comes to the cot he know’s it’s bed time and screams until he is taken out! I have ended up putting a portacot in my room and having him sleep in that next to me. Im at my wits end with other sleeping programmes I have tried and I cannot stand the screaming he does EVERY night. He is a very knowing and strong willed baby and he has me wraped around his little finger!
  I live in New Zealand and Im thinking of buying your “Sleep sense programme” package, I would just like some of your advice before I do.

  Please help, I need my sleep before I get back into my education!!!

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• 45 Effhje // Jan 23, 2009 at 11:54 pm

  I have a 8 month old, he has to fall asleep while nursing or rocking, I try to nurse him and put him in his crib awake, he will stay awake for 4 hours he is not cying than he is so tired and starts to cry he will cry for another hour or as long as I leave him there I have tried robbing his back and other things I Just have to pick him up he will sleep less than 3 min what should I do?

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• 46 jasmin // Jan 24, 2009 at 8:18 am

  my son Aayman is 17 monh old but still he dont sleep without feeding he is still breastfeed and wake up every 2 to 3 hrs its too difficult can u plz help me how can i stop breast feed plz reply me as soon as possible

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• 47 Amy Hayes // Jan 24, 2009 at 5:30 pm

  I have a 4 1/2 year old who keeps going into her sisters room at night waking her up and sleeping with her. How do I get her to stop doing this and sleeping in her own bed. I have tried everything. She is even getting up in the middle of the night and eating,once she even got choked. I worry for her safety. We put up a baby gate and it did not work she climbed over it and under it. I get up alot and check to make sure she is in her bed. I always take her back to hers. We need help!!!!!! ASAP

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• 48 Karen // Jan 24, 2009 at 6:42 pm

  HI
  I have a 7 month old who co sleeps with us. We have tried the crib option for months now and at first she would sleep for several hours on her own. Lately she wakes every hour after about 5 or 6 times of trying to get her back to bed I give up and bring her into my bed. I have tried rocking, singing, nursing if need be, bottle feeding, husband everything and no luck! PLEASE help

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• 49 Holly // Jan 25, 2009 at 9:34 am

  My son is 2 years old and sometimes refuses to take a nap – He is so tired but won’t give in and is miserably. If I lay down with him he immediately goes to sleep but when I get up so does he. How long do I put up with his wining – it could last for 3 hours. Help

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• 50 Lillian // Jan 25, 2009 at 2:38 pm

  My Mum couldn’t handle the crying, and was using the stroller to lull my baby to sleep. I actually had to go to her house on the weekend and do some sleep training myself, then get my Mum to try while I was there to make sure she didn’t cave. My Mum is so happy now cuz Sidney will walk into her room and put her arms up to get in the crib at nap time! No more crying and longer better quality naps…totally worth it!

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• 51 Alrica Dixon // Jan 25, 2009 at 5:24 pm

  Hi, my baby girl Maya is 7 and a half months old and has just started to sleep through the night. However over the past four to five nights she has been waking up once sometimes twice in the night. Sometimes she just makes a noise then goes back to sleep, other times she cries until I have to go to her. I find her with her arm sticking out of the cot bars, where she has burrowed below the padding. Her arm is very cold and Im afriad she may get bad circulation. But each time I try to stick her arm back in, whenter I return later, or in the morning its back there again. Im getting worried
  1). Why is she starting to wake in the night again
  2). Will her arm (joint) be alright?
  When she wakes in the night I sshh her to sleep, which after 20-30 mins seems to work.
  Thanks,
  Alrica

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• 52 elena // Jan 25, 2009 at 7:45 pm

  Hi Dana!
  My daughter is 6 months old and she takes about 4-5 20 minute naps a day. She has been this way since she was born. She also still eats every hour and 15 minutes to hour and 30 minutes. She only eats 2-3 ounces at a time. I have tried to hold her off hoping she would eat more at one time, but no luck. Could this be a reason for her poor napping? She was sleeping for 10-11 hours straight at night, until about a month ago when she had an ear infection and a cold. Now she wakes up 2-3 times a night. My husband works a twelve hour night shift, so I hold her and play with alot to keep her calm so we don’t wake him. Now I think she might have developed separation anxiety. I cannot leave the room, let alone try to have her fall asleep by herself, without her screaming. I did some research on babies with separation anxiety, and learned that some babies wake up in the middle of the night due to this. The reason I am writing is to know(since money is tight) is if you think with these other issues, will your program work for us before I spend the money? Please let me know, not only am I exhausted, but I just don’t know what to do anymore. Thank you!

