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Hi! I’m Dana Obleman, creator of The Sleep Sense Program. If you’d rather read than watch, I’ve transcribed the text of this video below.
Has illness or teething disrupted your toddler’s good sleep habits? Here are some quick and easy tips
for getting back on track!
Sarah wrote in recently with this question:
“My 19-month-old was a great sleeper. During a spell of teething and illness, the bedtime ritual was broken and my son was brought into our bed. Initially, this was when he woke in the night, but now he starts the night there too. Do you have any advice on how to re-establish a good sleep pattern in his own room?”
That’s a good question and a common problem. I get a lot of comments from people that say everything was going great until their child gets sick and ends up in bed with them. The important thing to remember is that it’s always a better idea for you to go to your child instead of bringing your child to you.
If you’re concerned about them during the night when they’re ill, if they’re having trouble breathing for instance, its better if you “camp out” in their room with an air mattress or cot or something, instead of moving them to your room. It’s much easier to transition you out of their room than it is to get your toddler back to theirs. Just a few nights in bed with you and your child might want to be there every night. Taking them to your bed is a huge change in their sleep routine and it might cause you to have to basically start from scratch in establishing a good sleep routine.
The good news is if this child used to be a good sleeper, if he fell asleep on his own at bedtime and slept through the night, he knows how to do it. He has the skills he needs for sleeping well but perhaps needs to be reminded of them as well as having some boundaries re-established.
Start with the bedtime routine. A good routine might start with a bath, then jammies, maybe read a couple of stories or sing a song in their room, then into the crib.
Because they’ve become accustomed to sleeping with you, it might be a trying transition for them to fall asleep alone in their room. I’d suggest you try the “stay-in-the-room” method to ease the changes.
For three nights, a parent sits next to the crib, laying them down a few times while comforting them with a key phrase like “its sleepy time.” If they resist, and they may, then let them stand up and just wait them out until they fall asleep in their own bed.
You’ll do the same thing for any night wakings. You’ll go into their room, sit next to the crib in a chair, repeating your key phrase, laying them back down and perhaps gently touching them for support until they fall asleep.
There will probably be a couple of rough nights for both of you until the patterns are re-established. But like I said earlier, if they had good sleep habits before it’s just a matter of reminding them. But because they’ve become used to sleeping in your bed, you can be sure that there’s going to be some protest to the change. By staying with them, you’re providing some much-needed comfort and support, “cheering” them on as they fall asleep in their own bed in their own room.
Every three nights, you’ll want to move your chair further away from the crib. You don’t want them thinking that you need to watch them all night; that causes a bunch of new problems. Again, every three days you’ll move closer to the door until eventually you’re out of the room altogether.
You and your husband should work together as a team, taking shifts or switching nights, whatever you need to do to stay committed to the plan and get your little one to sleep in his own bed again.
Remember that when they get sick, you’ll go to them in their room. That will make things easier next time, easier for all of you to sleep well.
To learn more about The Sleep Sense Program, click here — or you can click here to order now!
To ask a question about your child’s sleep, just leave it in the ‘Comments’ section below! I’ll choose one and create a new video answer each week!
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55 responses so far ↓
1 Dana // Nov 24, 2009 at 12:52 pm
My 18 month old used to sleep very well in his crib, and in his room, after we went through some sleep training (we tried the easy way, but he was getting too worked up when seeing me or my husband, and in the end we let him cry for a few nights). Now, due to teething/my mom staying with us/development, he slowly started crying again, and we went to his room to comfort him, thinking that he is in pain, so we should try to help him. As before, things went downhill from there: he started waking up more often and cries until one of us goes in, he doesn’t even want to go to sleep anymore. In addition to this, he is banging his head REALLY hard on the crib sides: we padded the top, but now he sits in these awkward positions so that he can still bang his head on the wooden part. I try to go in to comfort him, just by sitting next to him, but that threw him into a very scary fit: he was banging his head, throat and nose, throwing himself all around the crib, I would say as if he was “possessed” (that is probably the best description). We would appreciate some suggestions, we tried the mild approach without success, and we’re afraid to let him bang his head for too long, because while his head may take the hits, last night he threw himself with the throat in the top of the crib, that is not that easy to ignore.
