HELP!!! 8 months old baby wont sleep!

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SpiceHD

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every time i put him in crib he cries and cries... wont stop. refused to drink milk... but hes not sick. hes fine in every way cuz i took him to ER and dr says hes just fine. right now as im typing this thread... he is screaming his head off and i feel sooo bad. as soon as i take him out of crib and leave him in playpen he cries too. hes only happy if im holding him but hes fighting hard against sleeping even on me. i held him for 3 hours and hes still awake and thats at 3 am... he usually goes to sleep at 10 pm wiht no problem at all. this is first time ever that im having problem putting him to sleep and im at loss. help please. both of us are miserable. i also gave him medication for whatever pain he was having... doesnt seem to work. i thought he was teething so i use that thing for his gums to help relieve the pain.. showed no difference. i "danced" with him almost all night doesnt work. im out of options. only option left is to let him cry till he fall asleep but im afraid he might cry too hard and end up coughing or throw up.
 
I have been through that with both of my kids..had to let themselves cry to sleep..I think it is more of a behavior than feeling pain. If there is nothing wrong with him according to your dr then he is used to falling asleep while being held so he just needs to learn how to fall asleep on his own. Important just keep on checking on him. He is probably teething so rub some of the gum numbing meds.
 
Question, are you sticking with the same routine since you said he goes to bed at 10 pm, how many naps had he took yesterday? If he took more naps that he normally does, then that means you messed up his sleeping schedule. It shows that he's not tired.

But, if not then your baby just wants to stay with you until he's asleep, it's a way of telling you to rock him, but your son needs to learn how to go to sleep by himself, so let him cry, he'll learn to go to sleep on his own, the more you hold him in your arms the more harder it will be to break this habit.
 
Cheri said the same thing I was thinking.

Routine, routine and routine.

If your baby had a long nap in the afternoon, he will definitely struggle in the evening. Make sure you stick with a routine. If you notice a long nap, make sure you wake him up from his nap. Gently shake or nudge the crib to rouse him from his nap.

Rub his back to stir him up from his deep-sleep nap. Definitely monitor his napping habits because most babies around 9-11 months will struggle with sleeping at nighttime because of the naps. They do have a deep sleep nap around morning and a power nap at afternoon. Usually one nap is enough around 9-11 months and an hour is enough.

Try setting a routine by giving him a bath an hour before bedtime, give him his bottle/breastfeed and make sure you do absolutely no stimuli at all.

Stimuli is playtime. Start introducing reading time at bedtime as the body will start recognising it as shutting down time.

Over-cuddling isn't good for the baby as he will become very clingy into his toddler years.
 
same what others telling you. do the same routine routine routine..

just one question, did doctor examine on your kid's ears? sometimes doctor didn't see that there were infection in there for the first time. It did happen to my girl, back and forth to doctor for several times until they found out that she had ear infection. She disliked lying down that hurt her ears real bad. Hope your kid is OK.
 
Sounds like he could be teething - gels or teething rings dont always help - I would rub his gums gently to see his reaction to see whether it is his teething or not. Ice helped with both of my girls when they were teething.
 
SpiceHD--Have you seen your son putting anything in his mouth including toys, or his hands or blankets? Have you seen him drooling a lot? If so he may be teething. First wash your hands then rub your fingers over his gum to see if you can feel any new growing teeth or tooth or any bumps, that way you'll know he's teething. :)
 
oh yes lol he puts everything in his mouth including my body lol. the medication for teething doesnt help... cold rings doesnt help cold rag doesnt help.. nothing helps. baby tynol (spelling?) doesnt help either. right now he finally took a nap but i wont let him nap for long cuz i want him to be tired enough to go to sleep at 10 pm.. he always go bed at 10 pm and i want to keep that routine till he get older then it get earlier. but for now it used to work really well. now i need to figure out new routine for his sleeping times that will work for him. maybe now to 9 pm? and instead of 2 naps now down to one nap?

also to answer several questions.. he doesnt usually require me to rock him to sleep... all i have to do is lay him in crib, give him the bottle then wait for 15 min and hes out...i go back in and take bottle out. thats it. thats why i was stumped last nite cuz it was first time he did not want bottle and rocking did not work. heres my routine for him.. he get his nap in the morning when he feels like it... but usually only 15 to 20 min he will wake up on his own. then activities till 6 pm thats his nap again but this time it was a hour nap... then at 8 pm he get his medication for his thyriod then bathtime afterward and then he either plays quietly with one toy or sit with me or straight to crib ... most of time straight to crib and he drinks his bottle and sleeping by time it turn 10 pm.

did i do anything wrong here? it works just fine till last nite so is that a cue for me to change routine again?

p.s. i really appreciate you putting your advice here today :) thank you all.
 
