Pick up put down help needed. 10 month old waking every hour.

[doodle17]

We started using pu/pd at 6 months and it has worked well in so much as our 10 month old DD is pretty easy to put to sleep and settle. The problem we now have is that she needs us to put her back to sleep every time she wakes (at it's worst hourly through the night). This is usually fairly quick and just a quick pat on back and a soft voice is required. But recently, she stays in only a very light sleep and screams as soon as we take our hand off her back or she senses we try to leave the room. This has resulted in us spending the night trapped in her room with a hand on back or "shushing" from the bed. She usually sleeps well from 7 until about 10 or 11 and then wakes regularly throughout the night. We have tried going in very rapidly and also leaving her for a couple of minutes to see if she settles but neither has worked. The book only briefly mentions becoming a hostage or prop as we feel we have become. Are we missing something????

[RubyShivers]

i think it sounds like separation anxiety which kicks in at around 9 months

the BW talks about props etc but actually lots of parents use them and not negatively (ie feeding, rocking dummying to sleep all very common ways of getting babies to sleep)

is she hungry?

[Gangle]

Oh dear - this sounds just like my 7 month old DS. Finally got him to settle at night relatively easily but is now waking almost hourly between 12 or 1am and 6am. We're all exhausted and even co-sleeping isn't working as he's often just awake and wanting to play! Will watch this thread with great interest!

[hotpotmama]

Sounds like my 6 month old too. Have had to leave him to cry which I hate doing but I know it works cos my other 2 were the same.

He woke a few times last night. Left him to cry and he went back to sleep on his own after 5 mins.

Previous to last night, have tried picking up, shushing, feeding but he kept waking up and none of them worked cos although he'd go back to sleep would be awake again every few hours.

[Gangle]

Hotpotmama, I've tried leaving DS to cry (out of desperation, I felt terrible) but he doesn't stop! Left him for 30 minutes once and he didn't stop. I know he can go longer than that as well because once he starting crying in the car seat and I couldn't stop - he cried for about 45 minutes! He also getting harder to settle if he's been crying for a longtime. How did you make it work?

[hotpotmama]

It has taken 3 Ds's!

I left him last week at bedtimes a few evenings running, cried for ages (an hour) popped in a few times, stood outside the door heartbroken (but knew I had to do it). Trouble was I didn't do it through the night as well as at his bedtime, so didn't work properly

So last night I decided to do it through the night, cos I was so tired and had not been well on Friday and that's what happened, when he woke up a few times, he cried for just 5 minutes (felt like about 15 tho).

Bedtime tonight he cried for about 5 minutes then went to sleep so it does work but you have to persevere and be strong.

Good luck!

[Gangle]

We tried leaving DS the other night when he woke up. I fed him and tried to put him back in his cot instead of of our bed (hanging off my breast, is the only way he'll sleep) and he screamed the house down for about 30 minutes. We finally gave in (which I know is the worse possible thing to do) and bought him in bed around 4am but he was restless all night so no sleep all round, again! I am sooooo tired but just can't let him cry for prolonged periods - just too awful. There has to be another way.

[hotpotmama]

I couldn't do it to begin with with DS1 but eventually the lack of sleep and nothing else working led to it.

If you want to try doing the crying thing, I found it best to first try it when they go to bed in the evening.

I am not saying that is what you should do, judt telling you my experiences of what worked for us.

[ches]

Gangle what you describe sounds like teething pain to me. (Am a veteran battling molars since June and they've only knicked the surface now.) When DS's teeth hurt he wants a boob in constantly. He can be 99.9% asleep and if I whip the boob out he's screaming within seconds, then back to 15 minutes of bloody comfort sucking which drives me mental. With some well-timed calpol/calprofen he's a dream.