Thank you!
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Reply by Michelle:
November 25th, 2009 at 6:32 am
My little boy is 7.5 months, he started crawling at 6 months and is now pretty much pulling him self up onto everything and anything he can. This has now started to effect his sleep as the minute I put him down he flips onto his tummy and begins climbing up his cot (no matter how tired he is) He then gets stuck as he cant get back down. Last night I went in 15 times to put him back down and eventually he passed out. He has also started napping for only 30 minutes in the day instead of having at least one decent sleep. I am not sure if his brain is very active that the minute he hits the next sleep cycle he feels the need to climb again. What should I do?
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Reply by Lizelle:
November 29th, 2009 at 2:06 am
My boy is 16 weeks old and hy doesn’t sleep during the day. He is quite good at night, but I don’t know what to do during the day. He will sleep for 15 to 20 minutes and that’s that. Nothing more. I can’t leave him on his play gym, because he is so tired, he cries most of the time. He only wants to be on my lap and wants attention from me the whole day. How can I get him so sleep longer than 20 minutes at a time? I don’t want him to cry until he falls asleep. During the night he will sleep through, but I still have to give him the dummy. He doesn’t wake up, but starts to move a lot by 01:00. I’ll give him the dummy and then he will sleep until 04:00 for a feed. Sometimes I give him the dummy up to 5 times a night. I want him to go to sleep without the dummy. Can you please help me as I’m going back to work and have to get up 05:00 every day. I don’t think I’ll cope with the busy nights and a full days’ of work.
Thank you
Lizelle
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Reply by nirmaljit kaur:
November 25th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
my 7 month old daughter sleeps through the most nights but my question is how many hours can she go without milk. she wakes up about 2 times during the night and I have to give her pacifier to put her back to sleep. please advise
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2 lakshmi // Nov 24, 2009 at 1:13 pm
How to bring the child off of nursing before sleep?
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3 Sydney // Nov 24, 2009 at 1:30 pm
My son is 14 months old and he is still wanting to be swaddled. We are thinking its time to stop swaddling him. When he gets out of the blanket he wakes himself up. He is currently sleeping in our room by our bed but in his own bed. How do we get him to sleep without the swaddle blanket?
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4 Kranti // Nov 24, 2009 at 1:52 pm
My son is 6.5 months old and not yet sleeping through the night. He was recently sick and since then he’s been waking up screaming in the night and seems to be hungry. We have been bringing him back to our bed and he goes to sleep after taking a bottle. We also want to move his crib to another room. How can we ensure a successful transition and how can I get him to sleep through the night? Does he still need to be fed during his night wakings?
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5 Kami Miller // Nov 24, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Tucker has been a great sleeper going to bed about 7:15pm on his own and will sleep through until anywhere from 5:00am to 6:45am on the mornings that he wakes at 5:00am he will just sit in his crib and babble. Should I leave him in the crib to see if he falls back to sleep? 5am is very early.
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6 jade farmer // Nov 24, 2009 at 1:54 pm
hi i have a 27 month old son. a few months ago he was ill and wanted me through the night, i went to him and he fell back to sleep in his own bed without being cuddled but when i woke up the next moring he would be in my daughters bed. this is still on going now, i have tryed closing her door at night but he still trys to get in and can get up 4 or more times through the night. any sugestions? thank you x
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7 Morgan // Nov 24, 2009 at 2:10 pm
My 14 month old is still on 2 naps per day. But maybe once/twice a week he takes a 3 hour morning nap and has no interest in a 2nd nap making bedtime difficult because he’s overtired. Is it time to switch him to one nap or should I wait a little longer?
