Parenting: 1-Year-Olds Community

DS (14 months) eats dinner and then I clean him up and put his PJs on. He does not get a bath every night and I've found on those nights he does, it's easier to do it before dinner because he spins himself up in the bathtub and screams bloody murder when I take him out.

I then just lay him down in the crib. He normally doesn't fuss, but going to bed has always been pretty easy for him (after he grew out of colic). I used to nurse him in his PJs, he'd get tired and I'd put him down.

The hard part was keeping him asleep. He was over 11 months old when he finally slept through the night. Honestly, I just let him cry for a few minutes and he went back to bed. Even now he will sometimes wake up and cry. I go to the bathroom and get some water and if he's still fussing I'll go in there to change his diaper.

I'm not a fan of cry it out. DD was a natural sleeper and slept through the night at 6 weeks. He's just been a much needier baby all around than she was.

You need to put her to sleep drowsy so she gets used to putting herself the rest of the way asleep. If you hold her until she is sleeping hard it will only teach her that she cannot fall asleep unless she's in your arms. Cry it out really is brutal on you, but if you have a clingy baby that's not figuring out self soothing, a couple of nights of this will teach them that they can go to sleep by themselves. Of course putting her to sleep drowsy will also teach her this. Just for me I wasn't ready to let him scream until he was over 11 months. It was just too hard listening him before then. Of course he was also around 9 months old before he started eating solids. He just wasn't interested until then. I think having a good full tummy now is helping him sleep better.

Just a note on the bottle, once a baby is over a year, you need to start transitioning them to a sippy cup over a bottle. It probably won't go well because the bottle is a great source of comfort and sippy cups aren't the same. Straw sippy cups may work better than the other type even though most straw ones say over 2. My son loves the straw ones.

thanks! she does already take a sippy all throughout the day. water, juice,etc...but only before bed does she have a bottle. we have tried each and every kind of sippy at night, but she cries...but i know the bottle is the security. and when she does fall asleep, as soon as she does, we put her down. we dont hold her for a long time afterwards...so hopefully like you said, that helps. and she will sometimes fuss and make noise in the crib, and we just wait, and she ends up falling back asleep, but it is only when she cries or whatever that i go get her. in the middle of the night, i can just walk her around and she goes back to sleep. but thanks for your advice...

she has never been much of a sleeper or eay to get to go to bed, so maybe thats why its a lillte more difficult. but things seem to be getting easier, and i hope they continue. i just get stressed sometimes wondering if it will ever end

My son is 19 months old and has from about 2 weeks on been such an active baby. We were never able to lay him down and he'd fall asleep on his own. When he was really little he'd fall asleep and as soon as you put him in the crib, he'd be wide awake. As an older baby he doesnt know how to wind down, we've tried everything and the only way he relaxes enough is to have a bottle and go to sleep. Im with you i think it is sooo cruel to let your baby cry in his crib trying to go to sleep. And im not proud to say it but we tried it. He'd have himself more wored up and hot and sweaty that it took us even longer to get him to go to sleep. It was the same way when he'd wake at night we tried to let him CIO but all that got up was a sad wide awake baby in the middle of the night. He now just started sleeping through the night.

My son is 17 months. He has been sleeping through the night since he was 6 weeks old. For the most part he is pretty easy, you just plop him in his crib with his lovey stuffed animal (Stitch from the disney movie lilo and stitch) and he is ready (just don't forget to blow him a kiss as you walk out the door otherwise he will start to cry). He doesn't sleep in places that are unfamiliar though. He won't sleep in pack n plays and if we are out and about in the stroller he won't just nod off. I used to be able to hold him in front so he is straddling my waist and rock back and forth with him if he was fussy, but he has not been doing well with that since he has become more independent. (His places he is comfortable: Home, Nana's, Day care, and the Car).
When he does wake up in the morning he will just play in his crib until we come get him, he only cries if stitch falls out. The dog will usually alert us when he wakes up.
I had my son in his own crib and in his own room from day 1. I didn't do a bassinet or anything like that. I also never had him in our bed except for when he was sick at 14 months. I don't know if those things make a difference (???)

I would say I used the CIO method, but my son hardly ever cried....lol. He is just a really content sleeper I guess. He gets it from me (My baby book says I slept through the night at TWO weeks), I don't know what I would do if I had to wake up in the middle of the night for over a year . I would look like a zombie from night of the living dead.

thank you for being in the same boat its noce to know other moms are going through the same thing. and i know eventually she will do ok, but i just keep hoping the day will be today haha. but thanks again for the breather