7 month old won’t sleep in his big cot

[Fairfax8]

Hi all. Looking for advice on 7 month sleep. My little boy has always been a great sleeper, only waking once in the middle of the night for a bottle (obviously wasn’t the case when newborn etcetc).

We moved him into his own room and cot a few weeks ago. He was in the next to me crib in our room. We of course expected some changes whilst he adjusts, and for the first week he managed pretty well with just a few wake ups. Now, however, he is going down (soundo in our arms) and waking every half an hour crying for comfort. Definitely not hungry, wet and no significant signs of teething problems in the day or night.

We have always had a good bedtime routine which we have consistently followed since he was 3 months old and he goes off beautifully. Never once has he protested! He has really strong associations to bedtime and definitely understands the process.

I feel very lucky that until now we have had a great sleeper, but can’t continue waking every 30 mins to resettle as just isnt sustainable. We result in putting him in bed with us around 1am (and of course he sleeps like a dream) but I fear he has become used to this routine and now relies on that closeness to us to sleep well. I’ve bought the Just Chill Mama course which suggests putting baby down awake and learning to self soothe, controlled crying methods etc… but have yet to attempt any.

Im sure a lot of people may think 7 months is too soon for own room but we won’t be changing that decision so I’m looking for shared experiences or advice please on training or any other methods you have used that helped.

(Under no illusion I will have a baby that sleeps through the night now and forever more but I can’t keep waking every 30 mins and cosleeping isnt for us!)

Thank you!

Perhaps try him in the next to me crib but in his own room? That way you can figure out whether it's the cot or the room he doesn't like.

I did think this! But he is very close to sitting up on his own and once they are able to do this you aren’t meant to use the next to me anymore :( so feel it’s a bit pointless to try

Oh I didn't think of him being able to sit up. What a bummer. Sorry I'm out of ideas!

My DS could only stay asleep once he’d learnt to self settle.

It was literally miraculous, the first night that he fell asleep by himself, he had the longest sleep he’d ever had.

We did cuddles/ singing, put him down awake and then left the room. He cried, I went back after 1 minute to comfort, then after 2 mins, then after 5 mins, then 5 mins again. Whole thing took 20 mins in total on the first night (not 20 mins of constant crying).

Next night took 10 mins, every night after that he fell asleep by himself within seconds with no crying.

He’s 2.5 now and still puts himself to sleep in minutes/seconds. I can see him on the monitor - he’s asleep before I even get back downstairs.

If you want to teach him to self settle (and I highly recommend you do), the sooner you do it the easier it will be.

Thank you for the advice. We started the training last night (including putting down awake) which to me felt CRAZY and I was sure our baby wouldn’t get it.

I kept going back every 3 mins and after my third time reassuring him he fell asleep on his own!! All lasted 10 mins.

The training says to repeat the process for any night wake ups which was gruelling tbh as he woke quite a lot during the night but all in all went:
8-10, 10-12, 12-4.30 and then 5am bottle - 8am.

If you don’t mind me asking, what did you do in the night if your baby woke? The same thing? We are deciding to go cold turkey on the dummy too as he really relies on it and is actually affecting his sleep as when he loses it he wakes up wanting it back bless him.

thank you!

@DuploTrain

I know it feels so crazy doing it, but so worth it.

If he woke up in the night we did the same resettling method (singing, putting down awake and then leaving and coming back after a few mins if he cried).

At the time my DS was still having 2 bottles in the night though. We were trying to lengthen the intervals between bottles. So we decided on a time (for example midnight) and if he woke before then we would just resettle, and if he woke after midnight then he would have a bottle and then resettle.

We went cold turkey on the dummy when we started sleep training too. That should help him to sleep longer if he’s not waking up wondering where his dummy is.