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8 Julia // Nov 24, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Hi Dana,
I used your services about three years ago for my daughter. She is now 3 yrs and 4 months. We started with the sleep training when she was about 4 1/2 months. We did quite well with her naps, but her night time put down did not work. We tried for 3 weeks and she literally cried for about an hour to hour and a half each night. She then got sick so I stopped. I tried your method again when she was about 7 months and it seemed to work quite well & much quicker. Now, I have a new baby who is almost 4 months old. I just read a book called Bed Timing that says not to try and sleep train from 4 -5 1/2 months because this is a difficult time, but to try from 5 1/2 to 7 1/2 months. Do you agree with this? I am breast feeding my son and I’m not sure if this would work at this time. I would appreciate your feedback.
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9 Susan // Nov 24, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Our son has recently turned two, and since then his sleeping habits have completely changed. He fights taking naps, when all along he went to nap with no problem. Since he is resisting taking his afternoon nap, he is overly tired and now can not sleep thru the night. If he does sleep thru the night, he is up anytime between 4:45 and 5:30 am, which not acceptable, nor enough sleep for him. The only way I have been able to get him to nap is by either laying in his room with him or in my room, which is a habit I do not want him to get use to. When he wakes up so early in the morning, I go into soothe him once, tell him it is still night time, give him some water and then lay him back down and leave. Then, he will just get back up and scream and cry for hours. I know he wants to come into our bed, but we don’t want to do that, that is something we never did. I took him to see the dr. in case he had an ear infection or soar throat, but everything is perfect. The dr. said it is a phase. Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated, as we are all very tired from weeks of not sleeping.
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10 Katie // Nov 24, 2009 at 3:15 pm
We have a set nap schedule and bedtime routine. My 8month old, breast fed baby goes to sleep on her own everytime and is still waking up at least once per night to eat, and she is truly hungry (I can hear her tummy growling and hear the milk dropping in) what can I do to get her to sleep all the way through?
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11 Ana // Nov 24, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Hi Dana!
We’re moving to Brazil next january for a year. There is a difference of 4 hours, when it’s 7 o’clock in Brazil, it’s 3 o’clock in my town.
Mateo is 14 months old and is a great sleeper, but my concern is how to make him get used to the new schedulle and still sleep through the night. Do you have any advice for us? Thanks
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12 Carrie // Nov 24, 2009 at 3:21 pm
My daughter is 6 months old. She has never been a consistent good sleeper but was getting fairly good and has done up to 10 hours of sleep before. I am not feeding her before 9 hours in bed She has a consistent bed time routine and goes to sleep no problem. The issue lately is that she is rolling herself over onto her stomach at some point and then waking up and not being happy and she can’t seem to get herself back. Lately she has been up every 3 hours. Any suggestions?
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13 Claudette // Nov 24, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I have a 4 month old who is sleeping in bed with me right now coz he has croup and he is constantly using my nipples as a pacifier while nursing in the side by side position.
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14 Alina // Nov 24, 2009 at 3:37 pm
How do I keep my 8 month old awake long enough to eat his bottle to where I don’t have to transfer him in the crib? I finish the routine of; bathing him, reading to him and now feeding but I feel like he’s getting used to me holding him before bed because he’s falling asleep while during his feeding. Is this a problem and what can I do to avoid this problem?
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15 Penny Price // Nov 24, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Brady is 10 months old and rouses a couple of times during the night, but won’t take a pacifier. He only will go back to sleep when you give him a bottle to hold. I know you not supposed to let them lay in bed with a bottle but he will not sleep thru without it and wn’t substitute for a pacifier. What can I do.
pprice
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16 Teresa Reynolds // Nov 24, 2009 at 4:44 pm
My daughter is 5 months old, and since day one she has never slept in her bed, it has been in her swing. She does not sleep though the night either. I need to know how to get her to sleep in her crib, and to get her to sleep through the night. Please let me know what i can do…
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17 emma lynch // Nov 24, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Finn goes to bed like a dream and is awake when I leave him and he goes to sleep on his own, sometimes with his dummy and sometimes not. He still wakes at least once sometimes twice during the night and wants milk. Should I still be feeding him even tho he is six months old? I have tried to give him more milk during the day but just wont have anymore. I have recently started weaning him but he has woken up during the night for milk since birth. He will drink anything from three to six ounces. Any advice would be great……
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18 bron // Nov 24, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Dana’ wot do routine do you recommend, feed, play sleep?