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• 53 Jenny M // Jan 28, 2009 at 8:03 am

  My daughter is almost 13 months old, and I feel like she gets tired too quickly. Her normal bedtime is anywhere from 7-7:30pm and her average wake time is 7am. Even after 12 hours of sleep, she seems to be exhausted after only an hour or two after waking. She sleeps great through the night and her naps average around 2 hours each (morning and afternoon). My concern is that she seems to get so tired so quickly now, and she is in the process of transitioning to a solid 3 hour nap schedule at her daycare. The naptime at the daycare starts at 11:30 and lasts until 2:30pm. Does this seem like enough sleep for a 13 month old since it means that she will be awake for 4.5 hours in the morning and then 4.5 hours in the afternoon? Just not sure how much nap time a toddler needs at this age, or if her body will eventually adjust to the change. Please help!

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• 54 Rebecca // Jan 28, 2009 at 2:36 pm

  I have a question regarding my 8 month old’s sleeping. He goes to sleep on his own at bedtime which is 7:15 pm, but he always wakes sometime between 12 and 4:30. We have tried letting him fuss while we periodically check on him, rub his back etc., but after about 1-2 hours we feed him. He has successfully put himself back to sleep 1 time without food. He shouldn’t be hungry seeing as he gets a good dinner at 5, one last bottle before bed (he has breastmilk during the day, but formula at night). Then he wakes again around 5:30 in the morning and refuses to go back to sleep and starts the day grumpy and tired (as do I). Please help!! He’s also never been a napper, so the majority of his day is spent whiny and clingy

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• 55 shauneen // Feb 3, 2009 at 12:33 pm

  Hi, my 7 week old baby now seems to be sleeping at 9pm. she sleeps for about 6 hrs and then wakes. thereafter she sleeps again after her morning bath at 9:30am. she at times sleeps for the 3hours. during the day however she always fusses and fights and she has to be rocked and swaddled before she falles asleep again. please advise as to what i can do.

  Shauneen

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• 56 Rachel // Mar 25, 2009 at 12:24 am

  How long should we let our babies cry when going to bed or down for a nap? I have a 9 mo. old and I am trying to get him out of his nightly waking habit. He still wakes about twice a night, and he falls back to sleep after I nurse him. I want to get rid of that crutch, but when I don’t nurse him he just cries. Friends tell me I just have to tough it out and let him cry and eventually he’ll sleep through the night. I don’t like letting him cry it out, but is it okay to let him cry it out, and what’s the time limit? Thanks!!

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• 57 Rachel // Mar 25, 2009 at 12:26 am

  P.S. After reading everyone’s questions I feel like I am not alone! Thank you Dana and every mom out there!!

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• 58 Jesse // Aug 10, 2009 at 6:46 pm

  Hi Dana,

  I seem to do everything wrong. Before I went back to work I had my 3 month old son going to sleep regularly at 10pm, but I had to bounce and rock him for an hour. Now that his father is putting him to sleep he is up until 1am crying. Letting him cry doesn’t work because he will cry, then cry harder, then choke and/or spit up and finally scream. He also will not nap during the day. At both times he needs to be bounced to sleep, then as soon as I try to lay him down he wakes up and starts to cry, I do this at least four or five times. To get him to sleep during the mornings and afternoons I give him my breast and sleep with him, obviously his father can’t do this at night. This last week has gotten bad enough that we’ve been letting him sleep in the bed with us. How do I help him to sleep better?

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