13 mo. old won't sleep through the night

[MsAJ2U]

My 13 month has yet to sleep through the night. I am unsure what to do. With my 4 year old, I followed Dr. Mindell's book and it worked great. My issue is that the baby has always been able to put himself to sleep, he is a thumbsucker. There is never any crying. I usually nurse him for a minute or two, then sing some songs and put him down. He always falls right to sleep.

His bedtime is at 7PM (like his older brother). He is always up between 9:30-10. I usually go in and hurse him and he goes right back down. Then he is usually up 3 more times a night and I do the same thing. He usually does not cry, he just whines as he sucks him thumb but he is awake. I have let him go 30-45 minutes and he does not go back to sleep. If I let him go too long and then go in he is wide awake and wants to play. He usually is so tired he sleeps until 7, but that all depends on if I can get him back down after his final wake up around 5.

As far as naps go. If he takes a nap around 9:30 he usually sleeps two hours and I can usually get him to take another nap. If he doesn't go down until 11, he usually sleeps 2-3 hours and rarely takes a second nap although he is so exhausted he can fall asleep before 7.

Please help me. I don't know what to do. I am okay with weaning him I just don't know how to get him to fall asleep on his own since he just lays there and whines. He probably is waiting for me to come in and nurse him as I always end up doing but I know he no longer need it. Thanks for any suggestions you may have.



Abby

[Bec caV]

Don't nurse him. At that age he doesn't need night feedings. No matter how hard it is, don't do it.

What might work is going in his room and leaving him in his crib, but soothing him that way. I'm not a cry it out person so I won't even suggest that.
Does he have a stuffed animal or blanket he likes to cuddle? If not see if that might help. He may just need some sort of security 'blanket' (even if it's not a blanket) with him to help him fall back asleep. But if you get him used to falling back asleep without you picking him up, he'll learn to just sleep through the periods that kids have a tendancy to wake up during (going from REM sleep to deep sleep).