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19 Melissa Mead // Nov 24, 2009 at 6:01 pm
We have used your program since our daughter was 5 months old. She really took to it then the best because she was very colicky up to that point. We still had a hard time getting her to take long consistent naps because she constantly slept in our arms and fed at the breast before sleep when she was colicky. But at about 7 months she started napping, and by a year she slept for naps even better such as for 1-4 hours in the afternoon and still went to bed successfully at between 7 and 8 pm. She is now 23 months old and still naps and sleeps wonderfully. She absolutely loves her routine of the day and she updated to a toddler bed at 15 months old and never looked back at her crib again. I know some kids don’t adjust well to the toddler crib so young, but our daughter showed so many mature signs for her age such as talking and verbalizing how she wanted a big girl bed. Also we could change the bed back easily to a crib since it was a convertible if it backfired. But she loves her sleep routine so much she is out on a dime at night most nights (or some chatter) and never gets up to run to our room, let alone leave her room in the middle of the night. She still sometimes wakes up and cries, but we basically leave her to herself to go back to sleep or check on her, though not taking her out of the bed. I swear the toddler bed and her great sleep schedule would have never been possible for us if we didn’t use your program. You helped us set a positive path of sleep for our child and look forward to doing the same with our next baby.
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20 kristy // Nov 24, 2009 at 6:12 pm
caitlin is now 8mths old and is still waking every 3-4hrs,legitimately hungry-has a full feed,nappy change and happily returns to her own crib. i’ve tried giving her solids in addition before bed but this doesn’t extend her appetite. how do i encourage sleeping through the night without a screaming baby that keeps my partner awake?
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21 Effie // Nov 24, 2009 at 6:57 pm
My son goes to sleep easily at night at around 7:30-8:00. He sleeps through the night but wakes up around 5:00 and wants to come to our bed. Since my husband and I both work, we take him into bed so that we can get a little more sleep. The problem is that I can’t sleep with him in my bed and I’m getting little sleep. What do I do?
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22 Anonymous // Nov 24, 2009 at 7:44 pm
HI Dana,
OUr six month old has been sleeping in her own room since she was two months old- Whether she falls asleep on her own at night or on the breast it makes no difference to her sleeping through the night- on a good night she is up three times more often then not it is more than three times. what else can we do? We have tried letting her cry and that doesn’t work either! we are desperate!!!
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23 Meleah Jones // Nov 24, 2009 at 9:21 pm
My baby is 11 weeks old now and fights her sleep. She will be very tired and fussy, I lay her down and she just lays there and cries and when she drifts off it only lasts for about 10 minutes or so. Also, I feel totaly clueless about what to even do with her. She fusses a lot when she’s tired but won’t go to sleep. And at night time she will sleep but then wakes up crying until I put the pacifier back into her mouth. Please help I don’t know what to do!
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Reply by Meleah Jones:
November 24th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
I had one more question. When she does sleep at night, she wakes up crying periodically even after being fed and changed. Do you know why?
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24 Ember // Nov 25, 2009 at 1:21 am
I have a 2 and almost a half year old who all of the sudden fights my husband and I about going to bed. She has some issues with her bowel movements and now uses this to her advatage at bedtime. This is how our bedtime ritual goes right now: 7:30-small snack, pjs on, story, potty which usually is about 30 minutes because she insists that she has to go #2. The only way I can get her off the potty is if I tell her another story, which I do, and afterwards she is screaming that she has to “go poopoo really bad,” even if she’s already gone. I’ve been trying (with no success) the cry it out method just because being in the room with her makes things worse. I end up holding her until she falls asleep, otherwise she tries to climb out of her crib. I have so much to do in the evenings and can’t because I’m staying in her room until 9:30 or 10 when she finally falls asleep. Have any suggestions for us?
