Sigh!
Literally, the day my son turned 9 months old, everything went nuts with him. I had a great routine/ schedule going with him and he seemed to be doing pretty well. But bam….he started refusing to sleep, separation anxiety through the roof, clingy, crying, and fussy. Oh, I should add that he has been teething off and on for about a month now. He cut 3 new teeth and has another one on the way. I have been scratching my head trying to figure him out. I want to blame it on teething, or the length of his wake time, or the fact that he is adjusting to his new home since we just moved about a month a half ago, but I think it is really no one particular thing. I believe it is the combination of all these factors playing together. I found a website that really hit home with me and the trouble that I am experiencing with my son at 9 months. Everything that this article mentions is very representative of my son at this moment. I thought it was worth sharing with all of you. The article also gives some good suggestions to help your baby with sleep problems, teething, and separation anxiety. http://www.thesleepstore.co.nz/Sleep+Information/Babies+4+to+12+months/Sleep+challenges+with+9+month+olds.html Many of the my son’s difficulties also line up with the developmental period mentioned in Wonder Week 46.
Hi Sue! I love reading your website. I have a 6 1/2 month old daughter and have been following the Baby Whisperer’s advice including PU/PD, so your articles have been really helpful for me.
I live in New Zealand and The Sleep Store is local, so I’m glad to see that their articles are helping you with what sounds like a difficult period with your son.
Keep blogging!
Kelly,
Thanks for reading the blog. I am glad the PU/PD post was helpful. My friend who wrote the post swears by the method, and she has a spirited baby! Yeah, I love the article by the Sleep Store. Made me feel like I was not loosing my mind and these 9 month difficulties are just a phase.
On another note, I loved 6-7 months. They were a blissful time for my son and I. I hope you are enjoying these moments with your little one!
I am so glad I am not the only one who knows about the Wonder Weeks. I try to tell family/friends about this and can tell that behind their ‘oh really’ is someone who wants me to let my pumpkin cry it out. When really this is a time when he needs me most to reassure him that he’s not stuck when I find him crying while standing in his crib. All that people hear is that he’s not sleeping through the night. Didn’t they learn when they were first time moms that anyone who has even just seen a baby apparently is an expert?! Don’t they remember how it feels to have everyone else tell you how to raise your baby? Can you tell that i am going through this? I stumbled on your blog while googling the Wonder Weeks. And yes I am going through all of the above with my son. He’s 37 wks (34 adjusted) and he finally was sleeping through the night around 6 months. That was like winning the lottery. Well apparently I really didn’t have the winning numbers and now it’s like we are back in month 2. 2-3x up a night and nothing will calm him except for me to breast feed him. Ugh! Thank goodness I am a sahm. And it’s not just that he’s awake…he’s upset. I used to just go in and turn on his mobile and put his nuk back in and give him his lovey and he’d roll onto his side and I’d go back to my room. Yeh right. Now holding him doesn’t even work. It’s give me your breast lady if you ever want to get back to sleep again! I feel like a hostage. LOL. This has been going on for about a month now. He learned to sit unassisted at the end of June, got a tooth the next day and has been a wreck ever since. I’m sure more teeth are on the way (he got one over the 4th). He almost immediately started the rocking motion that precedes crawling. He now has started to try to pull himself up too! All in a matter of one month; which I must say has felt like an eternity. Ok. Wow, what a vent! Thank you. Do I win the award for longest comment posted to date? LOL. I’ll have to become a subscriber to your blog now. 🙂
Richelle, Sigh! I know what you are going through. It seems as if once things finally start to head in the right directions, bam, something new developmentally happens and then you feel like you are hanging on for dear life again. The nighttime waking is the hardest I think because you get to a point when you think you are totally over the midnight calls and then they start again. I keep telling myself it is a phase, but it is still hard! I hope your little one will get over this developmental phase soon. Take heart and know that your not the only mom going though these crazy wonder weeks. Thanks for leaving your experience with your son. It is comforting to know that these wonder weeks are not just something imagine, but happen to other people too!
I knew nothing about these ‘Wonder Weeks’ until finally today i phoned 13health and a midwife told me about it and i started googling. I was amazed with the info i found! It explains just about everything! Sleeping was our main problem. He used to fall asleep on his own and sleep all night long (10hours) with no problem at all. Then he started waking and was up at 4am this morning!!!! He was off his food a bit but nothing to really worry about and it was like he only wanted to have one sleep per day but wasnt coping with it when i tried. Now i understand – THANKYOU!