AC Experiment: How to Get Baby to Sleep Through the Night

Sleeping is one of the joys of life. As a mother of an 8 month old I am not getting to experience those nightly joys. My baby wakes up every 2-3 hours at night. I am exhausted throughout the day because of my lack of sleep. I thought by now he would be sleeping a lot longer. I thought I would have to suffer from sleep deprivation for only a few months.

I have done numerous things in the last few weeks to try to get him to sleep through the night. For example, before I put him to bed I breastfed and gave him some applesauce to make sure his tummy was full. I gave him a warm bath and put fresh pajamas on. I gave a massage to help put him in a deep sleep. I avoided feeding him at night as a way of breaking his habit of eating. Instead I just patted him on his back to get him to sleep. One night I even spent an hour trying to get him to sleep with just patting his back. I did this for a couple of weeks and he still would wake up every few hours. I have given up trying those different things to get him to sleep. Currently I am just breastfeeding when he wakes up as a quicker method of putting him back to sleep.

I know there are some people who do get their baby to sleep through the whole night. I have even heard of a woman who got her baby to sleep through the night just after four weeks of giving birth. After thinking about other people's success I decided to talk to a few people about what would be the best way in getting my baby to sleep through the night. I have talked to friends, family and even my baby's doctor. I have received different suggestions. There are two suggestions that seem to come up frequently. One suggestion was, "Let him cry himself to sleep. Avoid intervening. After a week he will sleep through the night." The other suggestion was, "Continue to do what you are doing. He will naturally sleep through the night when he is developmentally ready." Two different ideas and both seem to work for the people I have talked to. Everyone appeared confident in the responds given.