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25 Maha Gorton // Nov 25, 2009 at 1:31 am
My daughter is 13 months old and sleeps through the night (7.30pm – 7.30am) finally! She has a routine that has been great for a while. She goes down for a nap at 10am and i wake her up at 10.30am. She then goes back down at 1.30pm and sleeps for 2 hours. Bath time is around 6.30pm and then in bed by 7.30pm. She falls asleep by herself, eats well and has 3 b/feeds a day. BUT recently she has been fussing at nap time, crying when i put her down. Also, she is only sleeping for 1 hour in the afternoon so is fussy for the rest of the day. A friend suggested cutting her morning nap but she is so tired that i can really see she needs that half an hour power nap mid morning. It has been going so well. Why has it changed all of a sudden and how can i get things back on track? She’s such a happy girl when she’s rested… She’s not been sick. I think her canines are starting to poke through but they’ve been doing this on and off for a month or so without disturbing her routine before…
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26 Jolene // Nov 25, 2009 at 2:20 am
Hi Dana
Eric goes to bed with 2 bottles,one is a milkbottle and the other a teabottle. This is the only way that he would sleep. He has a dummy, but in the night I dont give him the dummy for comfort,only his bottles. Eric is 8months old tomorrow and still doesnt sleep through the nights, and I dont know way. He also sleeps in his own room.I dont know what to do. A week before he were 4 months old he got 2 teeths without any illness or something, I didnt even know that it was teething time, know he gets anouther 2 teeths but still he isnt ill or anything to complain about, but he doesnt sleep through the night. Why is that? Please help me if you can. Sorry for al the spelling mistakes, I am Afrikaans!!
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27 sally // Nov 25, 2009 at 6:14 am
My baby has never sleep through the night since he was born. He will have his bedtime routine of porriage at 8 pm, bath at 9.00pm and slept at 9.30 or 10 pm. he will also has a small bottle of milk to help him to sleep. The baby will then cry at 2.30 pm which we will give him another bottle despite the fact we know that he is not hungry at all.
Then, he will cry and make noise either at 4.30 to 5 am. Sometimes, he wakes up at 4.30 am wide awake and wants to play.
We will have to carry him till he fall asleep, which he will wake up again at 7.00 am.
He has never fall asleep on his own, we always have to carry him in our arms till he fall asleep. We try letting him cry out but it did not work out as he will keep crying for hours but just can’t sleep.
Thanks,
sally
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28 kerri // Nov 25, 2009 at 7:55 am
Mario wont sleep in his own room hes always climbing in my bed or just keeps coming out his room till i give in and let him sleep with me hes very over tired with purple bags under his eyes and im getting worried now. thanks x
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29 kerri // Nov 25, 2009 at 7:55 am
Marios 5 years old and very active aswel
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30 Amanda // Nov 25, 2009 at 10:30 am
Hi Dana, its so interesting reading other coments made by mothers about their children with lack of sleep. The core of it all is that we all want our children to sleep well, and on their own, giving us parents a decent nights rest too.
My girl is 2 years old and has never really been a good sleeper. Before turning one she would always grizzle during the night, sometimes wanting a top up of milk. After turing one the night feeds were cut out so that was good. Now 2 years old she fights her day time nap. Sometimes she will not go down unless i lay with her. This means that on many days she is awake from 6:00am to 8:00pm sometiems. Lately she has been calling out for us during the night and on many occasions, i would wake only to find her at the side of my bed, just standing there sometimes and others calling mummy. This is all in the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes during the night she would give this almightly scream like she was having a nightmare and would take a while to settle. She usually wakes around 6:00, 6:30. Looks like the 7:30am mornings are gone forever im sad to say. How i long to have a full, uninterupted nights sleep. I guess im safe to say i have not had a decent nights sleep yet. I am desperate now, could she have some kind of pain in her back/belly that may need looking at which is preventing her from having a full nights rest. As my mums says, ‘the more they sleep they more they want to’. I just have to get her TO sleep! Can you please help us? Thank you, Zombie Amanda.
