My 9 month old son is having trouble learning to sleep on his own. He is completely healthy and on track developmentally. He is nursed 3 times a day (at night it's a free-for-all because we are so exhausted) and he's on solid foods.
He's extremely active, trying to keep up after his 2 1/2 year old brother. I've tried and tried to get him on a nap schedule. First, napping at 9 and then around 1 with a small evening nap (these are all times he is the most drowsy). Before this, I wore him in a wrap just so he would sleep. For the last 7 days we've put him down in the mornings at 9 and 1 (within half an hour or so) and he screams for a hour. Finally, today, I let him cry from about 9:45 to noon. When I got him from his crib I let him eat lunch and then nurse again. No progress with the naps.
At night, my husband does the bath routein around 6:30 and I nurse for about 30 minutes while the baby dozes and eats. Then, I put him down awake. He screams for about 50 minutes and then MIGHT sleep for 3-4 hours. Our house is loud and we've let him try to soothe (read: cry) himself back down but with no luck. Then, our 2 1/2 year old wakes up. Finally, I get the baby and just put him in bed. It's in my bed that I realize he's got even more of a problem. If my breast is not in his mouth he will wake up about every hour and a half to two hours. He's got 8 teeth, so when we're both half asleep it's painful.
Does anyone have any advice for any of this? People often ask if I've let him cry it out yet. Yes. For the last 7 days he's cried through all naps and cried himself to sleep but won't stay that way. I appreciate the fact that he is so persistent -it will be great later in life. For right now, my family is a pack of zombies. My husband and I refer to eachother as room-mates. The sad part is that he is depolying next month and I'm totally lost!
Thanks for making it this far!
Nellie