My baby is 9 months old. He has always slept well and through the night since he was around 6-8 weeks old, he's been waking 1-2 times in the night recently and having 5am wake ups with a real push to get back to sleep and going to bed has become HYSTERICAL. This is our current nap routine:
9:45-10 15 minutes, recently capped.
1-2:30pm maximum, often only does 1hr 15 minutes.
His naps have always been quite low and below 2hours total for the day for some time.
We started the Ferber method at our wits end but he vomits when he gets really stressed - how the heck do you prevent this?! We're then in a state of stripping bed linen whilst he's hysterically crying to then try get him back to sleep all over again. He used to struggle to stay awake on the bottle but that was curbed a couple of months ago, but rocking to sleep feels like the bigger issue here hence the sleep training! This boy just can't self soothe, any advice or tips - we know sleep training isnt for everyone but it's the route we're choosing to try to get better sleep for our boy (and us!).
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So clearly the Ferber menthol isn’t for you and it definitely isn’t for your baby. Not judging as I know sleep training works for plenty of people I know but I think this sounds rather extreme so best knock it on its head.
To get out of the need to be rocked to sleep we have started getting our baby calm and we do the pick up put down method. You have to be committed and there will be tired nights and it takes a while of back and fourth to her bedroom but we are two weeks in and now I can place her down awake after a quick cuddle and get back to sleep. Some nights I counted 23 times before she got the hint because she’d gotten so accustomed to falling asleep in our arms. But we used to be with her for 45-min to an hour multiple times a night and now it’s reduced to just 10-15 mins and personally that is absolutely more than fine with me if she needs extra loving at the moment because she’s teething. Could that be the issue with your baby?

Also being up 1-2 time in the night is still sorta normal for this age. I know it’s hard when they have been a good sleeper but it’s just important to also have that mentality so you don’t get wound up about it. It’s just babies being babies

No advice on what to do sleep training wise as we don’t do it but just a note to say our nearly 2 year old still vomits if she gets herself too hysterical so we’ve always had to calm her down before it gets to that point x

What time is bedtime? Is the vomiting at bedtime or in the night wake up? Could it be the wake window before bed is too long? My little one use to be so overtired when I was trying to do a 1pm nap? I use to do a cat nap at 4pm.
She’s now 10 months and I dropped to 2 naps! With the biggest wake window between the morning and afternoon nap. When I started jiggling her day naps she started sleeping through and been doing it for nearly two months now with a bit of sleep training. Could be the naps?
When she was waking in the night we would wait 5 minutes and usually she had taken herself back off. There is a sleep regression at 9 months also which doesn’t help 🙄
My LO now naps 9/9.30 to 10.30 (I let her do what she wants- use to wake her when following expert advice but stopped) then has a nap at 2.30 for 45 mins (this again is what she does but I do wake her up if she hits 3.30pm and then bed for 6.30/7
We have done the same bed routine since she was a newborn which has helped x

I would stop with that method immediately. Your baby is showing you that this is far too stressful for him.
Sleep training can be incredibly gentle. I used sleep well with Hannah on instagram. She offers a very gentle and loving approach. At no point did I leave my baby girl. I was right there with her. Hannah is amazing and affordable too xx

I’d try a gentler form of sleep training as this sounds so stressful for your baby, otherwise try safe
co-sleeping? It’s normal for babies to wake up multiple times in the night, most cultures expect it and enable it through safe co-sleeping, it’s only in the past 100 years or so that German then American and European norms became to sleep train for adults’ convenience. If you want to sleep train I’d do something less stressful for baby as he shouldn’t be getting so upset that he vomits, Ferber is one of the more extreme methods anyway so there should be plenty options to try before that. Thinking about it biologically there would never be a time a primate infant is left alone for 5 minutes at a time where they wouldn’t be in danger, its normal that baby would get extremely panicked by this. Pick up put down is popular. Otherwise Time for Z is meant to be good, or happy cosleeper helps parents cosleep safely. No judgement just sharing what I’ve read.
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