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31 Lauren Hanes // Nov 25, 2009 at 11:09 am
My daughter is 9 and 1/2 months old and has only slept through the night twice. She falls asleep around 8:00 and sometimes she makes it until 12:00 or 2:00 before she wakes… sometimes she only makes it to 11.
She still wakes for a bottle during the night (we’ve tried to get her to take more during the day, but she refuses… guess she thinks she’s too old for them already!). Most of the time when she wakes at night she doesn’t cry… but she’ll move around so much in her crib that she’s wide awake by the time I give in to go check on her (I let her go for about 20 – 30 minutes before I go in… hoping that she’ll get herself back to sleep). She is cutting 4 teeth right now… should I just hope that she will eventually sleep more soundly once the teeth have cut through? I would love for her to be a better sleeper… but crying it out has not worked and going in and patting her to sleep doesn’t do the trick either. I’m open to suggestions!
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32 Charla // Nov 25, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Hi Dana,
My son is 8 months old and he has been waking up 1-6 times per night. he goes to bed around 9:30 and is up for the day between 6:30 and 8:00am. He no longer needs a feed during the night and we no longer go and pick him up when he cries in the night. we go to the crib, talk to him and pat his back until he falls asleep again. He won’t go back to sleep without us doing this however, and it’s usually no big deal if it’s only happening once or twice. But for the last 2 months he has been waking so often. what do you think is the cause for all the wakes? even though he’s staying in his crib all night, we are losing so much sleep going back and fourth to his bedroom all night. what can we do?
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33 smiriti // Nov 25, 2009 at 2:15 pm
my baby is 4 months 2weeks old (son)he really dont like to sleep in his crib .he like to sleep with me if i place him in the crib he will start crying. never stop!am i suppose to use cio method or i will stay with him in the room, because he dont know how to fall in sleep his own. and during the day he only take 30min nap. any advise
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34 Albana // Nov 25, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Leon is 6 months, hes always breastfred and the only way hes learn’t to sleep is being breastfred. He sleeps with me in my bed, now that hes getting bigger he seems to wake up very often and always wants to be breastfred…the only changes i have made are: i feed him his baby food 4 times daily and breastfred him through the day and before he sleeps so he wont get hungry but he still seems to get hungry at night times. He doesn’t take dummy’s nor formula milk…What do I do?…he wakes up sometimes 4 times a night…please could you help me and give me any advice thanks alot.
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35 Joanna Allen // Nov 26, 2009 at 7:43 am
Hi Dana
We started your sleep programme a couple of nights ago and night times are improving my 7 and a half month daughter still wakes but is back to sleep before the 10 minute wait after a lil cry but my problem is come 5 6 oclock in the morning she is happy to play in her cot not going back to sleep i am going to go into her after 10 mins to resettle from tonight till normal wake up time to see if this help any further advice? the other thing is with daytime naps we have taken her soother away completely now so she goes to sleep after about 5 10 mins of winging but is only going for 20 to 45 mins and normally wont resettle which leaves her tired after about an hour and a half of being awake normally meaning we have to give her a 3 nap of the day after 230 3 bottle so she isnt completelly drained by dinner bath time, how do i impliment the 2 naps if she is only short napping without making her to tired for bed at 7 do i just carry on as i am untill her naps get longer and then spread them out a bit longer inbetween untill she is down to 2 and not tired for bed, dont like letting her sleep after 4 coz she then wont go to bed properly… help, i dont know if i am making sense… getting desperate for a good nights sleep and a stress free day from wondering if she is sleeping and eating right.
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36 Flora // Nov 26, 2009 at 10:29 am
Hi Dana,
First of all thank you very much for all your advices and help to other people! It has really encouraged me to start sleep training with my daughter which is 2 years old now. It works already as she doesn’t wake so many times anymore for a feed (yes,I am still breastfeeding but soon gonna stop at all) and if she does then she goes back to sleep. I am using “stay in the room”method.