Another trick that my friend told me...

two tricks

use the bag of frozen peas...give the unopened frozen bag of peas he can gnaw on it.

Other is baby wash clothes...wet it and squeeze water out and put it in freezer.

Good luck! Baby sometimes stay up a little late once a while...My son was like that but not often. :)
 
your son ever stayed up till 5 am? thats like 8 hours late for his bedtime lol.
 
I would really avoid giving him a nap at 6 pm. If he's going to bed at 10 pm, try putting him to bed around 7 -8 pm without his 6 pm nap and see how that works.
 
I don't know your schedule so I am "assuming" and apologise in advance if I make mistakes.

When I babysat my nephew everyday, my sister made sure I stuck with her routine otherwise she would have a hard time putting him to sleep unless he was used to the routine.

It was up at 6 am and breakfast was at Auntie's.

6-8 am was quiet time for baby. He had breakfast and it was quiet time as well.

9-11 am- stimuli - we did learning ABC, 123 and signing

11 30 - 12-15 LUNCH He ate & learned to eat by himself with some assistance.

12 30- 1 pm diaper change & bottle (quiet time) This was the time when I let him settle down to let his tummy settle and let his body rest.

1 pm- 2 pm He starts to nap and when he does fall asleep completely around 1:30 pm, I wake him up at 2:30 pm.

3pm - 4 pm a bit of quiet time to allow him to get his bearings after awake time and then it's stimuli (playtime)

I'd cook dinner or do things.

4-6 pm He'd have things to do with me and my sister would pick him up. He would have dinner and then start to get cranky.

7-8 He is at home with my sister. Bath time. Mommy and Me. (My sister does this all the time and it means bed time soon) She reads books with him and lets him know bed time, bye time.

8-9 pm. He's sleeping and she checks on him to make sure.

Remember not everyone has the same schedule and not everyone has babysitters/daycare.

Again, I apologise for assuming.
 
oh no thats okay... im just learning here... that schedule helps a lot. it wont work completely but ill try some of it and see. :) thank you very much!
 
Did u put his tummy lay down on ur lap or breast/shoulder then pat his back n' rub both your hands on his ribs until he gets burp feeling bubbles air coming out when every each time u feed milk? If u don't do anything, he will cry constantly because he has a stomach gas. That's why he got spit up milk.
 
Oh oh, just wanted to tell you this as well.

Babies can pick up and feel the stress their Mommies go through so if you tense up & go through stress, you can bet they will pick it up and tense up as well.
 
Sometime when a baby is hungry and cry to so try feed him little more?

Good luck and its normal ok Not worry you will be fine! :)
 
yes my son is exetemely sensitive to emotions. i noticed that long time ago. and phillips how do you feed a baby more when it doesnt even want the milk?

tonite it seem to go much better though hes very very cranky lol. i kinda expected that cuz hes so tired. but hey.. hes sleeping!!!!! and most important.. hes actually drinking milk!!! so thats a huge relief... i think a change in formula really caused a wreck in his body. WIC in wisc gives good start formula and thats what they are used to but in maryland they gives only similiac... thats when problems started. i decided to buy good start formula today and what a difference it made! improved but still cranky.. hopefully tomorrow hes better. also everyone said hes showing every sign of teething but theres no new "hole" in his gums yet so i am using gum numbing medication and that formula... and here he is.. sleeping :)

i had no idea how much it has affected my son with milk to be honest. wow. i m going to see wic and see if they are willing to use good start instead. if not then i would have to tell them i cannot accept their WIC and have to buy out of my pockets... that can be really expensive but baby's health and sleep and especially happiness comes first.
 
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