My baby never sleeps!

[leeleemom]

So I have an 11 month old boy. From the day he was born he has never been a good sleeper. But now he seems to be worse than ever! You would think that now that he is more mobile and starting to walk he would tire out....nope! He has 2 naps in the day.....never longer than a half hour each. At night(and I swear I am not exaggerating) he wakes up at least 5 times, if not more. I don't know what to do. I am totally exhausted. I have 2 other children as well and I am going to be starting a new job within the next week. I don't know how I am going to cope. I am barley getting by now. Any suggestions?

[AreWeThereYetMom]

Sounds familiar, I also have 3 children and dealt with similar when my youngest was around the same age.
Our struggle was that he was so interested in what the other kids were doing that it distracted his routine. He could hear them and that they were still up, or other family members were up and about. I also watched what he ate after supper to avoid the hyper foods, and a quiet bath so that was more calmer for the night routine. The play baths ended up being for weekdays or weekend mornings.
Some of these may help if you haven't already tried, good luck!

[Mandi]

I find when my little guy has longer naps during the day, he sleeps better at night, I know it sounds foolish but he really does. I wish you the best of luck, we had troubles with my oldest. She hardly slept. Instead of giving her a full bottle when she woke up, we'd give her 4 ounces of watered formula, and if she'd get up more, we'd give her some water to try to teach her that night time isn't meal time. Kids get all the nourishment(or should) that they need throughout the day anyway. This worked for us, although I'm sure some on here are going to say I'm terrible for doing it.

[Cartersmom]

What is he getting up *for*? For example, does he want to nurse? Does he have reflux? Is he still really sleepy but just isn't self-soothing?
What time does he wake up for the day and go to sleep?

Also, he is in his crib? Did he used to co-sleep with you? Just trying to get a better picture so we might be able to help better :)

[leeleemom]

What is he getting up *for*? For example, does he want to nurse? Does he have reflux? Is he still really sleepy but just isn't self-soothing?
What time does he wake up for the day and go to sleep?

Also, he is in his crib? Did he used to co-sleep with you? Just trying to get a better picture so we might be able to help better :)

Well I think that he just can't sooth himself back to sleep. But sometimes I wonder if he has pains in his belly. He does sleep in his own crib. I always put him to bed awake, but sleepy with a bottle. I have tried all different betimes. Thinking maybe if I didn't put him down till later he might sleep through. But never works. He keeps waking up and is usually up for the day between 6 and 7 in the morning.

[JustWatching]

I had a friend whose child woke up through the night....like clockwork....3am (or right around there)....and up until 6am....this went on from what I can remember the better part of 3yrs....they tried different bedtimes...feeding....not feeding....everything you can imagine....guess she just grew out of it....but even now (10yrs later) she is up for the day at maybe 6 or 7 am. Not much help to you....hopefully you find a solution...

[smith]

my son used to sleep all night but now i find that he's up later at night wakes up every hour sence he started taking baby food. he has acid reflux as well but he's on medicine for it and he's going for a catscan on monday because his head isn't growing probbly. he's on specilized milk . he's also on amoxicillin.

[christine chittick]

My oldest child was the same way, only at an older age. She started sleeping through the night at a week old (which was a blessing - it was hard for me to get up and down out of bed after having a c-section)...but when she hit 2 yrs old - things changed. She kept waking up 4-6 times a night, fussing and whining...sometimes outright crying for hours. We tried everything - even giving her sippy cups of warm milk. She never slept with us, had her own crib - own room. Used her Aquarium for soothing sounds, didn't work, and we tried comforting her, and that didnt work. At the end of it, we would go in once or twice, and if she continued, we just left her because we didn't know what else to do. I think it lasted a little over a year...and even now the odd time she will fuss in the night - and she's almost 7. We put her to bed between 8-830pm every night consistently, she lays in there and plays/talks to herself til sometimes 11pm!!!! We have taken her toys out of her room etc...and it still doesn't get her to go to sleep any earlier...and she gets up every morning about 6:30am.

The best thing I can tell you to do, is to check for all possible reasons, if that isn't it, give them some comforting, and if that doesn't work, sometimes its better to let them fuss it out and eventually they will fall back to sleep. I never let mine cry for any longer than 5-10 minutes at a time without checking on them though. If they just fuss, or lay there gibbering, I leave them alone to go back to sleep themselves.