My question is:
Before I started this method she used to have naps every second day but now as I
am teaching her to fall asleep on her own without breast and just sitting by her bed(It is the third day as I started to use “stay in the room method”) she had none. I sit with her for 2,5 hours and she looks tired but refuses to fall asleep. So I just have to give up at the end.
Could you advice me what to do if she goes like that or will be having her naps in the future every second day as she used to.
Thank you in advance.
Flora.
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37 Jason // Nov 26, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Please can you help! We are having a nightmare feeding our 8 month old baby girl. She is VERY fussy about drinking milk, is now on formula as would not breast feed after 10 weeks. She currently will only take about 8 to 10 ounces a day of formula milk. We are weaning her, and some days she eats ok, but she isn’t really gaining enough weight. She was 7lb 11 (3.49 kg) when she was born, and is 15lb 3 (6.9 kg) now. Generally she is well, good natured and sleeps pretty good, but we are at our wits end now, we just can’t get her to eat/drink well. She cries, bucks, whips her head away when she’s not interested, which is most of the time. We have tried the common/ obvious things (dream feeds, different people/times/locations), she won’t really even drink water!.What can you suggest?
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38 rechelle scott // Nov 27, 2009 at 12:37 am
bonnie goes to bed at 6.30pm and usually wakes around 6-6.30am. she is 6 months now and does have any night feeds. she is wanting to go back to bed by 8am sleeping two hours. through the day she can only still last up 1.5 hours at a time without getting overtired. is this too much sleep for her age?? She wont sleep in her pram so it makes it hard for me to get out for the day!!
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39 Julie // Nov 27, 2009 at 2:53 am
My 5 week old takes 30+ minutes to soothe to sleep (nap or nightime). We usually swaddle, rock and shh shh him to soothe him. His naps are no more than 45 minutes and it takes another 30+ minutes (if at all) to soothe him back to sleep once he wakes up from his 45 minutes nap. What can I do?
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40 Rebecca Melling // Nov 27, 2009 at 4:18 am
Zak is eight months old and slept through the night at nine weeks until about a month ago. Now he wakes up one-two times a night. I took him to the doctor as initially we thought it was his cold and his cough in particular waking him up. The doctor said he had an ear infection and gave him antibiotics. He slept through the first night, the second night he did too only he woke earlier than normal and now he’s back to the one-two night wakings again! Problem is I can’t bring myself to not feed him as he is small for his age and maybe he is having a growth spurt? I ALWAYS used to feed him in a chair in his room till he started sleeping through, now I bring him into our bed as I am just so tired having gone back to work. He is good at settling himself afterwards when I put him back in his cot though.
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41 Fiona // Nov 27, 2009 at 8:11 am
Our second daughter Kayla is one month old and sleeps well throughout the day, however becomes very unsettled from 5pm to about 10pm everyday. She is mainly breastfed however we do give her a bottle of formula too. We are trying the routine of bath then a feed then to bed with limited noise and lights and communication. I know she is still young but this is a inconvienent time as tea has to be prepared my 3 year old bathed the dogs fed etc.. what can we do to get her settled to go to sleep around this time?
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42 Flora // Nov 27, 2009 at 9:29 am
My daughter is 2 years old and refusing to nap. She used to have a nap every second day but now as I started to use stay in the room method she refuses to nap at all. It really worked for nights for the past four days as she didn’t wake up much and if she did she got back to sleep on her own. I might sit by her bed for 2,5 hour but she refuses to have a nap. What can I do?
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43 Tammy Hardy // Nov 27, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Hi Dana,
So far we have used your method for our 11mth old twins and it has worked nicely. We have a couple of rocky nights but for the most part, we are quite happy with our sleep lately! Thanks a BUNCH! I do however have one question… Why and can we train them to stop crying excessively when they wake up. Both are slepping anywhere to 9-11 hours a night (thanks again), but everyday they wake up screaming at the top of their lungs until someone takes them out of the crib.
Can you help with this, maybe shed some light on how to address it?
Have a wonderful holiday and hope to hear from you soon.
