What gives? She does this probably 5 nights a week. She wakes up crying 45-60 mins after I put her down and only goes back to sleep after I nurse her.
I'm not nursing to sleep anymore.
Any ideas why she's doing this, and what I can do to stop it?
She's 7.5 months.
honeydew / 7811 posts
Yep. This is my baby. Except its 7 days a week 
I don't have to nurse him back down though, I usually just have to touch him and shush him a little and he's right back to sleep. So annoying.
Then he wakes up one more time to nurse.
GOLD / pomegranate / 3688 posts
Babies have about a 45-minute sleep cycle, so she's waking up but not able to put herself back to sleep after or stay almost asleep during the transition between cycles. My DD has a hard time with this for naps. If she will only go back down after nursing, it sounds like she has a nurse-sleep association. Even if you aren't nursing to sleep, it can still exist. Try feeding her, then have 20-30 minutes of bedtime routine/quiet play/snuggle time before you put her down. I learned about this method on Troublesome Tots and it totally works. My DD only started STTN when we started having a 20-30 minute break between feeding and bed.
pomegranate / 3895 posts
I think wakeups early in the night are a sign of the baby being overtired by bedtime. Maybe try moving bedtime a touch earlier...?
cantaloupe / 6397 posts
@Smurfette: she is! I guess that's possible.
@septca: interesting. I could give that a try!
@heartonastring: I will try this too!!!
honeydew / 7687 posts
We had this happen for a while, I don't remember when. I just was consistent about putting him back in after soothing him, and one night he didn't do it. And it was awesome. Hang in there!
GOLD / nectarine / 2884 posts
LO did this around 4-5 months, and we took it as a cue that it was time to CIO. Basically, it just seemed like he couldn't settle, and keeping him up to rock him was just making him more tired and angry, so we opted to CIO. Around that time we also started following Weissbluth like mad, and we did institute an early bed time, as @heartonastring: suggested. The first night he slept 13 hours straight, it was when we put him to bed at a shockingly early 5:30 PM!
grapefruit / 4066 posts
@sslm: I know for my LO, when she woke up after 45 minutes after going to bed, she was overtired. If she is overtired now at 13 months, she lets out a yell after being asleep for 45 minutes, but when she was younger I would always have to nurse her back to sleep.
kiwi / 611 posts
My LO is 8 months and he does this too. I think it's from being overtired. I've been trying to stick with a 2-3-4 schedule, but if his 2nd nap is short (less than an hour), he's ready for bed by 5:30 or 6! I can't put him down that early or else he'll be up at 5:30 in the morning, so I just end up dealing with an overtired baby at bedtime. I'm not sure what else to do 
What is her nap schedule like?
pomelo / 5326 posts
This is my biggest sleep problem with LO. She often wakes up 30 minutes after I put her down for the night and I have to go in again and nurse to sleep. Sometimes this happens a few times. Once I get past this little hurdle she'll STTN but sometimes it takes a few tries to get her to sleep. I'm going to try moving bedtime a bit earlier!
cherry / 159 posts
Omg this is my LO too! Except it's every single night. I seriously thought she is the only one that does this. Drives me crazy. Sometimes she will insist on nursing again but a few times she will go back to sleep if I rock and shush her. She is 4 months and I keep trying various things to help her learn to put herself to sleep but nothing has worked so far. Her nqps are 30 mins long unless I lay down next to her. Ugh. I am very curious to know if any of the tips gigen work for you. Would you mind doing an update later?
cantaloupe / 6397 posts
@scotchbonnet: I will definitely update!! My LO started doing this off and on around 5 months. She also is a cat napper, which we are working on now. We are maybe having success with naps by not nursing her down. I hesitate to say it's related, bc babies are such unpredictable creatures!! Anyhow it's been 3 days and her naps have gone from 30 mins to 80!!
cherry / 159 posts
Oh wow well done! 80 mins is amazing!! I haven't nursed to sleep for naps since about week 6 when I figured out that she could fall asleep without nursing. so happy for you that lo is now napping longer. What are you goingvto with yourself now with all that "free time" lol! Kidding.
grapefruit / 4923 posts
ny LO did this sporadically for a couple of months around the same time. i let him CIO because i knew he wasn't hungry, and the few times we went in to try and console him just made it worse and prolonged his crying. it was hard--sometimes it would be just a few minutes of crying, other times up to 20 or even 30, which can feel like forever.
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
DS does this too!! His naps are okay (first nap is about 45 min - 1 hour, second nap is 2+ hours, naps thereafter are about 30-45 min). But his nighttime sleep, OMG!! He's up every 1 - 1.5 hours!!!! If he's just being fussy, I let him fuss it out. But when he's been CIO for 30+ minutes, I pick him up and have to nurse him back to sleep. He doesn't settle just by me picking him up. And it's just comfort nursing so I know he's not hungry!! Sigh.... And it's hit or miss of him settling when I put him back down.
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