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44 Dawn Sharp // Nov 27, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I have 33 week old twin daughter’s and from when they were 6 weeks old they started to sleep through the night. When they hit 6 months old and went into their cots in their own room they started waking up during the night. What could be the reason for this?
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45 Kelly Madigan // Nov 28, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Hi Dana.
I am interested in conditioning my 3 month old into the habit of falling asleep in his crib.
However he is teething early and to compound the situation he is recieving his central incisors (upper and lower), lateral incisors and cuspids.
As you can imagine he is in a great degree of discomfort. We have started part of your sleep sense program and follow the same routine each evening (except the placement in the crib before he falls asleep in our arms-my wife is not yet comfortable with this idea).
Many nights despite our efforts to make him comfortable with various natural and pharmaceutical remedies he has difficulty falling asleep during this period. As a result our efforts can sometimes extend over 2 to 3 hours, and we often leave his room to change the environment after 1 or more hours and return.
I believe his fatigue and teething create make him quite frustrated at this time. However I am not sure. Literature states that teething shouldn’t interrupt an infants sleep.
Background Information.
As a newborn he slept very little. Likely do to his lack of suck reflex and as a result ingestion of low volume of formula. We stayed in the hospital for 1 week with him.
Until he was at least 9-10 weeks old we never followed an exact routine. He rarely napped and slept very little through the night. We have been increasing his formula volume bi-weekly and he is now taking about 6 ounces on a good feed He has always displayed signs of extreme fatigue and was fussy often crying and screaming.
Since we have been following suggestions from your sleep sense program he has started to nap more during the day and his behaviour has improved. I am hoping my wife will be more willing to following through with the complete program soon.
I am concerned his teething may prevent us from having success. I truly believe there is no such thing as a fussy child. Only parents who are unsuccesful in meeting a childs needs.
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46 Gemma // Nov 29, 2009 at 11:36 am
Hi Dana, My 19 month old son has a good bed time routine and falls asleep in his crib himself, the problem is that he wakes in the night 2 or 3 times, if i go in to him and lie him back down and he starts to have a tantrum which can go on or a while but if his dad goes in shortly after he stops and settles himself back to sleep! Why do you think this is? Its so frustrating.
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47 Carrie // Nov 30, 2009 at 2:24 pm
My 6 month old has just started the sleep sense program. He has done extremely well but I am concerned that we still might be using his pacifier as a “sleep prop”. We do not give him his pacifier at all during the day or at night. However we do have a pacifier in his crib so if he finds it in his crib during his nap or in the middle of the night, then he uses it. Are we fine to do this or should we remove the pacifier all together.
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48 Esther // Nov 30, 2009 at 4:53 pm
My 2 month old sleeps through the night only waking for feedings. Her naps during the day last no longer than 20 minutes unless I am holding her. She gets fussy and I am pretty sure it’s because she does not nap during the day. Why do you think she can’t nap when she is laying down by herself?
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49 Marisela // Nov 30, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Hi Dana, I have a 16 month old baby boy. His been sick on and off but he had some time were he was sleeping through the night. Recently he has not been sleeping through the night he continues to wake up 3 to 4 times crying. Sometimes it’s to eat and sometimes he wants to ne carried. Sometimes we just can’t figure out what he wants. I don’t know what to do. I feel like sometimes his in pain but you think it coil be his teeth?
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50 Sarah // Dec 2, 2009 at 7:51 am
My son is 4 months old we have had the “occasional” good night sleep up until he was about 10 weeks which is brill for a newborn but after 10 weeks each night has got worse and worse. He settles himself off to sleep great but after approx 2hrs of sleep he wakes then every hour after that. Hes not hungry tried him with a bottle countless times,no wind changed etc i try not to pick him up i give him his dummy which sometimes settles him. Im getting up out of bed upto 20 times some nights and im now at complete exhaustion. He has been in a routine since 5 weeks old (started at 5 weeks with my little girl) Please help i dont want a grumpy baby no more, feel really bad for him and i would like some sleep too!!
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51 Bobo // Jan 23, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Let him sleep in your bed! Your son needs you now in time of a major event like illness & teething in his life.
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